Peter Garrett (Kingsford Smith, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Climate Change, Environment and Heritage) Share this | Hansard source

I too rise to support the motion moved by the member for Cook on human rights in Burma and also to support the remarks by my colleague the member for Denison and most recently those by the member for Pearce. This motion comes at a critical time. It remains a matter of the greatest concern that Aung San Suu Kyi, the General Secretary of the National League for Democracy in Burma, is still under house arrest after all these years. She is a figure of worldwide renown. It is a matter of the gravest concern, which I know is shared by parliamentarians in this House and in other places, that she remains under house arrest.

Regrettably, her imprisonment by the regime in Burma is shared by at least another thousand or more of her fellow citizens, because in Burma at this time, at the beginning of 2007, there is still suppression of democracy and the consistent violation of the human rights of the Burmese people. In particular we see the continuing refugee crisis and the use of non-paid child labour by the regime. We see the prospect of greater instability in the region, something which I know has been a matter of concern to the United States and others, but above all we see the serious and continuing erosion of human rights for the people in Burma.

This is a time when the world needs to focus its attention on this country. This is a time when we need to recognise that, in a period of difficult struggle for a people and when the international environment does not necessarily lend itself to issues being easily resolved, it is important that we have motions such as this in the House and it is all the more important that we speak and act for the people in Burma.

Some 28 resolutions on this matter have gone to the UN General Assembly and to the Commission on Human Rights. This is a matter which parliamentarians and nations worldwide have spoken and acted on. The draft resolution on 12 January this year, which had support for a non-punitive resolution on Burma, regrettably suffered a veto because of actions by both China and Russia. Also regrettably, I note that Indonesia abstained from the vote.

We have had representations from the Burmese community to this parliament. They have spoken to us eloquently of the situation faced by their fellow countrypeople who are still living with the regime. They report with great poignancy on the sorts of burdens that the Burmese people face. There are half a million people displaced within the country and hundreds of thousands in refugee camps on the Thai border, and last year’s reports of attacks on the ethnic minorities in Eastern Burma were particularly worrying.

If we add to this situation in Burma the response of the junta itself, with the suspension of International Red Cross visits and the refusal of the regime to accommodate the UN special envoys and the Special Rapporteur on Human Rights, and all the while reports of torture, of forced relocation and of the recruitment of children to the military adding to the scope and seriousness of what is facing the people in Burma at this time, international concern is understandable and international outrage, dare I say, is necessary.

I think that Australia can continue to play an important role in this issue, and I certainly urge the Australian government to make representations as necessary both to the Chinese government and to the Indonesian government, and to some of ASEAN nations who have shown some reluctance to pick up and concentrate on the issue of Burma. Regrettably, it has tended to be handballed around the ASEAN nations. I think the ASEAN nations have a responsibility to tend to the flowering of democracy in this region. When the impositions by the junta and when the cruelty and the restrictions of human rights are so evident in a place like Burma, clearly there is an imperative for ASEAN nations to pay some attention to this issue and for Australia, in particular, to make those representations.

Thet Win Aung, who was a student leader and had been a prisoner of conscience since 1998, passed away recently at 34 years of age. He was imprisoned because of his conscience and because of his love for his country and the hope he had that his country could be a place where democratic freedoms were maintained. I support the motion. (Time expired)

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