Danny Jensen | 4 months ago | Comments (0)
On October 28th, college campuses across the United States will host Ignite For Burma events, which aim to educate and inspire classmates to help end the oppressive tactics of the Burmese military junta. Whether or not you're in school now, you can still host an event and join thousands in asking President Obama to pressure the U.N. to take action against the military dictatorship. Causecast, one of the organizations helping to orchestrate the events, sums up the dire situation in Burma:
The elected democratic leader Aung San Suu Kyi has been imprisoned or under house arrest for the better part of 20 years. The military dictatorship continues to oppress the voice of the people through violence, like the bloody 2007 Saffron Revolution. Millions of Burmese are displaced or forced into refugee camps.
The Ignite For Burma events will include the following: More
Travis Kaya | 7 months ago | Comments (0)
Responding to pleas from the international community and the US Campaign for Burma, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon made a two-day trip to Myanmar on July 3 to broker the release of political prisoners by the ruling junta. Following in the footsteps of the 40 or so failed UN envoys that came before him, Ban was unable to secure any concessions from Burmese officials. He also enraged the international community by commending the junta's head, General Than Shwe, for his "commitment to moving [the] country forward."
The US Campaign for Burma, a member-based organization that has been calling for an end to military rule there, spearheaded a massive campaign to get Ban to sit down with the regime. Campaign organizers asked its members to send emails to Ban urging him to visit Myanmar, and collected signatures from 112 former presidents and prime ministers in a petition that was printed in The New York Times earlier this year. More
