Generals should retire in Myanmar
Aung San Suu Kyi is a mere wisp of a woman but she terrifies Myanmar’s ruling military junta. The reason is simple: She is enormously popular with the Burmese people; the generals are not. The military seized power in 1988, crushing peaceful protests to do so, and immediately put Suu Kyi in jail where she would stay for the next six years. With her out of the way, the generals felt confident enough to hold an election in 1990 in which they were routed by Suu Kyi and her National League for Democracy. Free elections were not a mistake the junta would make again.
The regime might have killed her by now, except that in 1991 she won the Nobel Peace Prize and even these generals dared not risk that particular public relations black eye.
Last May, the government released Suu Kyi from 19 months of house arrest. She began to travel the country and her popularity had not waned so what happened this May 30 was probably inevitable. Government thugs attacked her motorcade, killing some of her supporters, injuring others and jailing many. Suu Kyi was thrown back in jail and held incommunicado “only to insure her safety,” insisted a spokesman for the Myanmar embassy in Washington. Presumably also for their safety, her party was suppressed, its leaders arrested and the universities closed to stop the students from demonstrating in sympathy.
On Tuesday, United Nations special envoy Razali Ismail got to see her briefly and reported that this extraordinarily resilient and determined woman was “well and in good spirits” and, Razali thought important to report, showing no visible injuries.
The United States, and most other Western nations were outraged, and President Bush has proposed ratcheting up existing sanctions, but the key to influencing the regime to free Suu Kyi and ultimately step aside lies with the surrounding nations, particularly Thailand, China and India. Unfortunately, they’ve adopted a live-and-let-live policy toward the Myanmar regime.
Razali, who seems admirably plain spoken for a U.N. envoy, urged the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, to drop its policy of nonintervention, which he called a “straitjacket.” It is the only way, he said, the regime will change.
Both India and China feel they should be taken seriously as great powers. Here’s a chance to prove it: By pressuring Myanmar’s generals into a long overdue retirement.