Kenan+P.+-+Declaration+of+Independence

toc =Declaration of Independence (Final) = The people of any nation are under no obligation to follow an unfair government that denies their rights, and in fact should be obliged to break from it. The government of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar based in Naypyidaw has, over the past sixty years, repeatedly shown a callous disregard for, and even outright hostility to, the rights of the Karen, Shan, Jingpo, Mon, Chin, and Rakhine peoples. Therefore, we, the appointed representatives of these peoples, are compelled to break from the Naypyidaw government and create a government to serve our own rights and interests.

The purpose of government is threefold: to represent its country on the world stage, to pursue the betterment of society, and to assure basic rights and human rights, basic rights being life, liberty, property, security of person, and the pursuit of happiness and self-improvement, and human rights being those recognized in the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The ruling regime has failed at all these three purposes; it has withdrawn from the international community, degraded the fabric of society so that a desperate and chaotic state exists across Burma, and denied all the rights of its citizens, especially those of the peoples represented by this document.

The ways the government has denied our rights include discrimination against our peoples, the absence of free and fair trials or due process, the denial of free belief and free expression, and the failure to provide for the basic safety, security, and prosperity of its citizens. Its wanton and petty crimes include election fraud, kidnapping in the form of human trafficking and disappearances, enslavement in the use of forced labor and child soldiers, and murder in the form of extrajudicial killings.

As past attempts to remedy these abuses, both through peaceful protest and martial action, without obtaining the recognition of the international community, and ourselves, have failed, we see fit to formally declare independence before the world. As of the signing of this document, the Democratic Republic of East Burma, Chin, and Arakan is a free state independent from the Republic of the Union of Myanmar. All ties with the Naypyidaw government are broken and we are no longer subordinate to them. As an independent state have no more need of their infrastructure or bureaucracy and will provide our own, controlled by elected civilian authorities. In addition, as an independent state we are entitled to raise an army, also regulated by civilian authorities, to conduct diplomacy, including conducting war and making peace, and trade agreements and mutual defense pacts, and to hold a seat in the United Nations.

Two years from the signing of this document, Chin and Arakan will hold a popular referendum on separation from East Burma. Two years after the referendum in Chin and Arakan, whether or not it passes, each state will hold an individual referendum on separation. As we will inevitably be at war with the Naypyidaw junta following the signing of this document, the Democratic Republic of East Burma, Chin, and Arakan will actively pursue the replacement of the Burmese dictatorship with a peaceful and democratic government, for the benefit of all mankind.

=Declaration of Independence (Draft) = The people of any nation are under no obligation to follow an unfair government that denies their rights, and in fact should be obliged to break from it. The government of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar based in Naypyidaw has, over the past sixty years, repeatedly shown a callous disregard for, and even outright hostility to, the rights of the Karen, Shan, Jingpo, Mon, Chin, and Rakhine peoples. Therefore, we, the appointed representatives of these peoples, are compelled to break from the Naypyidaw government and create a government to serve our own rights and interests.

The purpose of government is threefold: to represent its country on the world stage, to pursue the betterment of society, and to assure basic rights and human rights, basic rights being life, liberty, property, security of person, and the pursuit of happiness and self-improvement, and human rights being those recognized in the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The ruling regime has failed at all these three purposes; it has withdrawn from the international community, degraded the fabric of society so that a desperate and chaotic state exists across Burma, and denied all the rights of its citizens, especially those of the peoples represented by this document.

The ways the government has denied our rights include discrimination against our peoples, the absence of free and fair trials or due process, the denial of free belief and free expression, and the failure to provide for the basic safety, security, and prosperity of its citizens. Its wanton and petty crimes include election fraud, kidnapping in the form of human trafficking and disappearances, enslavement in the use of forced labor and child soldiers, and murder in the form of extrajudicial killings.

As past attempts to remedy these abuses, both through peaceful protest and martial action, without obtaining the recognition of the international community, and ourselves, have failed, we see fit to formally declare independence before the world. As of the signing of this document, the Democratic Republic of East Burma, Chin, and Arakan is a free state independent from the Republic of the Union of Myanmar. All ties with the Naypyidaw government are broken and we are no longer subordinate to them. As an independent state have no more need of their infrastructure or bureaucracy and will provide our own, controlled by elected civilian authorities. In addition, as an independent state we are entitled to raise an army, also regulated by civilian authorities, to conduct diplomacy, including conducting war and making peace, and trade agreements and mutual defense pacts, and to hold a seat in the United Nations.

Two years from the signing of this document, Chin and Arakan will hold a popular referendum on separation from East Burma. Two years after the referendum in Chin and Arakan, whether or not it passes, each state will hold an individual referendum on separation. As we will inevitably be at war with the Naypyidaw junta following the signing of this document, the Democratic Republic of East Burma, Chin, and Arakan will actively pursue the replacement of the Burmese dictatorship with a peaceful and democratic government, for the betterment of all mankind.