Nearly every day, Burma's military dictator Than Shwe is sending dozens of human rights activists to long terms in prison. Those sentenced to many years behind bars include poets, actors, comedians, students, journalists, volunteers who helped victims of Cyclone Nargis, hip-hop artists, and members of the political party of Nobel Peace Prize recipient Aung San Suu Kyi. These sentences are the biggest news to come out of Burma in a long time, and we have been posting all the news about the arrests on our blog.
More importantly, we are working around the clock to galvanize a strong international response. Here is some examples of what the Burma movement has done so far:
We are pressing the United Nations Security Council to convene an immediate, emergency meeting on Burma in order to impose an international arms embargo on Burma's military regime
Senators Dianne Feinstein and Kay Bailey Hutchison, leaders of the United States Senate Womens' Caucus on Burma -- which includes all the women in the U.S. Senate -- issued a demand for the arrests to stop
Our members have sent thousands of messages to the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon urging him to travel to Burma and demand the immediate release of all political prisoners in Burma (mystifyingly, the Secretary General has done basically nothing about this crisis -- so keep sending those messages)
We have been providing the news media with round-the-clock updates on those sentenced to long prison terms in Burma. There have been thousands of news articles on the arrests
A coalition of 40 organizations sent a letter to the leaders of the Southeast Asian countries urging them to demand the release of all Burmese political prisoners at the upcoming ASEAN summit on December 15th in Thailand. This meeting represents a strong opportunity for Asian leaders to tell the Burmese military regime that the sentencing of political activists must stop
Members of parliament from all over Asia are galvanizing a strong effort (more on this coming soon...)
Many world leaders are preparing a major push to free all political prisoners in Burma (more on this coming soon...)
Our allies throughout the world have successfully pressed the governments of the United States, the UK, Estonia, Slovakia, Germany, Canada, and the European Union to condemn the arrests
We have much more work to do and you are going to see some even bigger actions in the weeks ahead, but we wanted to let you know some of what we are doing. And, we wanted to thank you because none of our work would be possible without your support.
Sincerely,
Aung Din, Jeremy Woodrum, Jennifer Quigley, Jacqui Pilch, Michael Haack
Support 1991 Nobel Peace Prize recipient Aung San Suu Kyi and the struggle for freedom and democracy in Burma:
http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/1189/t/5102/petition.jsp?petition_KEY=1407
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