Burmese Student Activist Spoke Up I

[Oway88@xxxxxxx]

Subject: Burmese Student Activist Spoke Up In Italy

Burmese Student Activist Spoke Up in Italy 

May 26, 1996 (Italy) -- Khin Ohmar, a Burmese student activist, who is
currently residing in the United States of America and was one of the
architects of "Great Student Movement" at Rangoon University back in 1988,
made a speech at the meeting of "The Little Ones of the Earth", which was
convened in Gallipoli, Italy on May 25, 1996. Over 2,000 people including
representatives from the Mediterranean and Latin America were present at the
meeting.  This annual event of International Vigil of the Little Ones of the
South, in parallel with G7, has an aim to build a  less scandalous world, by
giving visibility and voice to the little ones next to the great ones  and
proposes a new model of development based on self-promotion and co-operation.
  The gathering was sponsored by the Emmanuel Foundation for the South of the
World under the High Patronage of the President of Italian Republic and in
collaboration with other organizations among which Unicef Italy, Emmaus,
Amnesty International, etc.    

Khin Ohmar conveys voices of her beloved people to the meeting and talked
about her country's struggle for freedom, democracy and human rights.  She
told the audience about how people in Burma have been bitterly experiencing
lots of suffering under the generations of brutal and ruthless military
dictatorship for decades.  Moreover, she emphasized on the latest political
deadlock in her country, where National League for Democracy (NLD), which won
over 80% of parliamentary seats in 1990 elections, has planned to convene the
First Party Congress in Rangoon.  State Law and Order Restoration Council
(SLORC), has detained over 200 NLD members and elected representatives as a
preemptive strike.  It is a most dangerous political confrontation between
the National League for Democracy, led by Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, a nobel peace
laureate, and State Law and Order Restoration Council. 

She sought stronger international support in the fight for democracy and
human rights while she was reading the transcript of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi's
videotaped speech at the UN Human Rights Commission in Geneve, Switzerland.
 Apparently the meeting has successfully and positively responded to her
demand for stronger and more coordinated actions against the present military
regime in Burma.  On May 27, Italian government issued a statement to condemn
the Burmese military junta for arresting dissidents and called on the SLORC
to immediately free all the arrested without condition.  That is great news
and encouragement for Burma' s struggle for democracy, because it is
unprecendented that the Italian government made such a direct and ofiicial
statement on Burma after 1988 Uprising.   
    
-------------------- end. (Oway.052896.Italy)