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ABC Online
PM - Sounds of Summer: Burma's democratic reform
http://www.abc.net.au/pm/content/2006/s1817720.htm]
PM - Monday, 25 December , 2006 17:05:00
Reporter: Karen Percy
ELIZABETH JACKSON: Hello, I'm Elizabeth Jackson. As part of the ABC's summer season, we now present a Current Affairs Special.
International pressure is increasing on Burma, with the United Nations Security Council watching closely.
Aid groups say there's been increased violence and human rights abuses within the isolated nation over the past year.
But the military junta is insisting that it's moving forward on democratic reform.
It's not very often that journalists gain access to Burma, but during 2006 the ABC's South East Asia Correspondent, Karen Percy, was able to visit Burma, and one of the refugee camps on the Thai border.
She compiled this special report.
(market noise)
KAREN PERCY: The Shwedagon Paya Pagoda dominates the city of Rangoon.
Its golden stupa stretches 100 metres into the sky and provides the first time visitor with an unmistakable landmark.
The people of Burma also get their bearings from this magnificent structure, which is the most significant Buddhist monument in the country.
(bird sounds)
As this young woman buys a bird and releases it, she's doing what's been done here for 2,500 years - seeking good luck and good fortune for a future life.
But present day life for most people here is hard. Jobs, schooling and medical treatment are hard to come by. Power and water supplies are rudimentary.
(sound of carving, hammering)
The side streets around the Shwedagon Paya Pagoda are home to craftsmen and market stall owners.
The business of doing business maintains the simplicity of generations of tradition.
(traffic noise)
Around the city there are few signs of the modern conveniences that the rest of the world takes for granted.
There's a worn and shabby feel to Rangoon - evidence that the political and economic isolation is having an effect.
There are Western tourists who venture into Burma but they are not the high spending Americans and Europeans.
The United States has in fact targeted trade and tourism with its sanctions, and the military junta is scathing.
When the foreign media was invited in for a visit in October, Brigadier General Kyaw Hsan detailed the impact.
KYAW HSAN: All but 160 Government factories had to close down their business and over 40 factories had to reduce employments. So, over 80,000 women workers were left jobless and 400,000 family members relying on those workers had to suffer hardships and difficulties.
KAREN PERCY: He says related services and industries have also been affected.
Tourism too has suffered. Brigadier General Kyaw Hsan says it's not just hotels but also the food sellers and souvenir vendors on the streets.
Outside of the cities, the situation is even worse. Jobs are rarer still, services are few and far between and economic desperation has meant many people are on the move.
The junta blames the sanctions for the rise in the number of illegal workers in neighbouring countries like Thailand and the growing number of displaced people on the borders.
(men chatting on the street)
Such a transient population is creating health problems. At this road side stop on the outskirts of Rangoon, AIDS educator Ye Thu is showing truck drivers how to use a condom correctly.
(men discuss condom use)
One point three per cent of the adult population of Burma is HIV positive. That's about 360,000 people.
It's come from increased intravenous drug use and unsafe sex practices.
(Ye Thu speaking)
"Sometimes they're away for 10 to 15 days" Ye Thu says of the truck drivers. "They are far from home and seek prostitutes" he says.
(sound of monks talking)
Safe sex education is being carried out in some seemingly unlikely places in Burma.
(monks talking)
Here at a monastery in Rangoon, novice monks are learning about the dangers of having unprotected intercourse.
Joanna Hayter is with the Burnet Institute, an Australian-based research centre operating in Burma.
JOANNA HAYTER: The novices are essentially students. Their families have enrolled them into a monastic education system believing that education is really, really important. They don't pay for the monastic education, so that makes a difference to predominantly very poor families.
So, hundreds and hundreds of these guys are in schools around the country, based mostly on an education. But it's a wonderful opportunity to talk to them about sex and HIV and reproductive health and so on, because most of them won't grow up to be monks. Most of them will go back into a mainstream society and get up to all the things that young boys get up to (laughs).
KAREN PERCY: HIV/AIDS isn't the only problem. By some accounts 40 per cent of the population has tuberculosis - disease which kills an estimated 12,000 Burmese every year.
Malaria afflicts as many as 600,000 people each year in Burma, accounting for about half of all malaria cases in Asia.
Providing medical treatment for these ailments isn't easy.
Non-government organisations and aid groups aren't always able to get access to at-risk people, especially the 140,000 or so who are displaced and living a nomadic life along Burma's borders.
A report released in September by Cynthia Maung, a well respected Karen doctor based in Chiang Mai in Thailand, concluded that human rights abuses in Burma have a direct impact on health.
Her back-pack team of medics conducted a three-month long survey. They found that when people are forced from their homes or have their food supplies stolen or destroyed, or are forced into working for the regime, they have even worse health outcomes than the rest of the population.
And the situation seems unlikely to change until they displaced people are able to find a way out of Burma or can return home.
(sound from refugee camp)
Those who manage to get out of Burma are most likely to end up in a place like Tham Hin. It's a refugee camp on the border with Thailand, a couple of hours out of Bangkok.
There are 9,500 Burmese refugees here, in a camp designed to hold about half that many.
I'm at the perimeter of the camp gate and there's a small wooden guard hut and a boomgate. The sign here says "Tham Hin Temporary Shelter" and at first glance it looks like a makeshift camp, but for the inhabitants it's anything but. Some have been here for nine years. And further along the border at other camps there are refugees who've been waiting 20 years or more in the makeshift camps.
(sound of infant)
On the day I was able to visit in late August, several hundred refugees were leaving the camp, headed for the United States.
(man calling out)
As they waited for their names to be called, there was a sense of excitement.
(man calling out, giggling baby)
But there's also a degree of fear.
TEACHER: Police.
GROUP: Police.
TEACHER: Ambulance.
GROUP: Ambulance.
TEACHER: Fire.
GROUP: Fire.
KAREN PERCY: While they've been given briefings on what life will be like in the US, there's still much they won't know until they get there.
ELLEN SAUERBREY: Are you excited?
KAREN PERCY: Today, though, there's some high level encouragement, from Ellen Sauerbrey, the Assistant Secretary of State for Refugees in the US.
ELLEN SAUERBREY: There will be a group in the community that will need you.
KAREN PERCY: As she sees them off, she's optimistic about the future, not just for the people leaving today but for the thousands more who are likely to leave this camp bound for America.
But there is a realisation that resettling in a third country isn't always a refugee's first choice.
Ellen Sauerbrey.
ELLEN SAUERBREY: Most refugees first hope and dream would be to return to a home that is secure and safe and free and prosperous and where you have an opportunity to build a life for your families. The sad recognition is that for many this is not possible.
KAREN PERCY: Mrs Sauerbrey travelled to Tham Hin with the United Nations' High Commissioner for Refugees, Antonio Guterres.
He is appealing to Western nations everywhere to increase their intake of refugees.
ANTONIO GUTERRES: So you are living here for how long?
KAREN PERCY: Currently only about 70,000 of the many millions of refugees find new homes each year.
Mr Guterres says host countries need to do more.
ANTONIO GUTERRES: Resettled refugees represent very motivated people and that they are giving, all over the world, a very important contribution to the economy development and to the social harmony of the societies in which they are being settled.
(children singing)
KAREN PERCY: Evidence of that is everywhere to be seen in Tham Hin camp. The Burmese refugees here have well established programs and facilities.
There's a library and a clinic.
(weaving sound)
Some craftsmen and women here are maintaining their traditional skills, like weaving, and from their makeshift factory floor they're producing the beautiful colourful cloth that is the trademark of the Karen Burmese.
At the vocational skills centre there are sessions teaching sewing and basic mechanics. The centre was built on money donated by Hollywood star, Angelina Jolie, after she visited in may of 2002.
Refugee Daniel Zu recalls that day.
DANIEL ZU: Oh yes, yes, in 2002 on the 19th of May. Yeah, this is really the day for Tham Hin camp.
KAREN PERCY: So tell us a little bit about that day.
DANIEL ZU: Good time. She has visited the camp as Goodwill Ambassador for UNHCR and after the visit she was touched by what she seen so she contribute I think $100,000 donation to UNHCR and most of that money has been used to set up this vocational training centre, this area.
KAREN PERCY: And what was she like?
DANIEL ZU: Ah, she's really like a real human, a sense of humanity so that she could make this contribution for the sake of our Karen refugees here in Tham Hin.
KAREN PERCY: Did you know much about her before she came here?
DANIEL ZU: I did know her as a Hollywood star and I have seen some of her pictures, her movies, but then she's really committed to the humanitarian also so then I really appreciate her life and her example.
KAREN PERCY: Daniel Zu and his family are headed to Australia. They've had their medicals and hope to be resettled sometime in the new year.
As yet they don't know exactly where they'll be going but they do know some things about Australia.
DANIEL ZU: Australia is a democratic country. Its people are a peace loving people and they are very supportive of humanitarian assistance, and I expect I will enjoy, not only living in Australia, but also to develop my life qualities, along with my family's and my friends and my relatives, something like that.
KAREN PERCY: How long have you been at Thum Hin?
DANIEL ZU: Almost 10 years now. Since 1997 in May, so...
KAREN PERCY: And had you hoped to go back to Burma?
DANIEL ZU: Since the beginning we didn't want to leave our homeland but because of ongoing political crisis we had to leave. So one day at a time. Hopefully one piece come then I will visit. (laughs)
KAREN PERCY: And what kind of work do you hope to do when you get to Australia?
DANIEL ZU: Social welfare, yeah. This is my intention to be prepared.
KAREN PERCY: Daniel Zu has gained that kind of experience within the camp.
He and his wife, Beh, have been leaders here, lobbying and negotiating for a better deal for the refugees.
BEH ZU: Living conditions, yes, yes, because it's very crowded and very strict because we under the plastic we stay because psycho-social and many old people.
KAREN PERCY: Here I am in the camp proper and it's row after row, alleyway after alleyway of bamboo huts, lined with more bamboo - fairly ramshackle but obviously well lived in.
There's a sewing machine as I look in that door. There's water underneath. There's a pair of shoes outside. It really is the little city, a little town. So many people, so many alleyways, so many homes. While it does seem like very makeshift, very temporary accommodation you just have to recall how many people have been here for so long.
There are about 9,600 people in this camp right now, a camp built for about half of that. While people are able to get away, they are able to be resettled, there's still very many people left behind, some of whom don't want to leave. They still hope to go back to Burma one day but that appears less and less of a likelihood.
There are 150,000 Burmese refugees along the border with Thailand. Their movements are restricted. They cannot work. They cannot study.
One of the chief aims of the visit by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees was to encourage the Government of Thailand to give these people greater scope to leave the camps, assisting them with identification papers and with work permits.
While there's been a change of government in Thailand since that visit, the UN has been assured that such policies will be pursued.
Antonio Guterres.
ANTONIO GUTERRES: Hundreds of refugees from Tham Hin are today working illegally in other parts of the country. And I believe when that is the case and when that is recognised, it is important to create the conditions for this situation to be a regular situation of people working legally in Thailand, contributing to the development of the country and to the prosperity of the country, as refugees can do everywhere because normally they are determined people and people that can correspond to an added value of any economy and of any society.
KAREN PERCY: It's all part of the UN's mantra to find a solution to the needs of as many refugees as possible.
ANTONIO GUTERRES: No refugee, no asylum seeker should be sent back to a country where that refugee, that asylum seeker, could face persecution. Second principle: let's try to address in a humanitarian perspective, the human drama that they might face in the best possible way, and we are of course at the entire disposal of the Thai authorities to help with our capacities and expertise. And third principle: whenever possible, let's try to find durable solutions for the people involved.
KAREN PERCY: Burmese migrants make up the bulk of foreign workers living in Thailand.
As of mid 2006, 570,000 work permits had been granted to people from Burma. They work on farms, on construction sites and as domestic workers.
By some estimates there are as many as 100,000 illegal Burmese workers in Thailand.
Pranom Somwong is with the Migrant Assistance Program in Thailand.
PRANOM SOMWONG: Common problem is because they work and their work is not protected, like domestic worker or agricultures or the other form of worker, like sex worker, because their work are not protected and because they are from Burma, which is a state of forced migration and forced labour, they are semi-legal here. Because they have to come here illegally they don't have passport and there's the whole problem of legal status.
KAREN PERCY: Ms Somwong says there are also issues around their working conditions and living conditions, particularly for the 67,500 Burmese women who are working as maids and cooks in Thailand.
PRANOM SOMWONG: Because they have to live in the employer's house it's very difficult for them to manage themselves. Too often there's abuses because if you stay in the employer's house and then if you demand for better conditions you might get sack or dismissed and then you lose your accommodation as well.
KAREN PERCY: It used to be that it was primarily men who were forced into looking for jobs elsewhere. Why are so many more women now on the move?
PRANOM SOMWONG: As women said, they have to burden in the family responsibility and it's because of the, when they decide to coming or going to work, it's because of they would have to support their family inside Burma and then when the, also the men also migrate. And number of the men, female from Burma migrate to Thailand is like 45-55. So 55-45, it's like that.
But we see more and more women coming because they still need to surviving. There's still, lot's of them still have family back home but because of their husband migrate, they have to follow the husband to come to work in Thailand or many cases when they come as families. That's why they migrate as a family or they are individuals coming to Thailand and working here because there are very hardships economic situation inside Burma and that's because of Mizoram, men of the Burmese regime
KAREN PERCY: The town of Mae Sot, on the Thai-Burma border has become a destination for those fleeing Burma. As a result, clothing factories have opened up to take advantage of the influx of migrants.
But Pranom Somwong says September's coup in Thailand has those people more vulnerable.
PRANOM SOMWONG: Because they are garment factories, they are lots of industry factories there and nature of that factory is going to be foreign employers, from Taiwan and from the other countries, or they are business people from Bangkok to going to invest in Mae Sot. But they need the local people to control that factory and some of them have military, formal military intelligence who control the station of the factory.
But of course, when the working condition is very bad, the worker try to come out together - and they are 90 per cent now women workers -- they collective bargaining, they demand to improve their working conditions but the employers used the military's link to threaten on them and try to stop on their demands.
KAREN PERCY: While aid groups and NGOs are doing what they can, they know that only a political solution will bring an end to the problems.
The Burmese Generals say they are moving towards democracy.
(sound of delegates at National Convention)
For the past 13 years they've been running the National Convention, aimed at reforming the constitution and ultimately new elections.
Foreign reporters were allowed in to witness the process during a rare visit in October.
While the junta has been criticised for the slow pace of change, Brigadier General Kyaw Hsan had this to say.
KYAW HSAN: The task of installing democracy system cannot be done overnight. What's more, the (inaudible) model it's out of question. We firmly believe that the task should be implemented stage by stage.
KAREN PERCY: He also told reporters that Burma would find its own kind of democracy.
As yet not a lot is known about exactly how a new system might work, but what is known about the makeup of the new Parliament is already raising questions.
Twenty five per cent of seats have been set aside for the military and the junta's political arm, the Union Solidarity and Development Association, is manoeuvring to dominate the rest.
The USDA has been accused of violence and intimidation.
Critics, like exiled Burmese activist, Zaw Min, Say the generals are simply exchanging one system of power for another.
ZAW MIN: There's no sign, I haven't seen, you know. They're going back to the barrack after the new constitution because according to the new constitution, in Burma everybody knows, because the military, the participation in the parliamentary system is, without election, automatic kind of appointed MPs. Not only in the parliamentary level, even in the states and divisional level. So all administration.
KAREN PERCY: One of the key criticisms levelled at the junta and their reform process is that the National League for Democracy, which won the country's last election in 1990, is not involved in the process.
Brigadier General Kyaw Hsan told reporters that the NLD was no longer relevant.
KYAW HSAN: Due to the development of all the regions, including border areas, the development of human resources and the enrichment of intellectual level of the public, the people learns about international affairs more and more and they have the wider sense to differentiate right from wrong.
KAREN PERCY: And Kyaw Hsan was highly critical of the party and its charismatic leader, Aung San Suu Kyi,
KYAW HSAN: Instead of giving priority to the national interest, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi laid emphasis on the personal interest and the party's interest. Hence no good result has come out.
KAREN PERCY: These comments were greeted with contempt at the headquarters of the National League for Democracy in Rangoon.
The NLD's Hyenthe Myint (phonetic).
HYENTHE MYINT: Frankly speaking, for my part, I think it's a sham convention which just to mislead other people. For these other people to further their own, how you call, their own image, and not really for these things. I don't think it's a very genuine national convention.
KAREN PERCY: The Generals say that the National League for Democracy is not relevant anymore as a party, that you don't have many members left. What would you say to that?
HYENTHE MYINT: It's not true. We have our own structure. We have our own members and our own offices and our own branches at our own grass roots level and we are still functioning and we are still working very hard.
KAREN PERCY: The Generals also say that the National League for Democracy has been confrontational and has been encouraging sanctions from the international community. Is that true?
HYENTHE MYINT: It's not true also. It's not true because we haven't encouraged sanctions. We haven't asked for the sanction. We never asked officially for this sanction. It's not true.
KAREN PERCY: Aung San Suu Kyi remains under house arrest in Burma.
Her home in central Rangoon has become a no-go zone, when once it attracted enthusiastic crowds of supporters.
She is rarely allowed visitors.
In November, Ibrahim Gambari, the United Nations' Under Secretary General for Political Affairs, was able to see Suu Kyi. He reported that she was very alert.
Official photos of the meeting show a thin and pale Suu Kyi.
During meetings with the regime's leaders, Mr Gambari pressed them to release her and other political prisoners in Burma.
The UN is expected to maintain regular talks with the junta in the hopes that progress can be made on this and other issues.
But just in case, there's always the UN's Security Council, which has listed Burma on its formal agenda.
ELIZABETH JACKSON: South East Asia Correspondent Karen Percy with that report and you've been listening to a Current Affairs Special.
(c) 2006 Australian Broadcasting Corporation
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