Aung San Suu Kyi Freed!
13 Nov 2010 Leave a Comment
in Amnesty International, Aung San Suu Kyi, Burma, Human Rights
I received the good news at 6:43 am this morning via text message: Aung San Suu Kyi is finally free in Burma! Even though it was really early on a Saturday, I was happy to get the news. Aung San Suu Kyi has been under house arrest in Burma (or Myanmar, as it’s officially known) for the past 7 and a half years, and has spent more than 15 of the past 21 years under house arrest. She has been adopted as a Prisoner of Conscience by Amnesty International and won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991.
Free Aung San Suu Kyi Rally In San Francisco
Amnesty International members and our allies have been working for her release and we’ve written many letters, circulated many petitions and held many rallies and events over the years, including the one above as part of AIUSA’s Western Regional Conference in San Francisco last week.
Our work is not done, however. Burma (or Myanmar, as we are to refer to it as Amnesty International members) still has over 2,200 political prisoners, many of them also prisoners of conscience, in prison solely for exercising their right to peacefully protest. Take action with this link to call for the freedom of Myanmar’s prisoners of conscience!
Another Busy June with AI in Seattle
27 Jun 2010 Leave a Comment
in Amnesty International, Aung San Suu Kyi, Burma, China, Human Rights, Seattle, Shi Tao Tags: Easy Street Records, Fremont Fair, Joe Cocker, Kerry Park, Lakeside School, Neptune Coffee, Pearl Jam, Radio Static, Solstice Parade, Sting, Tom Petty
June has always been a busy month for our Amnesty International group, and we went into it with a busy May, some of which I’ve already posted. . . and. . . I didn’t even make it to everything.
Untitled by AmnestyWA Justice, on Flickr
It was a nice, if overcast, day on May 22, the Saturday we took group and individual photos at Kerry Park in support of AI Prisoner of Conscience Aung San Suu Kyi of Burma (or Myanmar, as the current military rulers call it). Aung San Suu Kyi has been under unofficial detention, house arrest and/or with restrictions on her movements for 14 of the last 20 years. In 1990, her party, the National League for Democracy, won 80% of the parliamentary seats in a general election, and the military leadership refused to cede power and instead jailed NLD party leaders and activists.
Read more about Aung San Suu Kyi at: http://www.amnestyusa.org/individuals-at-risk/priority-cases/myanmar-aung-san-suu-kyi/page.do?id=1101239
The photos were part of the Stand with Suu Kyi! action by Amnesty International, to gather at least 2,100 photos in support of Aung San Suu Kyi and human rights in Burma/Myanmar, representing the 2,100 political prisoners detained in Burma.
Learn how you can take part here: http://www.amnestyusa.org/individuals-at-risk/priority-cases/stand-with-suu-kyi/page.do?id=1691013
Photos are online at: http://www.flickr.com/groups/standwithsuukyi
Then Lakeside School‘s Amnesty International club hosted a Freedom of Speech Night at the Neptune Coffee House the next weekend, in the middle of Memorial Day weekend and Folklife (more on that music soon). They focused on Prisoner of Conscience cases including Aung San Suu Kyi and Shi Tao, a Chinese journalist/blogger in prison for sending an e-mail to the US about the Chinese government’s orders to play down the anniversary 1989 Tiananman Square Massacre (after Yahoo! gave up his name).
Their entertainment included a rock group called Radio Static, who played great music of their own, and covers including Springsteen‘s Radio Nowhere:
They also had an impressive poet, who started out by reading Shi Tao’s poem June in Chinese, then proceeded to mesmerize the audience and a guy who was standing outside waiting for a bus who came on in with his own poems:
More information on Shi Tao at: http://www.amnestyusa.org/individuals-at-risk/priority-cases/china-shi-tao/page.do?id=1101243
Radio Static has music on their MySpace page at: http://www.myspace.com/radiostaticband
I missed our Tiananmen Square memorial this year, on June 3, as it was in the afternoon at UW and I got there too late. Our Amnesty International group took part in a Capitol Hill garage sale that weekend. I just came and bought a t-shirt. Thanks to everyone who did all the work! We also tabled a Sting concert that weekend at the White River Amphitheatre, and then Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers at the Gorge the next weekend (carpooling it to both, as I don’t drive). Those are a lot of fun, and we do get to talk to new people about AI, even if it can get frustrating trying to get signatures for our petitions at times (and challenging, literally doing it by candlelight before finally breaking down for the evening and catching the rest of the show).
I’m not going to go too much into the Sting and Tom Petty concerts since I’m so far behind, and I figure everyone knows who they are and what they sound like (and Joe Cocker, who opened for Tom Petty – at least for those of my generation). Although, I’d like to get around to a review of Ton’s latest, Mojo, at a later point, as he and the Heartbreakers going to their blues roots on this one.
Sting was playing with a full orchestra, the Royal Philharmonic, for this tour (with no opening act, and an intermission). He was really impressive with the orchestra and the woman singing with him, and having so much fun with it (including howling at the moon at one point, and 4 encores!). Sting’s audience was a little more aware of who Amnesty International was from the benefits he played for AI back in the 80s & 90s. I also noticed quite a few people with Russian accents, and thought about his song The Russians (which he played that night) and the power of music in reaching people.
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers were awesome and still rocking out with no signs of slowing down, and it was great hearing Joe Cocker with all those classics from the 60s. Good thing we had a full crew for the table, because there was always one of us who just had to catch one of Joe’s or Tom’s songs, until it finally got too dark and we packed up to watch the show. Tom’s is a mixed crowd politically. There were a lot of peace t-shirts along with folks who are more to the right. It was frustrating, because even most of them walked right by the table.
I think AI needs to do a better job of reaching people, so they at least know who we are and what we stand for in the US. It’s my impression that more people are aware in Europe. I think more people should be stopping by (and I don’t count out reaching people with more conservative views – human rights shouldn’t be political).
The Gorge itself was absolutely beautiful, as promised. I’ve got to find some way of getting there the next time Pearl Jam plays! There are times it’s real frustrating not being able to afford a car. . .
More photos of the Gorge and our drive there at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/javacolleen/sets/72157624142632977/
Coming up solstice, the next weekend, our Amnesty International group had our booth at the Fremont Fair, as we always do. It was a rainy, dreary weekend this year (though fortunately it held off a bit for the Solstice Parade, and those bicyclists wearing only paint beforehand. . .).
In addition to our usual petitions, t-shirts, buttons & literature; this year we raffled off a copy of the Pearl Jam vs Ames Bros concert poster book and a new, silver, iPod Shuffle. We were off the main track this year, near the Rocket; our new t-shirts didn’t get done because of a death in the screen printer’s family; and it was rainy and cold much of the time. We still collected a lot of signatures and it sounds like we broke even; which is good because our main reason for being there is outreach. Let’s just say the raffle winners got a good deal and great odds, and that fortunately both items were previously won at other events by Group 4 members, then donated (the Pearl Jam book, by me, at the Backspacer Bash at Easy Street Records back in October).
Photos from the Fremont Fair, and especially the Solstice Parade (but not the bicyclists – in keeping with community standards) at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/javacolleen/sets/72157624313617514/
Then last Tuesday, we had a vigil and solidarity event for Troy Davis, who is on death row in Georgia. Troy’s evidentiary trial (ordered by the Supreme Court) started Wednesday. We are still awaiting the outcome, and I’m going to hold off blogging until then to do it more justice. I need to find some way to keep caught up.
Learn more about Troy’s case at: http://www.amnestyusa.org/troy
June isn’t totally over yet, either, and I’ll be tabling the Steve Earle concert at Zoo Tunes for Amnesty International on Wednesday night (& hopefully blogging about it sooner than a month or so later. . . )
Seattle Human Rights Day & AI Write-a-Thon
14 Dec 2009 1 Comment
in Amnesty International, Aung San Suu Kyi, Bhopal, Burma, Homeless, Human Rights, India, Seattle, Women's Rights Tags: ACLU, Adrien Wing, Alisher Karamotov, Azam Farmonov, Birtukan Mideksa, China, Comunidad a Comunidad, Ethiopia, Human Rights Day, Joe Martin, Legal Voice, Ma Khin Khin Leh, Nepal, Pride Foundation, Rita Mahato, Shi Tao, United Nations, Uzbekistan, Victrola Coffee House, write-a-thon
I celebrated Human Rights Day twice this year. Only twice. Down from the 4 events, out of 5 possible, last year, which was the 60th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Sarvenaz & Aisha table for AI
Our Amnesty International group co-sponsored the Seattle Human Rights Day on December 10 this year, so we got a table before and after the event and collected a lot of signatures and new members for our listserv.
First there was a brief presentation by Students for Bhopal on the recent 25th Anniversary of the Union Carbide leak and the ongoing environmental disaster urging us to take action. The Hush Baby video below was shown, with the warning that it is graphic and disturbing (because of the birth defects still being suffered by the children of Bhopal).
For more information see the International Campaign for Justice in Bhopal:
Communidad a Coumunidad accepts the UN Award
Human Rights awards were then given by both the city and Seattle Chapter of the UN Association. Awardees included Suk Lin Zhou, a young woman who helped for an ACLU chapter at her school; Pride Foundation; Comunidad a Comunidad, a Bellingham grass roots, women-led organization working with farm workers on food justice issues (and winner of the UN award); Joe Martin, advocate for the homeless; and Legal Voice, which helps protect women’s legal rights.
Joe Martin accepts an award from the city
Joe Martin accepted the award on behalf of his fellow rabble-rousers who advocate for the homeless. Joe said that especially struck me as both true and sad was that a book written during the 60’s “war on poverty” didn’t say much on homelessness, because in spite of so much bitter poverty, there weren’t many homeless yet back then. We’ve went backwards, in some respects. I’ve noticed the increase just in the time since my family first lived in Portland, a city large enough to have a homeless problem, in 1978, and especially with teenagers, who I don’t remember seeing many of on the streets back then.
Professor Adrien Wing – Keynote Speaker
Professor Adrien Wing from the University of Iowa was our keynote speaker. She talked about human rights and Muslim women, including the banning of head scarfs in schools in France as well as being forced to cover in some countries in the Muslim world. She talked about various layers of oppression and privilege, such as the freedom of travel to other countries with a US passport when their residents can’t travel freely here. Also the fluid nature of race and perceived race as a social construct depending on where you travel. Micro-credits for women are a positive development, and help raise all of society. Dr. Wing contrasted the hundreds spent on micro-credits vs the billions to be spent and to be spent on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
We tabled for a while after the program as well, also checking out the tables and exchanging information with the other event co-sponsors and honorees.
Casey and Sofia write for freedom
Then on Saturday, December 12, our local AI group took part in Amnesty International’s Global Write-a-Thon, holding our event at the Victrola Coffee House on 15th in the Capitol Hill neighborhood.
Sofia from our group arranged everything with the coffee house, and we had a section in the back of the cafe with our actions and writing material laid out. Some of us found room at the tables back there, and others disbursed to other tables throughout the cafe, writing letters for up to 2 hours.
Rita Mahato
Some of our cases were well known to long time group members, such as Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi of Myanmar (Burma) and journalist Shi Tao of China. Others were less well known, such as Birtukan Mideksa, a member of the opposition party who disputed the elections in Ethiopia; Alisher Karamatov and Azam Farmonov, human rights defenders of farmers in Uzbekistan; and Rita Mahato, who is receiving death and rape threats for her work helping women in Nepal against acts of violence.
Most of the people we wrote on behalf of are prisoners of conscience, in prison solely for their beliefs; while others, like Rita Mahato, face threats in their work as human rights defenders which their government and local authorities do not take seriously and will not defend them from. Like all of AI’s ongoing letters, faxes and e-mails, Amnesty International sections from around the world take part in our annual write-a-thon, in the weeks around Human Rights Day.
People world wide writing letters for the freedom and safety of prisoners of conscience is the very idea that Amnesty International was founded on, and still at the very core of how we work, even though cases, issues and the methods we use (including on line actions) have expanded. The basic, seemingly crazy, idea; that hundreds of politely worded letters from around the world asking those in power to free those unjustly held would actually bring about their freedom. Yet, in so many cases, it does!
Ma Khin Khin Leh -freed prisoner of conscience
Among those freed from last year’s global write-a-thon is Ma Khin Khin Leh, a school teacher in Myanmar (Burma), freed from 10 years of a life in prison sentence on February 21, 2009. She was arrested for allegedly planning a demonstration to protest the deteriorating economic and human rights situation in Myanmar. Ma Khin Khin Leh was reunited with her daughter, who was 3 at the time of her arrest.
All those letters and online actions, e-mails, and faxes do make a difference!
Free Aung San Suu Kyi!
18 May 2009 Leave a Comment
in Amnesty International, Aung San Suu Kyi, Burma, Human Rights
Aung San Suu Kyi, leader of Burma’s opposition party faces trial today, accused of breaking the terms of her house arrest (which has went on 13 of the last 19 years) because an American man, John Yettaw, swam to her house uninvited and refused to leave her house.
The nature of Aung San Suu Kyi’s crime? According to the Brisbane Times:
The police report says Ms Suu Kyi and her two maids offered the US national John Yettaw food and drink after he swam to her house and then stayed there between May 3 and 5. It says Mr Yettaw also made a visit last November when Mr Yettaw left a copy of the Book of Mormon at her house for her to read, it said.
According to Amnesty International:
On May 14, 2009, Aung San Suu Kyi and two of her assistants, Khin Khin Win and Khin Khin Win’s daughter, were taken from Daw Suu Kyi’s home to Insein Prison. Insein Prison is known to be a harsh facility with substandard conditions of detention including poor food and poor medical care. Reliable reports beginning in early May confirm that while still confined in her Yangon home Aung San Suu Kyi had been suffering from dehydration, low blood pressure and weight loss. Her medical condition makes her transfer to Insein Prison at this time doubly serious.
Today is a Global Day of Action for Aung San Suu Kyi. Campaigning for Human Rights and Democracy in Burma reports that “demonstrations will take place in more than 20 cities, including London, Bangkok, Sydney, San Francisco, Pretoria, Perth, Ottawa, Tokyo, Melbourne, Canberra, Taipei, Toronto, Indiana, Barcelona, Paris, Stockholm, Barcelona, Boston, Cadiz, Sevilla, Washington DC, and Kuala Lumpur.”
They have an online action calling for the UN and ASEAN to take immediate action to secure the release of Aung San Suu Kyiat:
http://www.burmacampaign.org.uk/ASSK_action.html
Amnesty International has an online action to Burmese officials as well, with a link on the Burmese country page:
http://www.amnestyusa.org/all-countries/myanmar-burma/page.do?id=1011205
Why is the Burmese government so afraid of Aung San Suu Kyi?
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