Don’t Forget Burma!

An interesting site has been put online. Click the picture below.

Get your picture up.

Stay up to date on developments in Burma! << Click here.

What’s going on in Burma?

A selection from Burmanews‘ postings.

Posted 21 October

Reports say that Junta is arresting students and civilians, who were believed to be involved in International Campaigns against SPDC, on arrival at the Yangon Airport.

Posted 25 October

http://irrawaddy.org/protests/video/ngwekyaryan.php – Video of Ngwe Kyar Yan monastery after troops raided on Sept 27, 2007

Led by comedian Zarganar, who was recently released from prison, a group of Burmese artistes offered alms (food) to 80 monks and 30 nuns at Bar-Ga-Ya monastery. This monastery has been refusing all form of alms from the military junta. Zargarnar and his group of friends will continue to offer alms to all monasteries which refuse to accept anything from the military junta.

(note that the junta forbade people to offer alms to the monks!)

On 23rd Oct, more than 200 people carried out a peaceful protest in Kyar Inn Township of Karen State. They peacefully asked for the release of political prisoners, democracy for Burma and supported the 3-way discussion between DASSK, junta and UN. No action has been taken against them yet.

Posted 28 October

On 26th Oct, there were around 1000 people at Shwe Dagon Pagoda to celebrate the full moon festival. Though there were a lot of soldiers and police, people did not seem to be afraid of them. It seemed that burmese people are ready for another wave of events towards freedom for Burma.

Posted 30 October

The words, “Killer Than Shwe”, was written on the Pagoda Road near to a police station with white paints in ZeeGone Township (which is on Yangon-Pyay Highway), Bago Division. Papers with the words, “Killer Than Shwe”, was also found. Later, police took photo and destroyed the words.

Please take a second to Stumble this post and make sure to visit Burmanews and Stumble + Bookmark it. Keep the attention on this, if we don’t… the Burmese people will have suffered in vain!

Burmese not backing down

In Mawlamyaing, SPDC (government) asked the people to show support for their national reconciliation by making it compulsory for each household to send someone to attend. During the event, it started to rain and the people (mainly teachers) refused to go down to field arena and continued sitting at their seats. They also refused to say out the propaganda slogans. Soon after the event started, many people left the event and even threw away the flags on their way out.

From: Burmanews

Good to read this. Don’t forget people! Media attention is declining. Keep your eyes on the situation. Inform yourself! Keep other people’s attention on it. If we don’t forget, governments around the world will be forced to make a decision.

Free Burma, Mail China

Found this through Ko Htike’s blog. Please do this! If you’re not too sure about why we’re asking China to take action, please see this post (Why Does Beijing Strongly Support the Myanmar Government?).

Dear all,
If you would like to help Myanmar, please help like this.
With best wishes for you.

Subject: Burma: Sending a message or two or three or four… to China

HOW TO HELP BURMA?

If everybody we know emails a request (not for tickets, but for
China’s action for Burma) to ticketsupport@beijing2008.cn, it will
significantly slow down Olympics ticket sales and call China’s
attention to the matter. China may ignore protests, hunger strikes,
petitions, wearing-red shirts, etc. But China cannot ignore these
emails, which get in the way of processing Olympics ticket requests.

Please see the template at the bottom. Please also pledge to send the
same email every 6 hours, or every time you check your email. If they
get tens of thousands of email a day, they will have to do something
about it.

WHY?

China should use its leverage to bring reconciliation and peace in
Burma. However, it recently vetoed a Security Council resolution on
Burma. Yet with the threat of Olympics boycott, China has yielded
significantly to condemn Sudan’s genocidal regime.

Please note that this action is NOT a call to boycott the Olympics.
============================================

Send to ticketsupport@beijing2008.cn every 6 hours, or every time you
check your email.
==================================================

Subject: re: tickets

Dear Sirs/Madams,

I am very interested in purchasing tickets to some of the events at
next year’s Olympic games.

However I cannot, in good conscience, attend the Beijing Olympics
unless your government uses its influence to improve the political
situation in Burma. China has substantial economic interests in the
country, provides large amounts of economic aid, and invests heavily
in infrastructure projects there. Additionally, your government
provides extensive logistical support to Burma’s military government.
All this make China uniquely placed to influence it.

The people of Burma have, in a very peaceful manner, insisted that
their rights be respected. I ask no more of your government than that
it cease its support for the current regime, and encourage dialog with
the democratically elected representatives of the Burmese nation.

I, the Burmese people, and the world would be grateful for your
assistance in this matter. Your courage will go a long way towards
making the 2008 Olympics a success.

With sincere thanks,

(your name)

---

For a Free Burma! Please Stumble this post!

Young idealists… (Free Burma protest in Sofia, Bulgaria)

Well, it wasn’t big.. but at least I did something. The protest had 8 participants, but it’s probably the biggest protest the Chinese embassy has ever seen here in Sofia. As indicated earlier, I decided that it would be a good idea to get red flowers, because I had a feeling our presence would not be very strong. Turned out to be roses, because they were the closest to maroon red we could find. So we went to the Chinese embassy and went onto the steps to place the roses. Immediately a guard came out to ask us what we were doing, tell us not to take pictures and wanted to know if we had any permit to be protesting… Come on, it’s just 8 of us placing roses. So the only picture I have of us at the embassy is 1 second (literally) before that moment and you can see it at the bottom of the post. We stayed around for about half an hour, seeing if anything would happen. We saw some Chinese employee of the embassy looking at us and making a few calls. After a while we decided to leave the rest of the roses for the embassy employees with a note that said “For a free Burma”. Then we left.

If there is anyone from Bulgarian protest groups reading this, or has any experience (and knows how to get a permit), please contact me.

Representing France, Germany, The Netherlands, Belgium, the UK and Bulgaria.

Oh, and I realize now that i could use my contacts at the radio and TV next time. Great!

This proves that everyone can do at least SOMETHING. And it can be fun, I met two new people through it. STUMBLE IT to spread the world!

Protest for Burma, Sofia 2007

Since nobody is taking the initiative, I will. In the hope that people will find this post through Google.

This is the plan!

If you care about the situation in Burma at all… Please do the following.

Go find the Chinese embassy (search: China Embassy on Google Maps), and lay a maroon-red flower there. Preferably between 2 and 3pm today (but if you read this too late, any day will do – I plan to do it once every few days).

Why maroon-red? It’s the colour of the robes of the Buddhist monks who were imprisoned, tortured, mutilated and killed in Burma.

Why the Chinese embassy? They’re Burma’s main ally… THEY can do something about this situation, but so far haven’t.

Why only a flower? Because of the small scale of participation. If we can’t organize a mass of people to come together at the same time… Let’s at least do something.

The people in Burma were killed and abused while the world was watching. They’re blood’s not only on the junta’s hands, but on the hands of all who failed to act to prevent it. So please, do something!

If you’re interested in setting something up, please email me at baslife (nospam) gmail – com

Some news just got out: Injured protesters in Burma are being burned alive!!