Still more tests for Burma to pass

Australian Foreign Minister Bob Carr says that Burma has passed “a crucial test” that will enable his country to lift sanctions.

Presumably the test is that National League for Democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi is no longer under house arrest coupled with some movement towards a freer, more democratic society.

Burmese president Thein Sein is currently visiting Australia so it is to be expected that the best possible face will be put on the current situation in his country. However, nice words cannot disguise that while Burma may be passing Senator Carr’s test for legitimacy, there are a number of other tests in which it is quite obviously still failing.

The Tatmadaw (Burmese Army) remains at war with the Kachin independence forces in the north of the country; there is still no resolution to the plight of minority Rohingya Muslims in Rakhine Province who the United Nations says continue to face torture, neglect and repression, and while some political prisoners have been released others continue to languish in jail.

While most commentators believe Thein Sein is sincere in seeking to move Burma out of its previous isolation, there are doubts that he is completely in charge, especially when it comes to control over senior generals of the Tatmadaw some of whom believe they should still be running the country.

One other major cause for concern which seems to have been papered over for the visit is Burma’s continued friendly relations with North Korea.

The regime in Pyongyang has been supplying the Tatmadaw with weapons for decades and there are no signs that the supply route has been stopped or even reduced. As recently as last August Japanese officials seized a weapons cache on a ship in the Port of Tokyo bound for Burma that was believed to have originated in North Korea.

The fact that this is going on and that both countries are apparently trying to conceal it should be of concern to the Australian Government.

Senator Carr believes a proposed doubling of Australia’s aid budget to Burma over the next three years will give his country an “authentic voice of influence” over the current and future governments there.

It can only be hoped it can use this influence effectively