Burma’s Political Prisoner Petition

A major international petition was launched today, Burma’s human rights day, by Free Burma’s Political Prisoners Now! and the Forum for Democracy in Burma . The petition aims to get 888,888 signatures by the 24th of May, the day of Aung San Suu Kyi’s legal release.

The campaign is asking Ban Ki-moon to make freeing Burma’s political prisoners a personal priority and to raise the profile of the plight of the over 2,100 people behind bars for expressing themselves.

Protesting detention of prsioners of conscience

Amongst those in jail is Min Thein Tun, sentenced this week to 17 years in jail, his ‘crime’ was co ordinating releif for Nargis victims. Perhaps the most vindictive convictions are those who are jailed for helping people in the face of a massive disaster.

The regime panicked that they might lose control of some of their power if they were not involved with every releif effort and so anybody involved in relief, not working for the government was immediately faced with persecution. With such an attitude needless to say there was little in the way of adequate support for Nargis victims from the government. Foreign aid is autmoatically funnelled towards state centred projects preventing equitable distribution and making it liable to the rampant corruption of the regime.