An Open Letter to His Excellency Ban Ki-moon

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An Open Letter to His Excellency Ban Ki-moon,
Secretary-General of the United Nations.
Date 6th August, 2010.
His Excellency Ban Ki-Moon
Secretary-General of the United Nations
United Nations
3 United Nations Plaza
New York, NY 10017
Dear your Excellency,
First of all, let me introduce myself. My name is Tin Win and I am a Burmese democratic
and human right activist living in Japan.
I would like to welcome you to Japan as, first ever UN General Secretary who attend
the Peace Memorial Ceremony in Hiroshima and the first to visit Nagasaki. I also
enthusiastically welcome Your Excellency’s words on intensifying efforts toward nuclear
abolishment. I share Your Excellency’s view that the need to work together toward the
day when governments no longer have a choice but to respond to the will of the people
for a nuclear-free world, by way of Your Excellency have termed in the message to the
Hiroshima Conference for the Total Abolition of Nuclear Weapons by 2020.
As a democratic activist living in Japan I had seen first-hand the drastic reality caused
by the nuclear war. Furthermore, I have been working very closely with the Japanese
Unionists and other Japanese people to send the same massages as Your Excellency
had mentioned in your letter.
I would like to inform Your Excellency that these generals have banned basic human
rights, but spent tens of millions of dollars building the bases with the reported help of
nuclear experts from Russia and North Korea. The first indications of its nuclear
ambitions came last February when army Major Sai Thein Win defected with a dossier
on the secret sites. The several hundred photographs of the plants that Major Win
brought with him have aroused huge interest among defense chiefs in neighboring
Asian countries and western governments.
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The Directorate of Defense Services, Science and Technology Research Centre in Pyin
Oo Lwin city at the Defense Services Technological Academy manage the country’s
nuclear effort. Evidence has also emerged of a “nuclear battalion” is working at a place
called Thabeikkyin where there are also extensive mining and ore concentrations.
There are suggestions that they are trying to produce yellowcake, a kind of uranium
concentrate powder, for possible use in processing uranium.
Moreover, Burma has obsoleted agreements with the Geneva-based International
Atomic Energy Agency but has not signed protocols that would allow detailed
inspections of the factories. The generals have ignored requests to improve the
agreements that mean the country is virtually exempt from inspections. Nevertheless,
with the generals’ current freedom from sanctions and relative economic prosperity, it is
highly likely that the junta may be able to outsource the technical expertise and tools to
reach its goals far sooner than expected.
In addition to that, Professor Yozo Yokota who was the UN Special Rapporteur on the
Situation of Human Rights in Burma had recently wrote in the Jakarta Post that impunity
prevails in Burma and no action has been taken to bring an end to the war crimes and
crimes against humanity committed by the generals of Burma. That is why he said that
he believe the United Nations has an obligation to respond to the current rapporteur’s
recommendation, establish a commission of inquiry, and propose action.
Given the Balkan-like nature of Burma's domestic situation and its strategic position
between India and China, a nuclear Burma will probably present the single greatest
threat to regional security and will in the long run be very bad for ASEAN countries. The
US and other Asia-Pacific countries have expressed concern that North Korean may
help Burma to become the first nuclear-armed nation in the Southeast Asia, saying the
military ties with North Korea are breaking UN Security Council Resolution 1874.
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For those reason mentioned above, I would like to appeal Your Excellency to make
every effort, using your good office, to investigate the above mentioned information and
take appropriate actions to halt the doomsday scenario of our future.
Please kindly be warned that rogue nation as North Korea has developed the nuclear
capability by the failure on part of UN to make a concerted actions appropriately and
timely. Please do not allow the generals of Burma to create a new rogue state with
nuclear armaments and with Weapon of Mass Destruction. If Your Excellency fail to
take a timely action, the words you had pronounced in your message will never
materialized.
Respectfully,
Tin Win,
Gunma Prefecture, Ota City,
Ushizawa Chou 1000-1, Ushizawa Shiei Jutaku 3-13,
373-0833 Japan.
Phone/Fax: 0(81)276-38-1036
Mobile 0(81)80-3443-2447
E mail: mtinwin@pc5.so-net.ne.jp
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