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U.S. Fort Wayne can help Burmese... (r)
- Subject: U.S. Fort Wayne can help Burmese... (r)
- From: galon99@xxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Thu, 26 Aug 1999 01:38:00
Subject: U.S. Fort Wayne can help Burmese....
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U.S., Fort Wayne can help Burmese
About 500 Fort Wayne-area residents will be holding their breath Sept. 9
when friends back home in Burma demonstrate against the military government.
The protesters want a nonviolent democratic revolution in their country,
situated between Thailand and India and ruled by the military for 40 years.
But they may get the same violent response they endured 11 years ago, when
thousands died and thousands more fled their homeland. Many others have been
imprisoned and tortured.
The Clinton administration sides strongly with the demonstrators, but it
needs to devise an effective warning against another military crackdown. All
the U.S. diplomatic and trade sanctions of the past decade will be
trivialized if the generals running Burma (which they call Myanmar)
terrorize the democrats again.
A nonviolent tactic the United States can still play against Burma is
banning all U.S. trade there - and seeking a global trade ban through the
United Nations. President Clinton should let the Burmese military know that
is his policy well before the Sept. 9 demonstrations.
Local Burmese say their Fort Wayne group is the largest Burmese refugee
community in the United States. Several of the most active members are
organizing a national conference about their country to be held here Sept.
5. It will run from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. at the Indiana-Purdue, Fort Wayne Walb
Memorial Union.
One of the main goals of the conference is to plan a strategy to sue the
Burmese dictators for their human rights abuses. And longer term, organizers
want to replace the government with the one elected in 1990 but never
allowed to take power.
But in the short term, the Fort Wayne conference will be a warm-up to show
support for the brave souls who will take to the streets of Burma four days
later.
One of the speakers scheduled in Fort Wayne is U Thaung, an elderly former
newspaper editor who has been resisting Burma's military governments most of
his life. Others include members of the government in exile (drawn from the
winners of the 1990 election) and the organizer of a group of peace
activists - including Americans - who were arrested in Burma last year.
Fort Wayne-area churches and others responsible for helping so many Burmese
escape to this community deserve credit and praise. Now others in the region
who want to know more about a Texas-sized nation of 47 million struggling
people can catch up at the free conference at IPFW. For more information,
call Maung Maung Win at (219) 485-7774.
PUBLISHED: TUESDAY, AUG. 24, 1999
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