This so-called election is not an election. The three basic freedoms - freedom of expression and association and freedom of assembly are not being given to the people. Also the right to stand in the election is also not being given freely to the people. Yes, political parties are allowed to be formed but there are such unreasonable restrictions being placed on them that the intention of the military is that there will be no real opposition that emerges from these elections.
Khin Ohmar2 October 2010
FREE BURMA!
8.8.88 sowed the seeds of change in the hearts of millions of people in Burma, and this seed will only continue to grow with each coming generation. But my greatest wish is for us to retain that same spirit of unity that captured the country’s imagination more than 22 years ago, as that cohesiveness is our only chance for genuine national reconciliation and democracy in Burma.
Khin Ohmar, Irrawaddy, 15 Aug 2010, http://www.irrawaddy.org/opinion_story.php?art_id=19184
"It's very firm and clear to us that their prime goal is that Aung San Suu Kyi continues to be under detention"
Ma Khin Omar, vice chairwoman, Burmese Women’s Union (BWU)
In 2009, Khin Ohmar was featured as
one of the world's "Vital Voices," (
http://vitalvoices.org/gln-profiles/khin-ohmar) She smiles widely, speaks softly, and responsibly addresses world concerning injustice that darkens land of her birth.
Sometimes the darkest moments come just before you see light at the end of the tunnel, and maybe that’s where we are now. Better days will come. I don’t know when, but we have to keep moving so that future generations won’t live in the same darkness.
Khin Ohmar, http://www.fdburma.org/eng/?p=1152#more-1152
Ma Khin Ohmar is effective spokesperson. She is chaiperson for Network for Democracy and Development
(Burma). Tireless lobbyist, she is very present to international community. As 10 ASEAN ministers, meeting in Singapore, unveiled 2007 charter aimed at enshrining human rights and democracy, she recognized historical moment and then spoke in alarm concerning charter, which is supposed to be charter for protection and promotion of human rights, because they let (Myanmar) regime take over their agenda.
Raise your voice internationally to end this regime. Target the UN, target your governments, and do everything you can to push this regime towards political change for the people of Burma.
Ma Khin Ohmar, World Of Good.com, 2008
In 2007, on 18 June, Ma Khin Omar was recognized with
Swedish foreign minister Anna Lindh prize. For Stockholm, she commented, “The basic reasons for the suffering of the Burmese people is political and the solutions have to include means for political change.” That change has to be real. Neither sham seen in referendum nor so called international ecomomic status-quo, offer effective cure for peoples's nightmarish ills.
Ma Khin Omar insists that constitution "forces military rule on Burma forever". It is imposture within which, "the regime has granted itself impunity for sexual violence, forced labor and the recruitment of child soldiers."
AICHR has to protect us, the peoples in ASEAN. For instance, crimes against humanity and war crimes such as extra-judicial killing and military rape against ethnic minorities in Burma occur on daily basis with impunity.
Ma Khin Ohmar
before ASEAN Inter-Governmental Commission on Human Rights
Jakarta, 24 March 2010
In September 2009, Ma Khin Omar represented
Women's League For Burma in Seol Korean. In December, she was ejected from the ASEAN summit meeting. Due to objections raised by Myanmar (An-Burma) and Cambodia, 5 out of 10 civil society representatives were rejected from interface meeting with ASEAN heads of government. Singapore and Myanmar had pre-selected substitutes from government-sponsored agencies.) Ma Khin Omar voice is among many mentioned in this video,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H6CI03SWgZw#normalWe take these undemocratic election laws as a clear signal that the regime is refusing to meet our minimum benchmarks. It is clear that these elections are the junta’s attempt to legitimize their power, and will not lead to genuine democratic progress in Burma. At this critical time, we ask the international community to stand with us by denouncing the junta’s elections and refusing to recognize the results.
Ma Khin Ohmar, Foreign Affairs Secretary,
Forum for Democracy in Burma,
member, Foreign Affairs Coordinating Team
Ma Khin Ohmar is powerful witness who speaks a strong and genuine testimony outside of country for world to hear. However, inside of country silence imposed on voices - Myo Han, Aung Naing Oo, Dr. Wint Thu, Kyi Soe, Soe Phyo Yarzar Soe, Hla Myo Kyaw, Ko Ko Naing, Than Htike Aung, Wei Phyo, Myo Min Thant, Zaw Zaw five years, Kyaw Tun Linn, Ye Goung, Cho Cho Than, and U Zaw Tika - for "inciting crime against state security" by helping Nargis victims is much louder and says much more. In Yangon, recent arrests - of Bo Bo Thein, Thaung Htike Oo, Tin Tun, Soe Moe Kyaw, Saw Yin Shin, Thaw Zin, and Aung Aung - punctuate reality of iron grip of "disciplined democracy" propagated by military's police state.
To be able to create a true and lasting peace, there needs to be trust and cooperation between people and leaders in a country. Daw Suu and those serving as political prisoners are firm examples of the leaders needed to create a new Burma. We want our country to be built on hope and understanding, and not continue the cycle of violence and Daw Suu is the one who can lead us to build this new country.
Ma Khin Ohmar, Forum for Democracy in Burma.
November 2010 elections are markedly illegitimate if SPDC, (itself illegitimate government), does not implement national reconciliation beforehand. Military-orchestrated elections can not possibly be "free and fair" when socially-engineered, unilaterally-written 2008 constitution guarantees that same military's gloved strangle hold on national power. What does military fear? Freedom for Prime Minister elect Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and her call for continued work toward national reconciliation, human rights and democracy - which generals patently do not desire.
If this situation inside Burma continues, if there are more protest in the country because of the another complication of May 30th, if the NLD member are crashed more and more, there is no doubt that more people will flee into Thailand, there is no doubt that the number of 'refugees' will increase in Thailand.
Khin Ohmar, Chian Mai Univ., 11 June 2010
Political Parties Registration Law robs nation of valuable contributions of 6000 political minds. Provision in law that allows "government" to confiscate a disbanded party's property is one more way in which military will remove its opposition. Law gaurantees subservience to military mentality for decades to come. In March 2010 interview, "Khin Ohmar said that Burma is different now, with many of opposition leaders in jail or in exile and ethnic groups are under greater pressure from junta, which has a vastly stronger military backed by increased oil and gas revenues", (
http://irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=18082). Election commission seems to be approving parties with close ties to SPDC and USDA to contest November election, while barring any that are overtly opposed to SPDC.
Raise your voice internationally to end this regime. Target the UN, target your governments, and do everything you can to push this regime towards political change for the people of Burma.
~ Khin Ohmar
KNU/KNLA Peace Council's Brig. Gen. Htay Maung, in a recent letter, told Ye Myint that country today does not need any more military programs and that it is in critical need of genuine peace and development, urging junta to make upcoming
NeWinian 7 November election inclusive, “If by our refusal to bow to your military programs you then call us ‘illegal’, and by doing so declare war, you are no longer just faced with a one-party issue but with all the ethnic groups from every corner of Burma,” cautioned Htay Aung. “Mark my words. The whole world will know who has destroyed the peace and stability of the nation,” he emphasized. “It is your call.” (
http://www.scribd.com/doc/30405414/Letter-to-Lt-Gen-Ye-Myit-2-3-Fin#key1gezrerwuz5yho6d1eus)
What do we want? Suu Kyi’s freedom! When do we want it? Now!
One thing very noticeable about new political parties is familiar military faces, many generals among them, that stand out above Singaore styled civilian clothes, and which are engraved with a continued will to disregard both 1947 Pangalong Accord and 1990 election results. Given what we know about SPDC (SLORC), I find American official P J Crowley remarks concerning these developments to be extremely unrealistic and incredibly naive, (
http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=18386). Change of clothes accomplishes nothing. Twelve generals who head Na Ah Hpa remain firmly in charge, and continue to fail in their final opportunity to accomplish much by opening to peoples. SPDC and USDA names stand out. Generals won’t and can’t share power with parliamentarians outside of their supported party. Nay Py Taw meeting finalized who will remain in Tat Ma Daw, and who will "retire" and be assigned to paliament seats. Sub commanders are informed that they must support junta's proxy party, coercive UWSP, and its imposed candidate Thein Sein. Yes, what you hear is haunting echo of past events coming from Da Pa Yin.
Work to abolish the 2008 Constitution.
Speaking in Hong Kong in Feb 2010, Ma Khin Ohmar was very strong in her recommendations for elections,
http://d1.scribdassets.com/ScribdViewer.swf?document_id=26416541&access_key=key-295tgg185pkdyeazjei6&version=1&viewMode=fullscreen"/.
SUPPORT UNIVERSAL RIGHT TO CLEAN DRINKING WATER!
Ma Khin Ohmar, Foreign Affairs Secretary with
Forum for Democracy in Burma, coordinates Burma Partnership (formerly known as Asia-Pacific Peoples’ Partnership on Burma - APPPB), Chiang Mai, Thailand: +66 0818840772. Burma Partnership new website is at
http://www.burmapartnership.org/.
Thursday, 10 December 2009 Calling for Genuine Political Reconciliation
Before Elections in Burma
We, the united voice of people, communities, and organizations from Burma and around the globe, strongly reaffirm the necessity for genuine political reconciliation before the 2010 elections and call on the international community to take immediate action to ensure viable democratic change occurs in Burma. The people of Burma are entitled to have a genuine choice and the international community has an obligation to ensure that the people get this choice. . . . .
Election not selection!
Khin Ohmar is at DHF Nuclear Burma Seminar:
http://www.dhf.uu.se/pdffiler/burma23june.pdfInterview with Ma Khin Ohmar:
1) RFAVideo — 29.10.2009 —
http://www.rfa.org/burmese ထိုင္းႏိုင္ငံ ဟြာဟင္းၿမိဳ႕တြင္ က်င္းပေသာ ၁၅ ႀကိမ္ေျမာက္ အာဆီယံ ထိပ္သီးအစည္းအေဝးတြင္ ျမန္မာႏိုင္ငံအေရး ေဆြးေႏြးမႈမ်ားကို စုစည္းတင္ျ...
ww.youtube.com/watch?v=DRvN5JKC6kQ -2)
http://www.avaaz.org/en/free_burma_prisoners_video/?cl=198624938&v=2995For more information on Ma Khin Ohmar, use these links:
1)
http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=158172)
http://www.worldpulse.com/newsletters/2008/06/feature3.html3)
http://womenpeacesecurity.org/programs-events/peacebuilders/ohmar_khin/4)
http://www.upiasia.com/Politics/2008/07/30/un_calls_for_doubled_aid_to_burma/3092/Ma Khin Ohmar, who has dedicated her life to peaceful struggle towards democracy since her days in Ma Ka DA, hopes that "we can echo Aung San Suu Kyi's vision and bring an end to military rule with that same spirit of 8.8.88—
Unity."
Boycott NeWinian 7 November election!
Stop unilateral and undemocratic process!
