I've posted often on the situation in Burma. Child soldiers, sexual violence, burning of villages, kidnapping, political prisoners...a serious lack of human rights.
I recently found this website, Students for Burma. The site looks a little old, but I love the idea they have on their about having a day at your school where you get many people to wear red, in solidarity with the Burmese monks.
It looks like they have a lot of great reasources that could make this something that you could accomplish at your school. Although the big protests of the Saffron Revolution have ended, the reason for those protests have not. It is important to make Burma a very relevant and big issue in our world.
If you were looking to hold an event like the Red Day and would like help planning, I highly reccomend STAND as a reasource. They have great advice on how to publicize, how to energize and get people excited, and are really just there to help you make a difference!
Today, the verdict was announced from the sham trial of Aung San Suu Kyi. She was found guilty, and placed under house arrest for another 18 months. While that isn't much time compared to her 20 years she has already spent, her sentence also includes that should the regime find another problem, it will be extended.
Aung San Suu Kyi's story can be seen here:
SO WHAT CAN YOU DO?
1. The UK and US are going to be head of the UN Security Council in September and October, consecutively. This is an opportunity for action.
2. Learn more about Aung San Suu Kyi , and tell her story to your family, your friends. Let them know what's happening in Burma, and why it's so important we take action.
4. PASS THIS INFORMATION ON! The more people who are aware, who can sign the petition, who can pressure our leaders, the more action that will happen! Forward the link to the petition to your friends, family, coworkers! Post it as your facebook status!
United Nations expert on human rights in Burma, Paulo Sergio Pinheiro stated:
“Serious human rights violations have been widespread and systematic, suggesting that they are not simply isolated acts of individual misconduct by middle- or low-ranking officers, but rather the result of a system under which individuals and groups have been allowed to break the law and violate human rights without being called to account.”
Thousands of child soldiers
Villages burned to the ground
2 million left without homes
The United States is set to become the head of the UN Security council in August, an opportunity to take action on these atrocities.
I wanted to share with everybody this AWESOME MAP by Genocide Intervention Network.
It highlights major areas of violence and conflict, and gives a brief description of what's going on below.
If you'd like, you can then read more about the issue in very simple terms, with an overview, whose involved, etc. It's a great resource for those looking to learn more about some of the conflicts that have been mentioned on this blog, and others that I have yet to cover.
An AWESOME new movie is showing soon in locations all around the country. Burma VJ, a movie that shows the Saffron Revolution from the points of Video Journalists ("VJ"s), a job title that is both essential and dangerous in Burma. Essential because they are the ones who are getting this footage, dangerous because they risk their lives to tell the story.
