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[burmanet2-l] Demo in Ithaca!/Why n



Subject: Re: [burmanet2-l] Demo in Ithaca!/Why not France???

What a fine example for the French, fun loving irresponssible childish
bubbleheads they are. maybe they might catch on then, finally????
ds

Htun Aung Gyaw wrote:
> 
> Amity Weiss, a 10th grade student at Ithaca High School, hands her father,
> John, a bottle of soap to make freedom bubbles' at the rally she helped
> organize.  The event, organized to protest human rights violations in
> Burma, ws arranged by a young group called Kidsreach and held Thursday
> afternoon on the Commoms. (Photo)
> 
> Event coincided with similar ones across world. (Ithaca Journal, September
> 10th, 1999)
> By Kevin Harlin
> 
> Ithaca-  A small group of activists in ithaca demonstrated Thursday to show
> solidarity with others around the world who called for democracy in Burma,
> officially known as the Union of Myanmar.
> 
> Members of the youth group known as Kidreach organized a brief rally on the
> Ithaca Commons Thursday calling for democracy in the Southeast Asian
> country, where nine years after the last free elections, the military junta
> has yet to recognize the results.
> 
> The rally known as 9/9/99 is times to coincide with others in major cities
> in the U.S. and around the world.  Protest are also planned for Myanmar.
> 
> "Today, we might have a new democracy, which would be a very important
> thing," said Amity Weiss, an Ithaca High School student and one of the
> rally organizers.
> 
> But Ithaca's most active Burmese revolutionary-Htun Aung Gyaw, who
> organized a conference in May that drew dozens of Burmese activists from
> around the world to Ithaca- was in New York City, attending larger
> demonstrations there.
> 
> Htun Aung Gyaw,(pronounced ton ung jaw) who studied and works at Cornell
> University, was imprisoned for five years in burma during the 1970s for
> fighting the government.  In 1989, he was sentenced to death in absentia
> for treason for being a high-ranking member of an influencial armed student
> group, the All Burma Students' Democratic Front, which took to the jungle
> to fight the military.
> 
> He came to Ithaca in 1992 after three years as a political refugee in
> Thailand.  He then continued the struggle from Ithaca via the Internet,
> using strategies that he shared with others at the conference in May.
> 
> "This will be more important than you think," said Amity's Father , John
> Weiss, a Cornell University professor, speaking to the 10-or so students
> there.  "Htun will find out we did this for him".