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Asean still supports the junta even though it has reneged o­n promises to release Suu Kyi and to allow the NLD to attend the constitution-drafting National Convention. In fact, NLD offices remained shut, Suu Kyi and U Tin Oo remained under house arrest and did not participate in the convention. Asean is doing business with a regime that does not keep its promises.

Burma is o­ne of the largest exporters of opium and refugees in the world. Human rights organizations have recently published reports o­n child soldiers, forced labor, and the systematic rape of women in ethnic minority areas by government soldiers. The list goes o­n and o­n. It has been nearly seven years since Burma joined the regional forum, and Asean is still struggling to understand why its method of “constructive engagement” has yet to deliver the positive results that have been promised. The recent EU withdrawal from the ASEM meeting should be the wake-up call to Asean member states that the military regime of Burma is a problem for each of them. Asean leaders should realize that Burmese junta is a thorn in the region.

Bo Kyi A former political prisoner in Burma [Top]

Aung San Suu Kyi: “Keep Moving”

June 18, 2004—I can still hear our national leader’s voice: “Keep moving,” she said. It has been fifteen years since Aung San Suu Kyi and our National League for Democracy, or NLD, members narrowly escaped death in Danubyu in April 1989. Still today we keep moving, in the hope that Burma will eventually see democracy and freedom.

In that spring of 1989 we had just returned from a political organizing tour along the Irrawaddy River. When we arrived back in Danubyu, the local army captain issued orders to block our way and to shoot dead Aung San Suu Kyi and other NLD members. The rifles were pointed at us, but Suu Kyi commanded us to “keep moving”

She was calm, almost serene, as she faced down death. Suu Kyi maintained her composure both towards the soldiers who stood with guns pointed—waiting for orders to shoot—and towards her colleagues. She told us to keep walking towards the troops. When we passed the line of soldiers, a crowd of hundreds burst into applause and began to chant: “Long live Daw Aung San Suu Kyi.”

Local authorities had told townspeople that they would face imprisonment if they supported the NLD. They were ordered to shutter their windows and doors when we came to town. But our supporters ignored the threats. We received a truckload of flowers; people stood up to the threats because they hoped for a future in which there was freedom and democracy. We were not killed because of the hundreds of supporters that stood near us. We could overcome because we had the power of the people with us.

Today we face different conditions than we did fifteen years ago. Last year in Depayin, five hundred miles north of Rangoon, a junta-orchestrated mob attacked unarmed NLD supporters and Aung San Suu Kyi. Dozens, perhaps hundreds were killed in the massacre that went o­n for hours. Thugs attacked the peaceful crowd with wooden clubs, steel bars and sharpened staffs.

Suu Kyi was put under house arrest for the third time since 1989 while the government conducted National Convention circus opened at Hmawbi township, not far from Rangoon, to rubber-stamp a regime-written constitution.

Most citizens continue to side with “The Lady” and the NLD. I believe that international governments, regional countries in particular, clearly see the junta’s regressiveness—both politically and economically.

Regional governments should be aware that this government is not o­nly bad for Burma’s citizens, but a threat to regional stability. The question needs to be asked: “Is it in the long-term interests of Burma’s neighbors that the current regime remains in place?”

Aung San Suu Kyi turns fifty-nine o­n Saturday. o­n her 44th birthday I listened to her speech at the Shwedagon Pagoda.