PHILIPPINES — With drums and bugles, about 90 activists under the Free Burma Coalition-Philippines today held a rally in front of the Thai Royal Embassy in Makati City in time for the 14th Asean Summit.

Organizations present during the rally were: Alliance of Progressive Labour (APL), Sanlakas, Partido ng Manggagawa (PM), Bukluran ng Manggagawang Pilipino (BMP), Coalition Against Trafficking in Women-Asia Pacific (CATW-AP), KPML, Bagong Kamalayan, ZOTO and the Initiatives for International Dialogue (IID).

Activists urged ASEAN member states to put on the summit’s agenda the human rights issue in Burma saying that the summit should serve as a “hot seat” for the Myanmar delegate.

“The military regime of Burma has a lot to answer. Its human rights record is not showing any degree of significant improvement and the ASEAN Summit ministers and delegates should not take a blind eye into this issue,“ Rasti Delizo FBC-Phils Convenor said during the rally.

AS IMPORTANT AS THE ISSUE OF FINANCIAL CRISIS

The group said ASEAN should come up with mechanism to “monitor human rights record” of Burma as the country’s ruling regime remain secretive and intransigent to the international clamor for political reforms in the said territory.

Delizo stressed, “The issue of continued human rights violations in Burma is as important as the issue of global financial meltdown. In the face of this financial crisis, you have here one member in the ASEAN that treats Burma’s coffers as its personal purse. The peoples of Burma are suffering politically and economically because their government doesn’t care even if millions will die in extreme hunger.”

ASEAN slogan brags about achieving a caring and sharing ASEAN community and one of the ASEAN Charter’s key pledges is to set up a regional human rights body.
“If this is true,” Delizo continued, “we challenge the ASEAN to begin monitoring the human rights situation in Burma; schedule a visit to Burma’s labour camps, detention centers, and try to see and feel the atmosphere of dictatorship there. Right now, ASEAN should go beyond its usual rhetoric and act concretely.”

RELEASE ALL POLITICAL PRISONERS!

From the Thai Royal Embassy, the group proceeded to the Burma Embassy. With a replica of a “prison cell” with “prisoners” tied in shackles, the group dramatized the plight of political prisoners in Burma.

Unimpressed over the release of prisoners in Burma last week, FBC-Phils dubbed the move as an “old trick” by the military regime to deodorize the awful smell of its dismal human rights record.”

The group said that all political prisoners including Daw Aung San Suu Kyi must be released unconditionally.

“Torture, rape and murder are normal occurrences inside Burmese prisons. The junta cannot hide the fact that political prisoners suffer torture day and night and their families are even prohibited from visiting them. The entire country is like a huge garrison—there is no rule of law,” FBC-Phils explained.

Recently, prominent leaders of the popular Saffron revolution including their lawyers were sentenced by the military court to serve 65 years in prison.

“Burma is a dangerous place not just for activists but also for lawyers. Protection and promotion of human rights which is a very basic duty of the state is not happening. It is in this case that the international community has the obligation to act,” Delizo concluded.

- Free Burma Coalition-Philippines

After their rally yesterday in front of the Myanmar (Burma) Embassy, activists under Free Burma Coalition-Philippines today held another rally outside the Thai Royal Embassy in Makati City and urged Thailand government, the next Chair of the ASEAN to also echo the demand for the immediate postponement of National Referendum in Burma. FBC-Phils is urging the ASEAN to likewise help in monitoring safe delivery of goods and services in disaster struck areas of the said cyclone-devastated country.

Holding banners with slogans “DO NOT POLITICIZE RELIEF DISTRIBUTION!”, said rally was attended by women activists from Coalition Against Trafficking in Women-Asia Pacific, Partido ng Manggagawa and the Initiatives for International Dialogue (IID).

FBC-Phils said that the junta should postpone the National Referendum set on May 10 not just on cyclone affected areas. The military regime of Burma already made an official announcement that it would postpone the referendum but only on affected areas of Burma.

The group reiterated that it is “improper and untimely” to pursue the referendum considering that the entire country is in distress. “Relief before Referendum is the main call of the FBC-Phils.

Egoy Bans, the FBC-Phils spokesperson said, “After ensuring safe delivery of food, medicine, water and other forms of assistance to the victims, Burma should still undergo a period of rehabilitation. The people especially women and children, the most vulnerable and marginalized in times of disaster, were traumatized by the effects of the cyclone. Right now, the people are more concerned on their own survival than voting on May 10.”

While it has been reported that ASEAN is also ready to send emergency aid, FBC-Phils stressed that the role of the regional grouping should not end in sending aid to Burma. The ASEAN should monitor delivery of goods to the victims and it is just timely for the ASEAN to convince Burma to postpone the planned referendum nationwide, the group added.

DEPOLITICIZE RELIEF DISTRIBUTION!

The group however warned that the military regime may politicize aid distribution and the junta may use this to further their own agenda on May 10.

Bans explained, “We are in a situation where the junta is hell-bent to pursue the referendum and the people right now are desperate to survive. To be blunt about it, everybody including the ASEAN and aid workers should be watchful for the “goods” not to be bartered for a “YES” vote on May 10″.

THERE HAVE BEEN SIGNS!

“We are just worried because there have been signs. First, the UN and other agencies are complaining about restrictions in mobility of aid workers, and some cannot assess the victims’ needs because of tight control in communications.” explained the FBC-Phils spokesperson.

The group said that knowing the junta that is fond of dirty tricks, it can do everything even playing on the emotions of its own people.

Free Burma Coalition-Philippines
Coalition Against Trafficking in Women-Asia Pacific
Bagong Kamalayan
Partido ng Manggagawa
Initiatives for International Dialogue (IID)

As women – trafficking survivors, mothers, sisters, activists – we honour the nuns and monks who walked barefoot in the streets of Rangoon, Mandalay and other parts of Burma to protest against the 45-year old military regime.  Sparked by the recent sharp fuel price hikes, the Burmese religious and people started pouring to the streets after a deadline set by the monks themselves.  We feel their suffering and those of their people, women and men, in poverty and severe fascist rule.

We know that at least 1,228,000 children have been in forced labour to build roads, bridges for the junta.  At least 230,000 women have been trafficked to Thailand, China and Pakistan. Rape by the Burmese military, particularly against ethnic women, is institutional and endemic throughout areas of conflict in Burma. 

We are aware that young mother activists such as Nilar Thein and Mei Mei are forced into hiding for resisting the junta.  That nuns and lay people are targeted by beatings and perhaps even killing, in the resent uprising.  At least 6,000 are now in prison and are missing.  More than a hundred are confirmed dead.  The death toll is expected to rise as more credible information trickles out of the country.

But we are heartened by their resistance, when Nilar Thein slapped a high-ranking police officer in a demonstration in 1996 for blocking the students’ march.  Su Su Nway launched a successful lawsuit in 2000 against local officials, for organizing forced labor.  In her words:  “Because we are in hiding does not mean that we are in retreat.”  Mei Mei continue to defy the junta by being in the frontline of marches since they sparked in August 2007.

This deplorable junta ought to step down now.  The suffering of the Burmese women and people ought to end.  We call on all women and peoples of the world to pressure the SPDC in unison, to stop immediately the repression and give way to the call for people’s democracy.  We call on the ASEAN to expel Burma.  We call specifically on the governments of Australia, the British Virgin Islands, China, France, India, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea, Thailand, Russia, and the United States to stop their operations in the country, specifically their oil and gas investments.  Revenues from them have been “fuelling” the repressive regime.

Finally, we laud the nuns, monks and protesters for being able to pressure Junta leaders to meet with Daw Aung Suu Kyi, but we remain to deplore the Junta’s conditional consent to dialogue with the opposition.

Burma, out of ASEAN now!
Democracy for the Burmese People!
Onward to Victory!

Coalition Against Trafficking in Women – Asia Pacific (CATW-AP)
Alliance of Progressive Labor – Women (APL-Women)
Apne Aap – India
FORWARD – Thailand
Sarilaya – Philippines
Batis – AWARE  – Philippines
Bagong Kamalayan Collective of Prositution Survivors – Philippines
BUKLOD – Philippines
Kanlungan Center Foundation, Inc. – Philippines

Today, we also grieve for justice remains elusive for our raped sister and our raped nation.

Despite our history being replete with events of US military aggression, it is tragic that it took a rape case to demonstrate how an onerous and lopsided agreement enforced by a subservient government could deprive Filipinos of justice even in their own country. The November 1 rape case in Subic has proven that the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) is grossly disadvantageous to the Philippines, obviously unequal in favor of the United States, and clearly dangerous for the Filipino people.

By refusing to give custody of the charged US soldiers to Philippine authorities, the US has made a mockery of our laws and trampled upon our national sovereignty. In failing to pursue and get custody of the accused, the government has shown that it is both unwilling and incapable of defending its own people and enforcing its laws within its own territory, in exchange for paltry political, military and economic rewards.

The continuing RP-US Balikatan war games is clearly an offense and a danger to Filipinos. Their presence increased the demand for prostituted women and children, and promotes the military forces’ racist and sexist attitude towards our women and countrymen. The biased RP-US military alliance also expose our countrymen, here and abroad, to the hostile responses of various enemies of the US, while the legacy of damage to our natural resources of military toxic wastes and growing numbers of Amerasian children, cannot be ignored.

The VFA and similar military agreements such as the Mutual Logistics Servicing and Acquisition Agreement (MLSA) and the Mutual Defense Treaty (MDT) has made the Philippine government an accomplice to the US’ imperialist wars of aggression, an accomplice to the murder, pillage and rape of our sovereignty and that of other countries in the world.

We at the SCRAP VFA Campaign-Philippines, a broad gathering of social movements, political organizations, trade unions, women’s groups, human rights organizations, religious formations and concerned individuals – demand a fundamental change in our relationship with the United States.

We demand justice for our raped sister in the November 1 rape case.

We demand for US’ public apology on the various massacres and human rights violations suffered by our countrymen such as the Bud Dajo and Bud Bagsak massacres, and other documented cases of abuse.

We condemn the refusal of the Arroyo government to enforce the country’s laws and pursue justice for Filipinos.

We demand the immediate and unconditional abrogation of the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) and refuse any re-negotiations for a new status of forces agreement that will allow the stationing of US troops in the country, along with the Mutual Logistics Servicing and Acquisition Agreement and the Mutual Defense Treaty.

Justice for all victims of US military aggression!
Scrap the VFA-MLSA-MDT!
End the US-RP military alliance!

Signatories:
Akbayan
Alliance of Progressive Labor (APL)
Alab-Katipunan
Anak Mindanao (AMIN)
Association of Major Religious Superiors in the Phils. -WGC
Assalam Bangsa Moro People’s Party
Bagong Kamalayan (Prostitution Survivors)
Batis-Aware
Buklod Center – Olongapo
Coalition Against Trafficking in Women – Asia Pacific (CATW-AP)
Fatima Allian
Focus on the Global South
Freedom from Debt Coalition (FDC)
Dr. Francisco “Dodong” Nemenzo
KAISA – KA
Kanlungan Center Foundation
Kilusan Para sa Pambansang Demokrasya (KPD)
Institute for Popular Democracy (IPD)
Nuclear-Free Philippines Coalition (NFPC)
People’s Task Force for Bases Clean Up (PTFBC)
Piglas-Kababaihan
Red Constantino
Resource Center for People’s Development (RCPD)
Sanlakas
Sarilaya
Socialista
Sr. Ma. Arnold Noel, SSpS, Balay
Third World Movement against the Exploitation of Women
WomanHealth Philippines
Young Moro Professionals Network