Burma: From Dictatorship to Democracy and now is the time for Democracy to Development

22 April 2013

Burma Democratic Concern (BDC) warmly welcomes EU lifting sanction on Burma. Since the reform process taking shape in Burma, Burma Democratic Concern (BDC) has been calling for international community to remove sanction on Burma given that sanction inevitably infringe Burmese people right to development due to the spillover effect and reputation risk. Development is the Human Rights and belongs to everyone. In 1986, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Declaration on the Right to Development which defines right to development as economic, social, cultural and political development.

Burma in transition from Dictatorship to Democracy is facing challenges ahead to tackle such as poverty, diseases, hunger, deforestation, resource exploitation, militarisation of economy, market monopolisation and conflicts which all hold back development. Burma needs to provide her citizens with quality education, affordable health and accessible energy especially electricity which are the important factors working for development of a nation and the best ways to reduce poverty and boost shared prosperity. Well being of the Burmese people should be the centre of development and we must work promoting women participation in every aspect of Burma's road toward Democracy to Development.

While we enjoy celebrating EU removing sanction on Burma, we are very saddened to learn that New York based (so-called) Human Rights Watch (HRW) is promoting biased and unreliable fabricated stories on its 2013 Human Rights report regarding Arakan (Rakhine) conflict.

Human Rights Watch Report 2013 on Burma regarding recent communal violence in Arakan (Rakhine) state is not credible and biased. We totally reject the term using “Ethnic Cleansing” by Human Rights Watch. Human Rights Watch (HRW) should respect the ethics of the NGO when they are writing reports especially very sensitive issues like religion0-related matters. Reporting parallel to Arakan (Rakhine) conflict which is mainly to do with immigration issues with Meithtila communal conflict is misleading since they are different subjects with different contexts. They should have the integrity on analyzing each and every cases and not by drawing assumptions by jumping on misleading conclusions with bias reports. They should also look into details of the root causes of each and every conflicts. Our country is in transition state and we believe that the international community should help us moving forward. Therefore, we call for Human Rights Watch to stop stirring the stability of Burma, stop promoting hatred and stop spreading the wrong reports regarding Arakan (Rakhine) conflict and Meithtila conflict.

As clearly stated in State Department country report that “Rohingya do not dispute their origins from present day East Bengal”, we believed that it has been clarified that they are not indigenous people of Burma and Arakan (Rakhine) issue must be dealt in accord with Burma Immigration Law and Citizenship Law. We would like to point out here that what had happened in Arakan (Rakhine) state is communal violence and not religiously perpetrated. Inserting and labeling the religious context in the Arakan (Rakhine) conflict is inappropriate and totally wrong. We believe that Human Rights Watch (HRW) is deliberately manipulate and exploit the Arakan (Rakhine) conflict so as to get attention from religious extremists around the world to commit atrocities against Burmese people and as they had expected various religious extremist groups had been calling for genocide against Burmese. We warn Human Rights Watch that they will be held accountable for any further consequences for their irresponsible comment on this particular matter. We call for Burmese government, ethnic leaders, student leaders, religious leaders and opposition leaders as well as all the Burmese citizens to challenge the Human Rights Watch Report 2013 on Burma using the term “Ethnic Cleansing” relating to Arakan (Rakhine) conflict.

Burma Democratic Concern (BDC) calls for international community to help us marching on road toward Democracy to Development in Burma.

For more information please contact Burma Democratic Concern (BDC) at:

U Myo Thein [UK], Director, Phone: 00-44-740-28-595-28

U Khin Maung Win [USA], Director, Phone: 001-941-961-2622

Daw Khin Aye Aye Mar [USA], Patron, Phone: 001 509-783-7223

U Tint Swe Thiha [USA], Patron, Phone: 001 509- 545-3066