Judi Moylan (Pearce, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

May I acknowledge my colleague the member for Cook and thank him for the opportunity to speak on this motion calling for the State Peace and Development Council in Myanmar to allow its citizens to peacefully exercise their rights to freedom of association and assembly, and to immediately and unconditionally release all people who have been arrested for the peaceful exercise of their rights.

Those of us who are privileged to live in a democratic country find it difficult to conceive of circumstances where the right to freedom of political association could result in incarceration and where the results of a democratic election are overturned by a military regime, thus denying the majority the right to govern. As the member for Denison has pointed out, we have seen military coups in recent times in Thailand and in Fiji, but the events in Burma since 1988 have been particularly concerning because of the human rights that followed that military coup.

Power was seized by the military coup in Burma in 1988. The military government called national elections in May 1990. Aung San Suu Kyi, who had returned to Burma in 1988 to care for her ailing mother, led a revolt against the then dictator General Ne Win. Under Aung San Suu Kyi’s leadership, the NLD had a convincing win in the polls of that year, despite the fact that she had been placed under house arrest and disqualified from standing. Aung San Suu Kyi has spent 10 years under house arrest and the junta has since remained in control. There have been numerous complaints about human rights abuses over that time, including military attacks against civilians in ethnic minority regions and the detention of political prisoners. Indeed, I understand there are 1,100 political prisoners in Burmese jails.

There are allegations of Burmese soldiers using civilians as human minesweepers, forcing them to walk in front of the government troops. Human Rights Watch has received reports that, to demine areas to be traversed by the Burmese army, soldiers for the 66th Light Infantry Division forced civilians from 12 villages in the Toungoo district to walk or ride tractors ahead of troops on the road between Toungoo and Mawchi. Human Rights Watch reports that the use of landmines in Burma is widespread and used against civilians to terrorise them and hamper the annual harvest season. The Burmese government is the only government, I understand, in the world that has used antipersonnel mines on a regular basis throughout 2006. According to the International Campaign to Ban Landmine’s Landmine Monitor Report 2006, 231 people were killed or injured by landmines planted by government forces and non-state armed groups in 2005. Many more deaths and injuries go unreported.

A draft resolution on Burma at the UN Security Council recently failed. This is unfortunate as there is no pressure for the governing junta to bring about much needed reforms. The failure of the resolution means that thousands of innocent Burmese people will continue to suffer and that international peace and security will continue to be threatened.

Our Minister for Foreign Affairs, the Hon. Alexander Downer, has been consistent in calling for change, and late last year he again urged the Burmese regime to demonstrate genuine progress towards democratic political reform and to undertake constructive dialogue and reconciliation with all political and ethnic groups. The foreign minister has been extremely outspoken on this and other matters in the region where human rights abuses and law and order issues prevail.

In April 2005 Australia cosponsored resolutions condemning human rights abuses in Burma at the Commission on Human Rights, and again in the Third Committee in late 2006. Australia remains concerned about human rights in Burma, in particular about the welfare and human rights of Burmese displaced persons from a range of ethnic groups fleeing across the border to Thailand. As outlined in this motion, there are concerns about the estimated 500,000 displaced people in Myanmar and a further 150,000 displaced people in refugee camps on the Thai border. I support this motion and I once again acknowledge the work of the member for Cook in bringing this motion before the House.

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