ADELAIDE: AN EASTER GIFT FROM THE R

[uneoo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]

Subject: ADELAIDE: AN EASTER GIFT FROM THE ROMERO MUSICAL JNR.

/* Written Tue 23 Apr 6:00am 1996 by DRUNOO@xxxxxxxxxxxx in igc:reg.burma */
/* -------------" An Easter Gift from Romero Musical Jnr "------------- */

AN EASTER GIFT FROM THE ROMERO MUSICAL JNR
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A musical concert was held on the evening of April 5 in Anglican Church
Hall in Dulwich(Adelaide) by the ROMERO MUSICAL JUNIORS - School childerns
from the Lorretto College. Proceeds from the concerts been sent to the
refugees at the Thai-Burmese border through Burma NGO Forum in Sydney. A
total of A$600 has been sent, it was informed. 

The Director of the Musical Group, Sr. Janet Mead, also runs the Adelaide
Day Center - a refuge for homeless people in adelaide. The name of the
musical group 'ROMERO' is in the honour of their saint &hero, Oscar Romero,
who was the Archbishop of El Salvador and a human rights advocate; I am told.

I have been in contact with this group since 1992 and continue to
appreciate their friendship throughout the years. Whenever there
is campaign for Burma - letter writing or a petition campaign - the
friends in Adelaide are called upon and they always are able to help.
Each year, this Musical Group used to hold benefit concerts for
oppressed people around the world and this year for Burma.

Following is texts from the information pamphlet given to me at that
evening & I am very proud of their awareness about Burma.
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With 350,000 troops, Burma's army is the biggest in South-East Asia. In one
of  the  world's  poorest  nations  with  its  42  million people, the army
accounts for 50% of the country's budget.

The army also has an appalling record of human rights abuse, especially  in
the border regions where fighting with 'rebels' and villagers continues.

Burma is run by a committee of 21 army generals called SLORC (State Law and
Order  Restoration Council). "The people see the army as beast: the solders
shoot people.  They  do  not  care  because  they  are  getting  richer."(A
dissident).

In  1988,  pro-democracy  groups  fled  to  the borders from the military's
brutal repression to join the indigenous Karen group  in  guerilla  attacks
against the government forces. There are over 70,000 Burmese refugees along
the border with Thailand.

They  feel  the  pain  of their separation from their homeland deeply. Many
show horrific injuries and amputations from encounters with  the  military,
who are supplied with arms from dealers in the western world and China.

In  1990, Aung San Suu Kyi's national League for Democracy won the national
elections with 80% of the vote: but the military  rulers  refused  to  hand
over  power.  In the last five years the regime has continued to arrest and
torture political opponents.

There are 3000 political prisoners in gaol: many have died in  custody.  It
is  dangerous  for  ordinary  Burmese  to  talk  of these things to foreign
visitors.

There is no doubt that international trade sanctions against  South  AFrica
was  instrumental in dismantling aparthied. There are no such comprehensive
sanctions against Burma for repression against its people.

Every so often the world produces a politician of exceptional  courage  and
determination. Nelson Mandela, who led his country to freedom for more than
a quarter of a century in jail as a political prisoner is such a person. So
is  Aung  San  Suu  Kyi.  Almonst  six  years  ago  this  leader of Burma's
pro-democracy movement was placed under house arrest and cut off  from  all
outside  contact.  Her  crime  was that she stood up to the military junta,
which had refused to relinquish power Ms. Suu  Kyi's  party,  the  National
League  for Democracy, which swept to victory in the elections of 1990. Her
determination earned her the 1991 Nobel Prize for peace.

Burma's image remains that of a Third  World  dictatorship  where  torture,
kidnapping,  slavery  and  murder  are  everyday  occurrences,  and  where,
according to human rights groups, more than 3000 political prisoners remain
in jail.

Ms Suu Kyi's release is of course welcome, particularly if it proves to  be
a step towards the establishment of a multi-party system in Burma as the UN
Secretary-General,  Dr. Boutros Ghali, hopes it will be. None the less, the
Burmese generals should not deceive themselves. One freed prisoner  -  even
one as powerful and symbolically important as Ms. Suu Kyi - does not mark a
return  to democratic ways. If the military junta wants to earn the respect
of the world, and not just its tourist  dollars,  it  needs  to  amend  its
brutal ways, relinquish its unconstitutional hold on power and return Burma
to its people and their legitimate representatives.
-----------------end of the texts---------------

The Weekend Australian, April 20-21, features an article about Daw Aung
San Suu Kyi "MOTHER COURAGE" with two photograph. (I think the article
had already been on Burmanet). -- U Ne Oo.

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