Burma’s rollercoaster reform ride is again sending mixed signals to the
outside world.
Within a few days, the country
has been rebuked by a senior UN official for imposing “dire” conditions on the
displaced Muslim Rohingyas, a former leader of the 2007 democracy protests has
been re-arrested, and President Thein Sein has cancelled a trip to Australia
and New Zealand citing domestic concerns.
This stands in sharp contrast to
just two weeks ago when Thein Sein was basking in the diplomatic limelight amid
the first visit to his country by a sitting U.S. President, Barack Obama,
followed by him attending the annual leaders’ summit of the Association of
Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.
The Burmese leader won plaudits
after he answered Obama’s call, freed political prisoners, presented a united
national front alongside the pro-democracy leader and Nobel Peace laureate Aung
San Suu Kyi and proved himself an able statesman on the international stage.
But his reputation has been
tarnished by his inability to deal with internal strife between hardline
Buddhists and the Rohingyas, which has forced about 135,000 people to flee
their homes over the last six months with thousands seeking shelter in camps
that the UN’s under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs and emergency
relief coordinator, Valerie Amos, has described as “terrible.”
Amos also complained that the UN
in Burma was facing funding shortages, had trouble obtaining the correct visas
and was unable to get into the camps where they had hoped to improve living
conditions.
Her comments were delivered as U
Gambira – an organizer of the 2007 monk-led protests against the military government
which became known as the Saffron revolution – went missing amid suspicions he
was arrested due to his support for demonstrators opposed to a Chinese-backed
copper mine.
His family has told reporters
that police arrested him on Saturday night at his brother-in-law's house, took
him to a police station and indicted him. Police told his family that he would
be detained at Burma's notorious Insein Prison, however, prison officials have
denied he is there.
U Gambira was released in January
along with hundreds of others as part of Thein Sein’s political reform
initiatives, which have been well received by the wider international
community.
No major reasons were given for
the cancellation of his trip to Australia and New Zealand, announced after both
countries dropped travel restrictions and economic sanctions. Canberra has also
recognized the government’s preferred name of Myanmar.
But Thein Sein obviously has
immediate issues to deal with – not to mention the ethnic strife among other
groups that continues elsewhere along his country’s borders – and next year
will be pivotal to his reforms and in winning wider acceptance for his long
troubled country. Without this, 2014, when his country will take on the chair
of ASEAN for the first time, could be the most difficult of times.
Luke Hunt
Business & Investment Opportunities
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