Open Letter to the President of the United States of America

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.

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

Open letter from IFBNC to US President Barack Obama May 11 2013.pdf