Jim Carrey appeals for Aung Suu Kyi's release

Malaysia Sun
Wednesday 29th August, 2007
(ANI)

Washington, Aug 29 : Actor Jim Carrey was certainly serious when he spoke for the release of Burmese peace activist and Noble laureate Aung San Suu Kyi.

In a video released on YouTube.com, Carrey has spoken on behalf of the Human Rights Action Center and the U.S. Campaign For Burma.

The Canadian funnyman said that Suu Kyi, who is under the country's military detention, is a champion in her own right and yet people in America are not aware of her.

"Even though she's compared to a modern day Gandhi or Nelson Mandela, most people in America still don't know about Aung San," Contactmusic quoted him, as saying.

The 'Ace Ventura' star added that the 62-year-old, who won the 19991 Noble Prize for Peace for her efforts to put an end to the country's tyrannical military rule, is an 'unsung hero'.

"Let's face it: the name's a little difficult to remember. Here's how I did it: Aung San sounds a lot like 'unsung', as in unsung hero. Aung San Suu Kyi is truly an unsung hero,' he added.

In May 2007, Suu Kyi, detention was extended for yet another year, which would keep her confined to her residence for a fifth straight year.

Actor Jim Carrey pleads for Myanmar's Suu Kyi in YouTube

Agence France-Presse
Last updated 08:23am (Mla time) 08/29/2007

WASHINGTON -- Hollywood actor Jim Carrey posted a message in the video-sharing website YouTube on Tuesday urging Americans to join a global campaign for the freedom of Myanmar's democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi.

"I want to tell you about a hero of mine, her name is Aung San Suu Kyi. She is a champion of human rights and decency in Asia and of similar hope to all struggling people," said the comedy star.

The message came as pro-democracy supporters expanded their protests against Myanmar's military junta this week, defying a clampdown on dissent and staging a rare series of demonstrations against a staggering increase in fuel prices.

The almost daily protests mark the most sustained demonstrations against the military regime in at least nine years.

The military, which has ruled Myanmar for 45 years, maintains complete control over the nation's media and deals harshly with dissent.

Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi has spent most of the last 17 years under house arrest. She helped lead the National League for Democracy to a landslide victory in 1990 elections, but the military has never recognised the results.

"Even though she won 82 percent of the parliamentary seats in the country, she was locked away by the military regime and has been held for 11 years under house arrest," Carrey said in his message.

He called Aung San Suu Kyi an "unsung hero" who "has been compared to Gandhi and Nelson Mandela."

He also taught viewers how to pronounce Aung San Suu Kyi's name, explaining how he first learned the pronunciation, and appealed to them to join a global effort coordinated by two groups, the Human Rights Action Center and US Campaign for Burma, to free her and support human rights in Myanmar.

How to bring an end to Burma's civil unrest

Burma's recent history is repeating itself with the 88 Generation Students group once again leading an uprising. But the question that remains now is how this demonstration will end - at the negotiating table with the military junta, as the UN recommends, or in uncontrolled bloody civil unrest, as happened in 1988.

Published on August 29, 2007


On August 15, the government, which holds a monopoly on fuel sales, doubled the price for diesel from 1,500 kyats (Bt40) to 3,000 kyats per gallon, and raised the price of gasoline (petrol) to 2,500 kyats. The price of a 65-litre canister of natural gas was raised from 500 to 2,500 kyats.

Authorities made these increases without any public announcement and most people only found out about them when they were asked to pay double their usual bus fare. Many bus services were suspended and hundreds of commuters could be seen lining up at bus stops. In addition, students could not go to school, workers were unable to go their factories, and monks were late for their meals. Pandemonium reigned.

"It is very hard to understand their [the military junta's] mindset and we were all shocked when we heard the news," said Khin Maung Nyo, an economist in Rangoon. Fuel prices should have been increased step by step rather than by this sudden drastic move, he suggested. "Anyway, I wish the authorities would make an adjustment to it as soon as possible".

His wish has not been realised. "This is challenging us," shouted Htin Kyaw, leader of the Myanmar Development Committee. He has been detained often in recent months for protesting over the high price of commodities. He has demanded that authorities cancel the fuel price increases within seven days - "otherwise they must face our forces" he said in a telephone conversation with the Democratic Voice of Burma.

Five days later, more than 500 people led by the 88-Generation Student group staged a rare protest in Rangoon, marching against the fuel-price hike. "We are staging this performance to reflect the hardships our people are facing due to the government's fuel-price hike," Min Ko Naing, leader of the 88-Generation Student group told the Democratic Voice of Burma.

From then until now, the fearless youths have led demonstrations in Rangoon, and these have spread to other parts of the country even though authorities arrested Min Ko Naing and a dozen of his followers.

"Today, we, the 88-Generation Students, will jointly be staging protests together with democracy activists," said Htay Kyew, one of the remaining figures of the group now hiding in Rangoon. "Members of the National League for Democracy, monks, students who are currently attending universities, and people who love the country and want to see change in Burma, please join us," he told the Democratic Voice of Burma from his hiding place by cell-phone on Friday.

While activists have been brave enough to protest, neither MPs nor high-profile officials have joined the current demonstrations.

"We have no plan to rally publicly rally, although we have sympathy for them," said Nyan Win, a spokesperson for detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD). However, members of his party's youth wing have led the demonstrations and dozens have been arrested.

Hla Myo Naung, another 88-Generation Students group leader also in hiding, said that the NLD were representatives of the people and "they must understand what people need now".

However, the NLD's aged leading figures have not been in much of a rush to act in the current situation, though they did issue statements.

"Using violence to crack down on the protests will not provide a solution to the hardships people are facing today... These problems can only be solved when political parties and the government can discuss this together to find an answer," the statement said.

United Nations secretary-general Ban Ki-moon released a statement last week calling on the military to respond to peaceful demonstrations with restraint as protests spread across the country. "The secretary general calls on the authorities to exercise maximum restraint in responding to any demonstrations, and encourages all parties to avoid any provocative action. He calls for a constructive dialogue towards national reconciliation at this important time in [Burma's] history," the statement read.

The UN leader's statement followed similar calls from the US, UK, Norway and human-rights groups earlier this week. The US State Department's director of press relations Gonzalo Gallegos told reporters in Washington on Wednesday: "We call on the regime to engage in a meaningful dialogue with the leaders of Burma's democracy movement and ethnic minority groups and to make tangible steps toward a transition to civilian democratic rule."

However, Asean countries, China, India, Japan and other parts of the world continue to remain silent.

How should this situation be brought to an end?

There are three ways in which the current unrest could end:

1) The protests will not be supported by enough people and, also lacking the support of MPs, it will end unsuccessfully with all leading activists arrested;

2) A sufficient number of people join the current demonstrations but some of them disobey their leaders' commands and fight back against pro-government mobs attempting to beat them. The authorities might bring in police and army forces and if that happens, the current unrest could lead to uncontrollable bloodshed;

3) A sufficient number of people join the protests and MPs from the NLD use these demonstrations as pressure to to push the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) to the negotiating table, as all are requesting.

The time is now running out for the correct choice to be made. This is not only in the demonstrators' hands but also in those of leading politicians from the NLD and ethnic parties. But even more, the crisis is in the hands of the SPDC. Either side may, in addition, need suggestions or intervention from the UN-led international community.

Htet Aung Kyaw

Oslo

Htet Aung Kyaw is a senior journalist for the Oslo-based Democratic Voice of Burma radio and TV station.

Burmese authorities move to restrict news coverage of protests

New York, August 29, 2007—The Committee to Protect Journalists is gravely concerned about the Burmese government’s restriction of news coverage of recent nationwide protests over an August 15 government decision to end fuel price subsidies.

According to the Burma Media Association (BMA), plainclothes police and pro-government groups brandishing crude weapons have threatened, harassed, and physically assaulted a number of local journalists who have attempted to cover and photograph the protests and the government’s retaliatory crackdown. Police are believed to have arrested more than 150 protesters, including prominent members of the dissident 88 Student Generation group.

The military command meanwhile issued a ban against photographing the protests and security forces have been deployed to enforce it. An unidentified local Reuters journalist had his cameras seized by police on August 23 after he attempted to take pictures of junta-backed militias detaining a group of protesters, according to media reports.

“Not content with starving its people of information by restricting news distribution, the Burmese junta is now using intimidation and threats to prevent news gathering,” said Joel Simon, CPJ’s executive director. “Reporters have a right to cover the fuel protests in Burma without being set upon by plainclothes police and pro-government thugs. We call upon the Rangoon government to ensure that all journalists can work without harassment and censorship.”

Meanwhile, state censors imposed a 10-day blackout of all news coverage of the protests, apart from the occasional propaganda piece in the pro-government New Light of Myanmar (Burma). All newspapers and magazines are censored by government authorities before publication, while all broadcast media outlets are tightly controlled and owned by the military government.

The Southeast Asian Press Alliance, a regional press freedom advocacy group, reported recent rolling blackouts for both cell phones and the Internet. Burma already maintains some of the world’s most comprehensive restrictions of the Internet, intended as a means of cutting off the flow of information to dissident publications outside the country. CPJ’s e-mails in recent days to journalists inside Burma all went unanswered.

Last year, CPJ named Burma as the second-most censored country in the world.

Jim Carrey Makes Surprise Humanitarian Video

Wednesday, August 29th, 2007

Actor Carrey stands in support of a jailed Burmese human rights activist

By Juontel White

HOLLYWOOD, CA (Hollywood Today) 8/29/07 – Jim Carrey is the latest Hollywood actor to use his fame to shed a little light on some very dark corners of the world, calling for a jailed rights activist in Asia to be freed.

In a YouTube video released Tuesday, actor Jim Carrey rallies support for his “unsung” hero, Aung San Suu Kyi, a Burmese Nobel laureate and human rights activist held for 11 years in house arrest by Myanmar’s military regime.

The candid video is not the typical hysterically comedic spoof most likely to star the always energetic Carrey. Rather, he is composed and very serious about his to-be-commended hero. “She is a champion of human rights and decency in Asia and of similar hope to all struggling people,” Carey said.

Aung San called for her government to establish multi-party elections and ran for election, addressing thousands about her plan to form a democratic government, according to CNN.

Although she won the majority vote as leader of Myanmar’s National League for Democracy, Suu Kyi has yet to be recognized by the Burmese government for her victory – in fact she was jailed for it.

“Even though she won 82 percent of the parliamentary seats in the country, she was locked away by the military regime and has been held for 11 years under house arrest,” said Carrey. “Even though she’s compared to a modern-day Ghandi or Nelson Mandela, most people in America still don’t know about Aung San,” he continued.

Carrey’s video encourages Americans to join the U.S. Campaign for Burma as well as the Human Rights Action Center.

Always remembering the audience, Carrey even gives viewers an easy way to remember his plea.

“Let’s face it: the name’s a little difficult to remember,” he said. “Here’s how I did it: Aung San sounds a lot like ‘unsung’, as in unsung hero. Aung San Suu Kyi is truly an unsung hero.”

Carrey delivers serious message on YouTube

LOS ANGELES, Aug. 29 (UPI) -- Hollywood funnyman Jim Carrey played it serious on YouTube, speaking on behalf of imprisoned Aung San Suu Kyi, an icon of Myanmar democratic movement.

Suu Kyi has been under house arrest for 11 years, Carrey said in his nearly 90-second message.

"She's also the world's only imprisoned Nobel Prize recipient," he said of the 1991 Peace Prize laureate.

Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, has been under international sanctions since the military rejected election results in 1990 won by Suu Kyi's opposition National League for Democracy.

"Even though she won 82 percent of the parliamentary seats in the country, she was locked away by the military regime and has been held for 11 years under house arrest," Carrey said in his message.

Carrey, star of the "Ace Ventura" movies and "How the Grinch Stole Christmas," begins his video with "I want to tell you about a hero of mine."

Acknowledging that many might not recognize her name because it is difficult to pronounce, Carrey said he remembers it this way:

"Aung San sounds like unsung, as in unsung hero," he said. "Aung San Suu Kyi is truly an unsung hero."

Jim Carrey: Help Aung San Suu Kyi

• Story Highlights
• "Most people in America still don't know about Aung San," Carrey says
  
• Suu Kyi has been under long-term house arrest
  
• She won Nobel Peace Prize in 1991

NEW YORK (AP) -- Jim Carrey has made a straight-to-YouTube video. And it's not funny at all.

Scores of protesters in Bangkok, Thailand, demanded the release of Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi on August 8.

The 45-year-old actor-comedian -- in rare serious mode -- appears in a new public service announcement on behalf of the Human Rights Action Center and the U.S. Campaign for Burma. The goal: To free Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, who has been confined by the government of Myanmar for 11 of the last 17 years.

"Even though she's compared to a modern-day Gandhi or Nelson Mandela, most people in America still don't know about Aung San," Carrey says in the filmed message, posted Tuesday on YouTube.

"And let's face it: the name's a little difficult to remember. Here's how I did it: Aung San sounds a lot like `unsung,' as in unsung hero. Aung San Suu Kyi is truly an unsung hero." Watch the video

Suu Kyi received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991 for her nonviolent efforts to bring down the oppressive military regime that rules over the Southeast Asian country. She is under long-term house arrest in the city of Yangon.

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The regime, led by General Than Shwe, has destroyed more than 3,000 villages in eastern Myanmar, formerly called Burma. More than 1.5 million people have been forced to leave their homes, and the regime has recruited more child soldiers than any other country in the world, Carrey says in his spot.

"People around the world need to come to her aid, just as they supported Mandela when he was locked up," said Jeremy Woodrum, co-founder of the U.S. Campaign for Burma, in a statement Tuesday.

"This announcement contributes to an upsurge in activism around Aung San Suu Kyi in the United States and throughout the world."

Jim Carrey Campaigns For Aung San Suu Kyi

Wednesday 29th of August 2007 Comic actor Jim Carrey has made a video urging that Myanmar rights activist Aung San Suu Kyi be freed soon.

The actor spoke on behalf of Human Rights Action Center and the US Campaign For Burma and has posted the video on YouTube.com, reports contactmusic.com. A Nobel laureate, Suu Kyi has been under long-term house arrest in the Myanmar capital.

Carrey said: 'Even though she's compared to a modern day Gandhi or Nelson Mandela, most people in America still don't know about Aung San. Let's face it: the name's a little difficult to remember.

'Here's how I did it: Aung San sounds a lot like 'unsung', as in unsung hero. Aung San Suu Kyi is truly an unsung hero.'

Suu Kyi was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991 for her peaceful efforts to topple the repressive military regime that rules the troubled country.

Jim Carrey Backs The Release of Aung San Suu Kyi

August 29th, 2007 by Laura Smith

Comedian Jim Carrey has put out a serious public service announcement in order to draw attention to the need to free NObel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi, who has been confined by the Myanmar government for many years. Though many are fighting for her release, it is strange that a Hollywood super star and a comedian at that would be taking an active part in freeing the human rights leader. Aung San has been peacefully resisting violence that has taken place in Myanmar, once called Burma. A destructive military regime led by General Than Shwe has destroyed over 3,000 villages in the area and displaced 1.5 million people.

Carrey not only wants Aung San free, but he also wants to make her a household name in the United States. Despite all of her accomplishments, this is the first that many Americans will hear of her achievements which make her more than deserving of her own freedom. Aung San was born on June 19, 1945, the third child and only daughter of of Aung San, commander of the Burma Independence Army, and Ma Kin Kyi, senior nurse at Rangoon General Hospital. The name Aung San means “father,” Kyi stands for “mother,” and “Suu” for grandmother. When she was two years old her father was assisinated, and her mother became a prominant public figure to lead in social planning and social policy bodies.

In 1960, Aung San moved to New Delhi with her mother. She began attending Oxford University in 1964, earning a B.A. in philosophy and economics at St. Hugh’s College. She then moved to New York to attend graduate school. Before she could complete her studies, however, Aung San joined the U.N. secretariat as Assistant Secretary, Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions. On her evenings and weekends, she volunteered at a hospital. She married Michael Aris on January 1, 1972, and they moved to Bhutan in the Himalayas where Aris tutored the royal family and headed the Translation department. Aung San became a research officer in the Royal Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Their first son Alexander was born in London in 1973, and four years later, they had a second son, Kim, at Oxford.

Aung San went on to become a published writer with the printing of her “Leaders of Asia” series in 1984 followed by a juvenile book “Let’s Visit Burma” the next year along with books on Nepal and Bhutan. In 1986, her boys were initiated into monkhood in Rangoon. The violence that she became known for resisting erupted in 1988 when General Ne Win resigned as the military dictator of Burma, causing protests to emerge. In August of that year, there was a massive uprising throughout the country, the military killing thousands of civilians. In response, Aung San sent an open letter to the government to request the formation of an independent consultative committee to prepare multi-party elections. Later that month, she began public addresses to crowds of thousands to call for a democratic government. Her mother died of a stroke in 1989, and at the funeral, she vowed to continue to fight for her country.

In February of the following year, she was denied from standing for election. In July, she was placed under house arrest without being charged or receiving a trial. In 1990, Aung San was given the Rafto Human Rights Prize. In 1991, European Parliament began awarding the Suu Kyi Sakharov human rights prize. In October of that year, Aung San received the Nobel Peace Prize. She continued to be published even while detained. In 1991, Penguin Press put out “Freedom From Fear.” The next year, she vowed to use her $1.3 million prize money to establish a health and education trust for Burma. A group of Nobel Peace Laureates began work to release Aung San in 1993. In 1995, she was released from house arrest, but the struggle to liberate her goes on, prompting even unorthodox people of power, such as Jim Carrey to plead for her release.

For related articles visit...
http://www.cnn.com/2007/SHOWBIZ/08/29/carrey.suukyi.ap/index.html?iref=mpstoryview http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/1991/kyi-bio.html.

U.S. senators ask State Department to arrange U.N. Security Council session on Myanmar

The Associated Press
Published: August 29, 2007

WASHINGTON: Two senior members of the U.S. Senate and the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee urged the State Department to persuade the U.N. Security Council to hold an emergency meeting on human rights violations in Myanmar.

Democratic Rep. Tom Lantos on Wednesday cited the country's "widespread crackdown" on pro-democracy and human rights activists over the past week, including incidents in Myanmar in which activists have been arrested in the middle of the night and others have been beaten and carted off in trucks after protesting. He also cites the military regime's war against ethnic minorities.

In a letter to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Lantos urged Rice to call for a U.N. Security Council briefing of Myanmar's situation.

Sens. Mitch McConnell, leader of the Senate's Republican minority, and Dianne Feinstein, Democratic chairwoman of the Senate Judiciary terrorism subcommittee, wrote that "The current situation in Burma merits a strong and meaningful response by our government." Burma is another name for Myanmar.

McConnell and Feinstein asked Rice to urge U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to report to the council on the situation involving "repressive measures" from Myanmar authorities "in response to the largest nonviolent demonstrations in Burma in five years."

Pro-democracy demonstrators in Yangon, the capital, have been met by soldiers sent by the country's ruling junta to quell protests of rising energy prices and increases in the cost of living.

Past attempts by the Bush administration to get the Security Council formally and publicly address the Myanmar situation have been blocked by China and Russia, which are reluctant to let the council in human rights issues lest their own problems in Tibet and Chechnya also come under scrutiny.

Myanmar's people too scared, tired to rise up

By Aung Hla Tun
Wed Aug 29, 2007 11:30AM ED

YANGON (Reuters) - The grind of everyday life, fear of being beaten up and a lack of belief in people power as a weapon against a ruthless military junta suggest a string of protests in Myanmar will not snowball into a mass uprising.

"Of course, we're scared. We are not only afraid of being arrested and tortured but also afraid of being starved," Ko Kyaw Gyi, a worker at a construction site in the heart of the former capital, said on Wednesday.

"For most of us, daily survival is more important than anything else. The whole family has to toil the whole day to earn enough for two meals. If we join the protests, one thing we can be sure of is having to go without dinner."

Besides intimidating the public with gangs of paid thugs in a crackdown on this month's sporadic protests, the junta has also sought to neutralize students and Buddhist monks, backbone of a 1988 uprising crushed by the army with the loss of 3,000 lives.

Since 1988, university campuses have been moved to Yangon's outskirts, making them easier to control, and the generals have warned abbots of consequences if the monasteries join this month's rare outbreak of dissent at soaring fuel prices.

"You can see in our history that it was monks and students who played a leading role in our independence struggle. Workers, farmers and civil servants were just followers," said one retired government worker who did not want to be named.

"At the moment, we can't expect anything from both the monks and the students. The monks cannot move out of fear and most students are not as keen on politics as those in the past."

WELL-ORGANISED CRACKDOWN

Underlining the point, the first to be arrested in last week's crackdown on dissent in the former Burma were leaders of the 1988 student movement still seen as the voice of the ebullient youth.

Min Ko Naing, head of the so-called "88 Generation Students Group" and the most influential dissident after detained democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi, is now in Yangon's notorious Insein prison.

He spent 15 years in jail after the 1988 uprising. Now he haves another 20 years on sedition charges.

Many also see the junta's shock decision in 2005 to move its capital to a small former logging town 400 km (240 miles) north of Yangon as a deliberate tactic to stop civil servants being around to swell the ranks of a people's movement.

"With the monks confined at the monasteries, the students disappointed outside the cities and the civil servants depressed in Nay Pyi Taw, the situation is quite different from 1988," a retired university professor said.

"It is completely in favor of the regime."

Many veterans of 1988 also remember the blood flowing on the streets of Yangon and question whether it was worth it.

"If the protests were going to bring us a better life immediately, the situation would surely be different," a pavement teashop owner said. "But many of us sacrificed a lot in 1988, and what happened? Things just went from bad to worse."

Myanmar's people too scared, tired to rise up

By Aung Hla Tun
Wed Aug 29, 2007 11:30AM ED

YANGON (Reuters) - The grind of everyday life, fear of being beaten up and a lack of belief in people power as a weapon against a ruthless military junta suggest a string of protests in Myanmar will not snowball into a mass uprising.

"Of course, we're scared. We are not only afraid of being arrested and tortured but also afraid of being starved," Ko Kyaw Gyi, a worker at a construction site in the heart of the former capital, said on Wednesday.

"For most of us, daily survival is more important than anything else. The whole family has to toil the whole day to earn enough for two meals. If we join the protests, one thing we can be sure of is having to go without dinner."

Besides intimidating the public with gangs of paid thugs in a crackdown on this month's sporadic protests, the junta has also sought to neutralize students and Buddhist monks, backbone of a 1988 uprising crushed by the army with the loss of 3,000 lives.

Since 1988, university campuses have been moved to Yangon's outskirts, making them easier to control, and the generals have warned abbots of consequences if the monasteries join this month's rare outbreak of dissent at soaring fuel prices.

"You can see in our history that it was monks and students who played a leading role in our independence struggle. Workers, farmers and civil servants were just followers," said one retired government worker who did not want to be named.

"At the moment, we can't expect anything from both the monks and the students. The monks cannot move out of fear and most students are not as keen on politics as those in the past."

WELL-ORGANISED CRACKDOWN

Underlining the point, the first to be arrested in last week's crackdown on dissent in the former Burma were leaders of the 1988 student movement still seen as the voice of the ebullient youth.

Min Ko Naing, head of the so-called "88 Generation Students Group" and the most influential dissident after detained democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi, is now in Yangon's notorious Insein prison.

He spent 15 years in jail after the 1988 uprising. Now he haves another 20 years on sedition charges.

Many also see the junta's shock decision in 2005 to move its capital to a small former logging town 400 km (240 miles) north of Yangon as a deliberate tactic to stop civil servants being around to swell the ranks of a people's movement.

"With the monks confined at the monasteries, the students disappointed outside the cities and the civil servants depressed in Nay Pyi Taw, the situation is quite different from 1988," a retired university professor said.

"It is completely in favor of the regime."

Many veterans of 1988 also remember the blood flowing on the streets of Yangon and question whether it was worth it.

"If the protests were going to bring us a better life immediately, the situation would surely be different," a pavement teashop owner said. "But many of us sacrificed a lot in 1988, and what happened? Things just went from bad to worse."

US officials, politicians urge UN action as Myanmar continues protest clampdown

The Associated Press
Published: August 29, 2007

YANGON, Myanmar: American politicians issued urgent calls for Myanmar's military government to stop its repression as the junta Thursday hunted down pro-democracy activists it blames for spearheading ongoing protests against rising fuel prices.

Two senior Senators and the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee called for the State Department to persuade the U.N. Security Council to hold an emergency meeting on human rights violations in Myanmar.

Senators Mitch McConnell and Dianne Feinstein wrote that the situation in Myanmar "merits a strong and meaningful response by our government," and asked Rice to urge U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to report to the council about it.

The State Department said it would work at the U.N. and other forums to pressure the junta to release opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi and other political prisoners, and move to restore democracy.

State Department spokesman Tom Casey said Washington would "try and encourage others to speak out on this and those who may have influence with the Burmese regime to get them to do the right thing here and to do what has been so long overdue." Burma is another name for Myanmar.

Twenty people staged a march against the fuel price hike early Thursday in Kyaukpadaung, which is located about 460 kilometers (286 miles) northwest of Yangon, activists said.

The protesters were jeered at by pro-junta mobs, but otherwise the demonstration ended without incident. Protest leaders were ushered into a meeting with the township chairman, who advised them of the ban on gatherings of more than five people before letting them go.

"We told the (chairman) that we are marching to express the economic hardship due to the fuel price hike and also demanded that all political prisoners be released," said Myint Lwin, who took part in the protest. "We are peacefully expressing our civil rights."


In Yangon, Myanmar's largest city, security was especially tight near City Hall and the busy market near Hledan Junction, where protests against fuel price hikes and rising consumer prices have been attempted over the last week and a half.

Truckloads of young, tough-looking government-hired enforcers directed by plainclothes security officials were parked at such key points, the occupants ready to pounce on anyone suspected of trying to spark unrest.

It has been a government tactic in the past to use members of the Swan-ah-shin and Union Solidarity and Development Association_ ostensibly a social welfare organization, but closely linked to the junta — to assault and intimidate the junta's opponents.

The USDA was linked to attacks against Suu Kyi and her party supporters in Yangon in 1997, and in northern Myanmar on May 30, 2003. The latter clash led to her detention, which the military said was for her own protection.

Several diplomats in Yangon have expressed concerns over the heavy-handed ways the government uses to snuff out the protests.

"I believe the junta does not use uniformed personnel because they don't want to be blamed for their action. Now that they are using civilians, they can claim, as they have done in newspapers, that it was the agitated public that stop the protesters," said a diplomat who did not want to be named because of diplomatic protocol.

The government has also ordered local officials and hotels to be on the lookout for key pro-democracy activists, sending out their names, photos and biographical information, said a local official who asked not to be named for fear of retaliation.

"We have been instructed to inform higher authorities immediately if we sight any of these people in our area," he said, adding that the list of dissidents includes at least one member of the 88 Generation Students group, the most active in carrying out non-violent anti-government protests. Most of its top members were arrested on Aug. 21, two days after staging the first of the current round of protests.

Those participating in almost daily protest attempts have dwindled from a few hundred people to a few dozen, as the junta employs the menacing gangs of civilians to manhandle protesters. Scores of people have been detained, though several key protest leaders remain at large.

In Washington, Congressman Tom Lantos on Wednesday decried the junta's "widespread crackdown" on pro-democracy and human rights activists.

In a letter to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, he urged Rice to call for a U.N. Security Council briefing on Myanmar's situation.

In 1988, public protests over rising rice prices were a prelude to a burst of major demonstrations. The current protests are nowhere near their scale.

Statement of WLC on Junta’s arrest of peaceful demonstrators

Women’s League of Chinland:
Wed 29 Aug 2007

1) We, the Women’s League of Chinland, condemn Burma’s military regime for its unreasonable increase of fuel prices, which is causing extreme hardship for ordinary people.

2) We also condemn the Junta’s ongoing arrests during 22nd to onwards August 2007 of activists who were peacefully demonstrating against the economic mismanagement of the regime.

3) We condemn the regime for making the lives of women insecure whether they are at home or on the streets, in Rangoon or other parts of Burma.

4) We strongly condemn the arrest and harassment of unarmed women demonstrators who were followed by the regime’s gangs to their residences and raided at night, a time of increased vulnerability for women.

5) We are concerned for the security of the women and the consequences for the families of the women who have been arrested, detained and harassed.

6) We demand that Burma’s military regime release all these women, prominent student activists Min Ko Naing, Ko Ko Kyi and other student activists and allow people to practise freedom of expression in Burma.

7) We request the international community to take stronger action against the regime for harassing unarmed civilians and the United Nations Security Council to take action on Burma.

8) We request the government of India to reconsider their ties with Burma’s military regime. It is a shame for India to engage with a regime that has acted so undemocratically against its own civilians.

9) We salute the spirit of the people inside Burma who are consistently fighting against the brutal regime despite the risks of being threatened, arrested, detained and tortured.

To contact:

0091-9436383265 - Cheery Zahau (Coordinator)
0091-9862358097- Lalmalsawmi (Asst. Coordinator I)
0091-0871520833- Mai Nu Nu Ping (Asst. Coordinator II)

Copy to: 1) The Chief Minister of Mizoram and other members of House of Assembly
2) Members of Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha of India

Burma: What will it take for the UN to act?

To the surprise of many, the protests against sharp fuel rises in Burma have continued for a second week, despite constant arrests and harassment of demonstrators and their leaders by plain-clothed police, government officials and gangs of thugs mobilised for the purpose, while soldiers are reported to be watching and waiting in the wings in case events prove uncontrollable.

The protests have now spread to parts of at least six out of the country’s 14 states and divisions, and for the first time members of the Buddhist monastic order have come out in force: over 150 monks and novices marched in the capital of the western Arakan State on 28 August 2007, joined by another 50 to a hundred ordinary citizens. Fittingly, they chose to walk along U Ottama Street, named after a monk from the region who led the struggle against British colonial rule and was imprisoned with hard labour for three years as a consequence.

Meanwhile, another 500 persons marched peacefully across Pegu, north of Rangoon, where further sporadic protests that were held outside of market places in downtown and suburban areas were met with violence and persons were taken away in the by now omnipresent Dyna flat-back trucks that are being used in lieu of vehicles with official markings. Courageous individuals have video taped many of the marches and abductions of participants, and have sent the images abroad for the world to see.

What can no longer be denied is that there is in this the spark that could ignite another mass uprising against Burma’s atrocious military regime. As virtually all of the leaders from the initial protests after the unannounced August 15 price hike are now in illegal detention, it is clear that the continued rallies are not being organised through any one group or body of leaders but rather are an expression of deep and swelling resentment at the army government. The marches in Sittwe and Pegu in particular were organised by local monks and ordinary citizens and did not apparently include among them any of the prominent leaders from the 1988 generation who began walking in Rangoon on August 19, or their allies.

Persons who have so far denied that the current protests bear a resemblance to those of 1988 also appear to have forgotten that the mass demonstrations of that year did not happen overnight: on the contrary, they slowly built up over a period of about six months, and were spread over about a further five months before being crushed through the use of undisguised sheer brutality of an unexceptional scale.

One of the differences between then and now is the capacity for news to be spread outside and inside the country with unprecedented speed and coverage. Every small incident is known to persons outside of Burma within hours of it taking place, and is soon broadcast back into the country via the short wave radio services that keep the population informed of what their government does not wish them to hear. These same services report in detail on the reaction of the international community, and reports of strong interest from abroad serve to galvanise the spirit and efforts of people there.

Unfortunately, the world leaders who speak so often about democracy and human rights appear not to understand this. Since its open letter of August 24 calling on the Secretary General of the United Nations to take intervene in the worsening situation in Burma, the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received messages from people in all parts of the world asking why the UN has so far sat on its hands.

The AHRC is asking the same question: ironically, the fleeting expressions of concern by the Secretary General and High Commissioner for Human Rights about the current situation in Burma have served no purpose other than to give further confidence to its dictatorship. It has heard such remarks countless times before and will no doubt be reassured that yet again empty rhetoric is all that the United Nations has to offer its fifty million long-suffering people. And not only the UN but also other multilateral agencies, notably the European Union, deserve criticism for the complete lack of timely and meaningful intervention at this critical time.

The Asian Human Rights Commission iterates its call for firm and deliberate action by the United Nations on Burma: now, today. It proposes that the Secretary General and High Commissioner each call urgent strategy meetings with concerned personnel and informed advisers–not merely persons with diplomatic credentials but those who know what is actually going on in the country–to discuss and propose immediate steps. It also echoes calls for an emergency session of the Security Council to be held on the same, as the consequences of the recent hikes in prices will under any circumstances have ramifications for the region.

Finally, the AHRC earnestly calls upon concerned fellow members of the public everywhere to lobby their governments to act, before it is again too little, too late for Burma. It is confident of the genuine interest in their wellbeing among other ordinary persons throughout the world, and is convinced that if the global popular outrage at what is happening there today can be translated into strong demands upon representative governments for a unified and coherent response to these events then this will make a big difference: in fact, it could be the difference between survival and disaster for the people of Burma.

About AHRC: The Asian Human Rights Commission is a regional non-governmental organisation monitoring and lobbying human rights issues in Asia. The Hong Kong-based group was founded in 1984.

Military authorities use all means possible to prevent coverage of current events

Reporters Without Borders and Burma Media Association:
Wed 29 Aug 2007

Reporters Without Borders and the Burma Media Association firmly condemn the methods being used by the military government to prevent journalists, including those working for foreign media, from covering a wave of unrest in response to an increase in the price of fuel. The two organisations call on European embassies in Rangoon to publicly defend the right of Burmese journalists to work without obstruction.

“The military’s response to the wave of protests against price increases since 19 August has again been heavy-handed repression, intimidation and censorship of Burmese journalists,” the two organisations said. “Despite the violence by the military and their bully-boys, reports and pictures of the demonstrations are being seen abroad. This testifies to the courage of the Burmese journalists and demonstrators.”

The censorship bureau and the police stepped up controls after the government decided to raise the price of fuel on 15 August.

The Burmese correspondents of foreign news media say they been subjected to a great deal of intimidation from plain-clothes police and members of the Union Solidarity and Development Association (the regime’s militia) while covering the recent demonstrations in Rangoon. Armed with spades and iron bars and circulating in army trucks, police and militiamen have been insulting and threatening journalists.

An unidentified journalist was roughed up by men in plain clothes as he took pictures of people lining up to take public transport in the capital on 22 August. USDA members and police prevented journalists from approaching a group of street demonstrators in Rangoon the next day. USDA thugs jostled and insulted journalists. A Reuters reporter was forbidden to take pictures of arrests and the police finally seized his cameras.

As a result of this intimidation, Agence France-Presse has described coverage of the current events as “delicate.” A journalist working for a foreign news organisation based in Bangkok told Reporters Without Borders that its Burmese stringer had been forced to stay away from the demonstrations because of the constant intimidation.

“Men in plain clothes impose an atmosphere of fear around the demonstrations which prevents us from working,” said one Burmese journalist employed by a foreign news organisation. “It is hard to risk being arrested for a photo.”

The Rangoon military command has banned journalists from taking photos of demonstrations and has ordered the seizure and destruction of cameras from those who do not comply. In order to hamper the dissemination of reports, the authorities are said to have slowed Internet traffic, even for private companies. According to some accounts, it has become increasingly difficult to access gmail.com and gtalk. Mobile phone networks have also been disrupted since demonstrators began gathering every day in Rangoon last week.

Lots of the images and reports of the demonstrations seen abroad have come from demonstrators or amateur journalists. The magazine Irrawaddy has paid homage to them and is talking of the emergence of “citizen-journalists” in Burma.

After banning the Burmese media from publishing any reports about the demonstrations, the government announced that their leaders, known as the Generation 88 activists, will be prosecuted for trying to start an uprising. They face up to 20 years in prison. After a 10-day news blackout, the media have also been told they can now refer to the fuel price increase, albeit only in positive terms.

How to bring an end to Burma’s civil unrest

Bangkok Post: - Htet Aung Kyaw
Wed 29 Aug 2007

Burma’s recent history is repeating itself with the 88 Generation Students group once again leading an uprising. But the question that remains now is how this demonstration will end - at the negotiating table with the military junta, as the UN recommends, or in uncontrolled bloody civil unrest, as happened in 1988.

On August 15, the government, which holds a monopoly on fuel sales, doubled the price for diesel from 1,500 kyats (Bt40) to 3,000 kyats per gallon, and raised the price of gasoline (petrol) to 2,500 kyats. The price of a 65-litre canister of natural gas was raised from 500 to 2,500 kyats.

Authorities made these increases without any public announcement and most people only found out about them when they were asked to pay double their usual bus fare. Many bus services were suspended and hundreds of commuters could be seen lining up at bus stops. In addition, students could not go to school, workers were unable to go their factories, and monks were late for their meals. Pandemonium reigned.

“It is very hard to understand their [the military junta’s] mindset and we were all shocked when we heard the news,” said Khin Maung Nyo, an economist in Rangoon. Fuel prices should have been increased step by step rather than by this sudden drastic move, he suggested. “Anyway, I wish the authorities would make an adjustment to it as soon as possible”.

His wish has not been realised. “This is challenging us,” shouted Htin Kyaw, leader of the Myanmar Development Committee. He has been detained often in recent months for protesting over the high price of commodities. He has demanded that authorities cancel the fuel price increases within seven days - “otherwise they must face our forces” he said in a telephone conversation with the Democratic Voice of Burma.

Five days later, more than 500 people led by the 88-Generation Student group staged a rare protest in Rangoon, marching against the fuel-price hike. “We are staging this performance to reflect the hardships our people are facing due to the government’s fuel-price hike,” Min Ko Naing, leader of the 88-Generation Student group told the Democratic Voice of Burma.

From then until now, the fearless youths have led demonstrations in Rangoon, and these have spread to other parts of the country even though authorities arrested Min Ko Naing and a dozen of his followers.

“Today, we, the 88-Generation Students, will jointly be staging protests together with democracy activists,” said Htay Kyew, one of the remaining figures of the group now hiding in Rangoon. “Members of the National League for Democracy, monks, students who are currently attending universities, and people who love the country and want to see change in Burma, please join us,” he told the Democratic Voice of Burma from his hiding place by cell-phone on Friday.

While activists have been brave enough to protest, neither MPs nor high-profile officials have joined the current demonstrations.

“We have no plan to rally publicly rally, although we have sympathy for them,” said Nyan Win, a spokesperson for detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD). However, members of his party’s youth wing have led the demonstrations and dozens have been arrested.

Hla Myo Naung, another 88-Generation Students group leader also in hiding, said that the NLD were representatives of the people and “they must understand what people need now”.

However, the NLD’s aged leading figures have not been in much of a rush to act in the current situation, though they did issue statements.

“Using violence to crack down on the protests will not provide a solution to the hardships people are facing today… These problems can only be solved when political parties and the government can discuss this together to find an answer,” the statement said.

United Nations secretary-general Ban Ki-moon released a statement last week calling on the military to respond to peaceful demonstrations with restraint as protests spread across the country. “The secretary general calls on the authorities to exercise maximum restraint in responding to any demonstrations, and encourages all parties to avoid any provocative action. He calls for a constructive dialogue towards national reconciliation at this important time in [Burma’s] history,” the statement read.

The UN leader’s statement followed similar calls from the US, UK, Norway and human-rights groups earlier this week. The US State Department’s director of press relations Gonzalo Gallegos told reporters in Washington on Wednesday: “We call on the regime to engage in a meaningful dialogue with the leaders of Burma’s democracy movement and ethnic minority groups and to make tangible steps toward a transition to civilian democratic rule.”

However, Asean countries, China, India, Japan and other parts of the world continue to remain silent.

How should this situation be brought to an end?

There are three ways in which the current unrest could end:

1) The protests will not be supported by enough people and, also lacking the support of MPs, it will end unsuccessfully with all leading activists arrested;

2) A sufficient number of people join the current demonstrations but some of them disobey their leaders’ commands and fight back against pro-government mobs attempting to beat them. The authorities might bring in police and army forces and if that happens, the current unrest could lead to uncontrollable bloodshed;

3) A sufficient number of people join the protests and MPs from the NLD use these demonstrations as pressure to to push the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) to the negotiating table, as all are requesting.

The time is now running out for the correct choice to be made. This is not only in the demonstrators’ hands but also in those of leading politicians from the NLD and ethnic parties. But even more, the crisis is in the hands of the SPDC. Either side may, in addition, need suggestions or intervention from the UN-led international community.

Htet Aung Kyaw is a senior journalist for the Oslo-based Democratic Voice of Burma radio and TV station.

Burma’s NLD leadership must take a stronger stand

The current series of rarely-seen protest demonstrations in Burma against sharp fuel price rises are small in scale but have nevertheless won support and sympathy locally and internationally. The protests have mainly been led by prominent activists of the 88 Generation Students group and rank-and-file members of the opposition National League for Democracy. Sadly and ironically, however, they received no substantial support from the NLD leadership.

NLD Secretary U Lwin confirmed in a recent interview that the protests were small scale and said they were not the way to solve the country’s problems. He seems to forget how the 1988 nationwide pro-democracy uprising began—also on a small scale, initiated by scattered protests by groups of young students. U Lwin’s assessment of the current protests echoes utterances of the junta’s apologists.

There are only two sides to this issue—dissent and consent. While the junta has tried to crack down on the protests, the Burmese people and most pro-democracy groups within and outside Burma have supported the demonstrators.

It’s not at all surprising that the protesters have been brutally attacked by the military and its mob, while earning only depreciation and diminution from the junta’s apologists. But it’s odd and sad to hear negative and discouraging comments from the leadership of the NLD, which committed itself to restore democracy and work for the welfare of the people.

“We will stage demonstrations if they can solve our problems,” U Lwin told Washington-based Radio Free Asia’s Burmese service on Aug 25—but then added: “In fact, they won’t be solved just through protests.”

U Lwin also questioned the degree of support for the protest demonstrations. “How many people are protesting in Rangoon and across the country?” he asked. “There are many people who don’t take part. How can we measure if they [the protests] are an expression of the majority?”

U Lwin missed the point, failing to recognize that those small groups of protesters had taken to the streets knowing they would be brutally beaten and thrown into jail.

U Lwin’s broadcast comments uncovered within the Radio Free Asia audience deep frustration with the leadership of the NLD, contrasting with the support it has built up, both in the Burmese community and internationally, for its stand against the military dictatorship.

The NLD has been under fire since its foundation in 1988. The regime has tried to destroy its work and has harassed and imprisoned most of its leaders. Currently, the party leader Aung San Suu Kyi and Vice Chairman Tin Oo are under house arrest.

It is the junta’s job to destroy or hamper the work of the NLD and the pro-democracy movement; the military leaders are only doing what they have to. The NLD, on the other hand, has to adopt the same kind of single-mindedness in carrying on its work in the face of difficult and dangerous circumstances.

It’s the NLD’s job to make the party stronger, more organized and able to conduct party business despite the obstacles imposed by the generals. Otherwise, the party is not doing what it is supposed to do.

We have sympathy for the party’s executive leaders, many of whom face and have faced detention. Most of them are in their 70s and 80s. They have strong commitment to the movement. But to be frank, this does not qualify them to be seen as leaders of the party.

They are not doing enough politically, apart from trying to keep the party alive in the absence of their leader Aung San Suu Kyi. The NLD’s senior leadership seems to regard itself as the “caretaker” of the party, although it has no mandate from the people.

In the 1990 election, more than 80 percent of the voters gave a huge mandate to the NLD to continue to carry out its task of tackling the economic and political problems of the country.

Now, however, it cannot be the party’s current political goal just to keep itself alive. What will the NLD leadership do as long as Aung San Suu Kyi is under house arrest? Nobody knows how long the junta will keep her detained. Besides, will the party carry on, and as what, if Aung San Suu Kyi is gone?

In his Radio Free Asia interview, U Lwin said the party had been working, within the limits imposed by the junta, on demands for dialogue. On Monday, the NLD issued an outspoken statement condemning the junta’s brutal attack on the protesters. But it needs to do more than that.

The current NLD leadership has the responsibility to lead the movement. Instead, it is the rank-and-file members of the party who have bravely come out in protest against the regime, without any command of their leadership.

The NLD’s critics take the line: “Without Suu Kyi, the party is nothing.” It should not, and must not, be like that. The party, its members and the public at large need reliable leadership.

The example of South Africa comes to mind. When the head of the African National Congress, Nelson Mandela, was in prison, its other leaders were able to carry on the movement.

Without Aung San Suu Kyi or other leaders like her, the opposition movement in Burma must continue under a strong leadership. If the NLD leadership seriously thinks it has to change its policy with reflecting the desire of the people, it’s time for change at the top.

Uprising looms unless world community acts now on Burma

Burma’s repressive regime is once again, and assuredly not for the last time, cracking down violently on its own people as they engage in peaceful protests. And again, the oppression has prompted statements of condemnation and concern from the international community, notably the UN, US and EU.

Unfortunately for the people of Burma, however, the world body is too concerned with another geo-political agenda, the fight against international terrorism, to react effectively to the military regime’s systematic state terrorism against its own population.

The regime’s use of state-organized thugs to crack down on peaceful demonstrations in Rangoon and other cities against drastic increases in the price of fuel and other staples is a violation of existing laws. These physical attacks on innocent civilians are clearly terrorist acts committed by the state itself.

No legal action has yet been taken as a consequence of these attacks, even though the thugs wear no uniforms and have no legal authority to beat and detain other members of the public. The regime actually names these thugs “dutiful citizens.”

At its 99th plenary session on September 8, 2006, the UN condemned “terrorism in all its forms and manifestations, committed by whomever, wherever and for whatever purposes.”

The resolution on the “United Nations Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy” stated that “acts, methods and practices of terrorism in all its forms and manifestations are activities aimed at the destruction of human rights, fundamental freedoms and democracy.” By this definition, the Burmese junta’s use of organized groups of thugs to attack peaceful demonstrators is nothing short of terrorism.

Yet, while such terrorist acts are deemed to constitute one of “the most serious threats to international peace and security,” the only response to emerge from the world body are statements of concern and condemnation.

The regime’s use of bullies in plainclothes to counter democracy movements actually began in 1996, when thugs armed with swords, iron bars, sharpened bamboo sticks and catapults attacked the motorcade of pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi as she returned from a visit to the late National League for Democracy leader Kyi Maung.

Aung San Suu Kyi was again the target of regime-backed thugs in 2003 when her motorcade was attacked near Depayin Township, resulting in the violent deaths of scores of NLD members and innocent civilians. The perpetrators have never been brought to justice.

Among the international reactions to the latest outrages, an appeal has been directed to the British government by the opposition Conservative Party, calling on it to bring the issue immediately before the UN Security Council.

Such a move by Britain could, theoretically, result in the UN spotlight falling on the situation in Burma, since Rule 2 of the Provisional Rule of Procedure of the Security Council states: “The President shall call a meeting of the Security Council at the request of any member of the Security Council.”

But the chances of the British government taking it this far are slim, following the failure of the joint US-British proposal on Burma that was vetoed by China and Russia, two UN Security Council members with business interests and close relations with the Burmese generals.

The Burmese regime knows full well how weak the UN is in the face of the combined might of China and Russia, and feels free to step up its oppression at home, caring nothing for international criticism and pressure.

In the present state of affairs, Burma’s peaceful transition to democracy won’t occur while extreme militarism and state-sponsored terrorism hold the country in sway. The world community will surely see another bloody uprising unless international efforts are urgently stepped up to tackle the Burma issue concertedly and effectively.

Burmese authorities in hot pursue of student and youth leader Tin Htoo Aung

The residence of student and youth leader Ko Tin Htoo Aung has been raided and searched by Rangoon Special Branch Police and members of the Union Solidarity and Development Association (USDA).

An ethnic Arakan, Ko Tin Htoo Aung, who actively participated in the 1996 student movement, resides on Oat Kyin Station Road in Rangoon’s Hlaing Township. Authorities reportedly raided and searched the residence of the student activist twice.

Tin Htoo Aung’s aunt said more than twenty persons, including a police commander, the ward chairman, members of USDA and Swan Arrshin, and Military Affairs Security (MAS) personnel raided the house.

“They said they wanted to interrogate and arrest him. They warned me, as a government employee, to be careful. I told them I live with integrity as a government employee. And I also told them that I am about to retire,” Tin Htoo Aung’s aunt told Mizzima.

On both August 24th, at about 11:00 p.m. (local time) and on August 25th, early in the morning at about 2:00 a.m. (local time), authorities forcibly entered the residence of Ko Tin Htoo Aung without any warrant and searched the entire house.

“The boy is a disciplined boy. They [authorities] said they wanted to ask him a question and when I asked them what it was about, they did not reply. They just searched the whole house, even his [Tin Htoo Aung’s] room. When we asked them to show us the warrant they could not. It is sad the boy has had to flee. I want justice. He is just a young boy,” said Tin Htoo Aung’s aunt.

Junta ‘frees prisoners for anti-protest mobs’

The Independent: - Daniel Howden
Wed 29 Aug 2007

Burma’s military junta has been freeing prisoners from jail and then recruiting them to bolster gangs that have been used attack prodemocracy activists on the streets of Rangoon, campaigners and diplomats say. Before last week’s protests, the government released hundreds of prisoners in preparation for the arrest of dozens of activists whoa are campaigning against the country’s soaring inflation and lack of political process, it is claimed.

Sources suggest, although there is no proof, that the prisoners may have been recruited to join the shadowy Swan Aah Shin or “capable strong person” or-ganisation.”It’s an underground organisation and I don’t know who would admit to it existing, but it exists and it exists in force, and it has been evident over the last week,” one diplomat told Reuters.

“Basically, they are junta-backed thugs. They come from anywhere, and are the unemployed underclass. And they’ve been really effective - they are threatening. Everywhere you go, there are groups and truckloads of grubby-looking men looking bored and looking for a fight.” The claims came as campaigners again took to the streets of Rangoon yesterday but were only able to march a short way before being set upon by pro-government gangs. Many were punched as they were dragged away and thrown into waiting trucks.

A former political prisoner, Su Su Nway, took part in the protest but managed to escape arrest in a taxi with several colleagues. “Peaceful protests are brutally cracked down upon and I want to tell the international community that there is no rule of law in Burma,” she told reporters.

Although she has a heart condition, the 35-year-old said she believed it was her duty to join the protests since so many other activists had been arrested and detained by the government last week. About 60 are believed to still be in jail. “I will continue to stand in front of the public and I am ready to face government persecution,” she said. Campaigners have said that, in the past week, the government has been boosting its military forces in the capital, raising fears that troops could be used against protesters - much as they were in 1988 when scores of people were killed.

So far, however, the government has been using the Swan Aah Shin, believed to be organised by the military-created Union Soli-darity and Development Association (USDA). While the Swan Aah Shin operates mainly in Rangoon, the USDA and its networks of informers cover the provincial parts of the country.

Meanwhile, Buddhist monks were among up to 300 people who took part in a separate protest yesterday in the city of Sittwe, capital of Burma’s western Rakhine State. A report on the website of Democratic Voice of Burma, an opposition radio station based in Norway, said the protest had lasted for at least an hour without government interference.

Mandalay monk slams junta on demonstration crackdown

Irrawaddy: - Shah Paung
Wed 29 Aug 2007

The violent crackdown on demonstrations by Burma’s ruling junta following a steep rise in fuel prices drew criticism on Wednesday from a senior monk in Mandalay.

“It is like we [Burmese] are daubed with soot and fight against each other,” a senior monk from the Ma Soe Yein Monastery in Mandalay told The Irrawaddy on Wednesday on condition of anonymity.

The monk was referring to the government’s use of plainclothes officials and pro-government civilians to bully and detain protesters during peaceful demonstrations intended to express their dissatisfaction over fuel price hikes and the resulting spike in transportation and commodity costs.

“If the government doesn’t have the skills or ability to do something, it should hand power over to someone who can,” the monk said.

So far, there have been no demonstrations or associated violence in Mandalay, according to the monk. He added that if there were, the city’s monks would not be silent or stand idly by.

“For the benefit of the people, monks will not ignore the true,” the monk said. “Everyone wants to see our country develop. We will do what we should do if the opportunity arises.”

The monk’s criticism of the government followed a request on Sunday by Maj-Gen Khin Zaw, the Burmese military commander of Mandalay Division, that the city’s monks avoid participating in or supporting the recent demonstrations.

Throughout Burmese history, the country’s monks have taken an active role in political dissent and public efforts to stand up for the needs of the people.

On Tuesday, about 200 monks in Sittwe in western Arakan State staged a peaceful demonstration by marching for several hours through the city. The protest ended peacefully and without interference from local authorities or their civilian proxies.

A resident in Sittwe told The Irrawaddy on Wednesday that two men were arrested by authorities for providing drinking water to monks during the demonstration.

Since August 19, members of the pro-democracy 88 Generation Students group and the National League for Democracy have led several small protests in Rangoon and other cities across Burma to express their outrage over a massive rise in fuel prices as well as a concurrent rise in the cost of commodities and transportation fees.

Jim Carrey to Burma: Give Peace a Chance

by Gina Serpe
Wed, 29 Aug 2007 11:30:56 AM PDT

Forget Winona. Forget Katie. Definitely forget Paris. Jim Carrey wants to focus on a new campaign: Free Aung San.

The suddenly serious funnyman has taken to YouTube, releasing a public service announcement that calls for the release of Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, a peace activist and icon of Burmese democracy who has been placed under long-term house arrest for her nonviolent efforts against the Southeast Asian nation's ruling military regime.

On behalf of the U.S. Campaign for Burma and the Human Rights Action Center, Carrey called for the Burmese government to free Suu Kyi, whom the actor refers to as a "hero" of his. She has been subject to confinement for the past 11 years.

"She's a champion of human rights and decency in Asia, and a symbol of hope to all struggling people," Carrey said of the world's only imprisoned Nobel Prize recipient in his 81-second message.


"Even though she's compared to a modern-day Gandhi or Nelson Mandela, most people in America still don't know about Aung San. And let's face it, the name's a little difficult to remember. Here's how I did it: Aung San sounds like 'unsung,' as in unsung hero. Aung San Suu Kyi is truly an unsung hero."

In 1990, Suu Kyi's opposition won a majority of parliamentary seats in the country, and the following year, she took home the Nobel Peace Prize for her regime-beating efforts.

Carrey not only urged people to support Suu Kyi and help call for her release, but to call for the end of the oppressive military regime which placed her under house arrest in the city of Yangon. The regime, led by General Than Shwe, has so far destroyed 3,000 Burmese villages, forced 1.5 million people to leave their homes and recruited more child soldiers than any other country in the world, Carrey said.

To help right the global injustice, Carrey urged viewers to join both the Human Rights Action Center and the U.S. Campaign for Burma to find out how they can help free Suu Kyi and restore her to her rightful position of power in the country.

"People around the world need to come to her aid, just as they supported Mandela when he was locked up," Jeremy Woodrum, cofounder of the U.S. Campaign for Burma, said. "This announcement contributes to an upsurge in activism around Aung San Suu Kyi in the United States and around the world."

Myanmar protests must draw wider public: analysts

Agence France Presse: - Griffin Shea
Wed 29 Aug 2007

Myanmar’s junta is struggling to stamp out more than 10 days of protests by pro-democracy supporters, but analysts said Wednesday that the rallies could fizzle unless the wider public joins in.

Since some 500 activists staged a march through Yangon on August 19, small protests have rippled through the nation’s economic hub and across into key provincial cities.

Even though more than 100 people have been arrested, including some of the nation’s top pro-democracy leaders, protesters continue to defy the threat of beatings and arrests to attempt new rallies in Yangon.

The question now, analysts say, is whether other parts of society will also take to the streets of the impoverished country formerly known as Burma.

“The problem is the activists alone cannot continue this. They will be arrested and arrested until they disappear,” said Thailand’s former ambassador to Myanmar, Asda Jayanama.

“If they manage to be the rallying point and draw out the crowd… that would have a good effect. But if the people have the same apathy in Burma, then activists alone can only do so much,” he said.

The military, which has ruled Myanmar for 45 years, tolerates no dissent. Plainclothes police and pro-junta militia are patrolling the streets of Yangon to quickly break up the demonstrations, which have remained small.

In at least three provincial towns, where security is lighter, hundreds of people have marched in the streets and received only official warnings.

On Tuesday, scores of Buddhist monks joined a protest in the key port city of Sittwe, which is a hub for Myanmar’s growing petroleum industry.

Myanmar analyst Win Min said activists believe they have popular support, but that he was unsure if the public was ready to risk their lives by joining the protests.

“People are clapping from the roadsides, from the apartments. That I think is significant,” he said. “The activists know the people support them, so they will be encouraged.”

Memories of a pro-democracy uprising in 1988 remain strong in Myanmar. As with the current protests, that movement began as a demonstration against the nation’s crushing economic conditions.

Soldiers opened fire on the crowd, killing hundreds if not thousands. The student leaders who spearheaded the uprising were sentenced to more than a decade in prison, but several have been released over the last three years.

Top leaders of the earlier uprising, including Min Ko Naing and Ko Ko Gyi, were arrested again last week for organising the rally on August 19.

Debbie Stothard, of the Alternative ASEAN Network on Burma pressure group, said activists still fear the military could start shooting at any time.

“A lot of activists and observers are both excited and also concerned that we’re going to have another ‘88 on our hands, and like ‘88, we’re concerned about the military’s use of force,” said Debbie Stothard.

“If people still keep on demonstrating, even though the ring leaders have been taken, the regime may actually panic and start shooting.”

Most analysts say it is too soon to say whether the protests will achieve the scale of the 1988 uprising.

Many of the middle-class government workers who might have joined rallies moved two years ago to the new administrative capital Naypyidaw, some 400 kilometres (250 miles) away.

Win Min said the protesters would have to convince other other groups, such as factory workers and especially Buddhist monks, to join the rallies.

“There are many people supporting them, even though they don’t dare to participate,” he said.

Monks, who have a special role as cultural standard-bearers in Myanmar, could have a great impact if they start taking to the streets, he said.

“The authorities have to listen to the monks. When the monks join, it’s very difficult for the military to crack down,” Win Min said.

Security presence stifles protests in Myanmar’s biggest city

Myanmar’s military government employed menacing gangs of civilians to keep watch at key points in the country’s biggest city Wednesday as it sought to crush a rare wave of protests by pro-democracy activists against fuel price hikes.

While the protesters showed no sign of giving up, their movement — the best organized and sustained in a decade — appeared to be sputtering as the general public remained reluctant to join in.

Rumors swept the city of further planned protests despite the government’s strong-arm tactics, but no demonstrations were known to have taken place Wednesday in Yangon, the country’s commercial center.

“The struggle thus far is one-sided, with numbers, organization and will in the hands of the rulers,” Josef Silverstein, a Myanmar expert and retired professor of Rutgers University in New Jersey, said earlier.

He predicted that under such circumstances the current wave of protests could not last very long. Bystanders are reluctant to join the activists, he said, because, “Everyone knows that to be arrested is to be punished and jailed, tortured and even killed.”

Demonstrations triggered by fuel price hikes began Aug. 19 and have continued almost daily. Government efforts to crush the dissenters have drawn international condemnation.

Tension was especially high at Yangon’s busy Hledan Junction, where security officials and their civilian auxiliaries clamped down Tuesday on a protest within minutes of its start.

They pushed through crowds of onlookers to rough up about 15 demonstrators before tossing them into waiting trucks to take them away for detention, witnesses said.

Three trucks, each carrying about 20 tough-looking young men, were parked on either side of the road Wednesday, watching for any protesters in what has become a familiar scene on the city’s streets over the past week. About 20 plainclothes security officials roamed nearby sidewalks at the intersection, a traditional site for protests.

Protests were said to have taken place in two or three other towns, but information about them could not be independently confirmed.

The European Union presidency said in a statement Tuesday that it was concerned about recent arrests of leading activists and the “decision to detain individuals who were exercising their right to peaceful demonstration.”

Many of the protests have been spearheaded by members of detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi’s party, the National League for Democracy.

A spokesman for the party, Nyan Win, said 20 of its members marched in protest against the fuel hike Tuesday in the central town of Meikhtila after attending a morning prayer session for Suu Kyi’s release. He was unable to say whether a new protest had been held there Wednesday.

“The group staged a peaceful protest, shouting slogans calling for a reduction of the fuel price but no arrests were made,” he said.

Mizzima News, an online news service operated by Myanmar exiles in India, quoted Thein Lwin, an NLD official in Meikhtila, as saying the protesters had been followed and photographed by people belonging to the pro-government Swan Arrshin and Union Solidarity and Development Association groups, but allowed to march unmolested.

Members of the two government-sponsored groups are widely believed to be the civilians responsible for the violent swoops on protesters in Yangon.

Mizzima News also reported that hundreds of people protested for a second straight day in Sittwe, the capital of Rakhine State in western Myanmar. On Tuesday, 200 to 300 people, including many Buddhist monks, demonstrated there.

Monks were active in past movements against British colonialism and military dictatorship, and the government is said to have warned senior abbots around the country against letting monks participate in the current demonstrations.

Another report that university students in the city of Dawei, also known as Tavoy, in southern Myanmar staged a protest Wednesday could not be confirmed.

In 1988, public protests over rising rice prices were a prelude to a burst of major demonstrations.

Those protests, which sought an end to military rule that began in 1962, were violently subdued by the army, with thousands of people estimated to have been killed around the country. The junta held general elections in 1990, but refused to honor the results when Suu Kyi’s party won.

The Paris-based press freedom group Reporters Without Borders called on European countries on Wednesday to publicly defend the rights of Myanmar’s journalists to work without obstruction.

It accused the junta of employing “heavy-handed repression, intimidation and censorship” against the press.

Demo discussions in Dawei university

Indian Standard Time - 5:50 p.m - In order to take control of the security situation in Sittwe town of Arakan State, at least 180 Hlone Htein (security forces) personnel, from Buthitaung Battalion No. 2 and Maung Daw Battalion No. 4, were seen transported to Sittwe at a bout 2 p.m. today, said local residents in the border area.

5:30 p.m - At least 50 students from Dawei university this afternoon went to the Chairman of District Peace and Development Association with motorbikes and submitted a letter requesting permission to handle today’s commotion at the university with compassion, Dawei NLD Information and Communications Committee member U Han Zaw told Mizzima.

5:29 p.m - According to the latest reports, there was no marching in Sittwe town of Arakan state, but a gathering of a crowd that caused blockage of the roads.
Following yesterday’s demonstration in Sittwe, at least 3 people have been arrested.
5:00 p.m - Chin women condemn junta over brutal crackdown on protestors
The Women’s League of Chinland (WLC), an umbrella Chin women’s organization, today condemned the military junta for its brutal crackdown on peaceful protestors in Rangoon and other parts of Burma and demanded the immediate release of those arrested.
“We condemn the regime for making the lives of women insecure whether they are at home or on the streets, in Rangoon or other parts of Burma,” WLC said in a statement released today.
WLC urged the United Nations Security Council to take action against the Burmese military junta and requested India to reconsider its policy on Burma.
“We salute the spirit of the people inside Burma who are consistently fighting against the brutal regime despite the risks of being threatened, arrested, detained and tortured,” the statement said.
4:50 p.m - Interview with Ma Tin Tin Khai of the Tavoy Women’s Union (TWU) on
demonstration discussion at Dawei University “At the education department of Dawei University, eleven student leaders held discussions on the ongoing demonstrations in Burma. The university authorities and the township Peace and Development Association tried to break up the crowd and began swearing, saying this is illegal as it is politics. The student leaders resisted and there was a little commotion as both sides shouted back and forth.”

“But according to what I heard, there was no marching on the streets.”
“They [authorities] asked the students whether they are involved in politics or study. The students questioned the relationship between the two, and asked why it is wrong to discuss our country.”

4:30 p.m - Democracy and Peace Party condemns brutal crackdown on protestors
The Democracy and Peace Party, the political party of Burma’s former Prime Minister U Nu, today condemned the military junta for the harassment of women and the in-humane crackdown on peaceful protestors demonstrating their desperation and frustration with general hardships.

The Democracy and Peace Party, in a statement released today, also demanded the immediate release of all those arrested, including 88 generation student leaders.
The party also said the military junta and the 1990 election winning party – National League for Democracy – are responsible for the peaceful solution of Burma’s current political problems.

“In order to solve the problems of Burma in a peaceful way, we urge that there should be timely coordination in work, and not just the demand of dialogue with the ruling military junta,” said the statement.

4:00 p.m - Eleven students at Dawae University, in Burma’s southernmost division of Tenasserim, today held discussions on the current demonstrations in Rangoon and other parts of Burma.

3:02 p.m - Plainclothes police, along with members of USDA and Swan Arrshin were seen taking positions at Hledan traffic point. They had 4 vehicles with them.
2:22 p.m - Special Branch Police and members of USDA, at midnight on August 24th, raided and searched the residence of student youth leader Ko Tin Htoo Aung.
An ethnic Arakan, Ko Tin Htoo Aung, who actively participated in the 1996 student movement, resides on Oat Kyin Station Road in Rangoon’s Hlaing Township. Authorities reportedly raided and searched the residence of the student activist twice.
2:00 p.m - Interview with Dr. Thein Lwin, member of Parliament-elect, on demonstration in Meikhtila, central Burma

“In the morning, led by our [NLD branch] secretary, Daw Myint Myint Aye, we offered ’swan’ to about 100 monks. It was mainly a prayer for the release of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi. After that, they [NLD members] approached me saying they wanted to demonstrate. So, we agreed to do it peacefully and with discipline, as there were some youths arrested in Rangoon. By taking the example of people being arrested for demonstrating, we marched the streets peacefully and with discipline. There were only about 20 people altogether.”

“Swan Arrshin and Union Solidarity and Development Association [USDA] members followed us from behind with motorbikes and took records. But we kept on marching with determination and would try to reason with them if they tried to stop us. We have decided to resolve the problems peacefully, without any violence. But if the authorities try to handle us with violence, there might be violent responses, so the authorities need to balance and resolve this crisis peacefully. Unless the authorities get violent and give us trouble, there won’t be any problems.”

1:46 p.m - As a prevention, authorities in the former capital of Rangoon have now shut-off Pyi Road.
1:25 p.m - Several people have reportedly gathered around the Hledan traffic point in Rangoon in a bid to organize another protest.
1:15 p.m - In protest over rising commodity prices, about 20 members of Burma’s main opposition political party – National League for Democracy – took to the streets of Meikhtila, in central Burma, at about 10:00 a.m. (local time) this morning.
12:45 p.m - The demonstration in Sittwe has now surged in numbers to over 1000 protestors, according to eyewitnesses.
With onlookers and bystanders joining in, the demonstration, led by over 200 Buddhist monks and originating from Sittwe’s Wun Kabba football ground, has gathered a crowd of over 1000 protestors.
12:10 p.m - Over 100 protestors, mostly monks, today continued demonstrations over increasing commodity prices in Sittwe, Arakan State. The protest began at about 10:00 a.m (local time) and according to the latest reports the protestors have blocked the roads in Sittwe.

EU Concerned by the Arrests in Burma/Myanmar

Submitted by Anastvatz on Wed, 2007-08-29 09:12.

Declaration by the Presidency on behalf of the European Union on the arrests of democracy activists in Burma/Myanmar

The European Union views with concern the recent arrests by the Government of Burma/Myanmar of several leaders of the opposition, notably from the group “Generation 88”, who were protesting against the sharp rise of fuel prices and the economic burdens being heaped on the Burmese people.

The European Union condemns this decision to detain individuals who were exercising their basic right to peaceful demonstration.
The European Union further urges the authorities of Burma/Myanmar to release without delay Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, the opposition leaders and political prisoners, in particular those arrested in the last few days, and to engage with all different components of the society of Burma/Myanmar in the sort of open and inclusive dialogue which is indispensable to long-awaited political reforms.

The Candidate Countries Croatia* and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia*, the Countries of the Stabilisation and Association Process and potential candidates Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Serbia, and the EFTA countries Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway, members of the European Economic Area, as well as Ukraine, the Republic of Moldova, Armenia and Georgia align themselves with this declaration.

* Croatia and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia continue to be part of the Stabilisation and Association Process. -http://www.eu2007.pt

Chin women's group condemn junta's crackdown on protesters

August 29, 2007 - The Women's League of Chinland (WLC) today condemned the Burmese military junta for attacking and arresting women and other activists involved in the on going protests over the steep hike in petroleum prices in Burma.

Photo: Junta's thugs USDA and Swan-Aa-Shin members dragged a protestor in Rangoon, Burma.

The WLC called for the immediate release of arrested women and student leaders including Min Ko Naing and other activists.

"The increase in prices of essential commodities consequent to the fuel price hike have directly impacted Burmese women in kitchens in Burma," Cheery Zahau, coordinator of the Women's League of Chinland said.

"We realize how hard life in Burma is by seeing the women come out on the streets and protest over the rise in prices of essential commodities," Cheery Zahau added.

WLC urged the United Nations and the international community to intervene, take necessary action and pressurise the Burmese junta to stop its crackdown on its own people demanding their basic rights.

WLC in its statement on particular appealed to the Indian government to review its relations with the Burmese military government and also said that India's bonding with Burma's dictators is a shame.

The junta with the help of members of its back up organizations such as the Union Solidarity and Development Association (USDA) and Swan-Aa-Shin have arrested protesters including prominent student leaders Min Ko Naing and Ko Ko Kyi.

So far the junta has arrested over 70 activists involved in peace rallies over the fuel price hike in Burma. But, the demonstrations are now spreading to other cities of Burma. – Khonumthung.

Statement on Violent Attacks on 88’ Generation Women Activists in Burma

Statement on Violent Attacks on 88’ Generation Women Activists in Burma

STATEMENT

Issued by Burmese Women’s Union

29 August, 2007 – Chiang Mai, Thailand

The Burmese Women’s Union (BWU), which was founded by women activists of 1988 pro-democracy movement and consisted of different ethnic nationality women, is incredibly proud and wholeheartedly supports the courageous actions and bravery of 88’ Generation female students and other women activists inside Burma. The BWU also recognizes that this is not the first time women of Burma take front row and are standing up for the country’s political, economic and social affairs but have always been politically and socially active since the national liberation movement. Given the current circumstances, the BWU is encouraged and inspired by the significant number of women inside Burma taking leading role in recent peaceful protests to represent the concerns of the people over the dramatic fuel price hikes during the past week, especially taking the lead of the peaceful protest of about 2,000 people on August 22.

The BWU strongly condemns the heavy-handed attacks, arrests and crackdown of paramilitary group (known as Pyithu Swann Arr Shin) funded by the military regime and its civilian wing of Union Solidarity and Development Association (USDA) on 88’ Generation and other women activists’ peaceful protests against fuel price hikes across the country. The BWU is gravely concerned about the welfare and safety of women protesters and detainees. In particular the BWU would like to call attention to 88’ Generation activist like Ma Nilar Thein who has months old baby and is unable to go back home for fear that she will be unfairly persecuted. She believes that the protesters voice their concerns in peaceful manner for their country’s affairs and therefore are not guilty of any charge. Another woman activist called Ma Mee Mee has called on members of USDA not to trade off with the lives of all Burmese citizens for a short term benefit provided by the regime. The BWU is also incredibly inspired by Ma Su Su Nway’s brave action on 28 August despite her fragile health and knowing she could face violent attack from the USDA and Pyithu Swann Arr Shin.

As a member state and signatory, the Burmese military regime known as the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) is obliged under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Convention on the Elimination of Discriminations against Women, and UN Security Council Resolution 1325, to protect women citizens from violence, to guarantee peace and security of the country, to allow the participation of women in political and public affairs, and their contribution in creating peace and security in the country. Instead, SPDC has allowed its paramilitary groups to resort violence against these women activists.

In light of the current situation, the BWU would like to call on and recommend the following actions to:

Demand and call on the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC):

· To immediately declare the USDA and its wing of paramilitary personnel known as Pyithu Swann Arr Shin as an unlawful association and abolish since they create and instigate violence and unrest in the country,

· To honor the Geneva Convention and allow peaceful demonstrations by all citizens of Burma and stop using forces and violent means to crackdown on demonstrators, particularly of women protesters,

· To honor, as a Member State, Articles proclaimed in CEDAW and to take appropriate actions to ensure women’s peaceful participation and expression of their concern,

Demand and call on the Myanmar Women’s Affairs Federation:

· To protect the rights of women to freely express their concerns and to take every measure to protect the safety of women protesters,

· To take every measure to reveal the names of those violent attackers and take a law suit against them for injustice to be undone,

Demand and call on United Nations’ Secretary-General:

· SG to take all appropriate actions under his mandate declared under UNSC Resolution 1325,

· Recalling the terrible memory of 1988 bloodshed and the genocide that took place in Rwanda, SG to immediately delegate Mr. Gambari to Burma to defuse violence instigated towards peaceful protesters and prevent further violence,

· SG to take concrete initiatives immediately to materialize constructive dialogue toward national reconciliation in Burma,

Demand and call on ASEAN:

· To condemn the SPDC for recent arrests and violent crack-downs on the peaceful protesters and violating the Asean Declaration to stop violence against women,

· To demand the Burmese military regime to release all political prisoners and recent detainees without delay,

Call on International Community:

· To condemn and denounce the SPDC on its violence actions against peaceful demonstrators, particularly of women activists,

· To raise concern over the well-being and safety of current detainees and call for their immediate release,

· To call for the immediate release of all political prisoners, including Daw Aung San Suu Kyi,

· To pressure your government to push the SPDC to solve the country’s problems through meaningful and constructive dialogue in peaceful manner.

Burmese Women’s Union (BWU)
Contact person/phone number ~
Khin Ohmar (mobile: +66 81 884 0772)
Noe Noe Htet San (mobile: +66 83 322 5360)