Stop helping the junta

Dr Myint Cho

December 28, 2007 12:00am

RECENTLY the world's attention has again been captured by Burma's plight with another withered olive branch held out by its dictatorial regime.

It is unlikely that their consent to talking about a future role for democracy rings true.

There, many of my fellow countrymen and women are persecuted by a violent military-led regime that has been in occupation of my country for almost 50 years.

At such a time it is particularly painful, as a resident of this country, to have to acknowledge the role of the Australian taxpayer, via the federal government, in placating the heinous generals in Burma.

Since 2004, AusAID, Australia's official aid organisation, has been responsible for directly funding the military.

In that year, millions of taxpayers' funds was earmarked to provide training to the Burmese "government" officials.

(The term government must be used in Burma with some caution. The true government, a coalition led by the National League for Democracy, led by a Nobel Peace Laureate, was victorious in a full election in 1990, but was crushed by the heavy-handed generals.)

For example, about $480,000 has been used nominally for the purposes of counter-terrorism.

Through this channel, high-level training of senior military officials has been offered by Australian Federal Police personnel working in Burma.

Another program is funded to the value of $6 million a year and is purportedly intended to provide training in intelligence, via the Jakarta Centre for Law Enforcement Co-operation.

Through these programs, high-ranking Burmese military authorities are able to attend yearly training and have access to the tools and techniques developed by the AFP in the name of national security and justice.

Hundreds of Burmese military officials have benefited from these programs.

The same officials have been behind the brutal crackdowns the world has witnessed in Burma in recent months.

Given the Burmese military maintains its position largely on the back of a systemic program of intimidation, incarceration and violence, it is hard to understand why they are considered a target of the funds, not of the counter-terrorist techniques being promulgated.

It's a case of the AFP training the foxes to guard the chicken coup.

This is particularly galling in the wake of the crackdown of peaceful pro-democracy demonstrations in Burma over the past few months.

It's unknown just how many Burmese have been killed by the military, and many also have been terrorised, imprisoned or forced into exile. Many of those officers involved may well have received training from the AFP.

If the Burmese military, the body responsible for the suppression of democracy in Burma, is an organisation to be trusted to use Australian taxpayers' funds, then AusAID has some odd views on its obligations in the use of public funds, due diligence and, indeed, on just what constitutes terrorism.

Ironically, in late September, the Howard government enacted hard-hitting sanctions aimed at hurting the same generals who profit from taxpayer aid funds.

Surely such sanctions are designed to subvert the un-elected military junta, yet, the provision of free training at taxpayers' expense tends to do the opposite and in fact bolsters a regime that is considered now a regional embarrassment and a global shame.

It may be no surprise that people of Burma and pro-Burma activists would seek to end the training of the Burmese military by an Australian government body.

But we believe all those with an abiding interest in justice and basic human rights will join us in condemning these programs and call on the Rudd Government to cease them immediately.

Dr Myint Cho is a former Burmese dissident and is now director of the Sydney-based Burma Office