Locals back Burma cause

More than 100 demonstrators gathered beneath the Charles Bridge June 18 to raise awareness of Burmese dissident and Nobel Peace Prize holder Aung San Suu Kyi's ongoing imprisonment on the occasion of her 64th birthday.

Participants, dressed in white T-shirts, gathered to form the word "free" with their bodies, holding up a picture of the political prisoner.

The event was organized by the Burma Center Prague and local human rights NGO People in Need (Clověk v tísni). "The main goal of the event is to support the public and the opposition in Burma in their fight for democracy and freedom, to let the people in Burma know that we, who live in freedom now, are still fighting for them," said Marie Zahradníková, coordinator of People in Need's Burma committee.

Politicians at the scene included Senator Jaromír Štětina, member of the European Parliament's Burma committee, as well as Green Party MP Kateřina Jacques and Civic Democrats Petr Bratský and Tomáš Dub.

"Even symbolic gatherings such as this one can have quite the power. Dissidents under the former Czech regime can confirm this," Jacques said. "Around the world, dissidents tell us how important such demonstrations of solidarity are for them."

Suu Kyi, leader of the National League for Democracy in Burma, was elected prime minister in the 1990 Burmese general election. However, an oppressive military junta seized power soon after, and she was denied her term.  

Suu Kyi has been in and out of home arrest a total of 13 times during her 19-year political career. After American John Yettaw swam across Inya Lake in early May to visit her at home, uninvited and without any known motives, she was accused of having violated the conditions of her home arrest and taken to the Insein Prison in Rangoon, where she faces five-year imprisonment.

"If you go [to Insein Prison] to serve a life sentence, it is equal to a death sentence. It is the worst prison in Burma," Cristoph Amthor, co-founder of the Burma Center Prague, said at the protest.

Suu Kyi's trial opened May 18. The defense was only allowed to call one witness, after its two chosen character witnesses, National League for Democracy members Tin Oo and Win Tin, were rejected. The prosecution, meanwhile, was granted 14 witnesses in its favor.

The trial has since been condemned by the United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, the UN Security Council and a number of Western governments.

As a reaction to the arrest, prominent NGOs have organized a world campaign for Suu Kyi's release, which launched May 27. The campaign includes a celebrity petition signed so far by 107 celebrities and former political prisoners, including former Soviet dissident Yuri Feodorovich Orlov, American actor George Clooney and former Czech President Václav Havel.

Havel, who nominated Suu Kyi for the Nobel Peace Prize, which she won in 1991, told reporters June 14 that "Every international [act of] solidarity is of great importance. We know it on the basis of our own experience."

Local awareness of Suu Kyi's situation is high due to the Czech Republic's own past under a communist regime and the efforts of Havel, its most famous political prisoner, said Zahradníková.

"One of the main impulses for the fight for Burma in the Czech Republic was Havel's nomination for her getting the Nobel Peace Prize. Since then, the Czech government and the Foreign Affairs Ministry have been very active in support of Suu Kyi."

Asked if demonstrations of solidarity are likely to have any effect on the Burmese government, Amthor said such acts could raise regional political pressure.

"Now that protests are getting bigger, some [Asian] regimes are changing their minds," he said, pointing to a June 18 statement by China that favored democracy in Burma.

So far, Thailand and Singapore have joined the group of Asian regimes that criticize Burma, while India still supports its military regime.

Sarah Borufka can be reached at
sborufka@praguepost.com