13th ANNUAL
8/8/88 COMMEMORATIVE STATEMENT
SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA
BURMESE ACTIVISTS GATHERING AT CANDLE LIGHT VIGIL TO REMEMBER THOUSANDS WHO
WERE MASSACRED DURING THE 8/8/88 DEMOCRACY UPRISINGS IN BURMA
Today marks
the 13th year anniversary of the unforgettable 8/8/88 nation-wide
uprisings in Burma. A peace-loving nation
of 48 million people, unitedly and unarmed, demonstrated against the
authoritarian military government. The Burmese people showed extraordinary
courage and fought its heavily-armed military oppressors in an effort to
restore freedom and democracy and allow a better standard of living. Thousands
of demonstrators including students, teachers, office workers, laborers,
housewives, religious, etc. were gunned down brutally. Hundreds of protestors
were imprisoned and tortured. Many of the survivors fled to the Thai-Burma
border, their aspirations intact and ever more solid.
Since a coup
in March 1962, when General Ne Win seized power from a civilian government, Burma’s
education system have been crippled, the economy paralyzed and the country
impoverished to the poorest nation. The
military dictators have deprived its citizens of every basic human
rights/freedom. The military intelligence has ceaselessly harassed those who
express dissent to their political views. Human rights violations in the
context of the military government’s war against the ethnic minorities have long
surpassed the level of sufferance. The regime interrogates, intimidates, threatens,
arrests, detains, physically abuses, denies adequate medical care and treatment
on the sick and suffering political prisoners and continually denies its
citizens of their right to fair trial.
Throughout all
difficult times, Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi, the opposition
leader of NLD (National League for Democracy) remains the symbol of struggle
between the democratic forces and the repressive military regime. Aung San Suu
Kyi’s party that won 82% of the seats in a landslide victory in the 1990
nation-wide elections has been denied the transfer of ruling power by the
illegal military regime.
Facilitated by
UN envoy Razali Ismail, secret negotiations began October 2000 between Aung San
Suu Kyi and the military regime. Although encouraged by the outside world to build
momentum to achieve further progress in their dialogue process, no hint of the
talks has appeared in the official Burmese media. So far, the regime has
released about 150 political prisoners, but as many as 2000, possibly many
more, remain in jail, including at least 20 Members of Parliament elected in
the opposition’s massive 1990 victory.
What do we want ????????
1.
We call upon the
international community to maintain effective political, diplomatic and
economic pressures on the military regime until full respect for human rights
is restored in Burma
2.
We call for the immediate and
unconditional release of all political prisoners prior to continuance of the
dialogue process between Aung San Suu Kyi and the regime
3.
We call for the immediate
and unconditional release of all Members of Parliament elected with people’s
power during the 1990 elections
San Francisco Bay Area 13th annual 8/8/88 Joint Action
Committee