URGENT: The Second International D

[zni@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]

Subject: URGENT:  The Second International Day of Burma Action (March 13, 1996)

Please distribute the following to any server you deem relevent.

Thanks.


Dear All,

As proposed by Canadian Free Burma groups, we would like to invite all of
you, Burma freedom-fighters, to participate in the Second International Day
of Action for a Free Burma.  March 13 is chosen as the Day although some of
us who willhave spring breaks during that week will hold Burma Action
Events either before or after March 13 still declaring to be part of the
second wave of international day of Burma action.

***Specifically, we propose that the US groups and individuals work on
petition drive to get the Burma sanctions bills (now sitting at both US
Senate and the House) known as "Burma Democracy and Freedom Act of 1995"
(Senate Bill Number #S. 1511) and (House Bill Number HR 2892 IH) passed.
We will post the actual texts of the Bills and the addresses of the
legislators in a seperate email.  Also we'll have the texts up on our Free
Burma webpages (http:/freeburma.org).***

Activists in other continents are requested to join hands with us, North
American groups, in this second wave of Burma Action.  And we'd be more
than happy to offer any feasible assistance in making this Burma Action a
resounding success.

Background History

March 13, a month from today, is known in Burma as Hpone Maw Day or Burma
Human Rights Day.  Hpone Maw, 23 year old mechanical engineering student
from the then prestigious Rangoon Institute of Technology, was shot behind
the back from the Security Forces during the initial period  of 1988
pro-democracy movement.  Hpone Maw was the very first student to be
murdered by General Ne Win's military dictatorship since 1974-75 studnt
uprisings.  His body was kept in Rangoon General Hospital downtown Rangoon.
Later it was taken to the Tar-mwe Cemetary where it was buried quietly
without any customary Buddhist funeral rites **before sunrise.** (Usually
funerals are held in the afternoon.)  Present at the Cemetary were a
handful of professors from his school, a few relatives, and lots of fully
armed securty men in uniform.  General Ne Win's Burma Socialist Programme
Party (BSPP) feared that a public funeral might cause further
"disturbances" initiated by politically active student body in Rangoon.
March 13 has come to be known as Burma's Human Rights Day.

Course of Action

Here is a list of suggested actions:

A top priority for US Burma Freedom Fighter:

1) petition drive, phone calls to US lawmakers on the Hill, and letter
writing campaign


A general course of action

2) Educational events

        a) Beyond Rangoon Showing (Beginning today, Beyond Rangoon is
available at video rental stores (also we'll make copies available very
soon, thanks to Castle Rock and Bill Rubenstein, the co-writer of BRGN).

        b) Video-presentation of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi's keynote address at
NGO's Forum, the Beijing Women's Conference (copies are available from FBC
at Madison.  $25 donatition requested.  Please make checks payable to "Free
Burma Coalition" and address Free Burma Coalition, 225 N. Mills ST.,
Madison, WI 53706)

        c) lectures and talks by various Burmese and Burma freedom fighters
(speaker's bureau list will be posted in a day.)

        d) radio and TV interviews

        e) writing letters to the editors and Op-Ed pieces

        f) Burma Potlarchs (sp?) and slide presentations

        g) cultural nights and benefit concerts combined with leafletting

        h) tabling at public events (like farmers' market, student union
lunch hours, etc.)


3) Street Actions

        a) Pepsi Dump

        b) Oil Dump

        c) Burma Protest Rally (Pizza Hut, taco Bell, Kentucky Fried
Chicken, etc.)

        d) "eat-ins" at restaurants that are Pepsi subsidiaries or that
sell Pepsi (Essentially you go in there and eat your own lunch using their
facilities during peak hours.  U. of New Mexico Burma folks have done it at
their Student Union where Pepsi products is served.)

4) More radical measures

        This is the kind of actions which are being taken by various
individuals.   The Free Burma Coalition have heard these stories as rumors.
We don't take any position on this type of actions.

        a) monkey-renching or unplucking Pepsi machine at various locations
(for instance, malls, rest stops on free ways, campus buildings, public
areas, grocery stores);

        b) calling Pepsi's 1-800 numbers and leaving the handset aside once
the phone rings;

        c) jamming emails of Pepsi executives, alumni association offices,
pro-Slorc pro-corporate (oil corporations such as Unocal and Texaco)
money-at-all-cost law makers;

        d) dumping Pepsi or crude oil on high priced Persian carpets
usually found at the offices of University administrators who serve Burma
related corporations; and

        e) sabotaging major sports events, which are to be televised
nationally, where commercial symbols of Burma-related corporations are on
display as part of the sponsors.


4) Legal Battles

        a) introduction of selective purchasing ordinances at your town,
schools, etc.

        b) pressuring schools and universities to dis-invest or sponsor
shareholder resolutions at Burma-related corporations or withdraw from
contracts.

The list is not meant to be exhaustive and we hope that all of our
freedom-fighters will take creative initiatives and set examples for other
campaigns.

Peace and solidarity,

Free Burma Coation

(contact:  zni@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx; http://freeburma.org)