Wooden carving at piano | Although reviled by many western nations as a brutally oppressive regime, Burma was recently given the chance to fashion a more co-operative image when it played host to the regions economic leaders. It was clear many Asian leaders were more than happy to overlook the countries democratic failings and talk business not politics. | 00:01 |
Severino interview
| Super: Rudolfo Severino ASEAN Secretary General Stein: What will you be saying about Burma on the issue of forced labour, those very questions. | 00:48 |
| Severino: I don't think that's going to an issue here |
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| Stein: Why not? |
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| Severino: Why should it be? |
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| Stein: Human rights were not on the agenda at this gathering of Burma's military elite and Asian leaders. The regions economic ministers preparing to do business than create enemies amongst neighbours. | 01:05 |
Supachai interview | Super: Dr. Supachai Panitchpakdi Deputy Prime Minister, Thailand: I have seen with my own experience that the moment an economy gets to be more open, human resources get to be more developed. Automatically the society would be looking for larger participation anyway and I think this is healthy for the country. | 01:24 |
Map of Burma |
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| Stein: From inside the heart of the defence ministry, Burma's most senior military leader Khin Nyunt greets economic leaders from the region's most powerful nations: China, Japan and South Korea. It's a rare audience in the most secretive ministry, in return, the generals hope for the recognition and support they desperately crave to remain in power. The military is one of the countries only growth industries, in the past decade it has grown from strength of strength. From two hundred thousand troops to more than four hundred thousand today. Hated and distrusted by many Burmese, the ruling generals march to their own beat - their power now firmly entrenched. | 01:54 |
| Abel: I mean we have been in power because it is necessary. We are trying, you know, we are trying to loosen up. | 02:48 |
Military men | Stein: How many ministers are not military | 02:59 |
Abel interview
| Super: Brig. General David Abel Burmese Cabinet Abel: There are about eight of them. |
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| Stein: How many ministers are there? |
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| Abel: Pardon, Altogether 30. |
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| Stein: It looks like the military has very strong hold here? | 03:12 |
| Abel: But you know we are most of us are in the reserve, we are resigned, we are mentioned, we are in the reserve. I can put on civilian dress and say I'm Mr Abel. |
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| Stein: But you're sitting here in military uniform? |
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| Abel: You see because I am in the reserve. |
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Archive footage | Stein: Ten years ago, the people of Burma went to the polls. The military was told in no uncertain terms it was no longer wanted. Eighty seven per cent of the population voted against the armed forces. It was a landslide win to the National League for Democracy, led by Noble Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi. But the generals refused to hand over power, and a decade later they continue to restrict and watch her every movement. The years have not diminished her conviction the message remains the same. | 03:33 |
Aung San Suu Kyi Super: Aung San Suu Kyi / National League for Democracy | Aung San Suu Kyi: What we are after is not ostracism, what we want is for the international community to indicate clearly that an illegal regime which has taken over the power of government by force, should not be encouraged to stay on and oppress the people. | 04:09 |
Hlaing Thar Yar | Stein: But despite international pressure to accept the democratic decision of it's people the generals have held on to power by generating a culture of fear. In Rangoon they say in any gathering of three people, two may well be intelligence officers. Twenty kilometres outside of the capital, Hlaing Thar Yar township is not where most of it's residents would prefer to live. The military made that decision for them. | 04:24 |
Stein to camera Super: Ginny Stein | Stein: Burma's military controls every aspect of people's lives. The residents of this township are not here by choice they were forcibly relocated. The militaries campaign to clean up the capital saw thousands of families dumped here in the middle of the night. |
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| Stein: Hlaing Thar Yar is by no means an isolated example. High up in this mountain valley, these farmers have just arrived. A three day journey to a new life at the whim of an unsympathetic regime. Each time the regimes reason for moving people on may be different, the outcome remains the same. Burma's leaders stand by their actions. |
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Abel interview | Abel: If they're being relocated for their own benefit, for their own welfare, for their own better quality of life, why not? |
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| Aung San Suu Kyi: It shows that Burma is a country where individual freedom does not exist, where people can be made to go where they do not want to go, by those who are in power. |
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| Stein: The people in Hlang Tar Yar have had to start again from nothing. | 05:46 |
Daw Thar | Daw Thar: Everybody here was in the same position. The only jobs were in the city - and we couldn't get to the city. But now we have jobs in this township. | 05:55 |
| Stein: A small loans program, channelled through one of the few international aid organizations operating inside Burma, provided the start up capital, for this charcoal making business. These front room enterprises are labelled grassroots aid. They're how foreign governments channel their aid into Burma, without directly dealing with the regime. Up until now the Australian Government has banned direct aid to the regime, imposing sanctions on military sales and not encouraged trade. A position at odds with Asian leaders more prepared to engage with the military. While nations debate about how to influence change, the international Red Cross has been quietly making moves. It's return to Rangoon and negotiated to get inside the nations notorious prisons. Political prisoners are now allowed to see their families members face to face for the first time in years. |
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Riedmatten interview | Super: Leon do Riedmatten Int. Committee of Red Cross Riedmatten: Up to now we've been to 26 prisons, we roughly have seen more than 30 thousand inmates in all these places of detention, and among them more than one thousand six hundred security detainees. | 07:07 |
| Stein: Simply seeing the prisoners is one thing but have you been able to effect any real change? | 07:30 |
| Riedmatten: They are many many things but then we enter in the part normally that I cannot disclose. The rule is clear we can say what we do, but not what we see. But at the same time I think for this security detainees to have somebody from the outside the country who is able to see them to register them it's also a kind of protection for them. | 07:35 |
| Stein: In this part of the world how big a deal is it? | 07:59 |
| Riedmatten: I think it is, I think it's a big deal, it's something. |
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Street scene | Stein: Is one bright spot in the dismal picture on human rights. Foreign investors continue to shun Burma because of it's bad image. Australian publisher Ross Dunkley hopes he will make a change. | 08:08 |
| Dunkley: Kiddie art, fun and games, you know we're still refining the content of the paper. | 08:29 |
| Stein: He freely admits having friends in high places is the only way to do business in Burma. |
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Stein with Dunkley | Dunkley: The concept and the approval for this has come form the very top, no doubt about it. | 08:46 |
| Stein: His joint venture partner is the son of a very senior Burmese military leader. But don't expect any stories about politics, anytime soon. |
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| Abel: Politics, Is that an area you can cover. |
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| Super: Ross Dunkley Publisher. Myanmar Times Dunkley: I think one of the things I'm very careful not to cover is politics. | 09:09 |
| Abel: Have you written anything about Aung San Suu Kyi in the paper at all, about the opposition at any stage? |
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| Dunkley: No |
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| Abel: When do you see that you could? |
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| Dunkley: When the government sees at as appropriate. | 09:20 |
| Stein: While isolation and sanctions have hit the people they're meant to help the hardest, foreign aid or foreign involvement continues to be closely watched. The belief holds firm among many nations that sanctions and isolation will ultimately achieve their aims. |
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| Clapp: Sanctions as part of a regime of internatonal pressure on Burma are effective. It's the pressure itself that is effective and sanctions are apart of that. | 09:49 |
Clapp interview | Super: Priscilla Clapp U.S. Charge d'Affaires But the key step and the one that we all are pressing for and waiting for is dialogue. The military regime has to engage in serious dialogue with the democratic opposition. If they take that one move then I think anything can happen. |
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| Abel: They take that one move they may lose power. | 10:17 |
| Clapp: Well they're not a legitimate government. Military is not supposed to be running a country they should be running the military. |
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Abel: Up until now few western governments have been prepared to directly engage Burma's military, but that appears to be changing. In the capital, quiet diplomacy has been at work. Australia has broken links with the isolationists and agreed to fund training courses in humna rights. |It is a significant shift in Australias approach to a reviled regine. But it is a move which has angered opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi |
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Aung San Suu Kyi | What they seem to be considering is a course for foxes to guard the hen coop, because these so called human rights training courses are for civil servants and it is actually people who will be picked by the authorities and it is precisely these people who are oppresing us and violating human rights in Burma. The authorities are not ignorant of the fact that don't give people a fair trial, they don't give people any trial at all. Quite often they simply arrest our people and put them into prison, no trail, no access to council no access to family until they have actually been sent to prison. They are not unaware of that. | 10:58 |
Bells/music | Up until now Western nations have demanded political change as a pre-condition for aid. Australia is making no demands but Ang San faith that sanctions will ultimately bring change remains undiminished. |
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| I wouldn't call it the ‘big stick' approach. I would call it standing firmly but certain principles, such as that human rights violations are not acceptable and should not be rewarded. What is there to reward the military authorities for. Thus is how we see it. |
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Credits: | Music: END |
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Burma Reporter GINNY STEIN Camera DAVID LELAND Editor DAVID LELAND |
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