Stop attacks on Karen civilians      Letter to Mr Rudd

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Stop attacks on Karen civilians

Statement from ten Karen (Burmese) communities worldwide

Karen communities worldwide
call for action to stop attacks on civilians

Karen communities in ten countries are joining forces for a global day of action on Tuesday, Mar 09, calling on the international community to take action to stop new attacks by the Burmese Army against Karen civilians. Since mid January more than two thousand civilians have been forced to flee new attacks.

• Villagers have been shot on sight
• A school has been mortar bombed
• One villager has been beheaded
• More than eighty homes have been destroyed
• Schools and health clinics have been burned down
• Food stocks being stolen and destroyed
• The regime is stopping aid reaching people who are hiding in the jungle

Karen communities call for immediate practical action to stop the attacks.

• The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) must demand an immediate end to the attacks, which break international law
• Governments, including the European Commission, must provide funding for cross-border aid, which is the only way to get food, medicine and shelter to those on the run from the new attacks
• The United Nations (UN) should set up a Commission of Inquiry into war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by the dictatorship.

Karen people have been under attack for more than sixty years. The new wave of attacks is linked to the Burmese dictatorship’s fake elections due later this year. The dictatorship is trying to crush all resistance forces to their rule. They are following the doctrine of the Burmese Army: ‘One Blood, One Voice, One Command’.

The new constitution drafted by the dictatorship guarantees no rights or protection to ethnic nationalities. In fact, it is a death sentence to ethnic diversity in Burma. The international community must stop ignoring what is happening to ethnic peoples in Burma.

We, the Karen Communities Worldwide, desire genuine democracy, peace and national reconciliation, but not military threats and attacks by the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) army to destroy our homeland and our dreams for a peaceful federal Burma.

Karen Communities in the United Kingdom, Norway, Sweden, Germany, Canada, the United States, Australia, Japan, Malaysia and Korea are coordinating the day of action, which is supported by people from Burma and human rights groups.

Released Mar 09, 2010

Contacts:

UK
Pa Saw Htee – Karen Community Association
+447828168180

Australia
Saw Lwin Oo, Australia Karen Organisation
+61 4123 44009

Canada
Mahn Kyaw Shwe, Karen Canadian Community
+1519-434-0139

Germany
Mahn Aung Lwin, Karen National Community Germany
+491752433418

Norway
Nan Kyi Aye, Karen community in Norway
+4741847953

USA
Stephen Dun, Karen American Communities Foundation
+12062958553

Korea
Saw Kenneth Moe, Karen Youth Organisation
+821087147019

A letter to
Mr Rudd?

Marist Provincial, Fr Paul Cooney SM, has forwarded this suggested letter from the Leaders of Religious Institutes of Australia. It is likely to be topical into 2010...

Mr Kevin Rudd
Prime Minister
House of Representatives
Parliament House
Canberra ACT 2600

Dear Mr Rudd,

The current situation regarding the boatload of Sri Lankan asylum seekers moored off the coast of Indonesia is particularly worrying.

As you are no doubt aware around 250,000 internally displaced Tamils have been, for the past 5 months, segregated into camps in Sri Lanka with extremely poor facilities and limited access to aid from NGOs. Reports indicate increasing levels of desperation when faced with water shortages, sickness and limited food supplies. The looming monsoon season is an additional source of anxiety. Such desperation is always a “push” factor when it comes to people making risky escapes from intolerable situations. In recent days we have seen just how desperate people can be.

Few would deny that the Sri Lankan Tamils are being persecuted, that their freedom is curtailed and that, in many cases, their lives are in danger. Returning the recent boatload of Sri Lankan asylum seekers to Indonesia places legitimate asylum seekers at the mercy of a poor country with few resources, already over-stretched trying to deal with hundreds of abandoned asylum seekers eking out a tenuous existence in Indonesian coastal towns. Article 33 of the Refugee Convention of 1951 says:

No Contracting State shall expel or return …a refugee in any manner whatsoever to the frontiers of territories where his life or freedom would be threatened on account of his race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion.

 Australia is a signatory to that convention, Indonesia is not. We are country richly endowed with a strong political system, many resources, a harmonious, multicultural population and considerable wealth. We can afford to be generous, welcoming and hospitable. From a global perspective we accept very few asylum seekers. This year we have received around 1500 boat arrivals, in comparison with a country such as Italy which, in 2008, took in 36,000. Taking a stand against people smugglers is a laudable pursuit but not at the expense of desperate people fleeing injustice. The crisis is not so great that we need to turn people away.

This is an opportunity for you and your government to make a stand against those who stir up xenophobia, pedal panic and oppose the rights of all people to seek asylum when faced with persecution. What is needed is for you, Senator Evans and the government to resist pressures for more draconian responses to asylum seekers and continue with humane reforms to our asylum and refugee policies so that they comply with the standards set by international human rights treaties and measure up to the Australian values of compassion, “a fair go” and hospitality.

Your government is to be congratulated on the important changes you have made to the situation of refugees and asylum seekers coming to Australia. The abolition of the temporary protection visa, the closing down of Manus Island and Nauru and the elimination of charges for stays in detention centres have transformed the lives of people seeking asylum in our country. It would be a tragedy if these positive changes were to be undermined by an over-reaction to those accusing your government of being “soft” on asylum seekers.

Yours sincerely...