Burma has been ruled by military junta for half the century and people have been suffering very dearly. People of Burma had voted overwhelmingly in 1990 elections to National League for Democracy led by Aung San Suu Kyi- proofing that they support her party and they have confidence in her leadership. They showed their support already and the next step should be implementing the result of the elections. Since then, military junta ignores to honour the result of 1990 elections and political persecution intensified, oppressing political dissidents, imprisoning activists and suppressing NLD itself.

Gambari doesn’t have clear cut policy on Burma and he doesn’t know what he is doing. United Nations’ special adviser and secretary general Ban Ki Moon must know that people of Burma don’t accept junta’s 2010 election plan and UN should not be the one which takes side with the illegitimate regime. We would like to give the very clear message to the United Nations that we do not recognize junta's seven steps road map or 2010 election plan. This is the true desire of Burmese people coming from the bottom of our hearts and the results of the 1990 General Elections must be implemented accordingly.

“The solution of the current crisis of Burma is to implement 1990 elections result and transfer the power to democratically elected leader and party. Whosoever is going to Burma if he/she cannot bring about tangible outcome from the visit, it will be the same old story and waste of time,” said Myo Thein, Director of Burma Democratic Concern (BDC).

Special Adviser Ibrahim Gambari must say junta’s 2010 Elections plan and seven-step road map are no longer relevant. His visits to Burma should come out tangible results; to take place genuine time-bound dialogue between democratic forces led by Aung San Suu Kyi and junta leaders led by Senior General Than Shwe in 2008. If Burmese regime is willing to see national reconciliation, they must come to discussion table and must release all political prisoners unconditionally. This is the first step forward and they must prove it by doing so.

Aung San Suu Kyi said that "I am ready to cooperate with the government in order to make (the) process of dialogue a success."

United Nations must enforce military Junta to honour the 1990 election result now, not another junta’s election in 2010. A tremendous responsibility rests upon the United Nations Organisation to a far better end, and we are looking for a more positive and bolder lead of the United Nations. The military regime is clearly ignoring the results of the 1990 elections and now it is questionable that United Nations is following their footstep. United Nations must enforce the military regime to recognize the 1990 election results and take action on it now.

Aung San Suu Kyi said very crystal clearly that “If this country is to achieve genuine democracy, the result of the elections of 1990 must be recognized.”

We cannot ignore the lives scarified in 1988 mass uprising when more than 3000 people were gunned down, we cannot forget 2007 Saffron revolution when soldiers and riot police beaten and opened fire on Buddhist monks and peaceful demonstrators and we cannot close the eyes to the suffering of the heroes of Burma who are now in prisons and who were in prisons sacrifice their lives, faced torture and brutal treatment in order to show their aspiration for democracy.

"To ignore the result of the 1990 elections is to have total disrespect for the people and is also an insult to the people”, Aung San Suu Kyi again said very firmly.

General Assembly of the United Nations has accepted the notion that the will of the people has been expressed in the 1990 General Elections. International community strongly condemned the junta for refusing to allow elected representatives to meet as a People's Assembly and for failing to honour the results of the elections and hand over power. UN General Assembly has since 1991 passed successive annual Resolutions calling on Burma "to restore democracy and implement the results of the 1990 elections". United Nations must not desert people of Burma by falling into the junta’s seven step road map and 2010 Election plan.

This is time to take actions and not words. Military government bought the time for 20 years and we should not let it happen anymore. United Nations must set out the dead line to transfer power to National League for Democracy by 2010. UN must force military regime to do genuine time bound dialogue in 2008 with democratic forces led by Aung San Suu Kyi, 2009 should be transitional period and 2010 should be actually transferring power to National League for Democracy. We don’t want any more waiting games. If military regime doesn’t understand carrot and then, it is time to use stick. United Nations must step up further in order to solve Burma crisis and actions needed to be taken practically focus on to implement 1990 Elections result.

For more information contact

Myo Thein
00 44 787 788 2386
[United Kingdom]

Nyan Moe
00 44 798 346 0124
[United Kingdom]

Khin Maung Win
001 941 961 2622
[United States]

Kyaw Lin Oo
00 66 4107 9352
[Thailand]