§ Ann Clwyd (Cynon Valley)One of the great pleasures of being a member of the Inter-Parliamentary Union is the opportunity to meet people from many other countries throughout the world. I was in Jakarta recently at a meeting primarily of the human rights commission of the Inter-Parliamentary Union. The human rights commission is a little known part of the IPU's work. It usually meets in parallel with the main IPU conference, at which time it is head down, ploughing through country after country, delegation after delegation. At the end of the week, we are lucky if we manage a swim in the swimming pool. The work is that intense.
However, the commission's work is immensely rewarding. In the 23 years of its existence, it has examined complaints concerning 1,128 individual or collective cases in 92 countries involving Members of Parliament. It would surprise most people that Members of Parliament in many parts of the world are not able to fulfil their mandate in the way that Members of Parliament in this country or in most democracies are expected to do. Not only are they prevented from carrying out their mandate because they have never been allowed to take up their seats in Parliament—as in the case of Burma—but some elected Members are in prison; some are being tortured; some have disappeared and some have been murdered. The intensity with which investigations are carried out in such cases varies.
At present, there are nearly 40,200 Members of Parliament throughout the world. As the work of the IPU human rights commission is now widely acknowledged, the number and scope of the complaints that are submitted to it are increasing. It has before it allegations relating to the situation of at least 180 serving and former parliamentarians in 25 countries. Thanks to the reliability and consistency of its work, the commission is respected even by countries that it has to rap over the knuckles. Above all, it has obtained satisfactory settlements for a great many cases by acting on its own or with other international supervisory and settlement bodies.
I have before me a list of 134 elected representatives of Burma who have been subjected to detention, imprisonment or forced resignation. It covers the period from 1991 to this year. Running down from the top of the list, it contains reference to parliamentarians who have been sentenced to 25 years, to 20 years, to 20 years, to 12 years, to four years, to 25 years, to seven years and so on. It is a horrific illustration of circumstances in which elected Members cannot exercise their mandate. Given our past close links with Burma, we know that, although it was badly damaged in the second world war, Burma had the best health care system, the best civil service and the highest literacy rate in south-east Asia. It has since become one of the world's poorest, least developed and most disastrously governed countries. This year the World Heath Organisation ranked Burma second to last among 191 nations in the quality of its health care services. Unelected generals run Burma even though the party of Aung San Suu Kyi — who, although she was never elected because she was prevented from standing for election, is the acknowledged world leader of her party, the National League for Democracy—won 392 seats out of 485, or 80 per cent. of seats, in 1990.
95WH According to Amnesty International, more than 1,000 political activists were sent to Burmese prisons last year alone. At least 55 members of parliament elect are known to be in prison, five have died while in detention, and some have died after torture.
In late September this year, the generals again ordered the house arrest of Aung San Suu Kyi, the winner of the 1991 Nobel peace prize, who has spent more than six of the past 11 years under house arrest. Senior leaders of her party have been imprisoned or placed under house arrest, and two of the most influential monks in the country, who wrote letters begging the generals to talk to Aung San Suu Kyi, are being watched by military intelligence. The army halted huge pro-democracy demonstrations 12 years ago by killing several hundred people and jailing thousands more. Since then the generals have doubled the size of the armed forces to more than 400,000, although Burma, with a population estimated at 50 million, faces no serious foreign threats.
In the past five years, the military has forcibly resettled tens of thousands of potentially restive poor people from city centres to distant slums. It has closed most urban universities and has sent students to remote rural campuses. Trade unions are banned. No elections are scheduled, and none seem likely.
I should like to mention not a Member of Parliament but a political prisoner who is typical of those jailed in Burmese prisons. When he was in his 40s, he was arrested by military intelligence for associating with a banned political party. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison at a secret trial with no civilian witnesses or lawyers. Human rights groups say that his experience is typical. The former prisoner's incarceration began when guards forced a stinking blue cotton bag over his head and asked him questions for four days without allowing him to sleep. He said that the bag, which kept him from seeing the faces of his interrogators, was fouled with sweat, mucus and blood. He said that it smelled unimaginably bad. He was later caught with a magazine in his cell. At that time, prisoners were not allowed to read or write, and his punishment was three months in solitary confinement without access to a toilet or shower. Unlike some unlucky prisoners who are not allowed to clean up after themselves, he said that he was occasionally permitted to scrape excrement from his cell. I am glad to say that the International Committee of the Red Cross began making prison visits in May 1999, and as a result some prisoners' conditions have improved.
Following the latest arrest of Aung San Suu Kyi, all central committee members of her party were also placed under house arrest. They had all won seats in the general elections. Those leaders join the endless list of Members of Parliament—the numbers vary, because problems of access to prisoners makes counting them more difficult than in most other countries. Dr. Sein Win, the leader of a coalition of parties in exile, attended the IPU conference in Jakarta and talked to our commission. He believes that about 200 Members of Parliament are incarcerated. About 55 have been charged and given long prison terms. The rest, who are held in what the military call guest houses, live in conditions that are, I suppose, something like minimum security prisons.
96WH According to Amnesty International, political prisoners in Burma are often tortured during interrogation by military intelligence after they are arrested. They can also be tortured after sentencing if they break arbitrary and harsh prison rules. Political prisoners are denied adequate food, medical care and sanitation. Dozens have died through lack of proper care. The Members of Parliament who have died in prison under those harsh conditions are Kyaw Min, who died on 1 July 1999 of hepatitis contracted in prison; Tin Maung Win, who died in January 1991 after torture and Khin Maung Kyi, who died on 8 February 1991, also after torture. Hla Than died on 2 August 1996 after torture and Saw Win died on 7 August 1998. The Burmese in exile are very concerned about the health and safety of other Members of Parliament who are under detention.
Ten women were elected during the 1990 elections and one has died since then. The military authorities still have six of the remaining nine women Members of Parliament under detention. One is Daw San San, a labour activist and central executive member of the National League for Democracy, who was arrested in connection with a plan for establishing a parallel government during the 1990s, which led to the formation of a coalition group outside Burma. She is serving a 25-year prison sentence for the second time. There is great concern about her health.
We were told by the Prime Minister in exile of the story of Daw Mya Mya Sein, a senior party organiser for women's affairs, who became paralysed after she was tortured during the recent crackdown. Five other women Members of Parliament and female members of the National League for Democracy face tough and harsh prison conditions. The Prime Minister of Burma in exile is calling on the international community to help. He stated positively that he wants the rest of the world to act, and that it is time to say loud and clear that being elected should not be a crime anywhere, including Burma.
§ Ms Julie Morgan (Cardiff, North)Does my hon. Friend agree that in the horrifying circumstances that she has described, income generated by Burma from tourism is helping to sustain the undemocratic regime? Burma's pro-democracy movement has urged tourists not to travel there. Should not holidaymakers take that into account before deciding to go there and should not tour operators and tour guides also consider it?
§ Ann ClwydThat is an important point. It has been made by campaigning organisations, and I agree with it. It gives the regime in Burma the wrong message if tourists visit the country just as if it were somewhere in Europe where democracy and human rights were upheld. They are not upheld in Burma and people should be made more aware of the need to show dislike of the regime and the need for it to change. That can by done by boycotting it as a holiday destination.
Several organisations have called for other action. The National League for Democracy calls on the Government of Burma to release all MPs-elect immediately and unconditionally and to end all violations of the human rights of the people of Burma. The league wants the military Government to recognise the rights of the duly elected representatives of Burma to 97WH convene the Parliament and immediately cease all restrictions placed on them. It also wants the military Government of Burma to engage with the National League for Democracy and the representatives of ethnic nationalities in a dialogue to achieve a peaceful transition to democracy.
The Burma campaign in the UK calls upon the Government to impose investment sanctions and to encourage Scandinavian countries and other sympathetic countries to do the same, as requested by Aung San Suu Kyi. The campaign calls on the Government not to attend the Association of South-East Asian Nations summit in Laos in December unless she and her party members are freed from house arrest and allowed to carry out political activities freely. The Committee Representing the People's Parliament, a coalition of all the elected members, should be recognised by all Governments.
Human Rights Watch believes that ASEAN should make it clear to Burma that its actions risk disrupting ASEAN's relationships with key aid and trading partners. As you know, Mr. Winterton, ASEAN leaders defended the 1997 decision to grant membership to Burma on the ground that engagement would induce reform there. Human Rights Watch says that ASEAN leaders should use their influence to call for an immediate lifting of restrictions on the elected Members of Parliament and to respect their basic rights. They also want the European Union to announce that it will not proceed with plans for the EU-ASEAN summit in December if the restrictions are not lifted and if the Burmese officials responsible for the recent crackdown are invited to the summit. That is a big shopping list for my hon. Friend the Minister of State, but I am sure that he will respond generously.
I am convinced that if thousands of Members of Parliament throughout the world step forward in support of their persecuted colleagues in Burma, it will not only make a difference to how the latter are treated but it will be a significant step towards bringing a national nightmare to a close. I hope, Mr. Winterton, that as many Members of the Westminster Parliament as possible will sign that declaration of solidarity. It has been circulated in Parliaments throughout the world, thousands have signed it already, and I am sure that Members here will want to do the same.
§ Mr. Deputy Speaker (Mr. Nicholas Winterton)Order. The hon. Lady is always extremely courteous and I did not interrupt her speech, but the rule in Westminster Hall is that occupiers of the Chair, particularly myself, the hon. Member for Blaydon (Mr. McWilliam) and the hon. Member for Stockton, North (Mr. Cook), are addressed as Deputy Speaker. Other members of the Speakers Panel are addressed by name. I did not interrupt the hon. Lady, but I hope that she will bear that in mind.
§ The Minister of State, Foreign and Commonwealth Office (Mr. John Battle)I am grateful to my hon. Friend the Member for Cynon Valley (Ann Clwyd) for giving us the opportunity to debate the imprisonment of parliamentarians in Burma. She mentioned her work on the Inter-Parliamentary Union committee for human 98WH rights. She is well respected at Westminster, in Britain and, increasingly, internationally as a campaigner and champion of human rights. She courageously takes that campaign into corners of the world that others would find uncomfortable.
My hon. Friend does not allow that seamless web of human rights to be sidelined and she campaigns consistently, tenaciously and without fear or favour. I say all that because, although she mentioned the work that she does on paper and behind the scenes, it is amazing how often her attention to detail bears fruit. It is important that we do not forget the names, faces and personalities of all those real people who are wiped out as a result of the denial of human rights. I particularly warmed to her line that being elected should not be a crime.
There will be 40 elections in the world this year, more than half of which will be in countries that have never had the full franchise before. Democratic elections are relatively new. At the other end of Westminster Hall, not many yards from here, is a little cupboard with a plaque on it to Emily Wilding Davison, who championed the rights of women to have a vote in Britain as late as the 1920s. It is significant that all hon. Members in this room are women, apart from you, Mr. Deputy Speaker, and me. Democracy is pretty new and it is a fragile plant on our globe that should be protected and defended.
I am grateful to my hon. Friend for raising the denial of human rights to our imprisoned Burmese colleagues. Perhaps we can send them some hope and solidarity from our debate, from her campaign, and I hope from the Government's actions as well.
On a campaigning note, perhaps I can encourage other professions—doctors, lawyers, journalists—to raise concern about their imprisoned Burmese colleagues with their national and international bodies. My hon. Friend spelled out the recent changes in Burma, which has, according to the World Bank, dropped down the league table to become one of the poorest countries in the world. That is since the election in 1990, when it was loosely at the bottom of the middle-income countries. The decline was unnecessary because it had rice, which gave it the means to feed itself. It now has to import food to fight off starvation. That is the tragedy.
The internal political situation is intense. As we know, Aung San Suu Kyi, the leader of the National League for Democracy, attempted to travel outside Rangoon this summer and was blocked by the regime. Our debate is timely, as it is the anniversary of the second month of the latest incarceration of Aung San Suu Kyi and her colleagues from the National League for Democracy in their homes. That followed their arrest on 21 September, when they again had the audacity to try to travel within Burma—to exercise what we would call ordinary human rights, never mind political rights at a parliamentary level.
Aung San Suu Kyi and her colleagues had been involved in a nine-day standoff in a village south of Rangoon in the summer. During that time, our ambassador in Rangoon tried to gain access to her and her party, but was turned back by Burmese soldiers. He was also manhandled by the authorities when he tried to gain access to the house of U Tin Oo, the deputy chairman of the NLD.
99WH Those events and that in the summer when Aung San Suu Kyi tried to catch a train to Mandalay, demonstrate the efforts and lengths that the regime will go to to prevent even movement. After nine hours of delay at the railway station, where diplomats were refused access to her, she was again returned to her home. She has effectively been under house arrest. Security is tight and we have not been allowed access, nor have diplomats from other embassies. U Tin Oo is reported to be held in an interrogation centre.
My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs issued a statement on 21 September condemning those events and demanding an explanation. However, the only person to have seen Aung San Suu Kyi since then, apart from her doctor, is Mr. Razali, the special envoy of the United Nations. The situation is tense. We must keep up the international pressure. In every possible forum, my right hon. Friend has condemned the action and called on the Burmese regime to release people without condition immediately.
I am sad to say that those people are the latest in a roll-call of parliamentarians and activists in Burma who have found themselves imprisoned for nothing but their political beliefs, as my hon. Friend the Member for Cynon Valley told us. The International Committee of the Red Cross estimates that there are 1,500 political prisoners in Burma. That includes 35 NLD Members of Parliament-elect in prison, and 46 Members of Parliament-elect, 43 of whom represent the NLD, in detention in Government guest houses. They are not only held in prison, but in their homes as well. There is a clampdown.
The regime is attempting to implement a policy of effectively salami slicing the NLD to detain activists and prevent political activity. Party offices were even trashed in the summer. The regime wants to undermine the organisation and crush it. The NLD won the election, as my hon. Friend the Member for Cynon Valley pointed out. It won 80 per cent. of the popular vote and 60 per cent. of the seats but has been denied access to power ever since. The regime is determined to stamp out any democratic opposition to its brutal dictatorship. We do not have the time here to spell out how human rights are denied in Burma to ethnic minorities such as the Karen and the Shan people, who are driven across the borders.
On forced labour, our ambassador and our EU colleagues have made representations to the Burmese authorities whenever possible, and we will continue to take every opportunity to do so, including occasions when representatives of Burma attend public events. We will go out of our way to make the point, uncomfortable though that may be. I can assure my hon. Friend that such representations have been made recently.
In 1990, the elections took place, but have been ignored ever since. Some 100 of those elected have been forced to resign or have gone into exile and two have died in prison. Only 132 of them are still active.
In September 1998, the regime detained without charge 1,000 opposition members, including 200 Members of Parliament-elect, in response to the NLD having convened a committee to represent the people's Parliament, to set up their own alternative organisation 100WH because they had been denied power. That committee was formed to try to circumvent the regime's pointblank refusal even to engage with the elected representatives and convene a Parliament. Between 12 April and 5 June this year, the regime detained 137 NLD activists, including 22 Members of Parliament-elect and 78 members of the youth wing, following a relaunch of the party's youth organisation in some of the townships around Rangoon. The regime is crushing the youth movement of the political parties as well. Historically, the authorities have repressed any political activity to try to kill it off.
Political prisoners are not the only example of the regime's disgraceful record on human rights. There are 22,000 refugees in Bangladesh and 120,000 in camps on the Thai border. When my right hon. Friend the Foreign Secretary visited Thailand, he visited those camps to see, first hand, what was happening.
We know that forced labour takes place in Burma, but more encouragingly, the International Labour Organisation held firm when it met this month in Geneva. The ILO had warned the regime that if it continued to fail to implement three specific measures on forced labour, action would be taken against it. Last Thursday, the governing body of the ILO went ahead with actions against Burma for the first time in its 83-year history. We encouraged and supported that.
I emphasise that we have been at the forefront of action in international forums. We have been encouraging the ILO and supporting and strengthening the EU common position on Burma. In April, we argued to ensure that the export of equipment for the repression of terrorism to Burma was banned. There is already a full arms embargo, a ban on defence links and on non-humanitarian aid. There are visa restrictions on the regime. We have extended restrictions to suppress the bank accounts of members of the regime so that they cannot travel around the EU or out of Burma. We have sponsored resolutions in the UN condemning human rights violations —in the General Assembly in November and at the Commission on Human Rights in April.
In June 1997, we stated plainly that we did not encourage trade with or investment in Burma. We suspended all financial support for trade missions and trade promotion. British companies who inquire about trade with Burma are informed of the political and economic human rights situation there. In March, I told Premier Oil—the largest and practically the only UK investor left in Burma—that we would welcome its immediate departure from Burma. That statement was made publicly.
My hon. Friend the Member for Cardiff, North (Ms Morgan) will be interested to know that we drew attention to the views of Burmese democratic leaders that tourists should not be encouraged to visit. The late Derek Fatchett, the Member for Leeds, Central, who died prematurely, called on the tourist industry to take action, and that has been followed up regularly. We cannot prevent people from going to other countries and then back-packing across the border, but it should be pointed out that every tourist who enters Burma must pay an entry fee of $200. Every one of those dollars supports the regime in its atrocious, brutal attitudes and actions. Our ambassador will make regular representations and we will hold discussions with our 101WH colleagues in the EU about the situation in Burma. We will make contact with politicians and parliamentarians in Burma. We shall take that action because we want to bring all the pressure that we can to bear on the regime and to encourage it to enter into dialogue with the democratic groups, take them seriously and allow them the power that is legitimately theirs.
I thank my hon. Friend for raising the matter. We do not intend to relax our campaign. We will keep up the pressure in every forum, including Westminster. However, we shall sometimes need to deepen the campaign and turn it into a popular issue, so that all groups can join hands until the regime's grip is broken.