Living Ghosts

The spiraling repression of the Karenni population by the Burmese military junta

Recommendations

• We encourage UNSC members to pass a resolution on Burma under Chapter 6 of the UNSC Charter. In particular we urge the UNSC members to impose a universal arms embargo against the Burmese military junta and all non-state actors.
• We strongly urge Mr Gambari to start engaging with ethnic communities in a meaningful way, as well as continuing his dialogue with Aung San Suu Kyi and the SPDC.
• We encourage the United Nations Human Rights Council to continue closely monitoring the situation in Burma, including ethnic areas and urge them to continue having a country specific rapporteur on human rights in Burma/Myanmar.

• We urge donor countries to increase support to organisations working with communities from Burma, whether they are based inside the country or outside.
• We also encourage funders to ensure that their funding can reach all people in need.

• We urge ASEAN to publicly acknowledge that the situation in Burma is threatening regional stability and take a stronger stance against the regime
• We implore ASEAN to lead the way in ascertaining a binding UNSC resolution.

• We encourage India and China to pressure the SPDC to lift restrictions on humanitarian aid, especially to remote and rural areas.
• We urge India and China to support a UNSC resolution on Burma.

• We recommend that the UN, NGOs and CBOs continue advocating with the SPDC to be able to access all areas in Burma, especially remote and rural communities.
• We also encourage organisations working inside Burma to continue closely monitoring their projects, ensuring that aid is reaching and benefiting the target communities and where there is evidence of theft to take appropriate action.
• We urge organisations working inside Burma and Karenni State to develop a comprehensive humanitarian assistance plan in collaboration with groups working cross border.

• We urge the SPDC to explore and employ non-violent conflict resolution methods, in particular engaging in tripartite dialogue between themselves, the pro-democracy movement and ethnic nationalities.
• We implore the SPDC to lift restrictions on humanitarian organisations so that they can deliver aid without hindrance. This includes widening the fields of work that aid agencies can operate in, such as empowering marginalised communities and assisting communities, and allowing aid agencies unrestricted access to all populations.
• We call for an end to all human rights abuses against all people in Burma, especially arbitrary taxation and fines, land and crop confiscation, arbitrary arrests and detention and the theft and destruction of property.

• We implore the ceasefire groups ensure that the interests of Karenni State and the population are their top priority. We encourage the ceasefire groups to increase efforts to shape their policies and activities around ideas and views from the grassroots communities.
• We urge the ceasefire groups to understand the economic difficulties villagers face and to recognise and acknowledge the taxation demands that other state and non-state actors make on people.
• We encourage ceasefire groups to look at ways to genuinely improve living standards and access to public services for the Karenni population.

• We encourage the KNPP to explore and employ non-violent conflict resolution methods.
• We urge the KNPP to keep in regular contact troops while they are on active duty and ensure that they are maintaining a high standard. We also encourage the KNPP to address complaints about the soldiers’ behaviour from the grassroots communities in a transparent and fair manner.
• We encourage the KNPP to be mindful of the hardships the villagers face, re-examine their taxation policies and work with villagers to improve their living standards.