"The first victory we can claim is that our hearts are free of hatred. Hence we say to those who persecute us and who try to dominate us: ‘You are my brother. I do not hate you, but you are not going to dominate me by fear. I do not wish to impose my truth, nor do I wish you to impose yours on me. We are going to seek the truth together’. THIS IS THE LIBERATION WHICH WE ARE PROCLAIMING."
Oswaldo José Payá Sardiñas (2002)
"I really do inhabit a system in which words are capable of shaking the entire structure of government, where words can prove mightier than ten military divisions." - Václav Havel, October 1989
Many of these tyrants, like their Cuban counterpart, share Havel's view, but whereas he expressed this statement with hope and optimism, they view it with fear. It is for that reason that these dictatorships attack freedom of the press and freedom of expression because they view both as an existential threat.
Raul Castro and Alexander Lukashenko
The past two weeks have once again demonstrated its defense of dictators and genocidal regimes with visits from heads of state from Belarus and Sri Lanka leaders to Cuba. At the same time in Geneva at the U.N. Human Rights Council its efforts to silent critics while defending brutal dictatorships demonstrates the horrid nature of the regime.
In the case of Sri Lanka, in 2009 the Cuban government's diplomats took the lead in blocking efforts to
address the wholesale slaughter taking place in Sri Lanka. The Foreign Policy Association reported at the time that:
As expected,
Cuba’s seat on the United Nations Human Rights Council has already
become an obstacle to the process of investigation and recognition of
gross human rights offenses. Yesterday Cuba succeeded in blocking
debate on abuses in Sri Lanka, which many countries have pushed for
after the extreme violence that rocked the country earlier this month.
The choice is simple and clear it is not one of being right or left but whether you believe that human beings have dignity and fundamental rights that you are willing to recognize and defend or you don't. In Cuba, under the Castro brothers the Universal Declaration of Human Rights is considered a subversive document. It is for these reasons that the dictatorship in Cuba and its ally Venezuela have no place on the U.N. Human Rights council. The effort to remove or keep out of the membership these kind of regimes from the Council is not done out of small mindedness but out of a desire to save it from irrelevance.
Banging on table, Cuba, China, Russia & Pakistan lash out after call to exclude Chavez, other abusers from UN rights council
Concerted U.N. speeches slam Chavez bid for rights council seat;
Dictatorships urge "striking NGO statement from the record"
VENEZUELAN EX-POLITICAL PRISONER ELIGIO CEDENO CHALLENGED HIS OPPRESSOR; CHAVEZ REP CALLS HIM A "TERRORIST" AND "CRIMINAL," UN WATCH A "U.S. LACKEY"
GENEVA, June 28 - UN
Watch's "Stop Chavez" campaign heated up today when Cuba, Russia, China
and Pakistan lashed out at concerted speeches by high-profile guests
Eligio Cedeno and Thor Halvorssen, in what one observer called a "major
take-down" of Venezuela's Chavez regime and its bid for a seat on the
U.N. Human Rights Council.(See video at mark 27:20.) UN Watch, which heads an international campaign of parliamentarians and human rights groups opposed to Venezuela's candidacy, organized the speech today by Eligio Cedeno, Venezuela's most-wanted man (photo below). The banker
and former political prisoner, who escaped the clutches of Hugo Chavez
for asylum in the U.S., confronted his oppressor in a powerful plenary statement.
Exercising its right of reply, Venezuela's representative called
Cedeno a "terrorist and criminal who fled justice." The Chavez diplomat
falsely accused the U.S. of having invited Cedeno to the council, which
he said was "to smear the reputation of my country." He also accused UN
Watch of being a U.S. "lackey.“ (See video at mark 1:55:30)
And in a concerted effort with UN Watch, Thor Halvorssen, the Venezuelan-born head of the Human Rights Foundation
-- whose mother was shot by Chavez forces -- also took the floor to
challenge Venezuela's credentials, as well as those of existing members Cuba, China, Russia and Saudi Arabia. Click here for speech.
Thor Halvorssen of the Human Rights Foundaiton
Shouting repeatedly for the U.N. chair to stop the speech, the Cuban delegate flew into a range, fists banging on the table, and knocked over his chair.
Cuba insisted that non-governmental activists taking the floor at the U.N. “cannot
question the hopes and aspirations of states to become members of the
Human Rights Council, or their right to be members. You cannot say that
my country does not have a right to be a member of this council.” Havana's delegate demanded that Halvorssen’s statement be “struck from the record.”
Russia and Pakistan similarly claimed that Halvorssen spoke out of turn. China said that activists at the U.N. “are not entitled to challenge the right of a country to become a member of the council.”
However, UN Watch director Hillel Neuer said that a quick intervention by the U.S. apparently convinced the chair to let the statement stand.
"Today
was a rare moment at the U.N.," said Neuer. "We succeeded in putting
Chavez -- who throws independent judges in jail, persecutes student
activists, and aids mass murderers like Ahmadinejad and Assad -- on the
defensive."
When Halvorssen referred to “authoritarian” regimes, Cuba interrupted again, calling this a “disrespectful term,” and asked the chair to prohibit him from speaking. China also objected, saying no one at the U.N. human rights council has a right “to label a sovereign state, to point a finger at a country that is a member, or which wishes to become a member.”
Unfortunately one of the new lessons from the campaign to impose an embargo on the South African Apartheid regime is that that since 2000 with the Supreme Court decision citing the Supremacy clause in Crosby versus National Foreign Trade Council which means that relations or trade with a foreign country is governed by the federal government and that state and local governments can no longer place their own sanctions on foreign regimes unless it is in accordance with federal government policy. In 2000 the Supreme Court forced Massachusetts to do business with companies that had done business with the military junta in Burma. According to constitutional scholar Sanford Levinson in the Fordham Law Review the Crosby decision compels state and local governments to cooperate with evil.
The U.S. Constitution does not give states the right to conduct their
own foreign policy — indeed, imagine 50 states conducting their own
foreign affairs; that would be disastrous. The Civil War clarified where
“states’ rights” stop.
Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/06/05/2834402/another-inevitable-lawsuit.html#storylink=cpy
The Miami Herald got it wrong, the history of the United States indicates just the opposite. Governors of states are considered subnational foreign policy actors pursuing commercial agreements on behalf of their respective states. Would the Miami Herald call on the governor of Florida along with other state and local officials not to pursue commercial opportunities for their respective state and local governments? Furthermore, the rights of states and local governments to impose restrictions on nefarious regimes and unjust practices has a long history. John Kline from Georgetown University in a paper titled "Continuing controversies over state and local foreign policy sanctions in the United States" exposes the inaccuracies in The Miami Herald's editorial:
Recent state and local government sanctions on business with Burma and
certain Swiss banks renews a debate over foreign policy powers in
federal systems that operate in an integrated global economy.
International business promotion has become an accepted function of
state and local governments. More controversial is the imposition of
foreign policy sanctions, where economic involvement becomes a lever to
pursue political goals rather than an objective in itself. When compared
with past cases, including South Africa and the Arab boycott, recent
state and local initiatives demonstrate both continuity and fresh
departures in federalism's evolving adjustment to the global economy.
These developments can be used to examine theoretical concepts such as
constituent and multilayered diplomacy. They also argue for improved
practical cooperation among the multiple and diverse actors engaged in
foreign policy issues.
That is to say that the tactics and strategies used by the anti-Apartheid movement to organize a grassroots campaign that obtained national sanctions against the South African government by first passing sanctions at the local and state level to build momentum nationally would be impossible today thanks to the already mentioned 2000 Supreme Court decision. Grassroots activists and US citizens have been stripped of that power while corporations in business with despicable and brutal regimes such as Burma, China, Cuba and Syria have been empowered.This is another example of the centralization of power in the central government that in fact undermines federalism,
Our three-pronged strategy had worked: first, consult with grassroots activists and provide them with the grounds from which to press in congressional districts for the most principled position possible – in this case,complete disinvestments and embargo, second, work with willing national organizations to generate a lobbying presence on behalf of bold government action – maximum sanctions, in the case of apartheid – always creating pressure to move the middle to the left, third, engage congressional colleagues and educate them about the issues and the pathways for change.
At the same time people power, one of the most potent tools in the arsenal of anti-apartheid activists is still available today despite the Supreme Court decision. During the struggle against Apartheid it had a huge impact:
Among the most sustained campaigns, involving national organizations as well as providing a target for local demonstrators, was the campaign to boycott Shell that paralleled campaigns in Europe directed at the same multinational company. Beginning with a sit-in by the Free South Africa Movement at the Shell offices in Washington, DC,159 the campaign gained support not only from the United Mine Workers, but also other unions, including the AFL-CIO trade union federation. And it tied the action to support of the National Union of Mineworkers in South Africa. Desmond Tutu joined the press conference launching the boycott, and churches joined actively in the coalition. The Interfaith Centre for Corporate Responsibility (ICCR) added Shell to its list of 12 key corporate ‘partners in apartheid’ targeted for divestment actions.
The lesson here is clear a coordinated targeting of companies doing business with repressive regimes such as Cuba targeting them with boycotts, protests, sit-ins and peaceful invasions of said companies until they divest from the Castro regime. Its worked before and it can work again today.
Prominent Cuban Exile Corporate Leaders Warn of Castro’s “Cosmetic Reforms”
Over a dozen former Fortune 500 senior executives and other multinational business leaders urge support for the Cuban pro-democracy movement and reaffirm their commitment to help the economic reconstruction of a free Cuba.
Washington, D.C. - Prominent Cuban exile business and corporate leaders released today a document entitled “Commitment to Freedom”, rejecting business ties with Cuba while the island remains under totalitarian rule. However, they are committed to helping in the reconstruction of their homeland when freedom dawns.
The signatories are former senior executives from Dow Chemical, General Mills, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Colgate-Palmolive, Bacardi, American Express Bank, PepsiCo, Warner Communications, Reynolds Metals, Continental Bank International, Martin Marietta Aluminum, Amex Nickel Corporation, as well as the head of Jazztel and other distinguished business leaders.
The signees of the document warn against the Castro regime’s deceptive campaign to secure U.S. capital infusion and bank credits, and lure some Cuban-American businessmen, without ushering in a true economic and political opening. The reforms introduced so far are mostly cosmetic, heavily-taxed and revocable, and offer no legal protection or investment return.
To neutralize the opposition, both inside Cuba and abroad, the signers assert that the regime is promoting “reconciliation”, with the apparent backing of the Catholic Church hierarchy, but only as a smokescreen to intensify repression. Peaceful human rights activists are systematically harassed and arrested.
Instead of bailing out the failed and ruthless regime, the document calls for support of the leaders of the growing pro-democracy movement in Cuba. They, and not their oppressors, should receive international recognition, financial resources and communications technology to carry out their heroic struggle.
Here is the letter:
COMMITMENT TO FREEDOM
We, the undersigned, Cuban exiles with deep roots in U.S. and international corporations, institutions and business communities, wish to convey our great concern regarding the Castro regime’s deceptive campaign aimed at securing much-needed financial resources to prolong its iron grip over the people of Cuba.
The regime is facing the severest financial crisis since the early 1990s, compounded by the possible loss of its Venezuelan life line. But instead of ushering in a true economic and political opening that would unleash the entrepreneurial skills of the Cuban people and attract foreign capital, it has only introduced non-systemic, heavily-taxed, revocable reforms with no legal protection or investment return. To stay afloat, the regime is pursuing a three-pronged strategy:
First, it is trying to induce the U.S. to lift or further weaken the embargo to funnel tourist dollars and bank credits to the bankrupt island--a bailout under the guise of constructive engagement.
Second, it has apparently enlisted the support of the Catholic Church hierarchy in Cuba to promote “reconciliation” under the current totalitarian system, while continuing to hound, beat and arrest peaceful opponents and human rights activists across the island.
Third, it is seeking to divide and neutralize the Cuban-American community, and lure some of its businessmen, by selling the fallacious concept that there is no solution to Cuba’s predicament other than supporting cosmetic reforms without liberty and democracy.
We reject that outrageous proposition, since for us, and for most Cuban-Americans, there is no substitute for freedom. We believe that, absent the dismantling of the totalitarian apparatus on the island, along with the unconditional release of all political prisoners and the restoration of fundamental human rights, there should be no U.S. unilateral concessions to the Castro regime.
The future of the island-nation lies not with the current failed, octogenarian rulers, but with the leaders of the growing pro-democracy movement. They, and not their oppressors, are worthy of receiving international recognition, financial resources and communications technology to carry out their heroic struggle.
We pledge our continued support to them--the vanguard of the emerging civil society--and look forward to helping in the reconstruction of the island where we were born, but only when the Cuban people can enjoy the blessings of freedom we cherish and they deserve.
SIGNATORIES OF “COMMITMENT TO FREEDOM”
Manuel Jorge Cutillas, Fr. Chairman and CEO, BACARDI Sergio Masvidal, Fr. Vice Chairman, AMERICAN EXPRESS BANK Enrique Falla, Fr. EVP and CFO, DOW CHEMICAL Eduardo Crews, Fr. President, Latin America, BRISTOL-MEYERS SQUIBB Emilio Alvarez-Recio, Fr. VP. Worldwide Advertising, COLGATE-PALMOLIVE Néstor Carbonell, Fr. VP International Government Affairs, PEPSICO Alberto Mestre, Fr. President, Venezuela, GENERAL MILLS Rafael de la Sierra, Fr. VP International Coordination WARNER COMMUNICATIONS (now Time Warner) Eugenio Desvernine, Fr. Senior EVP, REYNOLDS METALS José R. Bou, Fr. VP Primary Products Operation, MARTIN MARIETTA ALUMINUM Alberto Luzárraga, Fr. Chairman, CONTINENTAL BANK INTERNATIONAL Remedios Diaz-Oliver, Fr. Director of U.S. WEST and BARNETT BANK Leopoldo Fernández-Pujals, Chairman JAZZTEL; Founder of TELEPIZZA Jorge Blanco, Fr. President & CEO, AMEX NICKEL CORPORATION. Carlos Gutierrez, Fr. U.S. SECRETARY OF COMMERCE Mel Martinez, Fr. U.S. SECRETARY OF HOUSING AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT
School official guarantees physical safety of her daughter who had been threatened with rape by state security agents
Damaris Moya Portieles
Damaris Moya Portieles initiated a hunger strike on June 3, 2012 demanding that her 5-year old daughter, Lazara Contreras Moya, be kept safe. This was because state security agents made graphic rape threats to the mother concerning about her five year old daughter. The worse of the perpetrators was Eric Francis Aquino Yera.
State Security Agent Eric Francis Aquino Yera threatened mother that her 5 year old girl would be raped.
Today, June 22, 2012 she ended the hunger strike after the director of the education center Lazara attends said that she would guarantee her physical safety. Below, in Spanish, is an audio declaration by Damaris Moya Portieles outlining the circumstances that led her to end her hunger strike on day 19 followed by the precautionary measure emitted by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR):
PM 163/12 – Damaris Moya Portieles and daughter, Cuba
On June 12, 2012, the IACHR granted precautionary measures in favor
of Damaris Moya Portieles and her daughter, 5 years old, in Cuba. The
request for precautionary measures alleges that Damaris Moya Portieles is
a human rights defender, and that she had been deprived of her liberty
several times as a result of her participation in demonstrations in her
country. The request also alleges that on May 2, 2012, during a vigile
organized for freedom in Cuba, agents of the Security police again
deprived her of her liberty, beat her, and threatened with raping her
daughter. The IACHR requested the State of Cuba to adopt the necessary
measures to guarantee the life and physical integrity of Damaris Moya
Portiele and her daughter, to adopt the measures in consultation with
the beneficiary and her representatives, and to inform on the actions
taken to investigate the facts that led to the adoption of precautionary
measures.
The reason why I've emphasized the rule of law so much in my political work is because this is what we all need if we are to really proceed towards democracy. - Aung San Suu Kyi
Aung San Suu Kyi delivers her acceptance speech upon receiving her honorary degree from the University of Oxford at the June 20, 2012 Encaenia ceremony. This took place in the midst of her first visit to Europe in 24 years following being released from years of unjust imprisonment.
While in London, Suu Kyi also had a private meeting with His Holiness the Dalai Lama. On June 21, 2012 she delivered a speech in the British parliament.
"There may be times when we are powerless to prevent injustice, but there must never be a time when we fail to protest." - Elie Wiesel, Nobel Lecture 1986
Neda Agha-Soltan January 23, 1983 – June 20, 2009
Three years ago today in Tehran, in the midst of the Green Revolution an agents of the Iranian regime shot and murdered Neda Agha-Soltan. She was just 26 years old and aspiring singer. Her death was captured on video and went viral across the internet providing a brutal image that brought home the reality of the violent crackdown visited on the nonviolent Green movement.
In Iran, the contested June 2009 election sparked an unprecedented wave of
state-sponsored violence and repression. Thousands of peaceful
protesters were beaten, arrested, tortured, and killed. One of them Neda
Agha-Soltan, age 27, was shot and killed on June 20, 2009 during the
protests denouncing election fraud. Her fiancé, Caspian Makan, is with
us here today, and will address the Summit tomorrow. Neda’s death was
captured on video and in those terrible moments reflected the great
crime committed by the Iranian government against the people of Iran.
Official numbers place the number of killed at 36 during the protests
but the opposition places the dead at 72. In 2009 at least 270 people
were hanged and in 2010 at least 12 so far. 4,000 have been arrested
including journalists and reformist politicians.
Three years later those responsible for this crime have yet to be brought to justice and the regime that carried out this brutal crime along with many others remains in power. It is precisely for these reasons that we must remember and continue to protest wherever and whenever possible to demand justice.
The World Youth Movement for Democracy are pleased to announce the 15 semi-finalists of its 2012 Global Photo Contest “Youth in Action: A Snapshot of Democracy!” The semi-finalists were selected from entries from all around the world by a committee of independent judges from the WYMD network. Now, it’s your turn to pick your top favorite entry. Vote now!
We are pleased to present the semi-finalists of the 2012 World Youth Movement for Democracy’s Global Photo Contest “Youth in Action: A Snapshot of Democracy.” In less than a month's time, we received a great number of strong entries from all around the world. These semi-finalists have been selected by a committee of independent judges from the WYMD network to go on to the voting stage of the competition.
Now, it’s time for you to pick your favorite entries. Vote in All Three Categories!
"It is not power that corrupts but fear. Fear of losing power corrupts those who wield it and fear of the scourge of power corrupts those who are subject to it." - Aung San Suu Kyi, Freedom from Fear
Aung San Suu Kyi will be celebrating her 67th birthday outside of Burma on June 19, 2012. Her last birthday was her first in freedom in over seven years. Before that she had celebrated her birthdays under house arrest or in prison. Now she is an opposition member of parliament traveling and giving thanks to those who have demonstrated their solidarity and asking for additional assistance for the people of Burma to achieve their freedom.
Beginning her visit to Geneva, Switzerland in 30 years at the start of a visit to European capitals to discuss the situation in Burma, Aung San Suu Kyi addressed a plenary session of the International Labour Organization on June 14, 2012.
A day later she arrived in Oslo, Norway and met with the Prime Minister and on the following day gave her Nobel Lecture, 21 years after having been awarded the prize.
She also gave thanks to the Norwegian people at an open venue in downtown Oslo on June 16.
On her final day in Norway she shared the stage with U2's Bono at a Peace Forum.
The Ambassador of Conscience is Amnesty International's highest honor. The Secretary General of Amnesty International was in Ireland to present the award. Suu Kyi addressed the audience in attendance.
Damaris Moya Portieles is protesting rape threats against her six-year old daughter by Castro agents.
Damaris Moya Portieles and her
six-year-old daughter Lázara Contreras Moya
You live in a police state under a one party dictatorship in which government agents operate with complete impunity. The last time you were detained the secret police and their agents spent hours describing in detail how they would brutally rape your 5 year old. What would you do? What could you do?
Damaris
Moya Portieles has been on hunger strike for the past 14 days demanding justice. She began the hunger strike on June 3, 2012. She is
protesting the rape threat against her six-year old daughter made by Castro regime
agents. Now the dictatorship threatens to prosecute Damaris for not sending her daughter to school. This despite the fact that she fears to send her child there while the Cuban regime agents that threatened to rape her daughter have not been held accountable. Its been more than month since the threats were made.
A mother's plea for her daughter calls for solidarity
On Sunday, June 17 in a video posted on youtube her mother, Bárbara Moya Portieles, made an impassioned plea for help and solidarity from the international community for her daughter's life explaining that she is fearful for her daughter and knows that State Security oversaw the deaths on hunger strike of Orlando Zapata Tamayo and Wilman Villar Mendoza and will do the same with Damaris.
The Inter American Commission on Human Rights on June 12, 2012 released a precautionary measure for Damaris Moya Portieles and her
six-year-old daughter Lázara Contreras Moya.
It calls for taking the necessary measures to protect the life and physical integrity of the mother and daughter while at the same time calling for an investigation.
Human rights activist and member of the Rosa Parks Movement for Civil
Rights, Damaris Moya Portieles, denounced on the morning of Thursday,
May 3rd 2012 that in addition to having been victim of a violent arrest
along with other dissidents during the previous Wednesday night, State
Security and political police agents threatened to rape her 5 year old
daughter.
According to Portieles, the main culprit of this threat was
the State Security agent Eric Francis Aquino Yera.
“The worst part of the entire night of my detention was when State
Security officials and penal guards started to shout insults at me,
among them saying that my 5 year old daughter, Lazara Contreras Moya,
was going to be raped”, said Moya Portieles upon being released, “They
told me, ‘Damaris, we are going to rape your daughter’. I cannot repeat
the very cruel words they used, but they told me: ‘We are going to stick
a penis up the behind of your daughter’,‘Your little girl is skinny, we
can easily crack her’ and ‘We are going to rape her whether it be by
the back or by the front’.
This is the most horrible thing that a mother
could hear about one of her children”, she affirmed.
Upon being released at around 11:00am, the first thing that Moya Portieles
did was to head to the school where her daughter studies and took her
home. The activist explained that she feels lots of fear, not for her,
but for her child. For this reason, Moya made a decision to not allow
her daughter to go to school until the repressor, Eric Francis Aquino
Yera, is taken before a tribunal and faces charges for threatening to
rape a minor.
Damaris Moya and her husband explained that they were on their way to
the Public Prosecutors Office of Santa Clara to present their demands
and complaints, and that they would later travel to the capital- Havana-
to complete the rest of the denouncement process, despite the fact that
both dissidents feel that such efforts will be in vain.
Aung San Suu Kyi, awarded the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize for her
non-violent struggle for democracy and human rights, is finally in Oslo, Norway, to deliver her Nobel Lecture.
Burmese democracy leader, Aung San Suu Kyi was under house arrest and unable to collect
the award in 1991. The Nobel Lecture will be delivered on
Saturday 16 June 2012, at 7:00am EST. Watch the lecture live below.
Nobel Lecture by Aung San Suu Kyi, Oslo, 16 June, 2012
Your Majesties, Your Royal Highness, Excellencies, Distinguished members of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, Dear Friends,
Long years ago, sometimes it seems many lives ago, I was at Oxford
listening to the radio programme Desert Island Discs with my young son
Alexander. It was a well-known programme (for all I know it still
continues) on which famous people from all walks of life were invited to
talk about the eight discs, the one book beside the bible and the
complete works of Shakespeare, and the one luxury item they would wish
to have with them were they to be marooned on a desert island. At the
end of the programme, which we had both enjoyed, Alexander asked me if I
thought I might ever be invited to speak on Desert Island Discs. “Why
not?” I responded lightly. Since he knew that in general only
celebrities took part in the programme he proceeded to ask, with
genuine interest, for what reason I thought I might be invited. I
considered this for a moment and then answered: “Perhaps because I’d
have won the Nobel Prize for literature,” and we both laughed. The
prospect seemed pleasant but hardly probable.
(I cannot now remember why I gave that answer, perhaps because I had
recently read a book by a Nobel Laureate or perhaps because the Desert
Island celebrity of that day had been a famous writer.)
In 1989, when my late husband Michael Aris came to see me during my
first term of house arrest, he told me that a friend, John Finnis, had
nominated me for the Nobel Peace Prize. This time also I laughed. For an
instant Michael looked amazed, then he realized why I was amused. The
Nobel Peace Prize? A pleasant prospect, but quite improbable! So how
did I feel when I was actually awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace? The
question has been put to me many times and this is surely the most
appropriate occasion on which to examine what the Nobel Prize means to
me and what peace means to me.
As I have said repeatedly in many an interview, I heard the news
that I had been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize on the radio one evening.
It did not altogether come as a surprise because I had been mentioned
as one of the frontrunners for the prize in a number of broadcasts
during the previous week. While drafting this lecture, I have tried
very hard to remember what my immediate reaction to the announcement of
the award had been. I think, I can no longer be sure, it was something
like: “Oh, so they’ve decided to give it to me.” It did not seem quite
real because in a sense I did not feel myself to be quite real at that
time.
Often during my days of house arrest it felt as though I were no
longer a part of the real world. There was the house which was my
world, there was the world of others who also were not free but who were
together in prison as a community, and there was the world of the
free; each was a different planet pursuing its own separate course in
an indifferent universe. What the Nobel Peace Prize did was to draw me
once again into the world of other human beings outside the isolated
area in which I lived, to restore a sense of reality to me. This did
not happen instantly, of course, but as the days and months went by and
news of reactions to the award came over the airwaves, I began to
understand the significance of the Nobel Prize. It had made me real
once again; it had drawn me back into the wider human community. And
what was more important, the Nobel Prize had drawn the attention of the
world to the struggle for democracy and human rights in Burma.
We were
not going to be forgotten.
To be forgotten. The French say that to part is to die a little. To
be forgotten too is to die a little. It is to lose some of the links
that anchor us to the rest of humanity. When I met Burmese migrant
workers and refugees during my recent visit to Thailand, many cried out:
“Don’t forget us!” They meant: “don’t forget our plight, don’t forget
to do what you can to help us, don’t forget we also belong to your
world.” When the Nobel Committee awarded the Peace Prize to me they
were recognizing that the oppressed and the isolated in Burma were also
a part of the world, they were recognizing the oneness of humanity. So
for me receiving the Nobel Peace Prize means personally extending my
concerns for democracy and human rights beyond national borders. The
Nobel Peace Prize opened up a door in my heart.
The Burmese concept of peace can be explained as the happiness
arising from the cessation of factors that militate against the
harmonious and the wholesome. The word nyein-chan translates literally
as the beneficial coolness that comes when a fire is extinguished.
Fires of suffering and strife are raging around the world. In my own
country, hostilities have not ceased in the far north; to the west,
communal violence resulting in arson and murder were taking place just
several days before I started out on the journey that has brought me
here today. News of atrocities in other reaches of the earth abound.
Reports of hunger, disease, displacement, joblessness, poverty,
injustice, discrimination, prejudice, bigotry; these are our daily fare.
Everywhere there are negative forces eating away at the foundations of
peace. Everywhere can be found thoughtless dissipation of material and
human resources that are necessary for the conservation of harmony and
happiness in our world.
The First World War represented a terrifying waste of youth and
potential, a cruel squandering of the positive forces of our planet.
The poetry of that era has a special significance for me because I first
read it at a time when I was the same age as many of those young men
who had to face the prospect of withering before they had barely
blossomed. A young American fighting with the French Foreign Legion
wrote before he was killed in action in 1916 that he would meet his
death: “at some disputed barricade;” “on some scarred slope of
battered hill;” “at midnight in some flaming town.” Youth and love and
life perishing forever in senseless attempts to capture nameless,
unremembered places. And for what? Nearly a century on, we have yet to
find a satisfactory answer.
Are we not still guilty, if to a less violent degree, of
recklessness, of improvidence with regard to our future and our
humanity? War is not the only arena where peace is done to death.
Wherever suffering is ignored, there will be the seeds of conflict, for
suffering degrades and embitters and enrages.
A positive aspect of living in isolation was that I had ample time
in which to ruminate over the meaning of words and precepts that I had
known and accepted all my life. As a Buddhist, I had heard about dukha,
generally translated as suffering, since I was a small child. Almost on
a daily basis elderly, and sometimes not so elderly, people around me
would murmur “dukha, dukha” when they suffered from aches and pains or
when they met with some small, annoying mishaps. However, it was only
during my years of house arrest that I got around to investigating the
nature of the six great dukha. These are: to be conceived, to age, to
sicken, to die, to be parted from those one loves, to be forced to live
in propinquity with those one does not love. I examined each of the
six great sufferings, not in a religious context but in the context of
our ordinary, everyday lives.
If suffering were an unavoidable part of
our existence, we should try to alleviate it as far as possible in
practical, earthly ways. I mulled over the effectiveness of ante- and
post-natal programmes and mother and childcare; of adequate facilities
for the aging population; of comprehensive health services; of
compassionate nursing and hospices. I was particularly intrigued by the
last two kinds of suffering: to be parted from those one loves and to
be forced to live in propinquity with those one does not love.
What
experiences might our Lord Buddha have undergone in his own life that
he had included these two states among the great sufferings? I thought
of prisoners and refugees, of migrant workers and victims of human
trafficking, of that great mass of the uprooted of the earth who have
been torn away from their homes, parted from families and friends,
forced to live out their lives among strangers who are not always
welcoming.
We are fortunate to be living in an age when social welfare and
humanitarian assistance are recognized not only as desirable but
necessary. I am fortunate to be living in an age when the fate of
prisoners of conscience anywhere has become the concern of peoples
everywhere, an age when democracy and human rights are widely, even if
not universally, accepted as the birthright of all. How often during my
years under house arrest have I drawn strength from my favourite
passages in the preamble to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights:
……. disregard and contempt for human rights have resulted in
barbarous acts which have outraged the conscience of mankind, and the
advent of a world in which human beings shall enjoy freedom of speech
and belief and freedom from fear and want has been proclaimed as the
highest aspirations of the common people,
…… it is essential, if man is not to be compelled to have recourse,
as a last resort, to rebellion against tyranny and oppression, that
human rights should be protected by the rule of law . . .
If I am asked why I am fighting for human rights in Burma the above
passages will provide the answer. If I am asked why I am fighting for
democracy in Burma, it is because I believe that democratic
institutions and practices are necessary for the guarantee of human
rights.
Over the past year there have been signs that the endeavours of
those who believe in democracy and human rights are beginning to bear
fruit in Burma. There have been changes in a positive direction; steps
towards democratization have been taken. If I advocate cautious optimism
it is not because I do not have faith in the future but because I do
not want to encourage blind faith. Without faith in the future, without
the conviction that democratic values and fundamental human rights are
not only necessary but possible for our society, our movement could
not have been sustained throughout the destroying years. Some of our
warriors fell at their post, some deserted us, but a dedicated core
remained strong and committed. At times when I think of the years that
have passed, I am amazed that so many remained staunch under the most
trying circumstances. Their faith in our cause is not blind; it is
based on a clear-eyed assessment of their own powers of endurance and a
profound respect for the aspirations of our people.
It is because of recent changes in my country that I am with you
today; and these changes have come about because of you and other
lovers of freedom and justice who contributed towards a global awareness
of our situation. Before continuing to speak of my country, may I
speak out for our prisoners of conscience. There still remain such
prisoners in Burma. It is to be feared that because the best known
detainees have been released, the remainder, the unknown ones, will be
forgotten. I am standing here because I was once a prisoner of
conscience. As you look at me and listen to me, please remember the
often repeated truth that one prisoner of conscience is one too many.
Those who have not yet been freed, those who have not yet been given
access to the benefits of justice in my country number much more than
one. Please remember them and do whatever is possible to effect their
earliest, unconditional release.
Burma is a country of many ethnic nationalities and faith in its
future can be founded only on a true spirit of union. Since we achieved
independence in 1948, there never has been a time when we could claim
the whole country was at peace. We have not been able to develop the
trust and understanding necessary to remove causes of conflict. Hopes
were raised by ceasefires that were maintained from the early 1990s
until 2010 when these broke down over the course of a few months. One
unconsidered move can be enough to remove long-standing ceasefires. In
recent months, negotiations between the government and ethnic
nationality forces have been making progress. We hope that ceasefire
agreements will lead to political settlements founded on the aspirations
of the peoples, and the spirit of union.
My party, the National League for Democracy, and I stand ready and
willing to play any role in the process of national reconciliation. The
reform measures that were put into motion by President U Thein Sein’s
government can be sustained only with the intelligent cooperation of
all internal forces: the military, our ethnic nationalities, political
parties, the media, civil society organizations, the business community
and, most important of all, the general public. We can say that reform
is effective only if the lives of the people are improved and in this
regard, the international community has a vital role to play.
Development and humanitarian aid, bi-lateral agreements and investments
should be coordinated and calibrated to ensure that these will promote
social, political and economic growth that is balanced and
sustainable. The potential of our country is enormous. This should be
nurtured and developed to create not just a more prosperous but also a
more harmonious, democratic society where our people can live in peace,
security and freedom.
The peace of our world is indivisible. As long as negative forces
are getting the better of positive forces anywhere, we are all at risk.
It may be questioned whether all negative forces could ever be
removed. The simple answer is: “No!” It is in human nature to contain
both the positive and the negative. However, it is also within human
capability to work to reinforce the positive and to minimize or
neutralize the negative. Absolute peace in our world is an unattainable
goal. But it is one towards which we must continue to journey, our
eyes fixed on it as a traveller in a desert fixes his eyes on the one
guiding star that will lead him to salvation. Even if we do not achieve
perfect peace on earth, because perfect peace is not of this earth,
common endeavours to gain peace will unite individuals and nations in
trust and friendship and help to make our human community safer and
kinder.
I used the word ‘kinder’ after careful deliberation; I might say the
careful deliberation of many years. Of the sweets of adversity, and
let me say that these are not numerous, I have found the sweetest, the
most precious of all, is the lesson I learnt on the value of kindness.
Every kindness I received, small or big, convinced me that there could
never be enough of it in our world. To be kind is to respond with
sensitivity and human warmth to the hopes and needs of others. Even the
briefest touch of kindness can lighten a heavy heart. Kindness can
change the lives of people. Norway has shown exemplary kindness in
providing a home for the displaced of the earth, offering sanctuary to
those who have been cut loose from the moorings of security and freedom
in their native lands.
There are refugees in all parts of the world. When I was at the
Maela refugee camp in Thailand recently, I met dedicated people who
were striving daily to make the lives of the inmates as free from
hardship as possible. They spoke of their concern over ‘donor fatigue,’
which could also translate as ‘compassion fatigue.’ ‘Donor fatigue’
expresses itself precisely in the reduction of funding. ‘Compassion
fatigue’ expresses itself less obviously in the reduction of concern.
One is the consequence of the other. Can we afford to indulge in
compassion fatigue? Is the cost of meeting the needs of refugees
greater than the cost that would be consequent on turning an
indifferent, if not a blind, eye on their suffering? I appeal to donors
the world over to fulfill the needs of these people who are in search,
often it must seem to them a vain search, of refuge.
At Maela, I had valuable discussions with Thai officials responsible
for the administration of Tak province where this and several other
camps are situated. They acquainted me with some of the more serious
problems related to refugee camps: violation of forestry laws, illegal
drug use, home brewed spirits, the problems of controlling malaria,
tuberculosis, dengue fever and cholera. The concerns of the
administration are as legitimate as the concerns of the refugees. Host
countries also deserve consideration and practical help in coping with
the difficulties related to their responsibilities.
Ultimately our aim should be to create a world free from the
displaced, the homeless and the hopeless, a world of which each and
every corner is a true sanctuary where the inhabitants will have the
freedom and the capacity to live in peace. Every thought, every word,
and every action that adds to the positive and the wholesome is a
contribution to peace. Each and every one of us is capable of making
such a contribution. Let us join hands to try to create a peaceful
world where we can sleep in security and wake in happiness.
The Nobel Committee concluded its statement of 14 October 1991 with
the words:
“In awarding the Nobel Peace Prize ... to Aung San Suu Kyi,
the Norwegian Nobel Committee wishes to honour this woman for her
unflagging efforts and to show its support for the many people
throughout the world who are striving to attain democracy, human rights
and ethnic conciliation by peaceful means.”
When I joined the
democracy movement in Burma it never occurred to me that I might ever
be the recipient of any prize or honour. The prize we were working for
was a free, secure and just society where our people might be able to
realize their full potential. The honour lay in our endeavour. History
had given us the opportunity to give of our best for a cause in which
we believed. When the Nobel Committee chose to honour me, the road I
had chosen of my own free will became a less lonely path to follow. For
this I thank the Committee, the people of Norway and peoples all over
the world whose support has strengthened my faith in the common quest
for peace.