A Test From Burma

“This would be the rough equivalent of a foreign leader's journeying to South Africa during apartheid and endorsing the imprisonment of Nelson Mandela or coming to the United States during the civil rights movement and saying it seemed like a good idea to lock up Martin Luther King Jr.”

A FEW DAYS AGO, Thailand's prime minister returned from a visit to the neighboring totalitarian state of Burma and pronounced the detention there of Aung San Suu Kyi "reasonable." This would be the rough equivalent of a foreign leader's journeying to South Africa during apartheid and endorsing the imprisonment of Nelson Mandela or coming to the United States during the civil rights movement and saying it seemed like a good idea to lock up Martin Luther King Jr. That Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra is elected, and ostensibly a democrat, makes his comment all the more puzzling. But he is also a wealthy business tycoon, as Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) intimated in a statement yesterday: "Thaksin would be wise to place principles ahead of profit with respect to Thailand's relationship with Burma."

These seemingly arcane matters became suddenly urgent Thursday with the news that Burma's regime has further isolated Aung San Suu Kyi in her house arrest. The junta ordered half of her guards to leave her house, and her access to a physician was reduced to one weekly visit. Given that the generals who rule Burma have tried to kill her, it was no surprise that U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan immediately expressed "serious concern." State Department spokesman Richard Boucher also weighed in: "We hold the Burmese junta solely responsible for her health, safety, security and well-being," he said.

Expressions of concern are good, but now Mr. Annan needs to go further. Aung San Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace Prize winner, is the legitimate leader of her nation, having won an electoral landslide in 1990. Those in the Asian nation's junta have never recognized the results, however, instead confining her, imprisoning and torturing many of her supporters, and waging a criminal war of rape and ethnic cleansing against many of Burma's ethnic groups. Their rule is a danger to neighboring states and the world, because their impoverished nation has become an epicenter of drugs and HIV. If ever a situation merited concerted international action, this would be it; if ever the United Nations faced a challenge to its relevance, this would be the moment.

© 2004 The Washington Post Company