Arakan Watch, April 11, 2023:
A total of 413 civil society organisations from Burma/Myanmar, Timorese, regional and international arena have signed an open letter urging the President of Democratic Republic of Temor-Leste, Dr. Jose Ramos-Horta very strongly to review the invitation of illegal Burmese Military at International Workshop on “Strengthening Democracy, Peace and Stability in State Building”, set to be held on May 19, 2023 in Dili.
They called Dr. Jose along with the National Commission for Elections (CNE) President Dr. Jose Agostinho da Costa Belo Pereira, and the Network of Jurisdictional and Electoral Administration Bodies of Portuguese Speaking Countries (ROJAE-CPLP), to retract inviting the representatives of the so-called “Myanmar Election Agency” appointed by the illegal junta to your International Workshop.
Civil society organisations affirmed that these members of the Myanmar Election Agency, representing the brutal junta, have no credibility to talk about the subject of strengthening democracy, peace, and stability in state-building. After its attempted coup in February 2021, without a constitutional basis, the military junta invalidated the results of the democratically held November 2020 General Elections where the National League of Democracy (NLD) won in a massive landslide — a move that disregards the people’s will and runs contrary to the central tenets of democracy. Even then, after more than two years of the coup, the illegal junta controls only 17% of the country’s territory while the majority is controlled under the governance of the legitimate National Unity Government and Ethnic Revolutionary Organizations.
The organisations also noted that the illegitimate junta and their administrations have conducted nationwide attacks on civilians, eradicating the foundations of free media, civil society, the political party system, and academic freedom. As of March 2023, the junta and their enablers have killed over 3,000 people, arrested over 21,000 people. At least 1.4 million people have been internally displaced by the military’s violence, and at least 52,200 people forced to leave Myanmar, according to the UN Office of the High Commission on Human Rights and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. We know that you are aware of this grave situation having bravely voiced your own protest against the coup during its early days.
Among these civil society organisations, the only one Rohingya Organisation known as Burmese Rohingya Organisation in UK (BROUK) is notably signed the letter, even though the ethnic Rohingya minority of the worst victims Burmese genocide and atrocities. ##
Full letter can be read here.Election_Timorese_Myanmar_413orgs
