Tony Benn: The Godfather Speaks Again

London Protest for Suu Kyi's Release - Images

© Matt Roper 2007. All Rights Reserved.

It is in Daw Suu Kyi that the minority communities like the Rohingya, Karen and Shan look for leadership, as do many other communities that form today's Burma. They aspire for democracy, freedom and human rights - something that has been snatched away from them by the military regimes that have ruled Burma for most of its post-colonial period. She is their answer to decades of deprivation, dispossession and dehumanization. She is their hope for return from exile -- from the bushes, jungles and refugee camps -- to ancestral homes. It is around her that they dream of reconstructing torched homes and uniting with family members. She is their leader, comrade, and sister. She is also a fellow-traveler tasting pain and suffering in the long march to freedom, democracy and human rights. She is their last chance to redress their old grievances and elevate their status from statelessness to statehood, denial to acceptance, non-entity to entity, and become effective citizens in a federal system that respects and protects their unique place in history, culture and religion. There is none that they can look for providing that unifying leadership.

Dr. Habib Siddiqui writing in the Muslim Weekly, 22-28 June 2007.

London Protest Against the Burmese Junta NEXT WEEK

Dear friends

Free Aung San Suu Kyi 62nd Birthday Action

On Tuesday 19th June, Aung San Suu Kyi will celebrate her 62nd birthday. But she will be celebrating another birthday alone, under house arrest. Burma's brutal military dictatorship defied calls from the UN, USA, EU and ASEAN to release her and extended her detention under house arrest on 25 May. She is now in her 12th Year of detention. Take action to help free Aung San Suu Kyi!

Protest in London on 19 June
Come and join the Burmese community in London and add your voice:

12.00
10 Downing Street,
London,
SW1A 2AA
Nearest tube: Westminster

13.00
Foreign and Commonwealth Office
King Charles Street,
London SW1A 2AH
Nearest tube: Westminster

14.00
Burmese Embassy
19a Charles St, London W1J 5DX.
Nearest tube: Green Park

TO FIND OUT HOW TO TAKE ACTION IN YOUR OWN COUNTRY PLEASE REFER TO THE LIST OF BURMA ORGANIZATIONS WORLDWIDE.