Subcommittee on International Human Rights Committee on March 10th, 2015

[The Chair, Conservative, Scott Reid]

Order, please.

Welcome to the 59th meeting of the Subcommittee on International Human Rights of the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Development. Today is March 10, 2015.

We are televised today.

We are following up on a study of the Inter Pares program in Burma.

We have with us today a series of witnesses from Inter Pares. I apologize for the fact that I only have three of you listed here on my list, but I can see, going from my left to my right, that we have Kevin Malseed, Rebecca Wolsak, Wahkushee Tenner, Jessica Nhkum, Philippa Curwen, and Htwe Htwe.

The way this committee works is, unfortunately, we always have a little bit less than an hour. We have to allow time for questions from each of the six MPs sitting here, but you give your presentation first.

Because of the fact that you were being rushed in here while the other committee was clearing out, I have not had a chance to ask how you propose to do your presentation. Is it one presenter or two presenters? Rebecca Wolsak, are you the person I should be negotiating this with?

[Rebecca Wolsak, Program Manager, Inter Pares]

I can explain. I was going to give you some introductory remarks, then Wahkushee was going to present, and then Jessica. Then all of us are available to answer questions.

[The Chair, Conservative, Scott Reid]

Okay.

Normally what we do is we try to keep our introductory section, including all the people who are doing introductions, down to about 10 minutes. We're not going to do anything awful if you go over, but that's what we prefer. That allows enough time for decent question and answer sessions, which are built around delving more deeply into the areas that you raised in your initial testimony.

With that said, we're glad to have you here. We're honoured you could arrive. We're thankful for your patience both with my pronunciation and with the issues of getting the meeting ready to go.

I will turn the floor over to you, Ms. Wolsak.

[Rebecca Wolsak]

Good afternoon. Thank you for giving us this opportunity to speak with you today.

I want to take a moment to commend you on your 2013 study of the human rights context in Burma and its excellent recommendations.

I work at Inter Pares. We're a small Canadian social justice organization based here in Ottawa. Before passing the floor to my colleagues form Burma, I want to note that the amazing work they do is part of a large Burma program that is funded by the Government of Canada and managed by Inter Pares.

We've been working with people from Burma since 1991. For much of the past 20 years we have had significant financial support from CIDA and now the Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development. The focus of our work is in the conflict-impacted communities in Burma.

By way of introduction, I want to make one point.

Burma has two intertwined struggles: the fight for democracy and for ethnic autonomy.

Over the past four years we have seen some progress in the democracy movement. This progress is often somewhat superficial, and we have sadly seen backsliding over the past year.

Just today, hundreds of riot police cracked down on peaceful student protesters north of Rangoon. An estimated 100 people were badly beaten and over 120 were arrested. Those attacked included protestors, villagers, medics, monks, and media.

In terms of the struggle for ethnic autonomy, it's important to note that about 40% of the population identifies as an ethnic nationality. There has been conflict in the ethnic states for the past 60 years. This conflict is rooted in ethnic people's desire to have some control over their own lives, to be able to speak their own languages, to practise their religions, and to manage their own social services, education, and resources. In general they aspire to a federal system much like we have in Canada. There has been very little progress on these aspirations.

We firmly believe that democracy and sustainable peace in Burma will only be possible if they are inclusive processes and if ethnic aspirations are addressed.

With that, I will pass the floor to Wahkushee.

[Wahkushee Tenner, Joint General Secretary, Women’s League of Burma , Member of Karen Women Organization, Inter Pares]

My name is Wahkushee. I'm ethnic Karen, and I come from southeast Burma. Thank you very much for having me here to speak to you today.

First, I would like to say thank you very much to the Canadian government for their long support of ethnic civil society organizations and direct aid to ethnic communities in Burma. Through your support, we have been able to set up our organization, the Women's League of Burma, build capacity for women, provide services and support to survivors, and advocate for them.

Civil war has been going on for more than 60 years in Burma between the central government and the ethnic people who want equal rights within the federal system. Millions of people continue to be displaced. Many human rights violations committed by the Burmese army can be classified as war crimes and crimes against humanity. Rape, sexual violence, is one of these crimes. This has been going on for decades. Recent research by members of the Women's League of Burma has shown that this has carried on unchanged since Thein Sein became president and the reform process began in 2011. Our report, “Same Impunity, Same Patterns”, documents the more than 100 women who have been raped by the Burmese army since the election in Burma in 2010. Due to restrictions on the documentation of human rights violations in Burma, we believe this is just a fraction of the true number. In none of these cases were the perpetrators brought to justice.

These crimes are more than random acts by individual soldiers. Their widespread and systematic nature indicates a strategy. The Burmese military continues to use rape as a weapon of war. Unarmed civilians are deliberately targeted as they are seen as potential threats. Of the rapes documented in this report, 47 were brutal gang rapes, and 28 of the women were either killed or died of their injuries. Some were as young as eight. Others were grandmothers.

Another follow-up report by my organization, “If They Had Hope, They Would Speak”, documented another 14 rape cases by the Burmese troops from January to June 2014. Many of the women who survived fled into the areas not under control of the government. These are areas where humanitarian aid is either totally or severely restricted by the Burmese government, and where local community organizations play a key role in delivering humanitarian and other assistance. In Kachin State and Shan State in northern Burma, where many of these rapes have taken place, often the only way to get life-saving aid is through an official community-based mechanism, but the UN and most governments will not fund this kind of aid.

The Canadian government is setting a good example for other international governments and donors in giving direct support to ethnic organizations and communities who have been suffering and oppressed by the Burmese government. We really appreciate your long support. It is important that this support continue. Through your support, we are able to continue struggling for our right to equality and self-determination.

Unfortunately, we still have a long way to go. Even though the Burmese government has signed a new ceasefire with most of the ethnic armed groups since 2011, it has so far refused to start political dialogue. It has also continued to build up troops and launch military offensives in ethnic areas, including against groups that have already signed the ceasefire. While this offensive continues, military sexual violence will persist. But just ending the offensive will not solve the problem while the military remains outside civilian control. The long-term solution for ending military sexual violence in Burma is for the constitution to be changed, to place the military under civilian control, and to grant equal rights to the ethnic people under the federal system of government, which would bring an end to the civil war.

It is urgently needed to pressure the Burmese military to stop committing sexual abuses and to begin a process of political reform.

I have two recommendations for the Canadian government. Number one is to take a lead in calling for an international investigation into human rights violations in Burma, particularly related to military sexual violence. Number two is to continue providing direct support to ethnic civil society organizations that are providing services and protecting the rights of their communities in the conflict areas.

Thank you very much for your attention. Now I would like to give the floor to my colleague Jessica.

[Jessica Nhkum, Joint General Secretary, Kachin Women's Association, Inter Pares]

Thank you so much for having us here today. I'm an ethnic Kachin and I come from the northern part of Burma. With the support of the Canadian government, community-based organizations like us can continue to work there for the improvement of human rights violations and peace in Burma.

Today I am going to share with you the situation about ongoing civil war and the continuing human rights violations in Kachin areas in the north of Burma.

Since the Thein Sein-led government took power in March 2011, there have been some positive changes, mainly in the cities in the centre of Burma. There is a little bit more freedom of speech and media. The international community has welcomed these changes and has increased investment and aid to the government. Many international non-governmental organizations are now officially working in Burma.

However, in the ethnic areas, which cover more than half of the country, the Burmese army has not stopped its militarization and operations to control the rich natural resources such as jade, gold, and timber. In Kachin and northern Shan states, attacks by the Burmese army started in June 2011, only three months after the current government took power. This huge increase in Burmese troops in Kachin areas has led to a sharp increase in human rights violations. These include sexual violence, killing, arbitrary arrest, disappearance, forced perjuring, torture, and forced labour.

In the last two months we have documented violations committed against 14 Kachin men and women. These included cases of torture, killing, disappearance, and rape. None of those cases were going to court and there has been no justice yet.

I would like to share one of these cases involving two school teachers who were 20 and 21 years of age. They were volunteering at a small Kachin village in northern Shan State. They stayed at the church compound at the edge of the village. On the morning of January 20, about 30 Burmese soldiers came into the village and that night the soldiers took security around the village. The next morning on January 21, the teachers were found half naked and killed in their hut. Early that morning an army truck was seen leaving that village.

It is so clear that the Burmese soldiers committed the crime, but they threatened and accused some of the villagers. They brutally tortured two boys to make them confess that they did the crime. The authorities told them they would pay 10 million kyat, which is about about $10,000 U.S., if they admitted to it. The government media reported that legal action would be taken against anyone who accused Burmese soldiers of committing this crime. Even though everybody knows the truth, it is still very challenging to get justice in Burma as the 2008 constitution grants impunity to the military in Burma.

During the past four years, the war in Kachin areas has led to the displacement of 120,000 people. Among them 80,000 are sheltering in Kachin-controlled areas and the rest are in the cities in the government-controlled areas. The Burmese government has been blocking aid to the IDPs, internally displaced persons, in Kachin-controlled areas. There is a shortage of basic food and health care, especially for young children and pregnant women. The women cannot get proper treatment in the IDP camps and die while delivering.

There has also been an increase in other problems such as human trafficking because of the war. Displaced women and girls try to find work in China and end up being sold as forced brides or sex workers.

During this time of conflict in Kachin areas, our organization has been been documenting the human rights violations and reporting them to the international community. We have been raising community awareness to prevent trafficking, and taking care of trafficked women who escape back to the border area.

We have been empowering our community by conducting courses on political issues and providing primary health care to 8,000 people through three small clinics. We believe that empowering and mobilizing the community will help change our country from the bottom up. Therefore, supporting community-based organizations in the ethnic areas is very important in order to gain true peace in Burma in a sustainable way.

In conclusion, I would like to request that the Canadian government pressure the Burmese government to begin troop withdrawal from Kachin and other ethnic conflict areas and that it enter into political dialogue to provide more humanitarian aid through community-based organizations working to assist internally displaced people in ethnic areas.

Finally, we urge Canada to have a conflict-sensitive approach to everything it does in Burma, including any large investment projects.

Thank you very much for your attention.

[The Chair, Conservative, Scott Reid]

Thank you to all our witnesses.

We probably have enough time for five minutes each. If the answers turn out to be long because of multiple witnesses responding to a single question, it may mean that questioners will get only one question, so if you feel you've received an answer and don't need other people to intervene in response, don't be shy about letting us know that. You've only five minutes each to work with for your round, so act accordingly.

Mr. Sweet, go ahead, please.

[David Sweet, Conservative, Ancaster—Dundas—Flamborough—Westdale, ON]

Let me just say from the outset that there aren't words strong enough for me to express my absolute disappointment with the lack of progress in Burma. I reviewed testimony from 2012, in fact, the previous testimony of Inter Pares.

Thank you very much, Ms. Wolsak, for being here.

I have before me the executive summary of a 2011 report from Physicians for Human Rights in Burma. They made three strong findings: the army forced Kachin civilians to walk in front of tanks to set off land mines; it pillaged food and supplies from civilians; it fired indiscriminately on villages. Even though I see this and it's repulsive and repugnant and absolutely unacceptable, I don't see anywhere in here that in 2011 rape was being used as a weapon of warfare. Now, all of a sudden, instead of getting better, as it promised us, it has continued to allow the military to act even more maliciously, and now to start targeting and attacking women.

I wanted to make sure that I expressed my deep concerns about that, and I hope there will be a statement from this committee in that regard after so little progress has been made. In fact, there has been regression in the case of human rights and the rule of law in Burma.

I don't know where to start. Maybe I should just ask, is it still the case that 25 seats, which were a concern in the parliament of Burma, are set aside for the military, or has that situation been rectified in the government in Burma?

[Rebecca Wolsak]

That's written into the constitution. The 2008 constitution says that 25% of seats must be held by active duty officers, and to change the constitution you need a 75% plus one vote.

[David Sweet, Conservative, Ancaster—Dundas—Flamborough—Westdale, ON]

Has there been no dealing with that?

[Rebecca Wolsak]

No.

[David Sweet, Conservative, Ancaster—Dundas—Flamborough—Westdale, ON]

Okay.

Is the women's organization that you lead pan-Myanmar, pan-Burma? Is it in every location, or is it focused in one state?

[Wahkushee Tenner]

The Women's League of Burma comprises women's organizations from different ethnic backgrounds, so we're working in nearly every ethnic state. Rape cases occur in nearly every ethnic state where the conflict is taking place.

[David Sweet, Conservative, Ancaster—Dundas—Flamborough—Westdale, ON]

That's outside of the capital.

Are there any calls for justice in the outlying states from those people in the capital who are identified as human rights defenders? There were none before. Has that changed now? Are there champions who are voicing their concern and telling the military to stand down and proceed with peace talks with the ethnic minorities in these outlying states?

[Wahkushee Tenner]

Yes, we are working together with the Women's Organizations Network. It is also a big women's organization inside Burma. For them it's a bit difficult as they are living in Burma. We are based in Thailand for security reasons, but most of our activities are taking place in Burma. We are still working together. When it comes to military issues, they have to be very careful.

[David Sweet, Conservative, Ancaster—Dundas—Flamborough—Westdale, ON]

I would like to reiterate that question then. As far as those who are identified as human rights defenders in the capital, are they voicing concerns about the Rohingya, about those in Kachin State, about all the ethnic minorities, or is there still a silence in that regard? Are they only focusing on, as you said, the struggle for democracy in the capital and close lying regions therein?

[Rebecca Wolsak]

There definitely are some advocates within Rangoon who are identifying these particular issues. It's very difficult for them and their space is becoming increasingly limited.

[David Sweet, Conservative, Ancaster—Dundas—Flamborough—Westdale, ON]

Is it riskier for them these days than it was when you first testified here three years ago?

[Rebecca Wolsak]

I would say so, yes.

[Jessica Nhkum]

I would like to add a little bit to that question.

For example, in the case that I'm testifying, the two teachers that were raped and killed, the people raised this issue in the city. The government's media stated that whoever accused the soldiers, they will be arrested. This is the situation in Burma. It's very difficult. These soldiers are committed everywhere. We can never take action like that because the law already covers them and protects them.

[The Chair, Conservative, Scott Reid]

Mr. Marston.

[Wayne Marston, NDP, Hamilton East—Stoney Creek, ON]

I want to welcome everyone, especially Rebecca, once again. I appreciate it.

I was part of a parliamentary delegation that travelled to Burma. At that time there was a sense of optimism. We met with Aung San Suu Kyi for part of an afternoon and we visited the house where, unfortunately, we learned, as Mr. Sweet has indicated, that 25% of the army was seated in that room. Worse still, the top two generals of the country, one was the speaker of the upper house and one was the speaker of the lower house...so clearly, when we met with Aung San Suu Kyi.... I had a conversation with her. Everybody in the street was telling us she would be the next president, and I said to her that in my view, there was no hope of that happening unless she was able to negotiate a power sharing deal with those two generals because they had no reason to give up power.

The advantage I think they have is that they are aging. There may be the potential for setting aside past grievances and allowing them to move forward, but unless that's guaranteed.... I'm really, really concerned.

We set up a new embassy there and we had an ambassador go in around that time. I sense Mr. Sweet's disappointment over there. We all share it because we had great hopes. What I'm hearing is that the same level of impunity is there that has always been there. Until you have the rule of law, and where women who are attacked get justice, then I think that's down the road a way.

While I was in Rangoon, we were shown a centre where they were bringing people together. I forget the name of it. NGOs and other people were given a certain amount of a budget. It looked to me that it might have been window dressing at the time, but some of the leadership was brought in there and you had a sense that they were being empowered.

Can you comment on that at all? I apologize, but I don't remember the name of the organization.

I see some quizzing going on, so I may have led you down the wrong path. I'll find out, Rebecca, and get back to you on that.

It was like an incubation centre and it was right in the centre of the city. Some activists were there who had been activists fighting for land and a variety of things. It sounded like they were at least being given a forum. A forum in that country was something that was very high risk in the past and we were worried whether or not they would actually survive. It was a government initiative, so I think it was window dressing we were seeing.

Do you have any comment?

[Rebecca Wolsak]

I'm not sure which of two or three different things it could be, so I'm not going to respond.

[Wayne Marston, NDP, Hamilton East—Stoney Creek, ON]

It's under the umbrella of the government itself directly.

[Rebecca Wolsak]

Right. Sorry.