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Mandela Mediation in Burma



Media Statement on Mandela's Mediation in Burma
16 June 1999

The deafening silence from the South African government on the crisis in
Burma has finally been broken.  We are cautiously optimistic that our
esteemed father and outgoing president, Nelson Mandela will consider 
lending his support to international efforts aimed at the restoration of
democracy in Burma.  The Reuters report emananting from the South
African Embassy in Bangkok will do much to raise the morale of Nobel
Peace Laureate , Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and the people of Burma.  The
National League for Democracy (NLD) which is led by Daw Aung San Suu Kyi
has faced increased repression in recent months at the hands of the
military.  The students and refugees of the 1988 uprising who live a
precarious existence on the Thai-Burma border can breathe a sigh of
relief that South Africa has at last began to notice its plight.  We in
the Free Burma Campaign believe that as recently liberated South
Africans, we have a moral obligation to campaign for the liberation of
oppressed people around the world.  International solidarity was one of
the critical factors in our liberation from dictatorship.  We cannot
stand by the sidelines while 40 million people in Burma live in fear and
abject poverty because the military chooses to ignore the will of the
people.  General Khin Nyunt and his delegation should not have been
invited to South Africa unless it was to talk about the restoration of
democracy.  Their being at the inauguration is pretense that all is well
in Burma.  We urge the South African government to communicate its
concerns to the generals.  We congratulate President Mbeki on his
inauguration and urge his support for democracy in Burma.  Activists
from the Free Burma Campaign are in Pretoria at the President's
Inauguration appealing for his support. (Contact Dr Thein Win on
0828225693 / +27 82 822 56 93) 

Issued by Kiru Naidoo  Free Burma Campaign (South Africa)

Kiru Naidoo
Free Burma Campaign (South Africa)

P.O. Box 138 
Pavilion  3611 
Tel:  0825655286  /  +27 82 56 55 286
Email:  kiru@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Info:  http://FreeBurma.com


Media Statement from Free Burma Campaign (South Africa)
Burmese Dictator Not Welcome in South Africa
14 June 1999

President Thabo Mbeki's inauguration on June 16 is an occasion of great
joy and celebration for all South Africans.  On the one hand it signals
the deepening of our democracy and triumph over a racist dictatorship. 
On the other, it is emotional remembrance of our fighting youth who
sacrificed their lives in the face of the brute force of the apartheid
state on the streets of Soweto in 1976.  Given our proud democratic
credentials, we are mystified as to why the South African government
should want to find common cause with the military junta, which has
ruled Burma since 1962.  The State Law and Order Restoration Council
(SLORC) is represented at President Mbeki's inauguration by its
intelligence chief, General Khin Nyunt.  SLORC's dictatorship is in
defiance of the will of the people of Burma who in 1990 voted
overwhelmingly in support of the National League for Democracy (NLD).
The NLD is led by Nobel Peace Laureate, Aung San Suu Kyi , a fearless
woman determined to be the voice of Burma's voiceless.  Daily life for
the majority of Burma's citizens is a litany of human rights abuses
including arbitrary detention, torture, forced labour , orchestrated
rape and other forms of sexual violence. Archbishop Desmond Tutu has
written about Burma as  the South Africa of the 1990s.  The people of
Burma are crying out for our help.  Our own history compels us to
respond.  We call on the South African government to sever its links
with the military junta in Rangoon and deny the generals the legitimacy
they so desperately crave.  

Kiru Naidoo
Free Burma Campaign (South Africa)
P.O. Box 138 
Pavilion  3611 
Tel:  0825655286  /  +27 82 56 55 286
Email:  kiru@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Info:  http://FreeBurma.com

> Mandela would consider Myanmar mediation-diplomat
> 07:09 a.m. Jun 15, 1999 Eastern
> By David Brunnstrom
> 
> BANGKOK, June 15 (Reuters) - South Africa's Nelson Mandela would consider
> acting as a mediator to break a deadlock between Myanmar's ruling military
> and his fellow Nobel peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, a South African
> diplomat said on Tuesday.
> 
> But the outgoing president would need a formal request from Suu Kyi's
> pro-democracy opposition, said the Bangkok-based diplomat, who preferred not
> to be identified by name.
> 
> ``He has indicated he is willing to act as an international peacemaker, and
> the Burma issue is one of concern not only to South Africa but to the
> international community,'' he said.
> 
> ``Maybe the opposition should be seriously considering making a concerted
> effort to deliver a serious message of invitation.''
> 
> The diplomat said the request could come from Suu Kyi or Myanmar's
> pro-democracy movement as a whole and would need to make clear exactly what
> Mandela was expected to do.
> 
> ``It would be a bit broad to say 'come and act as an intermediary' while the
> lines are not drawn,'' he said.

> 
> ``If in his mind he feels he has to act on it and has the resources to do
> so, then he will. But it's better if we don't put the cart before the horse
> and say he definitely will -- it would pretty unfair to start raising
> expectations.''
> 
> The diplomat said the invitation of Myanmar's powerful military intelligence
> chief Lieutenant-General Khin Nyunt for Wednesday's South African
> presidential inauguration could be looked upon as movement towards such a
> role for Mandela.
> 
> This invitation has raised eyebrows among pro-democracy activists given
> widespread criticism of Myanmar's human rights record which has provoked
> U.S. and EU sanctions.
> 
> ``They should see this as a first step of not necessarily embracing the
> military junta officials -- no way, we can't do that -- but with a view to
> opening up some kind of negotiations on behalf of the Burmese,'' the
> diplomat said.
> 
> He said South Africa had been under no obligation to invite Khin Nyunt and
> the move could be compared to the contacts it established with Libyan leader
> Muammar Gaddafi -- something that provoked Western anger but helped resolve
> 
> the impasse over the 1998 Lockerbie airline bombing.
> 
> ``Now everybody's moving into Libya wanting to invest and make business,''
> the diplomat said. ``The belief in South Africa is that there is no need to
> isolate someone, to demonise a government if the channel to negotiating a
> peaceful settlement exists.
> 
> ``Let's monitor the situation, then maybe six months down the line we'll say
> 'oh maybe that's why they invited these people'.''
> 
> Myanmar's rulers and Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy have been
> locked in a bitter battle of wills since the military bloodily crushed a
> pro-democracy uprising in 1988 then ignored the results of a 1990 election
> the party won by a landslide.
> 
> The two sides blame each other for a lack of dialogue.
> 
> Another diplomat suggested Mandela's interest in helping in Myanmar might
> stem from shared experiences.
> 
> ``What Suu Kyi has gone through -- of personal humiliation, and arrest and
> all those things -- is something that he personally went through. So maybe
> in a way there are some similarities, some parallels between their lives.''

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|   "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere"   |
|                           -  Dr. Martin Luther King Jnr.   |
|                                                            |
|    Please support Aung San Suu Kyi and the campaign to     |
|                restore democracy in Burma                  |
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