travel to Burma to address this most recent act of persecution by the SPDC.
The people of Burma have fought against the repressive authority of the SPDC, but despite their persistence, the SPDC continues to abuse its power. Most recently the SPDC transferred Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi from house arrest to the notorious Insein prison, charging her with violating her confinement regulations. Daw Aung San Suu Kyi has spent thirteen of the last nineteen years in detention for non-violent protest of democracy in Burma and was scheduled to be released this May 27 after six unfair consecutive years of house arrest. The international community has denounced the charges and the trial, characterizing them as
subterfuge on the part of the SPDC to continue Aung San Suu Kyi’s detention. These recent incidents are only a continuation of the SPDC’s violent and longstanding oppression of those who
criticize their government. For decades, Burmese pro-democracy groups and ethnic nationalities have worked for a program of national reconciliation and a peaceful, all-inclusive transition to representative democracy. The once prospering Burmese economy has collapsed, the international drug trade operates freely across the state’s borders, and hundreds of thousands of refugees have fled into neighboring states to seek safety and shelter. Under the SPDC’s yoke, Burma has become a threat to regional peace and development and a burden on its neighbors.
In 2010, the SPDC seeks to hold elections, which will be neither free nor fair, and which they hope will establish an appearance of legitimacy for the military regime. At this important time, we call upon all members of the international community to do all they can to pressure the military junta to engage in a peaceful transition to democracy via the National Reconciliation Process. In light of the fact that the Burmese people are not able to speak for themselves, we urge members of the international community to take what action they can to speak for the people. We call upon all leaders of the international community, including Secretary-Generals Ban Ki-Moon, Asean Secretary Surin Pitsuwan and Special Envoy Piero Fassino, to stand with the people of Burma and act to secure the release of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and other Burmese political prisoners.
