(no subject) (r)

[Butesan@xxxxxxx]

Statement on 11th Anniversary of  Four 8?s (8-8-88) uprisings

Date 8, August 1999

Today is the 11th Anniversary of  Four 8?s (8-8-88) uprisings of the students 
and the people against the military junta of Burma.  

If we look back a long the annals of  the coming into being of  the 
militarism in Burma, the military junta led by General Ne Win seized the 
political power on March 2, 1962. The military junta ruled Burma from 1962 to 
1974. After 1974 Burma was put  under One-Party rule.  Under the One-Party 
autocracy Burma?s political , economic, social, and educational conditions 
were gone to the dogs.  Under such an  intolerable condition the people, 
especially the students were so agitated that imminent crisis almost became a 
reality, almost every day.  The whole country was on the verge of  gargantuan 
political explosion.

On March 13, 1988 the students from Rangoon Institute of Technology led the 
people?s procession  in protest against the military junta.  During those 
chaotic anti-government demonstrations Phone Maw, a RIT student was killed by 
the Burmese Army soldiers and its sycophants from Burmese Way to Socialism  
Party, formed by Burmese military leaders.  At that critical moment the 
people led by the students exploded. Thus began country-wide peaceful 
demonstrations which was famously known as Four 8?s (8-8-88) uprising.  By 
dint of those demonstrations the One-Party Political System came to an end.  
But, because of the ruthless armed suppression of the military junta,  many 
students as well as the Buddhist monks  were killed and countless of them 
were imprisoned.  

>From that time on, the military junta ruled the country,  ruthlessly and 
illegally.  They treated the masses like slaves. Many people, especially from 
rural areas were put to death summarily  if they refused to work as unpaid 
laborers.  The women of decent upbringing were unscrupulously raped even 
right under the nose of their parents and elders.  Forced labor becomes the 
order of the day.  Forced laborers were inhumanely used as the point man in 
the mine fields.  Many students as well as politicians who actively took part 
in those anti-government activities were  incarcerated  for long terms.  To 
put in a  nutshell,      the Burmese military junta committed crimes  against 
humanity, outrageously.  

International community coerced  the military junta to hold parleys with 
National League for Democracy  party which won the general election by 
landslide victory, repeatedly.  But the ever arrogant military junta turned a 
deaf ear to the world.   All they did up till now was pretending as if they 
were genuinely for  democracy. Under many pretexts many NLD members were 
either arrested or forced to resign from their cherished Party.  That 
atrocious political gimmick was still going on.  To all intents and purposes, 
it is very obvious that  the evil aim of the nefarious Burmese military junta 
is just to eliminate NLD and clinging on the political power, indefinitely.  
On account of the above-mentioned evil  onslaught on it own people by the 
Burmese military junta, Burma is almost ostracized from international 
community, expelled from International Labor Organization and economic 
sanction was imposed by the USA.

For those unspeakable myriad reasons we, the Patriotic Burmese Exile Students 
of  Portland, Oregon, USA strongly take the vow to carry on our endeavors for 
the restoration of democratic institutions in Burma, out of deep reverence 
for those who die and those who continue their struggles to eradicate the 
Burmese military junta .    We will unreservedly  support the CRPP from NLD 
party led by Aung San Suu Kyi, our most beloved leader.

We unanimously decide to welcome any form of international organizations such 
as United Nations to intervene to bring about a peaceful  national 
reconciliation leading to a full-fledge, genuine Democracy in Burma forever.  
            
 

Patriotic Burmese Exile Students of Portland, Oregon, USA.