I have been separated from my daughter for nearly ten months. Amidnight knock at our door in August last year changed our livesdramatically. The military junta's security forces took my husbandKyaw Min Yu (also known as Jimmy) on the night of August 21, 2007. Heis a leader of the prominent dissident group, the 88 GenerationStudents, comprising former student leaders and former politicalprisoners. He and other leaders were taken from their homes that nightby the authorities. As a former student activist and a formerpolitical prisoner myself, I knew very well how my husband and friendswould be treated in the junta's interrogation cells. Therefore, whenthey came back to arrest me, I went into hiding. But I must continue to lead the 88 Generation Students with my othercolleagues, so that Burma may realise its freedom, and find justiceand democracy someday. I must avoid being arrested. However, there areso many difficulties and hardships in moving secretly from one hidingplace to another, and I didn't want my daughter to share thesehardships. Therefore, I decided to send my three-month- old baby to myparents. Now, I miss her so much.My mind wanders to University Avenue, where "the Lady", Daw Aung SanSuu Kyi, has been detained under house arrest for so many years. DawAung San Suu Kyi, the world's only imprisoned Nobel Peace Prizerecipient, will have to spend her 63rd birthday today alone indetention. She will be missing her two sons, too. Her strength anddetermination helps me and many women in Burma stand up for justice. Ithank her for being with us and leading our movement. She is a greatreminder to the world that the military junta that rules our countryforcibly separates mothers and children. Coincidentally, the UN Security Council will hold a debate in New Yorktoday on "Women, Peace and Security". This debate is a discussion ofUNSC Resolution 1325, which was passed unanimously in October, 2000.Resolution 1325 "Calls on all parties to armed conflict to takespecial measures to protect women and girls from gender-basedviolence, particularly rape and other forms of sexual abuse, and allother forms of violence in situations of armed conflict." It also"Emphasises the responsibility of all States to put an end to impunityand to prosecute those responsible for genocide, crimes againsthumanity, war crimes including those relating to sexual violenceagainst women and girls, and in this regard, stresses the need toexclude these crimes, where feasible from amnesty provisions." US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is expected to chair thedebate, with many world leaders discussing the development of women,peace and security. Will they discuss Burma? Will they remember DawAung San Suu Kyi and the women of Burma who are suffering all forms ofabuse by the military junta?Burma is now in the midst of two conflicts. One is the 50-year-oldcivil war, raging between the Burmese military and the minorityresistance forces, predominately in the eastern part of the country.Burmese troops are raping with impunity tribal women and girls, someas young as eight years old. Burmese soldiers use women in conflictareas as porters to carry their military equipment and supplies duringthe day, and use them as sex slaves at night. Many women have beenbrutally killed to erase the evidence of these crimes. The other conflict is a 20-year old war, waged by the Burmese juntaagainst its own unarmed citizens, who are calling for freedom, justiceand democracy. Women activists are beaten, arrested, tortured and thenput in prison for many years. Many female activists are mistreated andsexually assaulted by their interrogators and jailers. Children areused as bait by the authorities to get their mothers arrested. Of the2.5 million people severely affected by Cyclone Nargis - many of whomthe military junta simply left to die through starvation and disease -at least a million are women and girls. Recently, a UN expert saidthat up to 35,000 pregnant women, all cyclone survivors, are atextreme risk of death. However, they will never receive any care fromthe military.I hope that Secretary of State Rice and other leaders at the UNSecurity Council will give consideration to Daw Aung San Suu Kyi andthe women of Burma during their debate. Resolution 1325 is a greatdevelopment, but implementation and enforcement is still in question.When the government itself is the abuser of human rights and theperpetrator of rape and other forms of gender-based violence, who willprotect the victims? Who will end their tragedy? Who will secure thejoyful reunion of mothers with their children? The appeasement policy of some bureaucrats is shameful. Effective andurgent action from the UN Security Council is necessary to help thewomen in Burma. No more debate. Take action. Please let me be happilyreunited with my daughter.Nilar Thein is a former student leader in the 1988 democracy uprisingin Burma and spent more than nine years in prison.__
BY NILAR THEIN__________ _________ _____
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