> Title: Burmese Ex-Students Turn Militant
> Author: Free Burma Coalition
> Date: 1-OCT-1999
> Source: zni@students.wisc.edu
> 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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