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News Release: FBC on Embassy Incide



Subject: News Release: FBC on Embassy Incident 

F R E E   B U R M A   C O A L I T I O N
www.freeburmacoalition.org

For Immediate Release

Burmese Ex-Students Turn Militant

Lack of International Support Leads to Desperation

Washington, DC -- October 1, 1999 -- Elements of the fundamentally
non-violent Burmese student movement have resorted to arms and taken over
the Bangkok (Thailand) embassy of the military junta that rules Burma
(also known as Myanmar).

This act, apparently by a small number of Burmese ex-university students,
reflects thegrowing frustration of a Burmese populace which has suffered
under 37 years of military rule.

Corporate support for the Burmese military, in the form of joint ventures
by companies such as US-based Unocal, France-based TotalFina, UK-based
Premier Oil, and Japan-based Mitsubishi, Marubeni, Mitsui and Suzuki, has
helped keep the junta in power despite the overwhelming desire of the
Burmese people to rid themselves of the junta.

A lack of support from international bodies, and the United Nations in
particular, has contributed to despair among pro-democracy Burmese, both
within and without the country.  Inside Burma, the economy has collapsed,
universities are permanantly closed, forced labor is rampant, narcotics
trafficking is rife, and, according to Amnesty International, more than
two thousand pro-democracy activists languish in the country's notorious
prisons and labor camps.  The junta is also holding two British citizens
who peacefully protested the military's human rights abuses. They received
prison sentences of seven and seventeen years at hard labor.

"Now the UN Security Council must take up the case of Burma's 45 million
people and their struggle for freedom," says Dr. Zarni of the Free Burma
Coalition.  "They overwhelmingly expressed their desire for a democratic
government in 1990 elections. The military is negating the expressed will
of the people, just as the Indonesian military did in East Timor."

The United Nations has made tepid gestures toward resolving the crisis in
Burma, but its envoys are normally blocked from entering the country.

US Secretary of State Albright has declared that Burma under the junta
has become "a threat to stability in the (Southeast Asian) region."

"This embassy incident is another example of how Burma's problems are not
confined within her national boundaries.  It is crucial that the questions
of democracy in Burma, and the crimes of the Burmese junta, receive
serious attention both in the UN General Assembly and the Security
Council, before the situation becomes even more desperate," adds Zarni.

The Free Burma Coalition remains committed to non-violent political
struggle, and calls for a peaceful resolution to the standoff at the junta
embassy in Bangkok.

Contact:  Dr. Zarni, Free Burma Coalition, 202-777-6009 
	Jack Healey, Human Rights Action Center, 202-547-2582
	Larry Dohrs, Free Burma Coalition, 206-784-5742

END