Burmese activists petition Ban Ki Moon

An international petition for the release of Aung San Suu Kyi is being organised by Burmese activists, the Nobel Prize winning elected leader of the country. They had 271,493 “signatures” when I wrote this, the goal is 400,000 but it would be wonderful to go higher… you could sign here. And post this information to Facebook, your blog or email friends…

Urgent action: Aung San Suu Kyi imprisoned

Email frrom Burma Campaign:
This morning Burma¹s democracy leader, Aung San Suu Kyi was arrested by the regime and moved to Burma¹s notorious Insein prison. It appears she will face trial for breaking the terms of her house arrest which forbids visitors, after an American man, John Yettaw, swam across Inya Lake and refused to leave her house.

Aung San Suu Kyi has committed no crime, she is the victim of a crime. There was an intruder in her house who refused to leave, yet she is the one being imprisoned.

HELP AUNG SAN SUU KYI – TAKE ACTION NOW
The United Nations and ASEAN must dispatch envoys to Burma to demand the immediate release of Aung San Suu Kyi and all Burma¹s political prisoners.

Please go to this page where you can email the UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-Moon and ASEAN leaders to urge them to send envoys immediately.
http://www.burmacampaign.org.uk/ASSK_action.html

As you know Burma¹s generals will use any excuse to keep Aung San Suu Kyi detained. If strong action isn¹t taken, Aung San Suu Kyi could face the rest of her life in jail.

Please take action now. Aung San Suu Kyi could now spend the rest of her life in jail. http://www.burmacampaign.org.uk/ASSK_action.html

REPUTATION OF UN AND ASEAN IS AT STAKE
It is not acceptable that the UN and ASEAN only speak out ­ they must take action. In the past their expressions of concern and statements have been ignored and defied by the Burmese regime. Words alone are not enough. The UN and ASEAN must immediately take real action and send high level envoys to Burma to ensure that Suu Kyi does not spend the rest of her life in jail.

HER DETENTION IS ILLEGAL UNDER BURMESE AND INTERNATIONAL LAW
Today Aung San Suu Kyi will have spent a total of 13 years and 202 days in detention. The United Nations has ruled that Aung San Suu Kyi¹s detention is illegal under international law, and also under Burmese law. The United Nations Security Council has also told the dictatorship that they must release Aung San Suu Kyi.

Please take action now and ensure that Aung San Suu Kyi does not spend the rest of her life under arrest.
http://www.burmacampaign.org.uk/ASSK_action.html.

Nobel winner denied medical care

Aung San Suu Kyi, Burma’s elected leader – under house arrest for 13 years, is reported to be seriously unwell. Like many of the regime’s political prisoners she is only being allowed intermittent medical care. Reports claim she is on an IV drip, but the nature of the illness is unclear and her own doctor has been arrested.

Please pray forAung San Suu Kyi, for other political prisoners and for all the people of Burma.

News from Mae La

Here is an extract from a letter we recieved recently from Mae La camp:

The situation in the refugee camps has been growing worse daily. The latest tactics of the Burmese is to try to attack the camp by poisoning. The first affected comodity was the wheat powder provided to refugees as rations from the Thai Burmese Border Consortium. Five people died before we were all warned not to eat the wheat powder.

 

The next more far reaching attmept was made on the water supply to the camp. Large packets of white powder (poison) were found to have been deliberately placed in the wells supplying all the weater for the refugee camp. Two people died from water poisoning and many more were affected. I actually got a little taste of the true refugee situation when I came down with water poisoning myself. It was certainly more severe and unlike any stomach upset I’ve every had in my life before!! I’m more or less over the worst of it but am still left with symptoms. Three people have been arrested in connection with this eposide and we amanaged to gain some airtime on the Thai news.

Please pray for all those affected, and for everyone else in the camps at this time!

Free Burma Prisoners

There is a petition calling to the military rulers of Burma (aka Myanmar) to free their political prisoners. An Sang Sue Shue is merely the best known of thousands. Please sign it here…

Arresting video

Neat idea!

Food and culture evening

If you are in Auckland, 15th March, you can enjoy loads of delicious Burmese and ethnic foods, with a short report from Dr Aung Mang of MEGST on cyclone relief and Christian witness as well as a cultural display with ethnic dancing. A fun and informative evening out.

5pm-8pm at Laidlaw College (ex-BCNZ) just $30. The details are here do tell your friends of make up a party!

Dawn raid

Getting across the border out of Burma does not mean safety for the ethnic minorities. If they integrate into a refugee camp life is restricted to the confines of the camp, and with no working allowed, but is secure, since an NGO and the UNHCR seek to protect your “rights”. On the other hand as “illegal immigrants” people can work, and even move around, with no rights and a fear of the authorities. If however you are “caught” by the authorities, or a vigilante group, in the new country, then things get tough. This account arrived today from a friend of ours in Malaysia:

I attempted to access our 2 friends who were arrested in the recent dawn raid. I went to 2 airports, 2 immigration detention camps, an immigration office and negotiated with 2 police men, 4 RELA officers and 5 immigration officials. In the end, despite my utmost efforts and much pleading with the officer in charge, I was denied access but was at least allowed to leave clean clothes, soap and toothbrushes for them. Today they had to face immigration charges in court. Unfortunately it was a closed court and I was again denied access. The UNHCR lawyer, however, was able to make an appearance at my request. We are hoping that the representation of the UN lawyer will avoid our friends being sentenced to severe whipping. Our friends have now been transferred to prison where I will make a renewed attempt to access them and ascertain their condition.

Please pray!

A face and a name

Burma Army on road near burned house in Ler Mu Plaw (Partners)

Burma Army on road near burned house in Ler Mu Plaw (Partners)

Reading about the concerted effeorts of the Burma Army to build roads, that are “protected” by landmines to extend their grasp on Karen State sounds clinical and academic, there’s even a map in the FBR report that makes it all look almost like a traditional AA roadmap. Though the images of soldiers and burned out homes is a less cheerful note.

Mary Wa and baby the day after recovering (Partners)

It all becomes more real when you scroll down and read the story of Mary Wah without the picture and story she’d be just one more number in the statistics of horror. But with the picture and her story the story of the road becomes more real. Mary has a seven month old baby, but she does not want to live (she overdosed on quinine the anti-malarial). She used to have a husband, but he stepped on a landmine trying to cross the Ler Mu Plaw road. In his agony after the mine blew off his leg he shot himself with his hunting rifle, to avoid being caught by the Burma army.

As a child Mary had a home, but:

On November 11, 2006, at 11:10 am, Burma Army troops came to their village. They burned down 12-18 homes, shot and wounded one villager, and destroyed all their rice barns. Mary Wah, her
family, and all the other villagers escaped unharmed but lost all of their possessions and homes. Mary Wah and her friends finished the school year in the jungle.

As an IDP, a homeless refugee in her own country, she married Mo Chi Wah (another IDP) in 2007 when she was just 15. Now she is a widow. She said: “I felt very confused. I could not cope. I decided to kill myself.”

The cold facts leave me cold and angry. Mary’s story reduces me to tears. Do look at the Free Burma Rangers website and get some facts and some stories about what is going on in Burma.

Humanity and survival

An elderly woman sells sticky rice in the street in Rangoon. (Photo: Aung Thet Wine/The Irrawaddy)

Burmese Bloggers with out Borders has a worrying but insightful post The need for humanity amidst the need for survival in which Thway Ni (a member of the Burmese diaspora) first presents the near desperation of most of the population of Burma. The situation he describes, of an country ruled by a greedy out of touch kleptocracy, while ordinary people’s possibility of living slowly dwindles, is one that is familiar to us from Zaïre in the 1980s.

With the kind of government whose focus is just to fill their own pockets as much as possible, and after being hit by the natural disaster like Nargis, Burma has become like an abyss when it comes to donations. Everywhere, everything – be it health care, education, social well-being of the people, political prisoners and their families, etc – is deteriorating and at every turn in the streets,  we are faced with the sights of poverty and suffering aplenty. Many people point to the junta as the root cause of all this. That is true. However, I’ve come to realise that while this junta is still in power, we must find ways to help alleviate the suffering of our people. And money or rather donation has become essential.

The problem is that we are experiencing a global economic crisis, whether a recession like the ones we’ve had from time to time over recent decades, or something more like the Great Depression does not really matter. In a climate of lay offs and interest rates smaller than inflation, generosity is at risk. But if generosity dies, what remains?

Such happenings make me wonder whether our sense of humanity will eventually be annihilated in our struggle for survival. If such day were to come, I cannot imagine what might happen to the people in a country – where some people lose their lives or face serious health risks as they have to resort to illegal means of abortion just because there is no proper education and subsidy for family planning methods and they cannot afford to have another child: another mouth to feed [Irrawaddy - "Desperate Decisions"].