Title: Burmese Ex-Students Turn Militant
Author: Free Burma Coalition
Date: 1-OCT-1999
Source: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Reference: F R E E B U R M A C O A L I T I O N
www.freeburmacoalition.com
Contact: Dr. Zarni, Free Burma Coalition, 202-777-6009
Jack Healey, Human Rights Action Center, 202-547-2582
Larry Dohrs, Free Burma Coalition, 206-784-5742
Elements of the fundamentally non-violent Burmese student movement have
resorted to arms and taken over the Bangkok (Thailand) embassy of the
military junta that rules Burma (also known as Myanmar).
This act, apparently by a small number of Burmese ex-university students,
reflects the growing frustration of a Burmese populace which has suffered
under 37 years of military rule.
Corporate support for the Burmese military, in the form of joint ventures
by companies such as US-based Unocal, France-based TotalFina, UK-based
Premier Oil, and Japan-based Mitsubishi, Marubeni, Mitsui and Suzuki, has
helped keep the junta in power despite the overwhelming desire of the
Burmese people to rid themselves of the junta.
A lack of support from international bodies, and the United Nations in
particular, has contributed to despair among pro-democracy Burmese, both
within and without the country. Inside Burma, the economy has collapsed,
universities are permanently closed, forced labor is rampant, narcotics
trafficking is rife, and, according to Amnesty International, more than two
thousand pro-democracy activists languish in the country's notorious
prisons and labor camps. The junta is also holding two British citizens
who peacefully protested the military's human rights abuses. They received
prison sentences of seven and seventeen years at hard labor.
"Now the UN Security Council must take up the case of Burma's 45 million
people and their struggle for freedom," says Dr. Zarni of the Free Burma
Coalition. "They overwhelmingly expressed their desire for a democratic
government in 1990 elections. The military is negating the expressed will
of the people, just as the Indonesian military did in East Timor."
The United Nations has made tepid gestures toward resolving the crisis in
Burma, but its envoys are normally blocked from entering the country.
US Secretary of State Albright has declared that Burma under the junta has
become "a threat to stability in the (Southeast Asian) region."
"This embassy incident is another example of how Burma's problems are not
confined within her national boundaries. It is crucial that the questions
of democracy in Burma, and the crimes of the Burmese junta, receive serious
attention both in the UN General Assembly and the Security Council, before
the situation becomes even more desperate," adds Zarni.
The Free Burma Coalition remains committed to non-violent political
struggle, and calls for a peaceful resolution to the standoff at the junta
embassy in Bangkok.
--
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