Overseas Burmese Protest Constitution

By SAW YAN NAING
The Irrawaddy News-AP

Thousands of exiled and expatriate Burmese people have been gathering outside Burmese embassies around the world to express dissatisfaction with the military government’s constitutional referendum.

Voting has already begun in some countries ahead of the May 10 referendum. While some were allowed into their respective embassies to cast their votes, others were turned away by officials.

The protests were mostly launched by Burmese nationals—both those who can vote and those with no voting rights in the referendum—at their respective embassies in several countries, including Canada, Singapore, Malaysia, Japan, South Korea and Thailand.

The biggest demonstration was held in Singapore on Sunday where some 2,500 protesters—many wearing red t-shirts with the word “No” emblazoned on the front—gathered outside the Burmese embassy and protested against the draft constitution.

Sources in Singapore said that even some Burmese people who were invited to vote in the national referendum by the embassy were denied the right by authorities when they went into the embassy to vote.

More than 40,000 Burmese people are currently living in Singapore, about 10,000 of who were officially invited by authorities to vote in the referendum, said sources.

The Burmese regime has stipulated that only citizens with legitimate documents, such as Burmese passports, can vote overseas, a ruling that excludes most political exiles and refugees.

Meanwhile, some 230 Burmese expatriates living in Japan staged a mock referendum on Sunday outside the Burmese embassy in Tokyo, criticizing the draft constitution as a ploy to keep the ruling junta in power.

The Burmese embassy had mailed letters earlier this month to more than 2,000 of its citizens in Japan, inviting them to vote on the proposed constitution in a two-day advance poll held over the weekend at the embassy, Japanese police and the foreign ministry said. However, fewer than 100 people had voted at the embassy as of Sunday afternoon, according to a count by the protesters.

About 100 Burmese citizens in Malaysia, including political activists, migrant workers and people from ethnic minorities, gathered in front of the Burmese embassy on Saturday wearing colorful traditional costumes displaying the word “No” and demanding the right to vote.

An estimated 500,000 Burmese people are living in Malaysia, about 180,000 of who possess legal documents. No official count for voters was available from the embassy.

About 100 protesters, including activists, migrant workers, students and ethnic minority people, gathered outside the Burmese embassy in Bangkok for about 30 minutes on Sunday.

The demonstrators, organized by the Joint Action Committee for Democracy in Burma, chanted slogans against the May 10 referendum. A statement from the umbrella committee for the dozen dissident organizations said the constitution was drawn up solely by pro-junta groups and would give the military great powers in any future government.

An estimated 360,000 registered Burmese migrants and 1.2 million unregistered migrants in Thailand were denied their voting rights.

Meanwhile, about 60 Burmese people in Seoul, the South Korean capital, gathered outside the Burmese embassy on Sunday to protest against the junta-written draft constitution, many wearing white shirts bearing the words “Vote No” and the logo of a cross. According to Yan Naing Htun, a Seoul-based Burmese activist, the protesters set up two artificial ballot boxes and urged people to vote “No” in the referendum.

In the United States, sources estimated that up to 100 people participated in the referendum in New York. It is estimated that the New York's Permanent Mission of Burma has some 500 registered voters.

The Burmese embassy in Washington, D.C. was the only other place in the US where Burmese citizens were able to vote in the referendum. Unlike New York, the voting process in Washington was opened for three days—Friday, Saturday and Sunday—from April 25 to 27.

Pro-democracy groups who were holding a protest outside the embassy claimed the turnout was very low. Out of the 1,500 registered voters, a little more than 150 people are believed to have cast their votes so far, with one day remaining.

Meanwhile, Kyaw Zaw Wai, a protester in Canada’s capital, Ottawa, said that more than 100 Burmese citizens from Toronto and Ottawa, including ethnic Karen, Chin, and Arakanese people, protested against the constitution for three and half hours in front of the Burmese embassy in Ottawa.

Several supporters from Tibetan, Indonesian and Vietnamese communities in Ottawa also joined the demonstration to show their solidarity with the people of Burma, said Kyaw Zaw Wai.

Kyaw Zaw Wai said, “I believe we delivered a very strong message to the military regime."

(Lalit K Jha contributed to this article from New York.)