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SENATE
Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel Jr. has prodded
President Arroyo to speak for freedom-loving Filipinos
and denounce Burma’s “sham referendum” on May 10 on a
new Constitution that he said was designed to enable the
ruling Burmese military junta to cling to power.
Pimentel, concurrent vice chairman of the Southeast
Asian Parliamentarians Caucus on Myanmar, dismissed the
referendum as “a farce” because detained Burmese leader
Aung San Suu Kyi, who remains under house arrest, and
other opposition stalwarts are not allowed to
participate.
In a
statement, Pimentel protested the continued ban on free
speech in Burma, also called Myanmar by the junta; this
ban further indicates the junta’s intention to
manipulate the referendum, in his view. “I urge
President Arroyo to denounce the sham referendum on the
new Burmese Constitution which is being undertaken by
the ruling junta to perpetuate its military rule.”
As a
leader of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations,
Mrs. Arroyo has been very vocal in persuading the
military rulers of Myanmar to fulfill their commitment
to restore democracy, to free Aung San Suu Kyi and to
hold free elections, noted Pimentel.
He also
cited recent acts of oppression by the ruling junta on
the Burmese people, as reported by Burmese Members of
Parliament Teddy Buri and Bo Hla Tint at the meeting of
the Committee on the Human Rights of Parliamentarians (CHRP)
of the Inter-Parliamentary Union during its 118th
assembly in Cape Town, Africa, from April 13 to 18.
“They
told us of the need for the international community to
speak out against the farcical referendum that the
ruling junta is holding on May 10 to ratify a new
constitution of
Burma,”
said Pimentel, a member of the five-man CHRP
representing the Asean +3.
Pimentel
said the CHRP responded by denouncing the draft
constitution as farcical and asked for the release of
all opposition leaders and activists from detention.
He noted
that the atrocities by the ruling military junta
attracted global attention when Buddhist monks led
street protests in September last year, and some of the
protesters were beaten, killed or detained.
Earlier,
Pimentel also urged the Asean to impose sanctions on
Burma, including expulsion from the organization, for
reneging on its commitment to take concrete steps to
bring back democracy and to stop trampling upon the
human rights of the Burmese people. |
