{"id":13400,"date":"2010-11-23T21:58:40","date_gmt":"2010-11-24T02:58:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/refugeeresearch.net\/rrndev\/its-2010-and-aung-san-suu-kyi-is-free\/"},"modified":"2010-11-23T21:58:40","modified_gmt":"2010-11-24T02:58:40","slug":"its-2010-and-aung-san-suu-kyi-is-free","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/refugeeresearch.net\/sw\/its-2010-and-aung-san-suu-kyi-is-free\/","title":{"rendered":"It’s 2010, and Aung San Suu Kyi is Free"},"content":{"rendered":"

Copyright 2010, Jessica Keralis<\/em><\/p>\n

I did competitive acting when I was in high school. One of my performances was a duet acting piece based on the poem \u00e2\u20ac\u01531990<\/a>\u00e2\u20ac\u009d by Bob Holman. The refrain of the poem \u00e2\u20ac\u201c the line it keeps coming back to \u00e2\u20ac\u201c is<\/p>\n

It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s 1990
& Nelson Mandela is free!<\/p>\n

The poem is an interesting political and cultural \u00e2\u20ac\u0153snapshot\u00e2\u20ac\u009d of that year \u00e2\u20ac\u201c it talks about everything from gay rights to tearing down the Berlin Wall to Tiananmen Square and the AIDS epidemic. Mr. Holman framed that pivotal year with Nelson Mandela\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s release in his poem. It would seem that we are in a similar period of change as the world globalizes, and Aung San Suu Kyi\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s release is a similarly appropriate event with which to frame it.<\/p>\n

The question remains, however \u00e2\u20ac\u201c will her release bring any relief to the Burmese refugees and IDPs?<\/p>\n

Burma\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s military junta is notorious for one of the worst human rights records<\/a> in the world. Aside from the standard battery of no freedom of speech or press or assembly, no independent judiciary, forced labor, sexual violence, human trafficking, and official corruption, the government targets ethnic minority groups for \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Burmisation\u00e2\u20ac\u009d \u00e2\u20ac\u201c a polite euphemism for a slow genocide<\/a>. The military kills, rapes, and pillages: they burn down entire villages, destroy farming tools and livestock, force villagers into labor, and force the women to marry them. These minorities, which make up more than one third of Burma\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s population, are constantly fleeing this military-perpetrated violence, which has created one of the worst refugee crises in the world. There are nine permanent refugee camps along the Thai-Burma border alone, with more on the borders with India and Bangladesh and in Malaysia. It is estimated that there are nearly 300,000 refugees from Burma, the majority of which are the Royingya<\/a> and the Karen<\/a>, and hundreds of thousands of more IDPs throughout the country.<\/p>\n

Optimists hoped that the election<\/a> on November 7, which was meant to mark the transition to civilian rule, would lay a new foundation for an improvement in the country\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s situation. Unfortunately \u00e2\u20ac\u201c surprise! \u00e2\u20ac\u201c the election was declared a sham<\/a> by pretty much everyone except for Burma\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s autocratic neighbors<\/a>. The elections were \u00e2\u20ac\u0153cancelled<\/a>\u00e2\u20ac\u009d in nearly 24,000 villages along the eastern border (where the ethnic groups are focused, naturally). The UN and foreign journalists were not allowed to observe. Allegations of fraud and vote-rigging are all over the place. Dr. Suu Kyi was barred from participating, so her party, the National League for Democracy, boycotted the whole thing. The junta\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s de facto party was the only one who could field candidates for all of the positions, so it naturally took 80% of the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153vote,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d which basically means that the junta is now wearing a civilian mask.<\/p>\n

Despite international disappointment, however, governments and democracy advocates around the world welcomed Suu Kyi\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s release as a positive step and expressed the hope that it marked the start of a change in direction for the country. Other commentators are not so cheerful<\/a>, though. Some see her release as a show of confidence by the regime, or a tactic to distract the world from the country\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s sad excuse for an election. Since winning her freedom, she has been walking on eggshells: she has withheld comment on most major issues, including whether or not she supports continued sanctions against the country, and her words have been \u00e2\u20ac\u0153measured and careful.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Also, she has apparently not decided<\/a> whether she wants to join Twitter or Facebook. The junta does not seem particularly worried.<\/p>\n

From this point, things will undoubtedly be slow-going. After all, an election does not magically make things better<\/a> (even though Thailand seems to think so<\/a>). Leaders of armed ethnic groups fighting for the autonomy promised by her father before he was murdered support<\/a> Suu Kyi and have welcomed her call for a multi-ethnic conference<\/a>. But most Burmese refugees do not believe that anything will change<\/a>. Saw Tun Wai, a Kareni who works as a teacher in the Mae La refugee camp in Thailand, firmly believes that the elections offer no hope for positive change, “neither for the Karen, nor for any of the people in Burma.”<\/p>\n

Jessica Keralis<\/a> is a public health specialist with an active interest in international health and refugee issues. She is the Communications Committee chair for the International Health section of the American Public Health Association. She blogs<\/a> for the IH section and can be followed on Twitter here<\/a>.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Copyright 2010, Jessica Keralis I did competitive acting when I was in high school. One of my performances was a duet acting piece based on the poem \u00e2\u20ac\u01531990\u00e2\u20ac\u009d by Bob Holman. The refrain of the poem \u00e2\u20ac\u201c the line it keeps coming back to \u00e2\u20ac\u201c is It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s 1990& Nelson Mandela is free! The poem is an … Continue reading It’s 2010, and Aung San Suu Kyi is Free<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13400","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blogs"],"yoast_head":"\nIt's 2010, and Aung San Suu Kyi is Free - (English) Refugee Research Network<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/refugeeresearch.net\/ar\/its-2010-and-aung-san-suu-kyi-is-free\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"It's 2010, and Aung San Suu Kyi is Free - (English) Refugee Research Network\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Copyright 2010, Jessica Keralis I did competitive acting when I was in high school. One of my performances was a duet acting piece based on the poem \u00e2\u20ac\u01531990\u00e2\u20ac\u009d by Bob Holman. 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