60th Anniversary Statement

[brian@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]

           Statement on the  60th Anniversary of Bo Aung Kyaw Day  
                 and World-wide Demonstration Day
 
20th December 1996
 
        The students and youth of Burma have been taken part in the 
leading role in successive 
national liberation movements of the country. Today marks the 60th 
Anniversary of Bo Aung 
Kyaw Day. On 20th December 1936, Bo Aung Kyaw, the first student leader 
who gave up his 
life while fighting for freedom and justice, was killed by the British 
riot police.  Sixty years 
after this martyrdom, the people of Burma from all walks of life are 
still suffering various 
hardships under the ruling military dictatorial regime in Burma. The 
people are deprived of 
fundamental human rights such as freedom of thought, freedom of 
expression and freedom of 
procession. The military dictatorial system which exists in Burma is the 
main reason for the 
country's forty-year old civil war and the lack of development in the 
country. The people 
continues to suffer political, economic and social hardships as long as 
the military dictatorial 
system exists in the country. A democratic society where democracy and 
human rights of the 
people are guaranteed has to be established for Burma to become a 
peaceful and prosperous 
nation in which all the nationalities can live together with equality and 
dignity.
 
        The recent students' demonstrations in Burma reflect once again 
that the people of 
Burma does not want the military regime in the country. The people 
continues to fight, by any 
means, against all the repressive machinery of the military government. 
Even though the 
military government uses various inhuman oppressive methods to break down 
the people's 
movement for democracy, the students and youth of Burma who never bow 
down to injustice 
and oppression continue to carry on the struggle.  On this historic day, 
we, the students and 
youth of Burma reaffirmed our determination to continue the national 
movement against the 
military dictatorship and for the restoration of democracy in the 
country. Our political 
directions are :
 
1)         We are pledged to work with the whole people of Burma from all 
strata of life for 
the restoration of democracy and human rights in the country. The 
nation-wide people's 
uprising against the ruling military junta has to be broke out once again 
in Burma. 
2)         We demand the ruling military regime to accept the offer of 
Daw Aung San Suu Kyi 
for the "dialogue" to solve the country's problems peacefully and 
politically. 
3)         The National League for Democracy (NLD) which got the 
landslide victory in the 
1990 elections has to be handed over state power by the ruling military 
government, namely 
State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC).
4)       The democratic government, the National League for Democracy 
(NLD) 
Government, must be established in Burma and the "national 
reconciliation" has to be achieved 
with the participation of all the nationalities of the country.
 
        The SLORC regime has not done anything for the democratization in 
the country since 
it came into power in 1988. Moreover, its brutal repression to the people 
of Burma becomes 
more evident and crystal. Many student leaders and NLD leaders were 
arrested again after the 
recent demonstrations in Rangoon and Mandalay of Burma.  We strongly 
believe that the 
SLORC regime has to be imposed the international embargo similar with the 
one imposed to 
the Apartheid regime of South Africa by the international community. We 
earnestly call upon 
the international community to impose a global economic sanction 
immediately against the 
ruling military regime in Burma.
 
STUDENTS & YOUTH CONGRESS OF BURMA 
          (SYCB)