DEMOCRACY IN BURMA

Recent visits by Hilary Clinton and William Hague to Burma and the support shown to Aung San Suu Kyi and the democrats should hopefully help Burma make the transition back to democracy. As Burma makes its slow transition from military rule towards democracy, some unfinished business is also being concluded. One may suspect that one thing that William Hague did not raise in his discussions with the Burmese Government (dictatorship) was the issue of Karen autonomy. News that the government of Burma has signed a ceasefire deal with Karen National Union is obviously good news.

While details of the agreement (as noted by the BBC) with the Karen National Union remain unclear apparently the two sides held talks in Hpa-an, the capital of eastern Karen state. The Karen people have been fighting for greater autonomy (founded in 1947) for over sixty years, since they were betrayed by the British Government as Burma became an independent state. The Karen people bravely and consistently supported the Allies in the fight against Japan throughout the second world war, and paid a heavy price for their actions. The British promised to consider the case of the Karen after the war was over, they did not, abandoning them to years of repression by the Burmese Authorities.

The international community has repeated calls for Burma to free more dissidents as part of the process of democratisation. Several high-profile dissidents have been released in Burma in a series of prisoner amnesties. Amongst those freed are Min Ko Naing, one of the leaders of a failed pro-democracy uprising in 1988 and the former Prime Minister Khin Nyunt, detained in a purge in 2004, freed from house arrest. Burmese State TV has announced that 651 prisoners will be released with a new presidential pardon, but did detail how many of them would be political prisoners.