PRESS RELEASE

August 8,1997

Today is the 9th Anniversary of the general strike in Burma, marking the large scale slaughter of our friends, brothers and sisters who sacrificed their lives for democracy and human rights. On August 8, 1988 almost the entire of population of Burma marched in the streets calling for democracy.

After more than a month of peaceful demonstrations, a military coup on September 18 put a stop to the democracy movement. Calling themselves the State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC), the military Junta ordered the killing of thousands of civilians. Thousands more were arrested, tortured, raped, and detained without trial. Many others fled to malarial jungles along the border with Thailand.

During the following night years human rights abuses have escalated, according to the United Nations Human Rights Commission. Amnesty International and other advocates for human rights have been especially critical of the forced labor and forced relocation of thousands of Mons and other ethnic nationalities. Moreover, through the ancestral lands of these ethnic groups, oil companies Unocal (U.S) and Total (French) are building a natural gas pipeline.

Since last year, all schools and universities have been closed in Burma because of students protested last December. This is seriously damaging to the education of the new generation of Burmese people. Although SLORC has been condemned by U.S. and European Union and Japan because of its human rights abuses, Asian admitted SLORC as its member last July. Asian’s accepting of Burma without condition is to ignore the aspirations of the Burmese people who voted for Aung Sun Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD).

According to U.S State Department, 60 percent of heroin on the street of United State comes from Burma. U.S official accused the SLORC of ignoring to drug producers, running money-laundering operations and profiting directly from the trade. Even United States imposed economic sanction earlier this year, however, some U.S. companies, such as Unocal and Texaco still do business with military regimes.

On this historic occasion, Monland Restoration Council urge U.S government and international community to show respect to their martyred brothers, sisters and friends by taking the following actions:

1. Impose a full economic sanction on Burma.

2. Urge SLORC to reopen all schools and Universities immediately

3. Urge Burma’s military rulers to immediately release all political prisoners and to begin negotiations with representatives of the NLD and ethnic nationalities.