3 Jul
2011
3 Jul
'11
8:40 p.m.
Diplomat Seeks Asylum in US
July 3, 2011 - The number two diplomat at the Burmese Embassy in
Washington, D.C. has defected and is now seeking political asylum in the
United States.
Deputy Chief of Mission Kyaw Win, 59, told RFA he made the decision to
leave the government because he saw little hope for Burma's future and
because he fears "my life and those of my family are in danger."
Kyaw Win said that after Burma held historic elections last November, he
expected the government to begin a transition to democracy. Instead, he
said, nothing has changed and "the military continues to hold
uncontested power."
"Senior military officials are consolidating their grip on power and
seeking to stamp out the voices of those seeking democracy," he said,
adding that war with the country's ethnic groups is imminent.
Recent fighting between government troops and the ethnic Kachin army
near the border with China has escalated, causing thousands of refugees
to flee the conflict.
He also warned of threats made by the Burmese government against Nobel
laureate and opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, which he said "must be
taken seriously."
Suu Kyi, who turned 66 in June, recently announced plans for her first
tour of Burma since 2003 when her visit to Depayin in the north was
marred by what many believed was an assassination attempt against her by
groups linked to the military junta.
Her motorcade was attacked by pro-junta thugs, resulting in the death of
at least 70 of her supporters in what is known today as the Depayin
massacre.
Burma's state media warned Suu Kyi in a commentary last week that her
tour could trigger riots.
Career diplomat
Kyaw Win is a career diplomat who has worked for the Burmese Foreign
Ministry for 31 years.
During that time he served in Madrid, Geneva, New Delhi, Brasilia, and
Washington.
But now, he says, the army of Burma's late national hero and father of
Suu Kyi, General Aung San, "has been corrupted" and has become "an
oppressor of the people, not a defender of the people."
The Burmese government has been accused of numerous human rights
violations, including murder, torture, rape, forced labor, and the use
of child soldiers.
Kyaw Win says he now supports an international inquiry into those
violations. He is also calling for "highly targeted financial sanctions
against the government and their cronies that serve to keep them in
power."
Deputy Chief of Mission is the highest posting a non-military person can
hold in Burmese embassies. Kyaw Win has held the position in Washington
since 2008.
But he said that his work reaching out to the diplomatic, governmental,
and NGO communities in the U.S. capital may have made him a target of
the regime he represents.
"My reports questioning the actions of the military and urging dialogue
and reconciliation ... resulted in my being deemed dangerous by the
government," he said, adding that he fears persecution should he return
to Burma.
His message for Burma's military is "not to fear democracy, but embrace
it as the only way forward."
Kyaw Win is not the first high-ranking Burmese diplomat to defect from
the country.
In March 2005, former Major Aung Lynn Htut resigned as deputy chief of
mission at the Burmese embassy in Washington and requested political
asylum in the U.S. for himself, his wife, a son, two daughters and a
sister.
At the time, he said that he feared for his life because of an ongoing
purge of the associates of former Prime Minister Khin Nyunt, who was
ousted in 2004 following a power struggle with more hard-line officials
in the military junta.
Several other Burmese diplomats defected from the country following a
brutal crackdown on student-led protests opposing the rule of military
dictator Ne Win in 1988.
Little progress
In November of 2010, the Burmese government held its first elections in
20 years, but blocked Suu Kyi, who had spent 15 of the last 21 years
under house arrest, from participating and disbanded her opposition
party, the National League for Democracy.
She was released by the ruling generals on Nov. 13 just after elections
which were heavily criticized as a sham by the local opposition and
Western nations.
The new quasi-civilian government, largely comprised of retired military
officers, has not introduced any real reforms since then and is still
holding some 2,200 political activists in prisons throughout the
country.
Suu Kyi addressed U.S. lawmakers for the first time in June, asking them
to help push for the release of Burma's political prisoners and for a UN
probe into human rights abuses in her country.
The United States and other Western governments have made freedom for
Burmese political prisoners a key prerequisite for any easing of tough
sanctions against Burma.
U.S. President Barack Obama's administration abandoned a previous policy
of diplomatically isolating Burma and has attempted to engage the
government over the past 18 months, but has achieved little progress.
Reported and translated by Khin Maung Soe for RFA's Burmese service.
Written in English by Joshua Lipes.
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