'The jury's out'

Elaine Pearson is the deputy Asia Director at Human Rights Watch. She is based in New York and spoke to the Deutsche Welle from Jakarta.

Deutsche Welle: Positive changes have taken place in Myanmar since President Thein Sein took office in May of this year. The rhetoric of the government has changed too, as Human Rights Watch remarks in its press release.

Elaine Pearson: Now this is the government that actually talks about human rights; it thinks about the need to address economic, social and cultural rights. So, at least in terms of the public statements that are being made, this is a positive step. We've also seen media restrictions relax somewhat. Aung San Suu Kyi, about whom previously the censors had not really allowed any reporting, now there are press articles in which she is quoted...We've also seen a few bills that have been passed by the parliament: one on labor organizing, basically giving unions the right to form independent trade unions and the right to strike. Secondly, amendments to the political party registration law, which is quite important. There were certain restrictions which were put into place last year that basically made it very difficult for the NLD (Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy: the ed.) to register, because it said basically that parties cannot have members who are serving prison terms. And obviously there are hundreds of NLD members serving prison terms...

So would you say the situation has improved on the whole?

These are encouraging signs, but what we should remember is that there are still a lot of laws on the books that allow for repression. When we look at the situation, for instance, in the ethnic areas, we are seeing the same old abuses that have been happening for many years: attacks on civilians, summary executions, forced labor. In fact, since the election last year, offensives have increased in Kachin State and in the Karen and Shan States. And we've also seen the continuing use of convict porters, which is about using prisoners as human mine-sweepers to carry equipment through heavily mined areas for the troops.

Things are changing so quickly in Myanmar. What is your prediction regarding the short-term political future of the country?

The jury is out. Everyone will be watching very closely to see how the by-elections go. There are local by-elections happening in November and a real test will be if the NLD now does register in one of the elections - you know, are these elections carried out in a free and fair way? We had a lot of concerns about how the election one year ago was carried out, in a sort of very fraudulent process, with a lot of concerns about advance ballots being used and so on. So I think people want to get a sense of how the political situation will develop by seeing how the next round of by-elections progresses.

Interview: Arun Chowdhury
Editor: Sarah Berning