Dozens of civil society organizations based on the Thai-Myanmar border on Monday sent an open letter calling on state counselor Aung San Suu Kyi to definitively scrap the blacklist they say bars them from contributing to the democratic transition.
Under the former military junta, many activists had their citizenship effectively stripped after they left the country without documentation and were banned from returning. In the letter, sent by umbrella group Burma Partnership, representatives of 40 groups asked for their rights as citizens of Myanmar to be returned.
While names were removed from the blacklist under the former semi-civilian government, as many as 4,000 still remain, according to the Democratic Voice of Burma.
Activists on the border, home to scores of Myanmar nationals displaced by conflict and living in refugee camps, say want to continue their work inside the country.
“We, border-based CSOs, wish to take part in various roles during the transition and utilize our skills that we have been learning for many years to rebuild a better country,” said Nai Kasauh Moh of the Human Rights Foundation of Monland in a statement.
“The border-based CSOs have worked on campaigns to secure support from the United Nations and the international community such as to establish a democratic federal union and to free political prisoners. We have also been working for internally displaced persons, refugees and migrant workers’ education, health, and capacity building along the border.”
Despite the election in November of the former opposition National League for Democracy party, Myanmar’s immigration department still falls under the military-controlled Ministry of Home Affairs.
In June, Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs Kyaw Tin said in an interview that the government planned to allow former citizens to stay in-country for up to six months, rather than 28 days.
