NCGUB supports right to peaceful demonstration, urges junta to release unlawfully detained activists

The Burmese generals have unlawfully arrested the leaders of the 88 Generation Students, including Min Ko Naing, as well as other leading pro-democracy activists today. The move is apparently aimed at thwarting the peaceful demonstration called for by activists and the student leaders who wanted the military regime to reduce fuel oil prices.

We, the National Coalition Government of the Union of Burma (NCGUB), strongly condemn the Burmese generals for the unlawful arrest of these student leaders — many of whom have already been imprisoned over a decade without any due process of law — and urge the regime to immediately and unconditionally release them.

We also fully support the democratic right of the people to express their will through peaceful demonstration and hold the Burmese generals fully responsible for the public discontent in the country originating from their decision to increase fuel oil prices without taking into consideration the suffering of the people who are already under enormous pressure from exorbitant commodity prices. Their decision has already sparked another round of inflation and has plunged most people deeper into poverty, particularly those in the poor quarters who are barely surviving on one meal a day.

Hence, nationwide peaceful demonstration called for by the people is their right and a struggle for their survival.

The Burmese generals should try to understand the true situation and the general sentiment in the nation and resolve the problems for the people instead of resorting to arbitrary arrests and exerting unlawful force to settle all problems.

The NCGUB calls on governments, the United Nations, and international community at large to closely monitor the Burmese generals and dissuade it from deploying its thugs from the Union Solidarity and Development Association to brutally quell peaceful demonstrators if the people take to the streets to protest.

The NCGUB is constituted and endorsed by representatives elected in the 1990 elections in Burma

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