'As long as people are protesting in the street, the coup isn't over'

(MENAFN- Swissinfo)

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(de)

"Solange die Menschen auf der Strasse bleiben, ist der Coup unvollendet"

We spoke to Christine Schraner Burgener over Zoom. She is currently working from her home in Bern, trying to find a peaceful solution to the situation in Myanmar – one that could make history.

Since General Min Aung Hlaing unexpectedly seized power on February 1 this year, protesters have been killed daily by the security forces and dozens of activists are arrested every night without charge. In her role as the UN Special Envoy for Myanmar, Schraner Burgener has been trying to find ways to de-escalate the situation.

She's working 19 hours a day – also because of the time difference. She gets up early to have as much time as possible to talk to her two colleagues in Myanmar, to protesters, ministers, ambassadors and NGOs.

And she works late into the night to attend briefings by the UN Security Council and the General Assembly in New York, as well as attending video conferences with foreign ministers. 'On Sunday, I was outside for an hour's walk for the first time in six weeks,' Schraner Burgener says. It doesn't sound like a complaint.

For a long time, the UN Special Envoy shied away from appearing in media, for which she often drew criticism. According to critics, she did not condemn the human rights violations in Myanmar with enough vigour – particularly the genocide of the Rohingya Muslim minority. 'If I had done that, I would have been just one voice among many. My task was a different one,' she says.

Christine Schraner Burgener was born in Meiringen, in central Switzerland, in 1963 and grew up in Japan. She joined the Swiss diplomatic service in 1991.

After postings in Morocco, Bern and Dublin, Schraner Burgener became deputy director of the FDFA's Directorate of International Law and head of the Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law Division.

From 2009 she was ambassador to Thailand, and from 2015 ambassador to Germany. Three years later, UN Secretary-General António Guterres appointed her UN Special Envoy for Myanmar.

This was only a few months after the expulsion of hundreds of thousands of members of the Rohingya Muslim minority by the Burmese army. In 2022, she will take over as head of the Swiss State Secretariat for Migration (SEM).

To successfully advance her mandate of supporting the democratisation of Myanmar, she had to avoid being vocal about political issues. This was essential to develop contacts within the army, the now deposed Prime Minister Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy party and the ethnic minorities in the country. She needed to remain in dialogue with all parties.

However, since the coup she has seen it as her responsibility to inform the public about the war that the military is waging against its own people. She is not shying away from speaking out. 'My mandate was very difficult from the beginning, the coup has not changed it that much,' says Schraner Burgener. 'Except that today it is a matter of life and death. It's about preventing more people from being shot in the streets.'

Military security forces brutally crack down on protesters, SRF News, 25.03.2021:

swissinfo.ch: Ms Schraner Burgener, shortly before our interview you held a three-hour video conference with key figures in the pro-democracy protests from all over Myanmar. What did they tell you?

Christine Schraner Burgener: Everyone was extremely frustrated today. They have read and heard enough statements and speeches from the government representatives and the UN. Something needs to be done now.

They want an international military intervention to stop the Burmese army from committing further crimes against humanity. My thankless task in this situation is to explain to them that such an intervention will not happen.

And a UN resolution based on the responsibility to protect would require a decision by the UN Security Council. That is prevented by the veto powers China and Russia.

The reaction of my interlocutors is this: 'Then let a single state send its army'. That's not possible either, of course. But at least there is not a single country that approves of the current situation in Myanmar.

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