Open Letter to the President of the United States of America

[Zomi for Federalization and Democratization of Bur]

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Protest against the inhuman actions of the Brutal Bamar Buddhist
Fascist Mercenary Terrorist Rapist (BBBFMTR) USDP Government was
staged at three places in Washington, D.C. on Saturday May 11, 2013:
(1) the Embassy of the BBBFMTR USDP Goverment; (2) the Embassy of the
Communist Dictatorial Government of China; and (3) the White House.
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Sun, May 12, 2013 at 12:15 AM
12:15 AM
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FROM Ye Htut TO 44 recipients
{CYC-CND } Open Letter from IFBNC to U.S.President Obama
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Ye Htut

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INTERNATIONAL FOUNDATION FOR BURMA NATIONAL CONGRESS
ႏုိင္ငံတကာျမန္မာအမ်ဳိးသားကြန္ကရက္ေဖာင္ေဒးရွင္း

Open Letter to the President of the United States of America

May 11,2013

President Barack Obama
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, D.C. 20500

Re: Stop brutal suppressing in Latpadaung Taung area and against
military incumbent Thein Sein regime in Burma.

Dear Mr. President:
On behalf of the International Foundation for Burma National Congress
(IFBNC), I am pleased and honored to present you with this letter.
IFBNC members are comprised of Burmese democracy activists from New
York City, Buffalo, Utica, Albany, North Carolina, Fort Wayne, Albany,
Oregon, Washington D.C and around the world such as Canada, Japan,
Netherland, India, Australia, London including Naturalize US citizens.
We are very encouraged by your strong support for democratization,
promotion of human rights and rule of law in Burma. Today, we
peacefully demonstrate three places of Washington D.C. for genuine
democracy on Burma. Three places are in front of Burma Embassy, in
front of China Embassy, and in front of The White House. In Burma
today, Thein Sein regime is trying to gain legitimacy and get away
with impunity for the crimes against humanity committed by the
successive military regimes, BSPP, SLORC, SPDC, and USDA. As a
President who has expressed his strong determination to restore honor
to Burma democracy, we would like to call your attention to the cases
of land grab, child soldiers, civil war, human trafficking, drug
production, and genuine democratic change, which are still happening
hugely in Burma.


Land grab

Inadequate land laws have opened rural Burma to rampant land grabbing
by unscrupulous, well-connected businessmen who anticipate a boom in
agricultural and property investment. If unchecked, the gathering
trend has the potential to undermine the country's broad reform
process and impede long-term economic progress. Under the former
military regime, land grabbing became a common and largely uncontested
practice. Government bodies, particularly military units, were able to
seize large tracts of farmland, usually without compensation. While
some of the land was used for the expansion of military bases, new
government offices or infrastructure projects, much of it was used
either by military units for their own commercial purposes or sold to
private companies. Many of the disputes now being contested are
related to land taken in the mid- to late-1990s. A significant
proportion of the land grabbing during this period took place in
ethnic-majority states in the country’s peripheral regions.This was
especially the case in areas along the border with China in Kachin and
Shan States and along the border with Thailand in the Karen and Mon
States. The army has maintained a strong presence in these areas to
battle ethnic insurgencies and uphold tenuous ceasefires with other
insurgent organizations. Much of the land was taken for military camps
and military access roads, but also for commercial projects either run
by the military or companies with ties to the military. Significant
land grabbing also took place in the Sagaing and Irrawaddy Divisions.
In the Sagaing region, the most obvious evidence land grab dispute
with local residents is Lattpadaung Chinese copper mine of Wan Bao,
which is a unit of China North Industries Corp, a Chinese weapons
manufacturer. It operates the mine the country’s largest with the
Union of Burma Economic Holdings Ltd (UBEHL), a ast holding company
belonging to the powerful Burma military. Issues such as relocation,
does not meet compensation, environmental protection and profit
sharing... were not jointly settled through negotiations by the two
sides. Currently, the farmers and land owners took protest to stop
unlawful mine and totally unacceptable the crackdown as “State of
Terrorism” by riot police and local authorities on protest camps using
tear bombs and water cannons before dawn on November 29. Witnesses
said the police used chemical weapons in the incident, which saw many
Buddhist monks and residents were injured.


Child soldiers

Burma is one of about two dozen countries worldwide found by the U.N.
to violate international law on the rights of children in armed
conflicts. Ending the use of child soldiers has been among the litany
of reforms sought by the U.S. and other Western nations that have
restored diplomatic ties with the Southeast Asian nation as it has
begun to shift from five decades of oppressive military rule. Children
are targeted as they are easier to trick and more susceptible to
pressure to enlist. They are being recruited on their way into
schools and when they leave home in search of work, or in railway
stations, bus terminals and markets. A common tactic is to threaten
children with prison for failing to produce a national identity card
unless they sign up for the army. Burma's army has doubled in size
since 1988, and with an estimated 350,000 soldiers is now one of the
largest armies in Southeast Asia. According to the accounts of former
soldiers interviewed by Human Rights Watch, 20 percent or more of its
active duty soldiers may be children under the age of 18. Once
deployed, boys as young as 12 engage in combat against opposition
groups, and are forced to commit human rights abuses against
civilians, including rounding up villagers for forced labor, burning
villages, and carrying out executions.


Civil war

Fighting between government forces and ethnic armed groups spread in
Burma during 2011, as many longstanding ceasefire agreements
unraveled. In Karen State, eastern Burma, a breakaway faction of the
Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA) took up arms following the
November 2010 elections. Intensified fighting along the border forced
an estimated 20,000 refugees into Thailand. Most DKBA soldiers refused
to complete their transformation into Burmese-army-controlled Border
Guard Force units and ended their 16-year ceasefire. In March the
Burmese army attacked the Shan State Army-North, breaking a ceasefire
reached in 1989, as the Shan army resisted pressure to demobilize and
form a government-controlled people’s militia. Fighting in northern
Shan State displaced an estimated 30,000 civilians. In June fighting
broke out between Burma’s second largest opposition armed group, the
Kachin Independence Army (KIA), and the Burmese army in northern Burma
near the Chinese border, ending a ceasefire signed in 1994. Local
women’s rights groups reported high levels of sexual violence with
more than 35 women and girls raped in the first two months of the
fighting alone. Over 30,000 civilians were internally displaced,
fleeing Burmese army abuses such as forced labor, extrajudicial
killings, and indiscriminate fire, with several thousand seeking
refuge in China. The Burmese military continues to violate
international humanitarian law through the use of anti-personnel
landmines, forced labor, torture, beatings, and pillaging of property.
Sexual violence against women and girls remains a serious problem and
perpetrators are rarely brought to justice. The army continues to
actively recruit and use child soldiers, even as the government
cooperates with the International Labor Organization on demobilizing
child soldiers. In January Burmese army units in Karen State forced
convicts to work as porters in ongoing operations in combat zones.
This longstanding practice saw hundreds of prisoners drawn from
prisons and labor camps transported to frontline units, and forced to
carry military supplies and material to the frontline, often being
used as “human shields” to deter attacks or clear anti-personnel
landmines. Porters are often tortured, beaten, and subjected to ill-
treatment during their forced service. Ethnic armed groups have also
been implicated in serious abuses, such as recruiting child soldiers,
extrajudicial executions, and using antipersonnel landmines around
civilian areas. Approximately 500,000 people are internally displaced
due to conflict in eastern Burma, with an additional 140,000 refugees
in camps in Thailand.


Human trafficking

Burmese men, women, and children are trafficked for sexual and labor
exploitation in Thailand, the People’s Republic of China, Malaysia,
Bangladesh, South Korea, Macau, and Pakistan. Children are trafficked
to Thailand for forced labor as beggars. Reports have indicated a
trend in trafficking women and girls as young as fourteen to China to
work in the sex industry or to become brides to Chinese men. While
there are no reliable estimates on the number of Burmese who are
trafficked, most observers believe that the number of victims is at
least several thousand per year. Burma has internal trafficking from
rural areas to border areas with China and Thailand, particularly
areas with trucking routes, mining areas, military bases, fishing
villages, and military camps. Children are trafficked internally for
forced labor in agriculture and small-scale industries or as child
soldiers. Trafficking within Burma continues to be a significant
problem primarily due to the military’s unlawful conscription of child
soldiers and the fact that it is the main perpetrator of forced labor
inside the country.Those living in areas with the highest military
presence, including remote border areas populated by ethnic groups,
are most at risk for forced labor. The regime’s treatment of ethnic
minorities makes them particularly vulnerable to trafficking. The lack
of job opportunities and the presence of higher incomes in neighboring
countries have significantly contributed to the out-migration of
hundreds of thousands of people.


Drug Production

Burma's drug enforcement authorities have not suppressed drug
production and trafficking from the ceasefire enclaves of certain
ethnic minorities, primarily the region controlled by the United Wa
State Army (UWSA). Despite promises by the UWSA to eradicate poppy
fields in its Northern Burma region, the policy has led to a rise in
opium production in other areas of the country. Much of northern Burma
is mountainous and ill served by roads, making it relatively easy to
conceal illicit activity. But the large area dedicated to growing
opium poppies 43,600 hectares, or about 100,000 acres, according to
the United Nations suggests that the local authorities are at best
turning a blind eye to drug production.

Government-allied militias in the north, officially called People’s
Militia Forces, are big players in the drug business. The government
has supported these groups for years as a way to counterbalance the
power of the largest ethnic minority groups. In the global drugs
production league, Burma has long been one of the world's top
producers of opium, the base ingredient for heroin. It’s estimated
that less than 1% of Burma’s annual opium production is intercepted by
the authorities the rest is smuggled out through China or Thailand
onto the world market. Burma government and local chiefs had a clear
message for the outside world in 2010: Burma was determined to
eradicate opium production. But, deputy police chief Zaw Min says a
growth in poppy cultivation, and the manufacture of amphetamine-type
stimulants in the country, prompted the deadline extension in May
7,2013.

We write to you in the spirit of true respect, and the democratic
change in Burma needs to be truly restored. We absolutely believe that
you will take consideration on the facts which are shown above
mention. In addition, we, the demonstration, request you to make a
pressure as follow:

-To stop unlawful mine and totally unacceptable the crackdown in the
Latpadaung Taung area as “State of Terrorism.”
-To continue to use smart sanctions (Burmese Freedom and Democracy
Act) and pressure mechanism to Thein Sein regime and Union Solidarity
and Development Association.


Thank you for your pay attention to this letter.

Sincerely,


Signed

Ye Htut
President of Executive Directors
International Foundation for Burma National Congress

Cc:
- Vice-President Joe Biden, the United States of America
- The Chairman, Robert Menendez, the Committee on Foreign Relations
of the Senate
- The Chairman, Ed Royce, the Committee on International Relations of
the House of Representatives
- The Honorable John Kerry, Secretary of State, U.S. Department of
State
- The Honorable Derek J. Mitchell, Ambassador for Burma, U.S.
Department of State, Washington, D.C.

ifbncex...@gmail.com / http://www.ifbnc.org , http://www.ifbnc.org/bur



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