Fdb Media Release On Spdc Attack On Knu

IMMEDIATE RELEASE June 10, 2009

MILITARY HOSTILITIES IN KAREN STATE: THE UN SECURITY COUNCIL MUST ACT NOW The Forum for Democracy in Burma (FDB) calls on the United Nation’s Security Council to act immediately as thousands of Karen villagers flee after being attacked by troops of Burma’s ruling military junta and their allies. Since the 6th of June, some 3,295 people have fled from Ler Per Her camp in Eastern Burma for Thailand after the Burma Army in conjunction with the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA), a proxy wing of the junta’s military, began artillery bombardment of the camp. “We demand that these barbaric actions stop immediately,” said Dr. Naing Aung, FDB SecretaryGeneral. He also called on the UN to take firm and cohesive steps to end the atrocities against innocent civilians. “The Security Council must urgently establish a Commission of Inquiry to investigate and report on crimes against humanity and war crimes in Burma in addition to imposing a global arms embargo against Burma’s violent military regime.” Nearly 150,000 people from Burma already live in refugee camps in Thailand, around half a million are internally displaced in Eastern Burma, and millions exist illegally in neighbouring countries. In the past 15 years alone, the military junta has destroyed in a systematic and widespread campaign more than 3,300 villages in Eastern Burma in order to subjugate Burma’s various ethnic groups. This ongoing systematic military campaign has created one of the worst humanitarian disasters in the world. The UN reports indicate that the junta’s army frequently recruits child soldiers, uses civilians as minesweepers and forces thousands of villagers into slave labour. Local women’s organizations have reported the rape of hundreds of women from Chin, Shan, Karen, Mon and Kachin States. All these crimes are able to continue with impunity, furthering the necessity for international actions. Since 1992, the UN General Assembly and Human Rights Council have passed over 35 resolutions on Burma but the Security Council has remained disturbingly immobile on the situation. All while, the Burma’s military junta continues to commit grave and brutal atrocities. Foreign Affairs Joint Secretary of FDB Soe Aung said, “The people of Burma are earnestly working for a genuine democratic change, and the junta is systematically exterminating all democratic elements. There are more than 2,100 political prisoners in the junta’s notorious prisons. If we are not assisted in bringing national reconciliation to our country, the further destabilizing of our country by the military regime will continue to bring dire consequences to the region and the world." For further information please contact: Dr. Naing Aung Soe Aung

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