To: President, State for Peace and Development Council (SPDC)
Prime Minister, Myanmar

We, on behalf of civil society of ASEAN, express our appreciation of the response of the SPDC and Myanmar government with respect to the issues concerning Myanmar discussed during the 11th ASEAN meeting held at Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia,from 12 -13 December 2005. The initiative of ASEAN to send a representative (Mr. Sayed Hamid Albar) to assess the political developments in Myanmar and the acceptance by SPDC and the government of such initiative is a crucial and positive step towards establishing democracy in the country.

However, we remain concerned about the existing political situation and the fact that leaders of the National League for Democracy and representatives of minority groups are being excluded from political participation in many ways. Human rights violations continue to take place and we continue to receive information about activists being arrested and detained for expressing their political opinions.

We are afraid that an environment that does not allow all stakeholders to freely participate in the democratic processes is not conducive for laying the foundations of an effective democracy respecting the rights of all minority and dissenting groups. Thus to achieve the goal of peace and reconciliation, we propose that:

1. Burmese government and SPDC should release all political prisoners and end the suppression of minority groups in order to pave the way for effective participation of all political and minorities groups. Further all individuals and groups should have the right to express their opinions freely without any fear of coercion or suppression.

2. Include representatives of all minority and political groups in the discussions towards establishing a democratic rule and

3. Make such discussions and processes open and transparent so that the people of Myanmar and the international community can follow and be informed of these developments. The international community should also be given the space to share their opinion and observe such processes.

We hope that the progressive step taken by ASEAN and SPDC and the government of Myanmar will help in the betterment of the political and economic social cultural well being of the people of Myanmar. People of Myanmar also belong to the ASEAN community.

Sincerely yours,

Thai Action for Democracy in Burma
Amnesty International Thailand
Asian Institute for Human Rights
Human Rights Defenders of Thailand
Cross Cultural Foundation

______________________________________________________________________

Call for release all Political Prisoners and Establishment of Democratic processes in Myanmar

Dear Ambassadors of ASEAN Countries,

We, the undersigned organizations, would like to express our appreciation towards the progressive step taken by ASEAN in its 11th meeting at Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 12 - 13 December 2005, in helping Myanmar in establishing democracy and democratic systems of governance.

We think it is an important step of ASEAN to send its representative (Mr. Sayed Hamid Albar) to visit Rangoon in order to follow up the political developments in Myanmar and dialogue with the military regime for the release all political prisoners. As citizens of ASEAN countries, we do support this decision and initiative of ASEAN governments.

However, we would like to express our concern about the situation of the people in Myanmar since we have not seen any positive initiative from the SPDC (State of Peace and Development Council) towards establishing democracy and eliminating human rights violations. The Burmese National Congress is not allowing the leaders of the National League for Democracy and representatives of minority groups to participate in its meetings. Human rights violations continue to take place and we have received numerous complaints about arrest of opposition and minority leaders.

In such a case we are concerned about the future of democracy and peace in the country. Thus we would like to urge all ASEAN members to:

1. Negotiate with the SPDC to immediately release all political prisoners and end the suppression of minority groups in order to pave the way for further reconciliation and cooperation from all political groups and minorities.

2. Negotiate with the SPDC to make their processes towards establishing a democratic rule open and transparent so that all groups and individual are able to participate and express their opinions freely without any fear of coercion or suppression.

3. Set up a Working Group comprising of experts from governments, civil society, and academics to assess and analyse the human rights situation in Myanmar and make recommendations to ASEAN for effective advocacy with SPDC and other stake-holders.

We on behalf of the civil society would like to express our sincere support to the role of ASEAN in the betterment of the political situation in Myanmar and in the political and economic social cultural well being of its people. People of Myanmar also belong to the ASEAN community.

Sincerely yours,

Thai Action for Democracy in Burma
Amnesty International Thailand
Asian Institute for Human Rights
Human Rights Defenders of Thailand
Cross Cultural Foundation