Thursday, August 7, 2008

Declaration of the Ethnic Nationalities Groups in Japan (English)

Declaration of the Ethnic Nationalities Groups in Japan
rejecting the SPDC’s Constitution – ( 29 June 2008. Tokyo )

After careful analysis of the current situation in the Union of Burma, the various ethnic nationalities organizations in Japan issued its combined statement on the 29 June 2008 as follows:-
1. On 25 May, 2008 the SPDC regime declared the promulgation of its Constituion, claiming that the referendum held 10th and 24th May yielded a favorable result of 92.48%. This declaration has been made one-sidedly based on total lies. The voters inside the country were not allowed to express their free will and many were forced or intimidated to vote in favour of the Constitution. The Burmese in exiles were also not allowed to take part during the referendum.The referendum was held without allowing any inside or outside observers and the promulgation was thus made one-sidely. For these reasons we, all the undersiged organizations, declare that we do not accept the promulgation of the SPDC’S Constitution.
2. A Constitution should be written by the elected people’s representatives of the 1990 general elections thorugh Peoples’ Assembly. But the SPDC instead convened a sham National Convention which prepared the Constitution with their hand-picked stooges. It does not reflect the will of the nationalities and the citizens. It does not guarantee human rights and democracy. For these reasons we all reject the SPDC’s Constitution.
3. We express our appreciations to the international communities that have refused to recognize the result of the referendum and the SPDC’s Constitution.
4. We demand and declare that the United Nations Security Council should use its good office for the realization of Tripatite Dialogue that it has been in favour of for the past decades.
5. The mismanagement and irresponsive reactions of the SPDC regime has caused the unnecessarily death of more than 130,000 Nagris Cyclone victims and left more than 250,000 victims homeless. Determined to cling to their power the SPDC had held the referendum amidst such human disaster of big scale. Even after Senior General Than Shwe promised the UN General Secretary Mr. Ban-Ki Mon to let the international relief workers full access to the victims of the said Cyclone, in practicle there still exist a lot of obstacles and restrictions. For this reason we request the UN General Secretary not to believe the SPDC regime but to constantly press for the restoration of democracy and freedom in the Union of Burma.
6. We seriously appeal to all the world leaders who are currently in Japan attending the G8 submit to express their vehement rejection of the illegal SPDC Constitution and condem the Burmese dictators in a strongest possible way for attempting to hold a sham election in 2010 to deceive the world with a sham transition to democracy.

Kachin National Organization -Japan KNO-Japan
Karen National League-Japan KNL-Japan
Chin National Community -Japan CNC-Japan
Naga National Society-Japan NNS-Japan
Palaung National Society -Japan PNS-Japan
Punnyagari Mon National Society-Japan PMNS-Japan
Arakan League for Democracy(Exile-Japan) ALD-Exile-(Japan)
Shan Nationalities for Democracy-Japan SND-Japan
Kachin National Uplift Society KNUS
Overseas Karen National Union(Japan) OKO-Japan
Karen National Union (Japan) KNU-Japan
Kachin State National Congress Party for Democracy(Liberated Area Japan Branch) KNCD (LA-JB)
Shan State Nationalities for Democracy(Japan) SSND-Japan

Jhk