By Bernama,
Bangkok : The May 10 Myanmar referendum on a new constitution is a sham process aimed at entrenching the military as conditions for free and fair voting do not exist, the Human Rights Watch (HRW) said in a new report released Thursday.
Brad Adams, Asia director at HRW, said the country’s ruling generals were showing their true colours by continuing to arrest anyone opposed to the referendum and denying the population the right to a public discussion of the merits of the draft constitution.
International acceptance of this process would be a big step backward, said Adams, citing the arrest of opposition activists, media censorship, bans on political meetings and gatherings, the lack of an independent referendum commission and courts to supervise the vote, and a pervasive climate of fear created by the ruling State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) in the run-up to the referendum.
The 61-page report, “Vote to Nowhere: The May 2008 Constitutional Referendum in Burma,” shows that the referendum is being carried out in an environment of severe restrictions on access to information and highlights recent government arrests, harassment and attacks on activists opposed to the draft constitution.
HRW said that on March 30 and April 1, security forces detained seven opposition activists who had held a peaceful protest wearing T-shirts emblazoned with the word “No” in Yangon while similarly peaceful protests were immediately broken up by the authorities in other parts of the country.
It said the 194-page draft constitution emerged from the 14-year-long National Convention, a tightly controlled, repressive and undemocratic process that excluded the vast majority of the representatives elected in the annulled 1990 parliamentary elections.
Criticism against the National Convention was punishable by prison sentences of up to 20 years. Two delegates were sentenced to 15- and 20-year prison terms respectively, simply for disseminating speeches delivered at the convention, the HRW said.
As the draft is only available in the Myanmar language and English, and was released just a month before the referendum, HRW said many citizens were ethnic minorities who did not speak the Myanmar language or English, and so had no ability to read the draft.
“You can’t hold a free and fair referendum when you deny every basic right to your people. The generals expect the Myanmar people to just shut up, follow their orders, and approve the draft constitution without any discussion or debate. That’s not exactly how democracies are born,” Adams said.
The draft constitution treats political parties with open hostility and excludes many opposition politicians from running for office, including the detained National League for Democracy (NLD) opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi because she is the widow of a foreigner.
Adams said Myanmar’s friends, including China, India and Thailand, should not give any credibility to this process.