Burma squeezes human rights as another envoy seeks change

Instead of making substantive moves on human rights, over the past two months Than Shwe's junta has ramped up its repression of the Burmese people. Just days ago, Burmese troops re-energised their scorched-earth campaign against ethnic minorities in eastern Burma, forcing hundreds of innocent villagers to flee their homes as refugees and internally displaced persons.

On July 31, the junta announced its intention to sentence to jail Burma's most famous comedian and social activist, Zarganar, along with the country's leading sports reporter. Less than two months ago, the junta locked up many members of the National League for Democracy, the political party of Nobel Peace Prize recipient Aung San Suu Kyi.

On July 21, student political activist Khin Maung Tint died behind bars in Burma's notorious prison gulag, in the midst of serving a 20-year prison sentence.

Meanwhile, on July 25 the junta sentenced 10 Muslim student activists to prison with hard labour for participating in the September 2007 Buddhist-monk led pro-democracy uprising.

No doubt, the junta will try to obscure these moves during Quintana's visit. If previous behaviour is any guide, the generals will make a series of promises to change that will subsequently be broken when Quintana leaves the country.

The regime will hope for positive comments by Quintana after his trip - statements they will use to show they are making "progress" when in reality there are no lasting changes whatsoever.

If the junta is feeling generous, they may even release a few political prisoners whom they deem to be unthreatening to their grip on power.

Instead of looking toward genuine change, the junta sees visits by UN envoys as an exercise in public relations, hoping the envoys will publicly thank the regime for allowing them to visit and thereby diminishing hopes for actual change. That a trip happened at all is cited as "progress" by some countries in the UN who seek to preserve the status quo.

This pattern of obfuscation has been carried on successfully by the military junta for many years. Sadly, it has enabled Than Shwe to commit massive, widespread, systematic atrocities that could someday land him in the International Criminal Court.

Among other abuses Than Shwe has destroyed twice as many villages as in Darfur, Sudan - forcing millions of innocent villagers to flee as refugees and internally displaced persons.

He has recruited more child soldiers than any other country in the world, also a crime against humanity.

Further, his troops have carried out a policy of using rape as a weapon of war against ethnic minority women, and he has locked up nearly 2,000 political prisoners.

Before many more people are senselessly imprisoned or killed in Burma, we hope that Quintana delivers a strong message to Than Shwe, demanding the immediate release of all political prisoners in the country.

While in Burma, we hope Quintana meets with key leaders including Min Ko Naing, Ko Ko Gyi, Su Su Nway, and Zarganar.

Second, Quintana should call on the military regime to immediately end all attacks on ethnic minorities in the country. That Than Shwe has got away with these attacks for so many years is not only devastating to my country's ethnic peoples, it sets a terrible precedent for the rest of the world.

Lastly, Quintana should make it clear to Than Shwe that change must come immediately. If this junta attempts to draw the envoy into a protracted game of cat and mouse on human rights implementation, he must seek much stronger action from the Human Rights Council and UN Security Council. The time for stalling on human rights is over.