BURMA in Distress

Not many people talk about Burma – but we should be.

Burma, also known as Mynamar, is a country of 50 million people who are being systematically brutalized by their own government, a military regime known ironically as the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC). The SPDC’s army has destroyed over 3,000 villages in eastern Burma over the last 10 years, creating over 1 million refugees and over 500,000 people trapped inside the country. These displaced people are unable to live in their own villages, their crops are destroyed, landmines are laid in their fields and they are pressed into modern-day slavery by the army. Additionally, the democratically-elected leader, Aung San Suu Kyi is the only Nobel Peace Prize winner who is under house arrest, where she has been for over 10 years. Today in Washington DC our friends at the US Campaign for Burma are organizing a demonstration in front of the Burmese Embassy- to protest the beginning of Suu Kyi’s 11th year of house arrest. Nobel Prize recipients Jody Williams and Shirin Ebadi will lead the call aimed at the Burmese government to release Suu Kyi, all other political prisoners and again, to urge for UN Security Council action.

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