 and welcome to Cooper Union, what's happening with human rights around the world. Today is a very important day. It's the one-year commemoration of the military junta overthrow of the Myanmar Democratic elected government. We're here today with Simon Bilanus to be able to share with us really what's going on, why it should matter to all of us, and what we can do going forward. It really is about indigenous rights and resistance in Myanmar in a year of the people's movements against the military, but there's so much more. We really are looking at indigenous peoples in Burmese standing together in solidarity against a repressive regime, as it continues to violate human rights of its own people. People on the planet must remain committed to the dignity and democracy, challenging the military and complicit corporations still working against the people's will. Simon, thank you so much for joining us. I feel to be here, Josh. Could you share with us what happened a year ago and why that's so important? A year ago, the Burmese military launched one of their sadly periodic military coups, and they prevented the newly elected parliament from meeting, and they put under arrest the President, the State Councilor Ong San Suu Kyi, the Nobel Peace Prize winner, and other elected officials, and reinstated total military rule. You said another coup. Could you share with us maybe a little bit of the history of the human rights movement in Myanmar and what the people have been trying to accomplish against very difficult government circumstances? Sure. I mean, the first military coup happened in 1962, and then you had a long period of military rule that was almost punctuated by the 1988 uprising that brought Ong San Suu Kyi to prominence, and she was placed under house arrest. The military held elections in 1990. Ong San Suu Kyi's party won those elections, and then the military refused to respect the results of the elections that they had actually conducted, and you saw almost... You saw continued military rule all the way through to around 2010, 2012, when the army started to liberalise a little bit, and there were elections in 2015 where Ong San Suu Kyi's party once again won a majority of the seats in parliament, but under a constitution written by the military, which preserved them a lot of power. And so you had this brief period of semi-democratic rule with this military, civilian, hybrid government from 2015 through to February 1st of 2021. Yeah, and many of us remember that cutting our teeth on the democracy and human rights movement, 1988, the monks organising, and then Ong San Suu Kyi always in a Toyota or some other vehicle under arrest, if it wasn't even stationary, they tried to arrest her there. And it seems like the movement has grown. Could you maybe share how the human rights movement has matured over those decades? Sure. I mean, I started getting involved just over 30 years ago in the early 1990s, and that was when we deliberately started using the strategy and tactics of the campaign against apartheid in South Africa. And what we did was we organised at the grassroots level around the world to put direct pressure on companies that were supporting the military hunter and also to press our own governments to put government sanctions on the military hunter as well. And what we saw throughout the 90s was increasing numbers of companies pulling out of Burma amid all this consumer pressure, shareholder pressure and pressure from governmental sanctions. And that was very successful in getting to a point in the early, in 2010 and 2012 that the military realised that they couldn't continue this way and they basically negotiated a settlement with the US and the European Union whereby sanctions were taken off Myanmar and they in turn had a certain political liberalisation which led to this sort of military, civilian hybrid government from around 2015 to, as I said, a year ago, February 1st, 2021. Maybe you can share with us also what are the new sanctions that have just been imposed and why are those important and what was the movement behind those? And then we'll start looking at even some of the other actions where they even moved the capital and some of the other absurd things that this military hunter has done to try to avoid accountability. Yeah, I mean, even before the military coup, you know, we are part of a campaign to go after the military hunter's business interests and to go get out the money that the military receives from its business empire. And so what you've been saying is since the military's genocide against the Rohingya that started in August of 2017, you know, we've been successful in getting the US and the European Union and Canada to place increasing sanctions on military officers and leaders and also on military-owned companies where the military gets a lot of the money it needs to pay for weapons. And more importantly, these government sanctions have been underpinned by what I call our citizen sanctions, which is a use of our consumer power, shareholder power, media and social media power to put pressure on specific companies, specific foreign companies like, say, Kirin, the Japanese beer giant, to end their business relationships with military-owned companies. And by doing so, you know, try to, you know, through our consumer power and shareholder power to get the Burmese military out of the economy. Yeah, maybe we could look at, you know, beverages from Pepsi all the way through some of the other aspects from beer, as you mentioned, all the way up to gems. What have been some of the success examples of really citizen people power to hold them accountable and divert funds and make sure that they feel the pressure to do the right thing and what matters most for the human rights movement in Burma? One of the big successes, which I think you probably remember, was in 1997 when Pepsi ended its business partnership with a noted military crony thine tank in Burma. Pepsi had a bottling plant in Burma, and it was this joint venture with this military crony. And we supposedly got Pepsi to completely exit that partnership and effectively get out of the country. And that was, you know, a lot of it was due to student activism. You know, college campuses like Stanford and Harvard and others, you know, blocked Pepsi from getting contracts with their dining services. And, you know, one of the things I worked on is I'm a shareholder organizer. And so I organized shareholders in Pepsi to file shareholder resolutions, again, pressing them to stop doing business with this military crony. So that was very successful. I think also one of the things you're thinking of that I also talked to was the Japanese beer giant Kirin. And they were in a business partnership with a military holding company. They produced Myanmar beer and Mandalay beer, two of the biggest beer brands in Burma. And this is actually, you know, this generated millions of dollars for the military. But, you know, Kirin was very vulnerable to our pressure because Kirin, at the same time as they were doing business with the military, Myanmar, they were also buying up craft brewers in Australia, the UK, and the US. And when they bought new Belgium beer, which has been a very socially responsible beer company, I loved, I loved, I loved new Belgium. But when they bought new Belgium, you know, that was, that really was helped ignite the campaign against Kirin, particularly in the United States. And we were very successful in putting very public pressure on new Belgium not to sell out to Kirin. But even when they did, then we, you know, added new Belgium and all these other craft beers around the world to the boycott list. And this was very successful in getting Kirin one to stop paying dividends to their military partner. And then finally after the coup, they decided to completely exit that venture. That's a great point. We're asking people to raise a glass for good and to stand up for human rights. And maybe you could share also most recently large oil companies that have also been taking action based on people power presentations and putting public pressure. Yeah, I mean, this actually frankly staggered me last week when the two of the world's biggest oil companies, Chevron and Total, which operated the hugely profitable Yadana gas pipeline and gas field in Myanmar, they decided to exit that venture. It was huge. I mean, I still barely believe that these companies have decided to withdraw, but they have indeed. And again, this was due to all of the citizens pressure being put on them with, they were shareholders are putting pressure on Chevron and Total, which I was helping to organize. There's a whole new blood money campaign which originated inside Myanmar. And it's a campaign, a movement of people in Myanmar, again, going after the Burmese military's business interests and their biggest sources of revenue. And the biggest sources of revenue are oil and gas revenues. It's precious gems, particularly rubies and jade that are deeply involved in that trade. And to a certain extent also timber, with the tracking, teak imports just still getting into the US even though they should be banned. Well, no, and it is good to see that we can actually have small victories. And when we look at the statistics, I mean, it's a year after the Burmese military overthrowing the democratic elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi, those horrifying statistics of death, torture, detention and disappearance of civilians, they really are mounting high. According to many, there's at least 1500 civilians that have been killed, nearly 12,000 arrested since February one. And when you look at what the army has done, it's really important to see what we can do and how we coordinate what's possible going forward. Yeah, what I always tell people is, you have an enormous sources of power. And I say, think of your sources of power as your power as a citizen to participate in political process, lobby your government. You have a lot of power as a consumer with your consumer dollars. You also have a lot of power as an investor, as a shareholder in a lot of these companies. And if you use these three forms of power, you can affect change on almost any issue that you care about. Oh, that's a great point. And maybe we can look also, what pressures come, we've talked about from the grassroots and the ground, but what has the UN done? Looking at the UN Security Council, but also looking at sometimes when security council has a block by one of the permanent five, how has the Human Rights Council been another tool that you might be able to share a little bit about about how the international arena has been putting moral and political and legal pressure on this junta? Yeah, indeed, action by the UN Security Council has been largely blocked by China and Russia, which have been supporters and defenders of the Myanmar military. But the Human Rights Council, and we've had a lot more success. And in fact, the Human Rights Council authorized a UN special rapporteur on Myanmar. He's currently Tom Andrews, former congressman from Maine. And he's very effective in using this bully pulpit to put a focus on the Myanmar military and ways in which the international community could put more pressure. There's also a mechanism that's doing research on not just mass atrocities by the Myanmar military, but also looking again into the Myanmar military's business interests and how they're getting the money to pay for the weapons that they use to carry out these abuses. And so there's a very good organization that operates underground inside Myanmar called Justice for Myanmar. And you can find them at justiceformianmar.org. And they've done amazing research on the Myanmar military and particularly its business interests and sources of revenue and sources of money. And that's a group that we work with very closely taking their research, which highlights specific foreign corporations that are assisting the Myanmar military. And then we create campaigns that put pressure on those companies, again, through consumer pressure, shareholder pressure, media pressure, and also calling on governments to impose sanctions to end the ability of those companies to do business with the military. No, it's always been that partnership. I never forget where we weren't allowed to go inside and you have to organize really in Northern Thailand and assist people across the border so they could then be brave and bold and go back in. And then there was that little window when we could actually visit, go in, do some human rights training with the people on the ground and the indigenous peoples from all over Myanmar coming together. And now, though it seems in recent months the Myanmar military has actually attacked civilians and large cooperations from the Chin state in the Northwest to the Kareni state in the Southeast. And these tactics really are ominously reminiscent of the armed actions and the genocidal attacks against the Rohingya in 2016 and 2017. Can you share a latest on that, but also the common strategy that this military is still continuing about genocide from the Rohingya to today? I think that's exactly right. I mean, what we're seeing in Burma, not just against the indigenous ethnic minorities, but also being used against the majority Burmans in the central of the country. We're seeing a lot of the same tactics that were used against the Rohingya in August of 2017 when the Burmese army drove over 700,000 Rohingya to seek refuge in Bangladesh where they still remain. They're one of the largest refugee populations in the world today. In fact, there are more Rohingya living in Bangladesh than are living in Burma right now. But I think what we've seen is that the military has united the country perversely. They have, now using these tactics in central Burmian cities like Mandalay and Rangoon, they've demonstrated to the majority of Burmans that, yes, this is the military that will use any tactics. This is a military that will employ genocidal attacks and crimes against humanity, against all peoples in Burma. And that's resulted in a lot of new alliances forming up where you see ethnic Burmans who had been in the rolling National League for Democracy in between 2015 and 2021 come out and say, oh, we were wrong about supporting the military's tactics against the Rohingya. And now the national unity government, which is made up of, which is actually a multi-ethnic government made up of elected officials and other civil society leaders is now saying very clearly that the Rohingya should be granted full citizenship in Burma, which they're currently lacking. And they've even gone so far to go to the International Court of Justice. This happened, I just heard about this today. Nationality government has said to the, said officially in a public letter to the International Court of Justice that it is legitimate government of Burma, not the military hunter. And it will represent Myanmar in these proceedings at the International Court of Justice where they are considering the charges of genocide of the Rohingya against the Myanmar military. And they've said, we formally take away any objections we have to the process here. This process should go forward. That happened actually, I mean, we just saw that, I saw the statement today. I mean, that is how far things have moved. And that's very encouraging. I mean, I've been moved to tears and I've seen Rohingya refugees in refugee camps in Bangladesh, sharing pictures of themselves, raising their three fingers of support in solidarity with the civil disobedience movement inside Myanmar. And I've seen, yeah, I've seen demonstrators, civil disobedience movement demonstrators in Burma, holding up signs in support of the Rohingya. It's very encouraging. Yeah, no, the spirit of solidarity has definitely been something that people have been hoping for. And I agree with your analysis, that's united people. And thanks also for bringing up the International Court of Justice and the Hague and looking at those mechanisms to actually enforce justice and accountability. The other aspect before we get to ASEAN maybe is also the UN nation special envoy, Nolaine Heiser. How do you think she's been doing and what are some steps going forward as well as anything else happening in the Hague that you'd like to share? Well, I'm very intrigued to see what will happen at the Hague because at the United Nations General Assembly, the Myanmar representative, Myanmar representative after the coup announced that he was a member of Aung San Suu Kyi's party, the National League of Democracy. And again, he spoke at the United Nations General Assembly again, raised his three fingers and said that he was working under the National Unity Government of Myanmar. And the United Nations General Assembly has not recognized a military hunter replacement for him. So he is still currently representing Myanmar at the United Nations. And what the National Unity Government said to the ICJ was, well, the United Nations is still recognizing officials of the previous government. We include officials of the previous government and you should follow the United Nations lead on this and recognize us as the representatives of Myanmar at the International Court of Justice. Yeah, that's definitely a diplomatic victory. When you know a lot of the countries were trying to actually move beyond the representative but he was very firm, he was very strong and it's great to see him still there in that seat. Also looking at ASEAN, how is the ASEAN function? What do you think where we're at? And is there any actions by the ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights that you believe has been most effective? Well, ASEAN has been helpful in some ways. I mean, they refuse to let a military junta representative be present at ASEAN meetings. And so, but there are some countries in ASEAN, particularly like Malaysia and Indonesia that have been much more critical of Myanmar, particularly over their treatment of the Rohingya. There are countries in ASEAN like Thailand and Cambodia who are much more on the side of the generals than Indonesia and Malaysia. So, ASEAN is a bit of a mix. ASEAN has laid down a roadmap for the military junta to restore democracy, which the military continually drags their feet on and fails to adhere to. So, ASEAN is a little bit of a mess, but they are engaged and they're not giving the military everything that it wants. And so, that's a good thing. Excellent, and as we're getting to our final five minutes, I think what's important that we can do here in Hawaii, what can we do to assist, to put moral and political pressure on this junta so that we could see a victory beyond the corporations making sure that business and human rights is actually happening, but actually see that people be restored to their rightful place. What is some things that's going on now that we can get involved in? Well, again, I highly recommend people go to rahingacampaign.org and also our broader campaign called No Business with Genocide, which you can find at nobusinesswithgenocide.org. And on both those websites, you'll find actions that you can take, one to lobby your government. I mean, right now we're building up support in Congress for the Burma Act of 2021, which would put sanctions on the military and would provide assistance to the civil disobedience movement and also provide support for these international accountability mechanisms like the International Court of Justice. That is currently in the House and the Senate. We would love to have, we currently have Congressman Ed Case as a sponsor of the House Burma Act of 2021. We'd love to have you two senators and your remaining representative sign on as well. So that would be a great thing to do. And again, you can go on our website and you can find an action where you can simply put in your address and it sends messages to both of your senators and your representatives. So check that out. Also, we've got all kinds of campaigns where you can put direct pressure on companies. One things we're very successful with with both Chevron and Total was, again, organizing consumer pressure, shareholder pressure and social media pressure. We've not only got people to sign a petition to these companies, but when people do sign the petition, we send them an email to thank them and having links to all of these companies' social media accounts so you can post protests on their Facebook page, on their LinkedIn page, on their Instagram. And that's very effective. When Total said they were withdrawing, they said that they couldn't meet the expectations of their shareholders and international and Myanmar NGOs. And that's who we are. So Total's basically saying, you got us. We couldn't withstand the pressure that you've organized. And I said, if we couldn't get major oil companies like Chevron and Total out of Burma through our pressure, there's very little other we can't share when we work together. That's a great point. And really, you do show how those Jean-Sharp 197 nonviolent methods can really motivate and mobilize a movement for the people inside and really bringing the people together. And I think that's one feature that's so important about your advocacy is connect the people on the ground who are the most brave or standing there in the face of bullets and snipers with people to be able to come together. And I think what's important is we can reach out, contact Senator Schatz, contact Senator Hirono, as well as our remaining representative, Kakahele, to say, we care about democracy, we care about human rights, we care about fundamental freedoms. And that's who we should be. And that's the voice of the people that we should be in solidarity with. Simon, thank you so much for joining us. Any final words of what should be looked at in this one-year anniversary and how we can advocate even better? Well, again, I highly recommend you to go to our websites, take our actions. When you take our actions, you'll be added to our email list and then you'll get an email every week with an action you can take, whether it's lobbying your members of Congress, whether it's putting pressure on a specific company. So, you know, if you feel moved to help people in Myanmar, understand the solidarity with them, take the actions, get on our list. It's now close to 300,000 people worldwide with about 100,000 inside Myanmar. It's a big grassroots alliance and we'd welcome as many people to join. Thank you so much. Malohi Mekapono, it is great to see you. And we hope next year we'll actually be talking about the reform movements and how the government is actually implementing human rights and taking care of its people with significant social structural change that unfortunately isn't there today, but a lot of work done in just one year. Thank you so much, Simon. Aloha. Thank you.