By Amy Kazmin in Bangkok
Financial TImes-Published:
March 10 2008 16:14 |
Ibrahim Gambari, the UN’s special envoy to Burma, left the military-ruled country empty-handed on Monday after the generals rebuffed his proposals for political reform and offers of help for a forthcoming constitutional referendum.
The evident failure of Mr Gambari’s mission – the envoy was not even granted a meeting with the junta’s top leader – leaves the international effort to engage Burma’s generals, and nudge them towards dialogue with opposition forces, in disarray.
“It’s almost a dead end now,” Win Min, a lecturer on Burmese politics at Thailand’s Payap University, said of a UN process that gained urgency after the junta’s bloody crackdown on mass anti-government protests in September.
“The generals were not serious about this UN process from the very beginning,” he said. “They just accepted it because of the pressure from China. It’s becoming more and more clear it was just for public relations.”
During Mr Gambari’s visit – his third since September – Brig-Gen Kyaw Hsan, the information minister, publicly accused the envoy of “bias” and of exceeding his mandate by conspiring with Aung San Suu Kyi, the detained democracy advocate.
Mr Gambari was dispatched to Burma after the crackdown to foster dialogue among the generals, Ms Suu Kyi and ethnic minorities. But the few subsequent meetings between Ms Suu Kyi and a junta “liaison officer” never touched on substantive matters, prompting the Nobel laureate to express her “dissatisfaction” to party colleagues permitted a rare visit in January.
Then last month the regime announced plans for a national referendum in May on a controversial new constitution – which critics say would in effect legalise military rule – followed by general elections in 2010. The generals have made it a crime, punishable by up to three years in prison, to criticise the referendum publicly.
Mr Gambari proposed that the regime consider amending the draft charter to ensure the interests of the opposition were protected, but Brig-Gen Kyaw Hsan ruled out any changes. He also rejected a UN offer of technical advice for the referendum, and the idea of international election observers to monitor the process.
“It appears that the military is not inclined to listen to any of the suggestions from the good offices of the UN to make its process more credible and gain more international legitimacy,” said Shari Villarosa, the US charge d’affairs in Rangoon. “They seem to be rebuffing the good offices of the UN.”
Mark Farmaner, an activist with the Burma Campaign UK, said the failure of Mr Gambari’s mission, the 35th visit to Burma by a UN envoy in years, should persuade the international community to get tougher with the generals. “It’s about time that the UN worked out that this softly-softly approach isn’t working,” he said.
The Financial Times Limited 2008
http://www.ft.com
