May 07, 2007
His Excellency Honorable Mr. Ban Ki
Moon
Secretary-General of United Nations
United Nations Headquarters
New York
,
NY
10017
Dear Mr. Secretary General
We congratulate you on your new
position as the Secretary General of the United Nations and hope the UN will
have great success under your leadership.
On 7 May 1757 the Mon people
lost their independence and many thousands of innocent Mon people were brutally
executed by the Burman ruler, Aung Zay Ya (Alaung Paya). From this day we lost
not only our sovereignty rights but also the right to freely practice our
culture and learn our language, the right to freely determine our political,
social and economic status and the right to freely determine our own future.
Mon people are one of the ethnic
nationalities in
Burma
. We, along with other ethnic
nationalities, are seeking peace, justice, equal rights, and self-determination
rights in
Burma
. Mon people in
Burma
continue to suffer from extreme social and economic hardship, discrimination,
and other human rights abuses under the Burmese regime.
These abuses are leading to the extinction of our people and our way of
life in
Burma
. The present Burmese military regime is imposing an ethnic cleansing policy on
non-Burman ethnic nationalities by increasing the military occupation in Mon and
other ethnic nationality’s areas. Such
occupation is causing increasing human rights violations, environmental
destruction, and land confiscation. Over
the past decade the Human Rights Foundation of Monland reported that the Burmese
army confiscated over ten thousand acres of farmland and committed hundreds of
rapes against Mon women and girls in Monland. Over the past decade these abuses
in turn have caused thousands of Mon refugees to flee to the Thai-Burma border
and forced hundreds of thousands of Mon to immigrate illegally to neighbouring
countries such as
Thailand
and
Malaysia
.
In 1995 the New Mon State Party,
the strongest Mon political organization with an armed wing, reached a
cease-fire agreement with the Burmese military regime in the hope of solving the
political problems through a dialogue in
Burma
. Although the party repeatedly called for political dialogue the regime has
continued to ignore these requests. Instead, the regime continues human rights
violations against Mon civilians in Monland, especially in Ye Township.
Therefore today we are holding a
demonstration in front of the United Nations Headquarters in
New York City
to mark the 250th anniversary of
Mon
Kingdom
Hongsawatoi (Pegu) Fallen Day. We
demonstrate to draw your attention in our concerns and we request you to
encourage the Burmese military regime to immediately end human rights abuses in
Burma
and to respect our inalienable rights as guaranteed by the principles of the
Charter of the United Nations.
Yours Sincerely,
- The Australian-Mon Association (AMA)
- Euro-Mon Community
- Mon Canadian Society of
Alberta
- Monland Restoration Council (
USA
)
- Mon National League for Consolidating and Aiding (
Thailand
)
- Mon Unity League (
Thailand
)
- Mon Women's Association of
America
- Mon Women’s Organization of Canada
- Mon National Democratic Front (Liberated
Area
,
Malaysia
)
- Mon Youth Progressive Organization
-
New Zealand
Mon National Association
CC: Ms.
Elsa Stamatopoulou,
Acting Chief
Secretariat of the Permanent
Forum on Indigenous Issues,
Division for Social Policy and
Development, DESA,
Room DC2-1772,
New York
,
NY
10017