Episode #123: A Failure of Diplomacy
“In the aftermath of the 2021 military coup, the world has been silent and ignored the sufferings borne by the Myanmar people,” Lucine says bluntly. “But in 1988, the whole world turned their attention towards Myanmar! And it was very helpful and effective for me to work through the diplomatic relations, putting pressure on the international community to release the detainees, and to speak up about Myanmar.” As the liaison officer between France and Myanmar for decades, Lucine offers an insightful perspective on the workings and machinations of the hidden world of diplomats across multiple crises in Myanmar.
Lucine began her post as a liaison officer back in the days of the Burma Socialist Program Party (BSPP), when her country had little contact with the rest of the world: visas were very conservatively issued, with a mere seven day-limit, and few Burmese had an opportunity to travel abroad. However, because Lucine spoke French, she was sent to Paris.
Prior to 1988, Burma (now Myanmar) attracted very little international attention; it was viewed as a kind of remote backwater that few knew much about. So initially, her posting was fairly uneventful. But that all changed with the ’88 democratic uprising. Working with the European countries and the US, she advocated for an immediate travel ban and economic restrictions on high level military figures. This, of course, was very courageous of her, since she was still working for her country, ruled by some of the very figures she was seeking to punish. And although she had to submit frequent reports on her work, and found evidence of military intelligence trailing her, she was never arrested, a mystery which she has not figured out to this day.
Back then, she found France, together with most other Western countries, extraordinarily sympathetic to Burma’s plight. That is a stark contrast to the present silence since the 2021 military coup, a fact she attributes to Aung San Suu Kyi’s fateful decision to personally defend the Rohingya genocide in the International Court of Justice in The Hague. “I think it was a failure for us,” she says sadly, although she has a theory behind Aung San Suu Kyi’s decision. “I could understand her situation at that time, because she was torn between two poles: the military and her potential victory in 2020 election. At that time, the entire population in Myanmar was not very welcoming to the Rohingya ethnicity to be included in Myanmar population, and if she doesn't [go to the ICJ], she is not in the mainstream of Myanmar.” In other words, according to Lucine, Aung San Suu Kyi hoped that her hard stand on the Rohingya issue would both help her election chances while also placating the military, making a coup less likely. However, Lucine notes how, by refusing to stand for human rights, not only did Aung San Suu Kyi single-handedly lose worldwide sympathy and support for her country’s democratic transition, but the military ultimately launched a coup anyway.
Looking at the current diplomatic situation today, Lucine calls attention to the importance of Ambassador Kyaw Moe Tun’s famous speech at the United Nations, in which he expressed his support for the elected government in no uncertain terms. “It was a turning point for the NUG, and for all of us,” she explains. This is sharp contrast to the rather ambivalent stance that Myanmar embassies have been taking around the world. She describes the anxiety many Burmese exiles have in not knowing the sympathies of their respective ambassadors. While some openly support the military, and none to her knowledge have publicly sided with the people, many simply haven’t shown their cards, leading to this uncertainty. On the other hand, Lucine does have good things to share about the current French Ambassador to Myanmar, Christian Lechervy. “He's very outspoken. He himself went out and welcomed the demonstrators right in front of the embassy!”
Even worse, the military has instructed its embassies not to issue new passports. As a result, many Burmese nationals abroad with an expiring passport are faced with the terrible decision of remaining illegally in their host country or returning to a country that will not guarantee their freedoms. Lucine estimates this has now created 80,000 stateless Burmese, which has moved the NUG to try and issue their own passports, but it is uncertain which countries would accept them. And she explains that for any Burmese who do try their luck at applying for a new passport, Myanmar embassies have developed lengthy forms to fill out concerning the applicant’s background, essentially turning diplomatic missions into spy posts.
Lucine fully supports the resistance, feeling they have no other choice at this point. After all, peaceful protests characterized the days following the coup, but all that changed when the military responded with force. “Gradually, the military started by shooting with sniper guns to the girls, and later into the crowd, and more killings followed. As a human being, a peaceful discussion is out of the question when the other party started aggressively using arms.” And she, herself, still carries trauma from the military’s violence, and cannot hear the sound of commercial jets overhead without running for cover, fearful that they are dropping bombs.
For their part, ASEAN and the UN advocate dialog, but Lucine’s firm opinion is that the military has closed off all such avenues, and in fact, have shown themselves to be entirely untrustworthy. “The only option for the people is to retaliate through guns,” she notes. “So we cannot stop the PDF from fighting against the military regime. I think it is the only language that the military would understand! Of course, this is not complying with any diplomatic relations or diplomatic norms.”
As the conflict has continued, the suffering of the Myanmar people has risen exponentially, and Lucine cannot understand how most of the international community has simply stood by and watched; Japan has even continued to host and train Burmese soldiers. And she also points that some foreign diplomatic missions support the military. For example, both the Norwegian and Australian missions have been renting space in the Lotte Hotel, which is military owned.
Summarizing this sad state of affairs regarding the overall lack of international support, Lucine says passionately, “No sympathy, no empathy, I would say! They don't care how many people are killed in a day, even though we've been sharing news and we've been crying out in many ways around the world!” And she adds, “We don't understand why the entire world, especially the democratic countries, do not recognize the National Unity Government, and why they are still acknowledging the military council in one way or the other!”
As far as France is concerned, aspects of Lucine’s experience there have turned sour. She finds that many French criticize the violence manifesting on both sides, and in fact, finds few people seem to want to talk about anything related to Myanmar beyond Aung San Suu Kyi’s indifference to the Rohingya crisis. To make matters worse, she experienced anti-Asian discrimination during COVID as people suspected her of being Chinese, while others look down on her as “yellow-skinned people… who are here working as domestics, with the low paid jobs.”
In the end, she reminds listeners of Archbishop Desmond Tutu’s famous words. “If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor. Yes, it's true. So the diplomatic circle can play a very vital role in helping shape the country's development, or its poverty, or it's misfortune, whatever.”