Press Release_september 23rd Event

သံဃာေတာ္မ်ားႏွင့္ ဒီမိုကေရစီအင္အားစုမ်ား ပူးေပါင္းေဆာင္ရြက္ေသာ

2nd Anniversary of Saffron Revolution FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: September 21, 2009 Contact: Tim Aye Hardy, US Campaign for Burma (NYC) – (631)252-8776, [email protected] Visuals: Burmese monks in saffron robes, refugees, political performance art, 1000+ attendees PROMINENT MONKS FROM THE 2007 SAFFRON REVOLUTION, BURMESE REFUGEES AND SUPPORTERS, ALONG WITH TIBETAN AND IRANIAN PROTESTERS IN NEW YORK TO COMMEMORATE THE 2ND ANNIVERSARY OF THE SAFFRON REVOLUTION NEW YORK – Saffron Revolution monks, refugees, exiles, and supporters from the Southeast Asian country of Burma (Myanmar) are joining forces with Tibetan and Iranian protesters to commemorate the 2nd Anniversary of the Saffron Revolution at the United Nations – Dag Hammarskjold Plaza this Wednesday afternoon, while Aung San Suu Kyi, the Nobel Peace Prize laureate and Burma’s leading pro-democracy leader, remains under house arrest and imprisonment, as she has since 1988. The rally is being co-sponsored by national and international organizations, including the US Campaign for Burma, the All Burma Monks’ Alliance, Burma Global Action Network, the National League for Democracy - Liberated Area, 88 Generation Students (Exile), The Burma Fund-UN, Women on the Move for Burma and Student World Assembly. Emotive and inspirational offering of Butoh performances by the Vangeline Theater group to commemorate the Saffron anniversary will follow the rally. “Please don’t persecute people. Please don’t imprison people. Please don’t torture people. Please don’t kill people. Please release the political prisoners. Those were our pleas from the Saffron Revolution.” said Venerable U Pyinya Zawta, a monk leader of the 2007 Saffron Revolution and a political prisoner in Burma for 10 years. He will be speaking to both Burmese and Iranian democracy advocates at Wednesday’s rally. “We were peacefully demonstrating, yet they kept shooting at us. I felt helpless. Was there nobody to help us?” said Venerable U Gawsita, one of the leading monks during the 2007 Saffron Revolution, who will also be speaking at the rally alongside Nay Tin Myint, one of the leaders of Burma’s democracy movement and a political prisoner in Burma for 15 years for distributing political pamphlets at his Rangoon University campus. Burma’s military regime crushed the non-violent protests led by Buddhist clergy in September 2007, named the “Saffron Revolution,” echoing its infamous bloody crackdown on the student-led uprising on August 8, 1988 when over 3,000 were killed. Following Cyclone Nargis, which killed over 150,000 people and affected over 2 million others in 2008, Burma’s military generals hindered the delivery of humanitarian aid and attempts to fully assess the cyclone’s damage. Despite international outcry, the regime is moving forward with elections in 2010 that activists believe will only further entrench the military regime. Monks and Democratic forces for Burma at the 2nd Anniversary of the Saffron Revolution in NYC appeal to the UN Security Council and to leaders of the international community to support and implement binding resolutions to bring peace, human rights, and democracy in Burma by: 1. The Immediate and unconditional release of Aung San Suu Kyi along with over 2100 political prisoners, including monks and nuns; 2. Denouncing the planned 2010 sham election, based on the military regime’s constitution; 3. The UN Security Council’s imposing a global arms embargo on the Burmese military regime and launching an official investigation into crimes against humanity committed by the regime. When: Wednesday, September 23, 2009, from 2:00 – 4:00 PM Where: United Nations - Dag Hammarskjold Plaza (47th Street and 2nd Ave.) ###