International Friends of Burma

Desmond Tutu
The Activist in Archbishop’s Robes

When the Norwegian Nobel Committee awarded its peace prize to Aung San Suu Kyi in 1991, it echoed the 1984 citation for laureate Desmond Tutu, praising her non-violent struggle for democracy and human rights in the face of oppression. Since then, Tutu has regularly reminded the world of his “sister laureate’s” plight and the suffering of all political prisoners in Burma, whose voices he wants to make heard “as if the walls of their jails did not exist.”

Archbishop Desmond Tutu (Photo: AFP)

Tutu regularly characterizes the Burmese junta as “criminal” and has not wavered in his support for targeted sanctions, citing their success in helping bring down the apartheid government of South Africa. He admits that sanctions caused suffering amongst poor black Africans, but he says it was “suffering with a purpose.”

Writing in The Washington Post in April what could almost have been a blueprint for the Obama administration’s new policy of engagement, Tutu said the US “should engage Burma, but it should not engage in wishful thinking.”

Tutu rejects making offers of aid as Burma’s authoritarian regime seems “to care not a bit for the economic well-being of its country.” An easing of sanctions, he suggests, would acknowledge that the junta has “won the struggle with its people and proved its right to rule.”

“Diplomatic engagement is likely to succeed only when sanctions have truly hit their mark,” he said.

VÁclav Havel
The Dissident who Became President

A long-standing and staunch supporter of Burma’s pro-democracy movement, former Czechoslovakian and Czech Republic President Václav Havel in 2009 reaffirmed his stand by speaking out against Aung San Suu Kyi’s incarceration in Insein Prison during her trial.

“After years and countless calls on the junta to adhere to international rules and standards, the international community somehow got used to the fact that even elementary dialogue with the junta is impossible and that hundreds of thousands of refugees from Burma are a fact of life, and that nothing can be done about it. The latest developments should serve as a wake-up call,” he said.

Václav Havel (Photo: AFP)

Havel nominated Suu Kyi for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991, and joined forces with Nobel laureate Desmond Tutu in 2005 in drafting a report to pressure the UN Security Council to take action on Burma.

Havel can empathize with Suu Kyi: he was born to an upper-class family and was imprisoned by a totalitarian government for five years for his political views, which he expressed through his plays and writing.

The diminutive, chain-smoking playwright was carried into power after the Czechoslovakian “Velvet Revolution” helped overthrow Communist rule in Eastern Europe in 1989. Much to his chagrin, he was forced to oversee the breakup of the country when Slovakia ceded from the federation in 1992-3.

Although he has now retired from politics, Havel continues to be seen as a global icon against injustice.

In 2009, Havel joined with the Club of Madrid, a lobby group of 72 former world leaders, in calling for Suu Kyi’s release. And in June, he contributed to a campaign marking Suu Kyi’s 64th birthday.

Mark Canning
A Diplomat and Eloquent Blogger

Diplomacy and journalism don’t usually mix, but Britain’s ambassador to Burma from 2006 to 2009 was a striking exception.

Throughout the two crises that hit Burma during his three years in Rangoon—the September 2007 demonstrations and the May 2008 cyclone—Mark Canning reported eloquently and accurately to whatever news outlet that cared to listen, including The Irrawaddy. He wrote a regular blog for the British daily The Guardian, combining a fine writing style with a sense of detail that many a professional foreign correspondent would envy.