Message of our leader to John Humph

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Subject: Message of our leader to John Humphrey's freedom award ceremony

Text of Message of Aung San Suu Kyi, leader of the National League for
Democracy, Burma.
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It is a great pleasure for me to speak on the occasion of the awarding
of the John Humphrey prize to Min Ko Naing and Dr Cynthia Maung. It
gives me great pride that two people from Burma have been found worthy
of this
prestigious human rights prize.

Everybody knows of what Dr Cynthia Maung has done on the border for
Burmese refugees, for political refugees and economic migrants, as well
as for people from Burma who are finding it very difficult to get
medical care on our side of the border. It is a sad reflection on the
state of things in Burma that many people from our side of the border
feel impelled to cross
the border to go to Dr Cynthia Maung for treatment. But it is also proof
of her great compassion and the importance of what she is doing.

We need more people like Cynthia Maung. I am particularly happy that she
belongs to the karen ethnic group, because it helps the world to realize
that Burma is a country of many peoples. It is not just made up of the
majority Burmese, but of others like the karens, the Mons, the Kachins,
the Chins, the Shans, the Arakanese, and many other smaller ethnic
groups.

We think that it is not only through genuine unity that we will be able
to build up the future of our country. And these people who are going to
Dr Cynthia Maung today are not just karens, not just people from other
ethnic nationalities, but people from the majority Burmese ethnic group
who go to her for help. When it comes to humanitarian issues, there is
no question of
difference of race, or difference of citizenship, or difference of
religion. Humanitarian aid should be given without consideration of
these matters. For this reason, I am extremely grateful to Dr Cynthia
Maung. What she has done for our people, and what she has done for our
country, has shown that we have people like her in our country - people
who care and people who will build up the future of our country.

Min Ko Naing, people know less about because he has been incarcerated in
a prison in Burma for the last ten years. He is a young man who is one
of the student leaders who started the 1988 movement for democracy, and
he has stood firm against all pressure from the authorities.

He has been kept in solitary confinement for all these ten years. At the
moment, he is no longer in a prison in Rangoon but has been transferred
to one in the Arakhan division. This ,means that his family faces
enormous difficulties in going to visit him. Political prisoners in
Burma are allowed one visit a fortnight. Fifteen minutes a fortnight.
But if you are in a prison in the Arakhan division and your family is in
Rangoon, you are lucky if you get a visit once in 6 months. His family
is devoted to him, but it is extremely difficult for them both
practically and financially, to see him even once a month. Sometimes
they do not manage to go for several months.

This is a lot of many others in Burma. Min Ko Naing represents many
others who are suffering from the injustices of the present military
regime. That the prize has been awarded to him gives us all great hope,
great pride and great pleasure, because it shows that the world has not
forgotten our cause, and that the world is not ignoring our people who
have been ignored
by the military regime for so long. Even if the military authorities do
not recognize our peoples as human beings who need help, who need
compassion,and who have the rights to justice, we know now that the
world recognizes it. That in the world there are people who stand on the
side of justice and on the side of humanity, whatever authoritarian
regimes may do.

For this reason, I would like to thank those who have been responsible
for awarding the John Humphrey prize to Min Ko Naing and Dr Cynthia
Maung - for the great honor they have done to my country and for the
compassion they have shown.

Thank you very much

10 December 1999