Open Letter from Shan Community to Mr. Kofi Annan, Secretary-General of the United Nations and the UNSC.

 
To,  the Honourable Kofi Annan, the Secretary General of the United Nations
and Members of the Security Council

United Nations
U N Plaza
New York -10017
USA

1st. June 2006

Dear Sirs,
 

Unlike the Military Regime we have no mechanical arms or ammunition, therefore the only means in defence of our freedom and our rights are through our “pens”.  During the last four decades we knocked consistently at closed and barred doors. I hope this time you will not dismiss our letter which echoes the voice of the peoples inside the Shan State and Global Shan Community in exile.

As far as we understand the declaration of Human Rights was adopted by the General Assembly in 1948 and member states have reaffirmed their faith and pledge to achieve, in cooperation with the United Nations, the promotion of universal respect for and observance of human rights and fundamental freedom for all citizens of the world.

If our interpretation is correct, then does it not follow that some member states are not true to their pledge and are unworthy of the citizens they represent and the organisation they stand for?  The SPDC does not represent any section of the population of Burma other than the armed forces.

The United Nations was born out of the struggle against Nazism and Fascism with their doctrines and practices of racial superiority and genocide.  The present dictatorial regime of Burma has the same doctrines and practices which members of the United Nations abhor.

We pleaded to the United Nations, Western Governments, Japan, Thailand and ASEAN to help solve the dire political and human rights situation of Burma.  Until now every nation is treading softly, softly with the excuse that they do not want to interfere in another country’s affairs.  The International Governments and United Nations have failed to see that Burma’s affair is not internal but an international one, and also to view the situation as a crisis that needs addressing immediately not only on humanitarian but also on political grounds.

The Honourable Kofi Annan in his second term as the Secretary of the United Nations stated that he would not turn a blind eye to help and protect those that are weakest and most vulnerable.  Five years have passed since then and the Shans and other ethnic groups are still in the same or even worse dilemma as they had been four decades ago.

We understand that the Secretary General alone cannot solve such complicated global problems.  After the terrorist attack on the World Trade Centre on the 11th of September 2001 in New York, the Secretary General also called on all member states to join forces and act firmly against terrorism.”

Members of the Burmese military regime who use brutal force and terrorize the citizens of Burma must surely be classified as terrorists and their action as an act of terrorism.

All governments, the United Nations, Media and citizens have a role to play in making the world a safer, more peaceful and happier place.  In the present civilised but chaotic and dangerous world it is time to reassess the priority of human values and adhere to the principles and moral codes laid down in the United Nations.

In conclusion we would like to make a plea to you, the Secretary General and Members of the Security Council to:

1.  Ignore the SPDC’s claim that Burma’s affair is a domestic matter and of no legal or legitimate concerns to the world.  Please do not let them hide further behind the curtain of the so called Nation-state.  If the fifty- year old Burma problem is to be solved we need International Intervention.

2.  To examine the root of the conflict between the Non-Burmese Ethnic Nationals and the Military.  Mr. Gambari, in his recent UN mission must have realized that the SPDC cannot be trusted.

3.  In the coming UN Security Meeting we request that Mr Gambari, the Secretary General and Members of the UN Security Council work toward a resolution requiring an end to the attacks on the ethnic nationals and the release of all political prisoners including Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and Khun Htun Oo.

4.  For a neutral Government to mediate during a Tripartite - talk; - the problem could not be solved without the participation of Non-Burmese Ethnic Nationals.  All groups must have equal participation in the process of reconciliation.

5.  I am making a plea to all Governments to stop supplying the Burmese dictatorial regime with arms and ammunition used to murder Shans, Karens, Karenni, Mons, Rakhines, Chins and Kachins.  Man killing man is an act of barbarism, which is the immediate cause of terrorism and chaos in the world.
 

Sao Noan Oo

On behalf of peoples of the Shan State and Global Shan Community in Exile