August 4 2004

DEMONSTRATION: 2-4PM, Friday August 6 Meet: Berkeley Square, London W1, 2pm

Burmese exiles and human rights activists will march from Berkeley Square, London W1 to the Burmese Embassy in Charles Street this Friday, in a re-enactment of the student demonstration in Rangoon on August 8, 1988 which resulted in a massacre of thousands of protestors.

Burmese exiles in London will dress up as students and soldiers, while others will wear traditional ethnic national costumes. Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) supporters will join the protest, with visual aids that include a map of Burma in chains, pictures of landmine victims, burned-out villages and forced labour, and a wooden cage containing pictures of detained Nobel Laureate Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and political prisoner Min Ko Naing. CSW will also attempt to present the Burmese Embassy with a box of reports from various organisations documenting human rights violations.

The SPDC is currently holding a National Convention to prepare a new constitution, but this has been boycotted by Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy and most ethnic groups, and dismissed as a sham by the international community. It is engaged in ceasefire talks with the Karen, but CSW is calling for a nationwide ceasefire and the withdrawal of Burma Army troops from ethnic areas. CSW's Advocacy Officer for South Asia, Benedict Rogers, author of a book documenting the atrocities in ethnic areas called A Land Without Evil: Stopping the Genocide of Burma's Karen People (Monarch, 2004), said: "Only a nationwide ceasefire, and the total withdrawal of troops, will help Burma move towards peace and justice. Piecemeal deals are not acceptable. If troops remain on the ground, even if there is an end to military hostilities, the forced labour, rape and looting will continue and the civilians will be extremely vulnerable."

CSW's Chief Executive Mervyn Thomas, said: "It is extremely important that we express our solidarity with the oppressed peoples of Burma, and that we protest against the gross violations of human rights perpetrated by the junta. The anniversary of the 1988 uprising is a symbolic event, and we must ensure that the world does not forget. The international community needs to be woken up and a light shone on the darkness in Burma."

CSW is a human rights charity working on behalf of those persecuted for their Christian beliefs. We also promote religious liberty for all.

NOTES TO EDITORS:

Burma has been ruled by successive military regimes since 1962, when Ne Win seized power in a coup. The current junta, the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC), has been in power since 1988. Elections were held in 1990, and the National League for Democracy, led by Aung San Suu Kyi, won over 80 per cent of the parliamentary seats but has never been allowed to form a government. The SPDC has imprisoned at least 1,400 prisoners of conscience, has the highest number of child soldiers in the world, and stands accused of widespread use of forced labour, human minesweepers, systematic rape, destruction of villages and crops, religious persecution and extrajudicial killings in ethnic areas such as Karen, Karenni and Shan states.

The Burmese Embassy is at 19A Charles Street, Berkeley Square, London W1X 8ER (nearest underground Green Park).