Letter to President Barack Obama by a group of representatives

President Barack Obama
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20500

Dear President Obama,

Successive U.S. administrations, with overwhelming bi-partisan support from Congress, have shown their support for Burmese peoples’ aspiration to live in a democratic society free from their military dictatorship.  Unfortunately, despite U.S. efforts as well as decades of peaceful attempts by successive United Nations Special Envoys and Rapporteurs to convince the Burmese military regime to end its atrocities and seek a peaceful transition to democracy, peace, democracy and stability elude Burma.

Therefore, we urge you to take the lead in establishing a United Nations Security Council (UNSC) Commission of Inquiry into the Burmese military regime’s crimes against humanity and war crimes against its civilian population.  Similar cases in Rwanda, Yugoslavia, and Darfur have all led to Commissions of Inquiry and each previous case had UN Special Envoys and Special Rapporteurs assigned to seeking peaceful solutions to their respective countries international humanitarian crises.  Still though, the UNSC took the necessary step and established a Commission of Inquiry to investigate and provide justice and accountability for the war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide committed with impunity by state agents.  By elevating the cause of Burma to the UNSC, the United States is putting Burma’s supporters on notice that we will not support the status quo while millions of people languish.

The United Nations has passed over 30 resolutions acknowledging and decrying the Burmese military regime’s crimes and blatant system of impunity. All the while, Burma’s military regime has carried out a scorched-earth campaign against the country’s ethnic minority civilian population, destroying over 3,300 villages, using systematic rape as a weapon of war, pressing the Burmese people into modern-day slave labor, killing innocent civilians, and forcing at least one million people to flee their homes as refugees and internally displaced.   The regime has also conscripted tens of thousands of child soldiers, and imprisoned and tortured those who dare speak out in support of freedom and democracy.

Compounding the brutality of the regime’s war crimes and crimes against humanity is their flagrant system of impunity, in which perpetrators go free, but victims fear retribution if they seek accountability and justice.  While the “slow burn” nature of the military regime’s grave crimes has kept the spotlight away from these atrocities, it makes them no less dire.  In fact, it makes it ever more urgent that we call upon the UNSC to hold the Burmese military regime to account for their war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Furthermore, the regime’s constitution, on which it predicates its upcoming elections in 2010, contains an amnesty provision that exempts all members of the military regime from prosecution.  The amnesty provision is a blatant attempt to legitimize the structured and systematic violence in the country for all junta inflicted crimes.  In addition to the amnesty provision, the constitution also removes any rights for civil redress for victims of crimes committed by the military and police and blocks access to justice in civilian courts thus effectively denying justice to the regime’s victims.

The world must not sit by and allow Burma’s regime to commit mass atrocities with impunity.  We urge you to urgently seek support at the UNSC for a Commission of Inquiry to investigate the Burmese regime’s war crimes, crimes against humanity and system of impunity.   The regime must be held accountable, on behalf of the millions of people of Burma who have no other course for redress.

Sincerely,
Joe Crowley (D-NY); Don Manzullo (R-IL); Rush Holt (D-NJ); Peter King (R-NY); Anna Eshoo (D-CA); Madeline Bordallo (D-Guam); Carolyn Maloney (D-NY); Joseph Pitts (R-PA); Brad Sherman (D-CA); Michael Michaud (D-ME); Jim Moran (D-VA); Frank Wolf (R-VA); Mark Kirk (IL)
Brian Bilbray (R-CA); David Price (D-NC)

World’s Leading Jurists Call for Investigation into Crimes against Humanity and War Crimes in Burma

http://www.law. harvard.edu/ programs/ hrp/newsid= 59.html

New report from Harvard Law School finds that UN documents on Burma provide grounds for investigation into international crimes; calls for more concerted UN action on Burma

Cambridge, MA - Five of the world’s leading international jurists have commissioned a report from the International Human Rights Clinic at Harvard Law School, calling for the UN Security Council to act on more than fifteen years of condemnation from other UN bodies on human rights abuses in Burma. The Harvard report, Crimes in Burma, comes in the wake of renewed international attention on Burma, with the continued persecution of Nobel Peace Prize recipient Aung San Suu Kyi. The report concludes with a call for the UN Security Council to establish a Commission of Inquiry into crimes against humanity and war crimes in Burma.
The Harvard report is based on an analysis of scores of UN documents – including UN General Assembly and Commission on Human Rights resolutions, as well as reports from several different Special Rapporteurs. These indicate that human rights abuses in Burma are widespread, systematic, and part of state policy – legal terms that justify further investigation and strongly suggest Burma’s military regime may be committing crimes against humanity and war crimes prosecutable under international law. Major abuses cited by the United Nations include forced displacement of over 3,000 villages in eastern Burma, and widespread and systematic sexual violence, torture, and summary execution of innocent civilians.

Yet, despite such documentation from multiple UN organs, the UN Security Council has not moved to investigate potential crimes against humanity or war crimes in Burma, as it has in other areas of the world, including Darfur and Rwanda.
“Over and over again, UN resolutions and Special Rapporteurs have spoken out about the abuses that have been reported to them in Burma. The UN Security Council, however, has not moved the process forward as it should and has in similar situations such as those in the former Yugoslavia and Darfur,” the jurists write in the report’s preface. “In the cases of Yugoslavia and Darfur, once aware of the severity of the problem, the UN Security Council established a Commission of Inquiry to investigate the gravity of the violations further. With Burma, there has been no such action from the UN Security Council despite being similarly aware of the widespread and systematic nature of the violations.”
The five jurists who commissioned the report, from Africa, Asia, Europe, and North and South Africa, are Judge Richard Goldstone (South Africa), Judge Patricia Wald (United States), Judge Pedro Nikken (Venezuela), Judge Ganzorig Gombosuren (Mongolia), and Sir Geoffrey Nice (United Kingdom). Among other accomplishments, Judge Goldstone served on South Africa’s Constitutional Court and was the first prosecutor at both the International Criminal Tribunals for the Former Yugoslavia and for Rwanda. Judge Wald served as Chief Judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia and as a judge on the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. Judge Nikken served as President of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights. Judge Gombosuren served as a Supreme Court Justice in Mongolia, and Sir Nice was the deputy prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia and the principal prosecution trial attorney in the case against Slobodan Milosevic in the Hague.
Each of the five jurists has dealt directly with severe human rights abuses in the international system, and all five call for the UN Security Council to establish a Commission of Inquiry to investigate and report on crimes against humanity and war crimes in Burma.
The Harvard report specifically examines four international human rights violations documented by UN bodies over the past fifteen years: sexual violence, forced displacement, torture, and extrajudicial killings. The report focuses on UN documents since 2002, to allow examination of the most up-to-date UN material, although UN reports dating back to 1992 have consistently condemned a wide-range of violations in Burma.
Tyler Giannini, the Clinical Director of the Human Rights Program at Harvard Law School and one of the report’s authors, said its findings clearly demonstrate that a Commission of Inquiry on Burma should proceed.
“The UN Security Council has taken action regarding Yugoslavia, Rwanda, and Sudan when it identified information strongly suggesting the existence of crimes against humanity and war crimes,” said Giannini. “As our research shows, UN documents clearly and authoritatively suggest that the human rights abuses occurring in Burma are not isolated incidents – they are potential crimes against humanity and war crimes. Failure by the UN Security Council to take action and investigate these crimes could mean that violations of international criminal law will go unchecked.”
To view a copy of Crimes in Burma, click here.

California, Burma needs You! Please call your representatives to get UNSC Act on Burma

 Please read this posting online: http://www.badasf. org/2009/ dawsuu.htm

Dear All,

No news from Burma is a good news. The people's suffering in Burma has been so much for so long. It will continue to be that way unless the international community act decisively. In fact, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi is now on the verge of being punished even harsher than ever. However, amid this situation, there are anew efforts to pressure the regime more decisively --- to get UN Security Council to act:

1. A recent report by Five of the world’s leading international jurists from the International Human Rights Clinic at Harvard Law School, calls for the UN Security Council to act on Burma.
2. In his NY Time article last Wednesday, May 27 (The anniversary of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi's 1990 election victory), Paulo Sergio Pinheiro, United Nations special rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar from 2000 to 2008 also urged to end Burma's System of Impunity.
3. A group of US representatives in the Congress are circulating a letter to president Obama to seek for a Commission of Inquiry on Burma by UNSC.

Now, these representatives needs our help to get our own representatives to join in and sing onto the letter. You can help so that a good news could come out of Burma soon. So, please call your representatives to seize this important moment of opportunity and help free Burma by joining in. Burma really needs you all again and please act now!

Here are the helpful instructions on how to call the offices in California: http://salsa. democracyinactio n.org/o/1189/ t/8252/blastCont ent.jsp?email_ blast_KEY= 1141836&t=. And the general instruction can be found here: uscampaignforburma. org/callcongress.
Please also find below the relegated letter, news articles and the list of California representatives.

Online campaign gathers support for Myanmar's Suu Kyi

(CNN) -- The global drumbeat against what is widely considered the unlawful detention of Aung San Suu Kyi in Myanmar grew louder Wednesday with the launch of an online campaign to let supporters leave 64-word messages of support for her.

Aung San Suu Kyi was first detained in 1989 after mass protests against the military government.

The site, 64 for Aung San Suu Kyi (http://64forsuu.com), aims to collect as many messages as it can by June 19, when the pro-democracy advocate turns 64.
By early Thursday, nearly 3,000 messages had poured in -- from politicians, celebrities and other well-wishers.

"For too long the world has failed to act in the face of this intolerable injustice. That is now changing," British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said in his message. "We must do all we can to make this birthday the last you spend without your freedom."

Author Salman Rushdie, who shares a birthday with Suu Kyi, wrote that he "silently applauded" her endurance.

"This year, silence is impossible," he added. "It is not any action of yours, but your house arrest, which symbolizes the suppression of Burmese democracy, that is criminal. It is your trial, not your struggle, that is unjust. On this day, on every day, I am with you."

The call for Suu Kyi's release has intensified in recent days, as Myanmar tries the Nobel laureate on charges of subversion. The country's military junta, which has ruled since 1962, says she violated her house arrest when she offered temporary shelter to an American man who swam to her lakeside home.

Her supporters say the move is meant to keep her confined so she cannot participate in the general elections that the junta has scheduled for next year.

On Tuesday, U.S. President Barack Obama called for Suu Kyi's immediate and unconditional release from an "arbitrary" and "unjustified" detention.

"Aung San Suu Kyi's continued detention, isolation and show-trial based on spurious charges cast serious doubt on the Burmese regime's willingness to be a responsible member of the international community," Obama said.

Nine Nobel laureates, including Bishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa, also have called for her release, deeming her prosecution a "mockery" in a letter to U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

Detail Story: please read HERE

George Clooney and Bono join freedom petition for Aung San Suu Kyi

GEORGE CLOONEY has joined celebrities and British PM Gordon Brown in petitioning the Burmese junta to release Aung San Suu Kyi.

The "64 for Aung San Suu Kyi'' campaign wants her 64th birthday on June 19 to be the last she spends under house arrest.

But the junta rejected any move by Clooney or anyone else.
``It is not political, it is not a human rights issue. So we don't accept pressure and interference from abroad,''  Burma's deputy foreign minister Maung Myint told an ASEAN meeting in Thailand.

The campaign has been launched in Britain as Aung San Suu Kyi is on trial behind closed doors on charges of violating the conditions of her house arrest after a US man, John Yettaw, swam across a lake to her home.

It also comes as her supporters marked on Wednesday the 19th anniversary of her National League for Democracy election win which was annulled by the military regime, leading to her house arrest in 2003.

What can you do right now for Daw Aung San Suu Kyi?

Many of you have written to us in the past few days asking what you can do to support Aung San Suu Kyi while she stands trial before a special court inside Burma's notorious Insein Prison.

Aung San Suu Kyi, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991, has been imprisoned for 13 of the last 19 years.  On Monday, less than two weeks before her current term of house arrest was set to expire, Burma's military junta began trying Suu Kyi for the ridiculous "crime" of violating the conditions of her house arrest because an American intruder trespassed in her home. 

Many world leaders have expressed outraged over this show trial.  You can stay up to date on the latest breaking news and what people are saying on the News section of our website.  Also, check out this editorial published yesterday in the New York Times: Myanmar's Cowardly Generals.

On Monday, as Suu Kyi's trial began, demonstrators rallied in the US (including Washington, DC, San Francisco, Boston and New York), the UK, India, Hong Kong, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Canada, Thailand, New Zealand and many other places around the world to demand her release.  Additional demonstrations are planned thoughout the week. 

Here are some actions you can take right now to support Aung San Suu Kyi:


(Photo: Demonstrators rally outside the regime's embassy in Washington, DC on Monday)

1) Today, you received another email from USCB specifically targeted to people in your state, if you live in the US.  This email asks you to call your congressperson to ask that they sign on to a "Dear Colleague" letter to President Obama regarding a UN Security Council commission of inquiry into crimes against humanity in Burma.  Please take a few minutes to read the instructions in that email and make that crucial phone call - it is very important.
2) 493 people in 45 countries around the world have signed up to participate in "Arrest Yourself 2009" in solidarity with Aung San Suu Kyi.  They have committed to putting themselves under house arrest for 24 hours between now and Suu Kyi's 64th birthday on June 19th.  If you haven't signed up yet, be sure to do so today.  This is a simple and effective way to take action, educate others, and support the work of the U.S. Campaign for Burma.

3) There is a worldwide effort to collect 888,888 signatures on a petition to UN General Secretary Ban Ki-moon calling for the release of Aung San Suu Kyi and all political prisonsers in Burma. Over 300,000 signatures have already been collected.  If you haven't signed already, please do so today.
Aung San Suu Kyi's imprisonment is an outrage. Thank you for taking action for her freedom.  If you have already done each of these things and would still like to help, please don't hesitate to call our offices at (202) 234-8022 to speak with Mike or Jeremy about how you can use your personal skills and talents to do more for Aung San Suu Kyi and Burma.

Protest Chinese Embassy would be right thing to do now

UN Security Council Reports:
CHINA - NO HELP WHATSOEVER !!!
PROTEST CHINESE EMBASSY WOULD BE A RIGHT THING TO DO NOW !!!

http://www.security councilreport. org/site/ c.glKWLeMTIsG/ b.5165687/ k.BDF7/Update_ Report_No_ 3brMyanmarbr19_ May_2009. htm

The Council is currently negotiating a possible statement reacting to the ongoing trial of Aung San Suu Kyi.  If there is agreement on language and the type of statement (i.e. press or presidential) the Council may meet 20 May. Most members are in agreement with having a statement, although China has expressed reservations about interfering in what it considers Myanmar’s internal affairs. Japan and Russia also appear to be taking cautious positions. Reports on Myanmar can be found at www.securitycouncil report.org


6) China: Issue of Suu Kyi best left to Myanmar

http://www.breitbar t.com/article. php?id=D9897MAO1&show_article= 1

BEIJING, May 19 Kyodo - China on Tuesday said issues in Myanmar should be left to citizens of the country to decide, and expressed its hope that 'concerned parties' would engage in dialogue.

'Why Aung San Suu Kyi must be freed': Carla Bruni's letter to junta

Carla Bruni (right) says it's time Myanmar’s junta freed pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, jailed for 13 of the past 19 years. Photos / AP

France's first lady called on Burma's ruling military junta to free pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who went on trial in Rangoon today.
In an open letter entitled "Why Aung San Suu Kyi must be freed", Carla Bruni-Sarkozy said that Suu Kyi's poor health meant that her life could be at threat if she was sent to prison.
Suu Kyi is being tried on charges she violated conditions of her most recent house arrest by sheltering an American who swam to her lakeside home this month.
She had been scheduled for release from house arrest at the end of May but now faces up to five years' imprisonment.
"It's a question of simple humanity to allow a sick woman to be freed so she may get herself treated properly,"

"To imprison her, and all of the regime's opponents, is to smother any hope for democracy in Burma," said the letter.

Bruni-Sarkozy said she was speaking on behalf of those in France who "find the fate reserved for this woman intolerable. "

Why is Burma's junta afraid of Suu Kyi?

Burma's generals have another pretext for keeping Aung San Suu Kyi locked up

By Jonathan Head BBC News, Bangkok

Last year, as the world tried to persuade Burma's military rulers to allow more foreign help for the victims of Cyclone Nargis, the country's renowned opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi passed a lonely anniversary in the isolation of her lakeside home.

It was five years since she had been detained and placed under house arrest, for the third time.

And under the law - called the "Law to Safeguard the State Against the Dangers of Those Desiring to Cause Subversive Acts" - the maximum period someone could be held without trial was five years.

Even under Burma's own draconian penal code, Ms Suu Kyi should have been released.

John Yettaw swam across Inya Lake to reach Ms Suu Kyi's house

It did not happen. The government simply extended her detention for another year, arguing that the first 360 days did not count.

So there was no expectation that, as she approached her sixth year of confinement this month, she would be released.

But now the Burmese authorities have been handed another pretext for keeping her locked up.

The strange, midnight visit by an American man, John Yettaw, who swam across Inya Lake on 3 May to reach the opposition leader's dilapidated house, has resulted in Ms Suu Kyi and her two assistants being arrested and taken to Insein prison, where they will go on trial next Monday.

Everyone is very angry with this wretched American. He's a fool Kyi Win Lawyer for Aung San Suu Kyi

Like other dissidents who have been tried inside the prison walls, she will get little opportunity to defend herself, and faces a possible prison sentence of five years.

Mr Yettaw's motives for his visit are a mystery. According to Ms Suu Kyi's lawyer, Kyi Win, he tried to visit the same way last year, but was sent away. This time he apparently pleaded exhaustion after his swim, and was allowed to stay for two nights.

"Everyone is very angry with this wretched American," Kyi Win told reporters. "He's a fool."

Government critics have been quick to point out that Mr Yettaw's visit to one of the most closely guarded houses in Rangoon could surely have been prevented by the authorities.

His previous visit last year had already been reported by Ms Suu Kyi. She has now been charged with violating the terms of her house arrest. 

Please read details story HERE

Aung San Suu Kyi Lawyer's Law License Revoked, World Outcry

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People around the world are rallying behind Aung San Suu Kyi.  However, we need to do more. Burma and Aung San Suu Kyi are now the feature of one of the world's leading news stories.  It looks like the Burmese military regime will try and sentence Aung San Suu Kyi this coming Monday.

To make matters more difficult, the regime just "disbarred" one of her attorneys, effectively revoking his law license.

Yet, with your support, we and many allied organizations around the world have pressed governments to speak up and form a united call for change in Burma.   We are starting to see many activities come together to press for change:
1) There is a worldwide effort to collect 888,888 signatures on a petition to UN General Secretary Ban Ki-moon calling for the release of Aung San Suu Kyi and all political prisonsers in Burma. If you haven't signed already, please do so today.

2) On Monday, May 18th, demonstrations will be held in support of Aung San Suu Kyi around the world including in Singapore, Thailand, Spain, and the United States. Below is a list of locations in the U.S.

3) Many of you, as well as some great members of Congress, have weighed in with the Obama administration urging him to keep sanctions on Burma. Great news - yesterday President Obama announced that he will continue U.S. sanctions on Burma.

4) We now have over 460 people throughout the country signed up to "arrest themselves" in solidarity with Aung San Suu Kyi in the coming months. If you haven't signed up yet, be sure to do so today.   It is a simple yet very effective way to contribute to the movement to free Burma.

5) Leaders throughout the world, including some from Asia, are demanding the release of Aung San Suu Kyi. See a very brief list below. We are glad that Singpaore, Thailand, Indonesia, and Japan are all calling for Aung San Suu Kyi's release.  Yet, China has remained silent. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has said she will raise the issue with China. We will need to make sure she keeps her promise. As a world leader, China must to more for international justice.

6) Many countries are criticizing the arrest, but not proposing specific action. Yesterday, we started to bring some focus to next steps, calling for a global arms embargo on Burma and the creation of a commission of inquiry at the United Nations to investigate war crimes and crimes against humanity in Burma.
We are going to be calling on you for a great deal of help this coming week, so please stay tuned...
Best regards,
Jeremy Woodrum

Daw Aung San Suu Kyi insists she is innocent

Please read detail story HERE

Profile: Aung San Suu Kyi

Burma's jailed pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi has insisted she is not guilty of violating the terms of her house arrest, her lawyer said.

He said Ms Suu Kyi was being held in a "guest room" at the top security Insein jail in Rangoon, but seemed physically well and was "mentally strong".
Western governments were quick to condemn the new charges against Ms Suu Kyi and call for her immediate release.
She faces trial on Monday over an apparently uninvited visit by a US man.
"Suu Kyi said that she believes that she will be found 'not guilty' over her connection with the American intruder," her lawyer Kyi Win told the Thailand-based independent Burmese publication, Irrawaddy.
Reports say Ms Suu Kyi was charged under the country's Law Safeguarding the State from the Dangers of Subversive Elements.
The charges carry a maximum jail term of five years, which would stretch her detention past its supposed expiry date on 27 May and beyond the 2010 elections.
World leaders and human rights groups have denounced the move as a pretext for Burma's military regime to silence its chief opponent ahead of next year's election.
'Uninvited guest'
The charges follow an incident in which an American man swam across a lake to her home and stayed there secretly for two days. His motives remain unclear.

Profile: Aung San Suu Kyi 'intruder' Inside Burma's Insein prison Send us your comments

Ms Suu Kyi's lawyer said the American, John Yettaw, had not been invited and that she had tried to send him away.
He is expected to be tried on immigration and security offences, although the charges are yet to be confirmed by the government.
The Burmese authorities have described the American as a 53-year-old Vietnam war veteran and resident of the state of Missouri.
Ms Suu Kyi was detained after her party's victory in a general election in 1990 and has been under house arrest for much of the past 19 years.

Join Sunday Candlelight Vigil and Metta Chanting for Daw Aung San Suu Kyi (Sunday, Fremont, 6-7 pm)

For Daw Aung San Suu Kyi's Safety and Freedom
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What: Candlelight Vigil and Metta Chanting for Daw Aung San Suu Kyi's safety and freedom (Sunday, Fremont, 6-7 pm)
Where: Metta Nanda Vihara (Central),  4619 Central Ave. Fremont, Ca 94536
When: 6pm - 7pm

Also join this in the Sunday Morning:
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May 17, Sunday: Awareness action at Annual San Francisco Bay to Breaker Run to the 60 K participants. (http://www.baytobre akers.com/).  9:00 am -- 11 am at the the Golden Gate  Park entrance at the corner Stanan and Fell/Oak, San Francisco. Bring Free Daw Aung San Suu Kyi Sign.

And this one on Monday:
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May 18, Monday, Free Daw Aung San Suu Kyi Protest : Place: United Nations Plaza, Civic Center, San Francisco. Market St @ 7th St; Time: 11:30 A.M. to 1:30 P.M. Date: Monday, May 18, 2009.

Stop the Burma's Regine Now!

Stop the Burma's regime now!

Daw Aung San Suu Kyi has been arrested and is facing military trial; She has been moved to Insein Prison!

The trial of the Nobel Peace laureate is scheduled to start Monday at a special court at Yangon's notorious Insein Prison, where she was arraigned and then held Thursday.

The charge against her carries a sentence of up to five years and raises the possibility that Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, 63, who has been reported to be in fragile health, will face lengthy incarceration under much harsher conditions at Insein, where more then a hundred political prisoners has died while in custody. The international community must stop the regime from continued and ongoing destruction of people’s beloved leader and democracy icon of Burma. Read More Here

Here is what you can do to help (more actions to be added at www.badasf.org):

1. Join This Saturday (May 16) Action: Join us/help us this Saturday and sign petitions in person, get Daw Aung San Suu Kyi's buttons, posters and materials, and flyers for upcoming actions at Asian Heritage Street Celebration - May 16th 11am-6pm; Booth Number: D18; Location: Larkin between McAllister and Golden Gate, San Francisco.

2. Join protest at the Chevron Share Holders Meeting on WED, MAY 27, 2009, 7am to 10:30am Click Here

3. Sign petition to UNSG: To: UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon: The military government must immediately and unconditionally release all political prisoners including Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, Khun Tun Oo and Min Ko Naing.The release of all political prisoners is the first and most important step towards freedom and democracy in Burma. We, the undersigned, call upon UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to make it his personal priority to secure the release of all of Burma's political prisoners by the SPDC. Sign Here  

4. Sign Petition to UN and ASEAN: I call on the UN and ASEAN to take immediate action to secure the release of Aung San Suu Kyi, after she was detained in custody in Burma’s notorious Insein Jail.

Messages of concern from ASEAN and the UN have, in the past, been routinely ignored and defied by the Burmese regime. Words are not enough. The reputation of the UN and ASEAN is now at stake, I urge you to take firm action by sending an envoy immediately to deliver a strong message to the Burmese regime calling for the immediate release of Aung San Suu Kyi and all Burma’s political prisoners.Read more and sign Here

Urgent action at the SF Golden Gate Park for Daw ASSK

Here is what you can do to help free Daw Aung San Suu Kyi! For more information or to download flyers, please visit www.badasf.org.

1. May 17, Sunday: Awareness action at Annual San Francisco Bay to Breaker Run to the 60 K participants. (http://www.baytobre akers.com/). 9:00 am -- 10:30 am at the the Golden Gate Park entrance at the corner Stanan and Fell/Oak, San Francisco. Bring Free Daw Aung San Suu Kyi Signs/posters. Ware Daw Aung San Suu Kyi T Shirts.


2. May 18, Monday, Free Daw Aung San Suu Kyi Protest : Place: United Nations Plaza, Civic Center, San Francisco. Market St @ 7th St; Time: 11:30 A.M. to 1:30 P.M. Date: Monday, May 18, 2009. Flyer

3. May 24. Commemoration of the 19th Anniversary of 1990 Election Victory, Date : May 24th, 2009 (Sunday)
Time : 2:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m; Place : Jefferson Union High School, 699 Serramonte Blvd, Daly City, CA 94015 Flyer

4. May 27, protest at the Chevron Share Holders Meeting on WED, MAY 27, 2009, 7am to 10:30am More info Flyer

5. June 20, A Celebration of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s Birthday & Burma’s Women’s Day
DATE: Saturday, June20, 2009; TIME: 10 AM to 2:00 PM; LOCATION: Metta Nanda Vihara (Central)
4619 Central Ave. Fremont, Ca 94536

President OBAMA renewed US sanctions against Burma

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama on Friday renewed U.S. sanctions against Myanmar's military government, saying its actions and policies continued to pose a serious threat to U.S. interests.

Obama informed Congress of his decision the same day the United States joined other Western critics in denouncing Myanmar's rulers for pressing what they called "trumped-up" new charges against detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said in February the Obama administration was reviewing its policy toward Myanmar and looking at new ways to sway its entrenched military junta.
Washington has gradually tightened sanctions on the generals who have ruled the former Burma for more than four decades to try to force them into political rapprochement with Nobel laureate Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy.

The opposition won a 1990 election landslide only to be denied power, and Suu Kyi has been in prison or under house arrest for more than half of the last two decades.

The United States, Britain, the European Union, the United Nations and human rights groups condemned the trial that Suu Kyi faces from Monday on charges she broke the terms of her house arrest after an American intruder stayed in her home.

"The crisis between the United States and Burma ... has not been resolved," Obama said, citing sanctions first imposed by the United States in 1997 and ratcheted up several times in response to repression of democracy activists.

"These actions and policies are hostile to U.S. interests," Obama said. "For this reason, I have determined that it is necessary to ... maintain in force the sanctions against Burma to respond to this threat."

Western governments have condemned the new charges brought against Burma's pro-democracy opposition leader

Detailed Story, please read HERE

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton demanded her immediate release, saying she was "deeply troubled" by the "baseless" charges against her.

Other world leaders have also expressed concern over Ms Suu Kyi's detention.
She faces trial on Monday for breaching the terms of her house arrest after an apparently uninvited visit by a US man.

'Tenuous pretext'

"We call on the Burmese authorities to release her immediately and unconditionally along with her doctor and the more than 2,100 political prisoners currently being held," Mrs Clinton said.

Profile: Aung San Suu Kyi Aung San Suu Kyi: A life in pictures Inside Burma's Insein prison

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon expressed "grave concern", and called on the Burmese government not to undermine Burma's national reconciliation process, his spokeswoman said.
Ms Su Kyi's party, the National League for Democracy (NLD), which won a landslide election victory in 1990 only to be denied power by the military, "strongly condemned" the charges, which come two weeks before her latest detention was due to expire.
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown earlier said he was "deeply disturbed" by the charges and he accused the Burmese military government of seeking "any pretext, no matter how tenuous" to extend the detention.

The EU special envoy to Burma, Piero Fassino, said there was "no justification" for the detention.

Thailand's prime minister also expressed concern on behalf of the Association of South East Asian Nations (Asean), one of the few groups that allow Burma as a member.

"We would like to see positive steps being taken," Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva told Reuters, adding that the group was "concerned" by the recent events.

Burma's Suu Kyi taken to prison

Please read a detailed story HERE
 

Ms Suu Kyi is reportedly suffering from low blood pressure and dehydration

Burmese pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi is to face trial for breaching the conditions of her detention under house arrest, her lawyers have said.

Ms Suu Kyi will stand trial on 18 May, lawyer Hla Myo Myint told reporters.
She was taken to a prison from her home in Rangoon, where she has spent most of the past 19 years, to hear the charges.
A US man whose apparently uninvited visit to her home led to the charges, will also be tried on immigration and security offences, the lawyer added.

Profile: Aung San Suu Kyi Inside Burma's Insein jail Aung San Suu Kyi: A life in pictures

The American man, John Yettaw, was arrested after swimming across a lake to her house and staying there secretly for two days.
The charges are yet to be confirmed by the government.
But it looks as though this is a pretext to keep her detained until elections due in 2010 which the generals think will give them some legitimacy, says BBC South-East Asia correspondent Jonathan Head.
Another of her lawyers said they would contest the charge.
"The charge is going to be violating the conditions of her house arrest and what her lawyer is going to argue is that of course that's ridiculous because, yes under the terms of her arrest she cannot invite people to visit her but she of course did not invite this person to visit her," Jared Genser told the BBC.

Burmese Democracy Advocate Faces Military Trial

BANGKOK — Myanmar’s pro-democracy leader, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, was charged Thursday with violating the terms of her house arrest in a move that could tighten the grip of the military junta over its chief opponent in advance of an election next year.

U.S. Man Held After Swim to Burmese Nobel Peace Laureate’s Home (May 8, 2009)

Her arrest grew out of a bizarre event in which an American man was reported to have swum across a lake and spent at least one night on the grounds of her home, where she has been confined for 13 of the past 19 years.

She was being held in Insein Prison near Myanmar’s main city, Yangon, pending her trial, which is on the docket for Monday but may not begin immediately, her lawyer said.

The motives of the man, identified as John Yettaw, 53, were unclear. But a lawyer for Mrs. Aung San Suu Kyi said the man told her he was a Mormon and prayed extensively while he was in her house. The lawyer, U Kyi Win, described Mr. Yettaw as “a nutty fellow.”

Her arrest came two weeks before the statutory expiration of Mrs. Aung San Suu Kyi’s most recent six-year detention and many analysts saw it as a legal ploy to allow the junta to extend her confinement.

The charge against her carries a sentence of up to five years and raises the possibility that Mrs. Aung San Suu Kyi, 63, who has been reported to be in fragile health, would be face lengthy incarceration at under much harsher conditions at Insein, where hundreds of other political prisoners are believed to be held.

“To me it is ridiculously obvious that they are trying to put her away from any involvement in the upcoming election,” said Soe Aung, who represents the Bangkok-based Forum for Democracy in Burma, a coalition of exile groups from Myanmar, formerly Burma.

“She is being charged with not behaving as a good detainee,” he said.

Her arrest came as Western nations including the United States were reviewing a confrontational policy of economic sanctions and political exclusion toward the junta, which has jailed its opponents, crushed pro-democracy uprisings and clung to power through force for the past two decades.

Chevron get out of Burma & Stop fueling brutal dictatorship immediately! !

GET OUT OF BURMA,
CLEAN UP YOUR ACT, NOT YOUR IMAGE!
DEMAND AN END TO CHEVRON’S HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSES, WAR PROFITEERING, CLIMATE CHAOS, & TOXIC POLLUTION!

WED, MAY 27, 7am to 10:30am
Demonstration and Subvertisement Theater
Chevron Corporate Headquarters
6001 Bollinger Canyon Road, San Ramon, CA

Please make signs: Chevron Out of Burma; Chevron: Burmese Blood on your hand; Chevron Prospers, Burmese Suffer; Chevron Pipe line = Burma Dictator's Life Line;   Chevron: Your wealth is our Blood; Chevron Gains, Burma's Pain

WHY: Chevron Corp. of San Ramon (formerly Unocal), a California oil corporation, is involved in a joint-venture with Burma’s brutal and repressive military regime. The military maintains its stranglehold on Burma’s people with weapons bought with foreign currency gained from natural gas sale to Thailand through Chevron's pipeline, the regime's lifeline. While the electricity is scarce in Burma, the regime pockets hundreds of millions annually. As the world has witnessed repeatedly in recent years, soldiers and military thugs have been crushing the pro-democracy protests. Many activists and monks have been disrobed, beaten, humiliated, tortured, and killed. Daw Aung San Suu Kyi is still under house arrest and 2,000 pro democracy monks and activists are being held in inhumane conditions in Burmese prisons.

To stop the military dictatorship in Burma, we must stop the Chevron involvement in Burma. 
GETTING THERE:

PUBLIC TRANSIT: TAKE BART to Walnut Creek BART:
We will provide shuttles from Walnut Creek BART to the demonstration.
Or you can take a ½ hour ride on County Connection shuttle to San Ramon Transit Center(95X or 96X commute express on the half hours till 9:15am, see cccta.org).

BIKE or it’s a flat 12-mile bike ride from Walnut Creek BART (Check Bart bike hours/rules) .

SF: Meet @ 6am; Safeway parking lot, Church and Markets Sts.
EAST BAY: Meet @ MacArthur BART @ 6:15am

DRIVING DIRECTIONS:

A quick 25 miles E. of Oakland.
Take 580 to Hwy 24 E. to I-680 S
to exit #34/BOLLINGER CANYON ROAD.
Left over Hwy. 1st left on Sunset Dr. into Shopping Center. Park. Walk back to Chevron entrance across Bollinger.

Email Your Congressman Today - Call for a Commission of Inquiry for Burma

It is time for the international community to take the next step in pursuing peace, freedom, and human rights in Burma.

Email your member of the House of Representatives TODAY and ask him or her to sign on to a "dear colleague" letter to President Obama that urges the President to support a U.N. Security Council commission of inquiry into crimes against humanity being committed in Burma.

This commission of inquiry would be the first step in securing a referral of Burma to the International Criminal Court. Since U.S. Campaign for Burma's founding, we have reported on the junta's use of rape as a weapon of war, forced labor, and torture, as well as its destruction of over 3,300 ethnic minority villages. These actions are not only morally reprehensible, they are crimes against humanity and war crimes, illegal under international law. 

The International Criminal Court seeks to bring to justice perpetrators who commit such crimes, such as Burma's Senior General Than Shwe. It is time for the court to investigate the case of Burma's war crimes and end the impunity for the military regime.

Last week, 60 members of the British Parliament signed a letter that "urges [the U.K.], along with other governments, to propose the establishment of a commission of inquiry to investigate allegations of crimes against humanity and war crimes in Burma...."

A similar letter is being circulated in the U.S. House of Representatives now and we are calling on you to email your member of the House of Representives and ask him or her to sign on to this letter to President Obama. The letter is being circulated by Congressman Crowley (D) and Congressman Mazullo (R). Constituent pressure is often what compels Congressmen and Congresswomen to sign on to letters such as this. Your voice is powerful. Tell your representative that Burma is important to you and that you believe a commission of inquiry is absolutely necessary.

Click here to email your representative today.

You can find out more about crimes against humanity in Burma and the International Criminal Court here. A copy of the letter that is currently circulating in the House can be found here.

Thank you for taking action on behalf of the people of Burma.

Sincerely,

Michael Haack
Campaigns Coordinator
U.S. Campaign for Burma

U.S. Man Held After Swim to Burmese Nobel Peace Laureate’s Home

Published: May 7, 2009

HONG KONG — An American man has been arrested for swimming across a lake to sneak into the home of the Nobel Peace Prize laureate Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, a U.S. diplomat said Thursday from Yangon.

Mrs. Aung San Suu Kyi, the opposition leader who has been under house arrest for 13 of the past 19 years, is rarely allowed visitors by Myanmar’s ruling military junta. The street to her lakeside home in the University section of Yangon, the commercial capital formerly known as Rangoon, is blocked by police barricades and checkpoints.

The state-run Myanma Ahlin newspaper said the man reportedly confessed to swimming across Inya Lake on Sunday evening. He was arrested early Wednesday as he was swimming back.
It was not known for certain if the man had actually gotten into Mrs. Aung San Suu Kyi’s house — one of several buildings in her residential compound — or if he had contacted her.
The newspaper identified the man as John William Yeattaw and said the authorities had confiscated an American passport, a black backpack, a pair of pliers, a camera and two $100 bills.
There were no immediately verifiable details about the man’s identity or his purpose, but the American diplomat, Richard Mei, confirmed Thursday evening that the man had been arrested and that American consular officials were trying to see him.

Foreign visitors, even senior diplomats, are not given permission to visit Mrs. Aung San Suu Kyi at home. In February, she was allowed to leave her residence to meet briefly with Ibrahim Gambari, the United Nations special envoy to Myanmar, at a government guest house.

Her current term of house arrest began in May 2003 after her motorcade, traveling near the northern town of Depayin, was attacked by a mob -- with dozens of reported fatalities -- in what some analysts believe was an assassination attempt. Her detention is due to end later this month, although annual extensions of her house arrest have become routine.

Mrs. Aung San Suu Kyi, 63, was first detained in 1989. She won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991.

Burma tops list of worst places to be a blogger

 Please read the detail story HERE

Report: bloggers in Burma, Iran and Syria work under most oppressive conditions The Committee to Protect Journalists lists the 10 worst places to blog from Group: Burmese blogger serves 59-years in prison for posting cyclone video In Saudi Arabia an estimated 400,000 sites are blocked, report says
 
(CNN) -- Bloggers in Burma, Iran and Syria work under some of the most repressive conditions in the world, facing tactics such as regulation, intimidation and even imprisonment, according to a report from the Committee to Protect Journalists.

Burma, where students sit at an Internet cafe, tops a list of the worst places to be a blogger.

The organization released a list of the "10 worst countries to be a blogger" to call attention to online oppression in connection with World Press Freedom Day, which was observed Sunday.
"Bloggers are at the vanguard of the information revolution, and their numbers are expanding rapidly," the group's executive director, Joel Simon, said in a report posted on the organization' s Web site. "But governments are quickly learning how to turn technology against bloggers by censoring and filtering the Internet, restricting online access and mining personal data.
"When all else fails, the authorities simply jail a few bloggers to intimidate the rest of the online community into silence or self-censorship. "
Burma -- also known as Myanmar -- is the worst place in the world to be a blogger, Simon's organization says. A military government restricts Web access and throws people into jail for posting critical material.

Homeless, in debt: Myanmar cyclone survivors struggle

Detail Story: please read HERE

(CNN) -- Debt problems and lack of credit. A housing crisis and a funding shortfall. These are not the problems of the Western world in the face of the global economic downturn, but some of the lingering challenges in Myanmar one year after devastating Cyclone Nargis hit the country, aid groups said.

Farmers sift grain during the rice harvest on April 27 in the Irrawady delta village of Ma Lot Myit Than.

more photos »

The cyclone, which hit Myanmar's Irrawaddy Delta on May 2 and 3 last year, killed 140,000 people, severely affected 2.4 million people and left 800,000 displaced, aid agencies said.
"Cyclone Nargis caused a level of destruction similar to the worst-hit areas of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami," said Claire Light, Oxfam's country director in Myanmar. "The 2.4 million people affected will continue to feel its impact unless aid keeps flowing for the next three years."
The storm also flooded farmland, caused the widespread deaths of farm animals, destroyed farming and fishing equipment, and damaged fish and shrimp ponds.
Farmers in the delta, a water-streaked piece of land that juts into the Bay of Bengal, follow a seasonal cycle of borrowing and repayment as they plant and harvest their crops.
When the cyclone struck, it immediately reduced the availability of affordable credit, Oxfam said.
"One of the many impacts of Cyclone Nargis was that it destroyed almost an entire harvest that farmers and fishermen had already borrowed against before the cyclone hit," said Light.

1st Year Anniversary Memorial Service Victims of Cyclone Nargis

You are invited to attend the memorial service for victims of Cyclone Nargis which hit Burma on May 2, 2008, causing at least 146,000 fatalities with thousands more people still missing.

Date:             May 2, 2009 (Saturday)
Time:            4 P.M
Where:         Burma Buddhist Monastery, 710 Grandview Lane, La Puente, CA 91744