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His Excellency Ban Ki-moon
Secretary-General of the United Nations
New York, New York 10017
Dear Secretary-General,

I am writing to respectfully urge you to put the situation in Burma on the formal
agenda of the United Nations Security Council and to use your good offices to
support the passage of a binding resolution requiring the restoration of
democracy to Burma.

The first ever United Nations Security Council briefing on Burma conducted by
your office in December of 2005 was a significant development. However, I
consider the briefing the initial step to bringing resolution to the current crisis in
Burma. I believe the increasingly unstable situation in Burma represents a threat,
not only to the people of Burma, but to international peace and security. As a
result, the United Nations Security Council has an obligation to intervene.

There is great urgency in this request because the situation in Burma continues
to deteriorate. As numerous reports make clear, Burma is ruled by one of the
world's most brutal military juntas. Abuses being committed by the military
regime include:

1. The continuing detention of the world's only imprisoned Nobel Peace Prize
recipient, Aung San Suu Kyi.

2. Imprisoning and torturing opponents, including more than 1,100 political
prisoners, thirteen of whom are fellow members of Parliament.

3. Using rape as a weapon of war.

4. Forcibly recruiting up to 70,000 child soldiers, far more than any other army in
the world.

5. Causing at least 700,000 refugees, with more to come, to flee across Burma's
borders into neighboring countries.

6. The SPDC Army has forced over 500,000 villagers from their land. These
people remain in Burma as internal refugees. They live and barely survive in the
jungles and mountains of eastern Burma. Their only desire is to return home and
live in peace.

7. Burning or otherwise destroying 2,700 villages.

8. Forcing humanitarian aid organizations such as Doctors without Borders
(France) and the UN's Global Fund on HIV/AIDS, Malaria, and Tuberculosis, to
leave Burma because the junta refuses to permit them to carry out their work.

9. Maintaining Burma’s status as the largest producer of illegal
methamphetamines in Southeast Asia, causing devastation of individuals and
families throughout the region.

10. Conducting a new military and brutal offensive against Burma’s ethnic Karen
minority. The acts of aggression against the Karen include the shooting of
unarmed civilians and children, burning villages, rape, torture, and mutilation.

In recent years the United Nations has employed many diplomatic initiatives in
relation to Burma. Two consecutive envoys from the your office and four other
Special Rapporteurs from the United Nations Commission on Human Rights
have failed to elicit reform from the regime. You have called for democratic
transition in Burma by 2006, but so far the regime has failed to respond.

The United Nations is not the only body to have failed in its attempts at diplomacy
with the military junta. The European Union has sent missions representing the
EU requesting change in Burma, again to no avail. Burma’s neighboring
countries, including Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Singapore have
failed in bilateral diplomacy, and recent requests for reform from the Association
of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) have been rebuffed.

The regime in Burma is clearly unwilling to respond to reasonable diplomatic
requests. The responsibility for failure in these efforts rests solely with Burma's
military junta. The international community cannot allow the current impasse to
continue. It is now time for the United Nations Security Council to intervene. It has
the power to pass a binding resolution requiring the regime to engage in genuine
negotiations and begin a transition to democracy in Burma.

There is ample precedent for a Security Council resolution on Burma. The
Council has passed resolutions on many countries, including Haiti, Sierra Leone,
Afghanistan, Yemen, and Liberia where conditions less severe than those in
Burma existed. Failure by the Security Council to act on Burma will cause the
death of more innocent civilians.

The recent report, A Threat To The Peace, commissioned by former Czech
President Vaclav Havel and South Africa's Archbishop Desmond Tutu provides
detailed reasons on why the Security Council should act, and the legal basis on
which it can do so. The Havel-Tutu report recommends UN Security Council
action that would require Burma's military regime to work with the United Nations
on a plan for transition. Since the report was produced, the Council unanimously
adopted Resolution 1674, providing further justification for Security Council
intervention.

At the December 16, 2005, United Nations Security Council briefing on Burma,
you suggested a course of action on Burma. I support your recommendation and
I urge the Council to adopt a resolution following the recommendations by Mr.
Havel and Mr. Tutu. This resolution should:

1) Require the government of Burma to work with the UN Secretary General in
implementing a plan for national reconciliation.

2) Request the UN Secretary General remain involved in the reconciliation
process and require him to report back to the Council on a regular basis.

3) Urge the Government of Burma to ensure the immediate, safe, and unhindered
access to all parts of the country for the United Nations and international
humanitarian organizations to provide humanitarian assistance to the most
vulnerable groups of the population, including internally displaced people.

4) Call for the immediate and unconditional release of Aung San Suu Kyi and all
political prisoners in Burma.

Thank you for your attention to this most serious matter.

Sincerely,

cc: Representatives of the United Nations Security Council