Hong Kong Coalition for a Free Burma

Embargoed until 4:30 p.m. on Friday Feb. 5

Burma Activist Questions Credibility of 2010 Elections

(Hong Kong, February 5, 2010) Khin Ohmar, coordinator of Burma Partnership (BP)
in Mae Sot, Thailand, said today that the international community must not recognize
the results of the upcoming national election scheduled for later this year unless the
Burmese military government takes a number of steps that will make the electoral
exercise credible.

Speaking at a press conference at the Foreign Correspondents Club in Hong Kong,

she said, “At a minimum, the military government must, first of all, release all
political prisoners in the country, including Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, before the
election and allow them to freely participate in the election if they so choose.”

“Secondly,” she added, “military operations and other hostile actions against the
country’s ethnic and pro-democracy groups must stop.”

“Lastly, there must be an inclusive dialogue among the key stakeholders in the
country, including representatives of the pro-democracy movement and ethnic
nationalities,” she said. “This dialogue must include a review of the 2008
Constitution, which will come into force after the 2010 elections.”

“If these steps are not taken,” Ohmar concluded, “voting will merely create an
electoral façade in which military rule continues behind the mask of a so-called
civilian government.”

“Moreover,” she asked, “can an election be credible when leaders of the country’s
major opposition political parties and ethnic groups are in prison or under house arrest
or under military attack?”

Ohmar explained that the root of the problem of the 2010 elections is the 2008
Constitution, a Constitution, she maintained, that had been drafted in secrecy and
adopted through a coerced referendum with 92.48 percent of the vote under the total
control of the regime.

“The new Constitution places the military above the law and provides blanket
immunity to the regime for past human rights violations as well as for future
violations,” she said. “With this upcoming election, Burma will thus not become a
democracy but rather a mafia state. The same problems in the country will continue—
poverty, tensions and discrimination between different ethnic groups, forced labor
and, of course, more human rights abuses—but they will now be hidden behind a
puppet government.”

Milabel Cristobal, the director of Amnesty International Hong Kong (AIHK) who
introduced Ohmar at the press conference, concurred with Ohmar’s concerns about
the elections set to be held later this year.

“Amnesty International Hong Kong receives with caution the announcement that the
military government will hold elections later this year,” Cristobal said. “This can be
another example of the military government engaging in international legal and
political theater, yet AI’s principal concerns remain—that the State Peace and
Development Council has not met its obligations under international law to protect its
people from widespread human rights abuses which we believe will be heightened
due to the upcoming ‘political exercise.’”

Cristobal noted that “there are still more than 2,100 political prisoners, including
Aung San Suu Kyi, who have lost their freedom for merely demonstrating peacefully,
exercising their freedom of speech and offering help to victims of Cyclone Nargis. It
is not a good human rights record that offers any confidence that the elections will be
free, fair and democratic. In short, the election’s credibility is highly suspect.”

Prior to the press conference, Ohmar and members of the Hong Kong Coalition for a
Free Burma (HKCFB) staged a demonstration at the Burmese consulate in Hong
Kong against the upcoming elections without the release of Aung San Suu Kyi and the
rest of the country’s political prisoners.

The group then marched to the Cheung Kong Center in Central. Ohmar and HKCFB
questioned the investment in Burma of Cheung Kong through its subsidiary
Hutchison Port Holdings in the Myanmar International Terminals Thilawa (MITT), a
major terminal operated by Hutchison Port Holdings in Rangoon. Ohmar and the
coalition asked Cheung Kong to use its influence in Burma to urge the military
government to improve human rights in the country and release all political prisoners
and end crimes against humanity and war crimes or to withdraw its business
operations and investment from Burma.

In addition to the press conference and demonstration, Ohmar and the coalition will
hold a street forum at Sai Yeung Choi Street South in Mongkok at 7:00 p.m. to
educate the public about Burma’s human rights problems and lack of democracy.

With both Hong Kong and Burma sharing a current debate about their democratic
development, a seminar will be held at 10:00 a.m. on Saturday Feb. 6 at City
University to discuss these topics. Speakers will include Legislative Councilor Emily
Lau Wai-hing and Serenade Woo, project coordinator of the International Federation
of Journalists (IFJ) for China and Hong Kong, as well as Ohmar.