Human Rights in Burma Hearing
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HUMAN RIGHTS IN BURMA HEARING BEFORE THE SUBCOMMITTEE ON INTERNATIONAL OPERATIONS AND HUMAN RIGHTS AND SUBCOMMITTEE ON ASIA AND THE PACIFIC OF THE COMMITTEE ON INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES ONE HUNDRED FIFTH CONGRESS SECOND SESSION SEPTEMBER 28, 1998 Printed for the use of the Committee on International Relations U.8& GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 52-43 CC WASHINGTON : 1998 For sale by the U.S. Govemnt Printing Office Superintendent of Docments, Congressional Sales Office, Washington, DC 20402 ISBN 0-16-057912-0 H t-6 COMMITTEE ON INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS BENJAMIN A. GILMAN, New York, Chairman WILLIAM GOODLING, Pennsylvania LEE HAMILTON, Indiana JAMES A. LEACH, Iowa SAM GEJDENSON, Connecticut HENRY J. HYDE, Illinois TOM LANTOS, California DOUG BEREUTER, Nebraska HOWARD BERMAN, California CHRISTOPHER SMITH, New Jersey GARY ACKERMAN, New York DAN BURTON, Indiana ENI F.H. FALEOMAVAEGA, American ELTON GALLEGLY, California Samoa ILEANA ROS-LEHTINEN, Florida MATTHEW G. MARTINEZ, California CASS BALLENGER, North Carolina DONALD M. PAYNE, New Jersey DANA ROHRABACHER, California ROBERT ANDREWS, New Jersey DONALD A. MANZULLO, Illinois ROBERT MENENDEZ, New Jersey EDWARD R ROYCE, California SHERROD BROWN, Ohio PETER T. KING, New York CYNTHIA A. McKINNEY, Georgia JAY KIM, California ALCEE L. HASTINGS, Florida STEVEN J. CHABOT, Ohio PAT DANNER, Missouri MARSHALL "MARK" SANFORD, South EARL HILLIARD, Alabama Carolina BRAD SHERMAN, California MATT SALMON, Arizona ROBERT WEXLER, Florida AMO HOUGHTON, New York STEVE ROTHMAN, New Jersey TOM CAMPBELL, California BOB CLEMENT, Tennessee JON FOX, Pennsylvania BILL LUTHER, Minnesota JOHN McHUGH, New York JIM DAVIS, Florida LINDSEY GRAHAM, South Carolina LOIS CAPPS, California ROY BLUNT, Missouri KEVIN BRADY, Texas RICHARD BURR, North Carolina RICHARD J. GARON, Chief of Staff MICHAEL H. VAN DUSEN, Democratic Chief of Staff SUBCOMMITrEE ON INTERNATIONAL OPERATIONS AND HUMAN RIGHTS CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH, New Jersey, Chairman WILLIAM F. GOODLING, Pennsylvania TOM LANTOS, California HENRY J. HYDE, Illinois CYNTHIA A. McKINNEY, Georgia DAN BURTON, Indiana GARY L. ACKERMAN, New York CASS BALLENGER, North Carolina ENI F.H. FALEOMAVAEGA, American PETER T. KING, New York Samoa MATT SALMON, Arizona DONALD M. PAYNE, New Jersey LINDSEY 0. GRAHAM, South Carolina EARL F. HILLIARD, Alabama ILEANA ROS-LEHTINEN, Florida ROBERT WEXLER, Florida GROVER JOSEPH REES, Subcommittee Staff Director and Chief Counsel ROBERT R. KING, Democratic Professional Staff Member DOUGLAS C. ANDERSON, Counsel CATHERINE DuBois, Staff Associate SUBCOMMITTEE ON ASIA AND THE PACIFIC DOUG BEREUTER, Nebraska, Chairman JAMES A. LEACH, Iowa HOWARD L. BERMAN, California DANA ROHRABACHER, California ENI F.H. FALEOMAVAEGA, American PETER T. KING, New York Samoa JAY KIM, California ROBERT E. ANDREWS, New Jersey MATT SALMON, Arizona SHERROD BROWN, Ohio JON FOX, Pennsylvania MATTHEW G. MARTINEZ, California JOHN M. MCHUGH, New York ALCEE L. HASTINGS, Florida DONALD A. MANZULLO, Illinois ROBERT WEXLER, Florida EDWARD R. ROYCE, California LOIS CAPPS, California MIKE ENNIS, Subcommittee Staff Director RICHARD KESSLER, Democratic Professional Staff Member DAN MARTZ, Counsel ALICIA O'DONNELL, Staff Associate (III) CONTENTS WITNESSES Page Mr. Gare Smith, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary, Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, Department of State ............................. 7 Mr. Ralph Boyce, Deputy Assistant Secretary, Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs, Department of State ................................................................... 10 Mr. Bo Hla-Tint, Minister, North and South America Affairs, National Coali- tion Government of the Union of Burma ........................................................... 20 Ms. Maureen Aung-Thwin, Director, Burma Project, Open Society Institute .... 21 Ms. Michele Keegan, Member, Free Burma Coalition and Student, American University (detained, tried, convicted, and expelled from Burma, August 1998)......................................................24 Mr. Thomas Vallely, Research Associate, Harvard Institute for International Development ................................................. 28 Ms. Mary Pack, Director, Burma Project, Refugees International..................... 31 APPENDIX Prepared statements: Hon. Christopher H. Smith, a Representative in Congress from New Jersey and Chairman, Subcommittee on International Operations and Human Rights ............... ............................. ........................... 45 Hon. Doug Bereuter, a Representative in Congress from Nebraska and Chairman, Subcommittee on Asia and the Pacific ................... 48 M r. G are Smith ................................................................................................ 50 M r. Ralph Boyce ............................................................................................... 62 M r. B o H la-Tint ............................................................................................... 71 Ms. Maureen Aung-Thwin ..................................... 75 Ms. Michele Keegan ......... ............................................ 83 M r. Thom as Vallely ......................................................................................... 86 Ms. Mary Pack .............................................. 93 Additional material submitted for the record: UNOCAL Corporation statement for the record, September 28, 1998 ........ 99 Questions for the record submitted to Mr. Gare Smith ................................ 139 (V) HUMAN RIGHTS IN BURMA MONDAYt SEPTEMBER 28, 1998 HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, SUBCOMMITTEE ON INTERNATIONAL OPERATIONS AND HUMAN RIGHTS, SUBCOMMITTEE ON ASIA AND THE PACIFIC, COMMITTEE ON INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS, Washington, DC. The subcommittees met, pursuant to notice, at 10 a.m. in room 2172, Rayburn House Office Building, Hon. Christopher Smith (chairman of the Subcommittee) presiding. Mr. SMITH OF NEW JERSEY. The Subcommittee hearing will come to order. Good morning. Today the Subcommittee will hear testi- mony on the state of human rights in Burma and on what the United States and the rest of the free world can do about it. I want to thank my colleague, Chairman Doug Bereuter of the Subcommittee on Asia and the Pacific for agreeing to cosponsor this important hearing. This is a very important hearing and very- timely time. The military junta that rules Burma, which used to call itself the SLORC, or State Law and Order Restoration Council, but recently began calling itself the SPDC, is just over 10 years old. It seized absolute power on September 18, 1988, in the wake of pro- democracy demonstrations which began on August 8 of that year. The Burmese military command reacted to the August 8 movement by killing thousands of peaceful demonstrators. It then scheduled a national election for 1990, apparently on the assumption that the opposition vote would be divided among various democratic and ethnic parties, allowing the pro-SLORC to win. Instead, the SLORC party won only 10 of the 485 seats. Over 80 percent of the seats were won by the National League for Democracy, headed by Aung San Suu Kyi. So the SLORC simply ignored the election re- sults. The Parliament elected in 1990 has never been allowed to meet. Aung San Suu Kyi was placed under house arrest for 6 years, and many of the NLD parliamentarians were imprisoned or forced into exile. As the 10th anniversary of the 1988 demonstrations approached, Aung San Suu Kyi announced that the people of Burma had waited long enough for their elected representatives to meet. She sug- gested that the de facto government should convene the Parliament b August 21. And she defied government roadblocks in repeated attempts to mee. with her supporters outside Rangoon. On August 8, 1998, the 10th anniversary of the day the demonstrations began, 18 democracy activists from other countries-six from the United States, and others from Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Phil.- ippines, and Australia-began distributing pro-democracy lit- erature on the streets of Rangoon. The following day they were ar- rested. After 5 days of detention, they were tried and convicted of sedition and sentenced to 5 years' imprisonment. The day after the trial, in response to international pressure, the government ex- pelled them from the country. I was privileged to meet these 18 courageous young people at the Bangkok Airport on the morning of their release. I had traveled to Bangkok in an effort to help negotiate their release. Although the SLORC repeatedly refused my application for a visa to enter Burma, I was in constant contact with the U.S. Embassy in Ran- goon, which did a great job there, along with family members of the detainees, and others involved in an effort to win their freedom. Together we managed to convey to the SLORC that the whole world, including the U.S. Congress and the American people, was watching and would hold them accountable. I am happy to say that one of the 18 democracy activists, Michele Keegan, will testify here today. Unfortunately, the 18 were not the only political prisoners in Burma, and the stories of thousands of others have not yet had a happy ending. Year after year, the rule of the SLORC has been dis- tinguished by the mass imprisonment, torture, and sometimes mur- der of those perceived as a threat to the government. The govern- ment persecutes not only political expression, but also religious be- lief and practice. Members of the ethnic minority groups who are Christian, Muslim or Hindu have been killed