[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index ][Thread Index ]

Media Statement from Free Burma Cam (r)



Subject: Media Statement from Free Burma Campaign (South Africa)

Media Statement from Free Burma Campaign (South Africa)
Burmese Dictator Not Welcome in South Africa
14 June 1999

President Thabo Mbeki's inauguration on June 16 is an occasion of great
joy and celebration for all South Africans.  On the one hand it signals
the deepening of our democracy and triumph over a racist dictatorship. 
On the other, it is emotional remembrance of our fighting youth who
sacrificed their lives in the face of the brute force of the apartheid
state on the streets of Soweto in 1976.  Given our proud democratic
credentials, we are mystified as to why the South African government
should want to find common cause with the military junta, which has
ruled Burma since 1962.  The State Law and Order Restoration Council
(SLORC) is represented at President Mbeki's inauguration by its
intelligence chief, General Khin Nyunt.  SLORC's dictatorship is in
defiance of the will of the people of Burma who in 1990 voted
overwhelmingly in support of the National League for Democracy (NLD).
The NLD is led by Nobel Peace Laureate, Aung San Suu Kyi , a fearless
woman determined to be the voice of Burma's voiceless.  Daily life for
the majority of Burma's citizens is a litany of human rights abuses
including arbitrary detention, torture, forced labour , orchestrated
rape and other forms of sexual violence. Archbishop Desmond Tutu has
written about Burma as  the South Africa of the 1990s.  The people of
Burma are crying out for our help.  Our own history compels us to
respond.  We call on the South African government to sever its links
with the military junta in Rangoon and deny the generals the legitimacy
they so desperately crave.  

Kiru Naidoo
Free Burma Campaign (South Africa)
P.O. Box 138 
Pavilion  3611 
Tel:  0825655286  /  +27 82 56 55 286
Email:  kiru@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Info:  http://FreeBurma.com