Graffiti for Aung San Su Kyi: People in Need will commemorate the sixty-fifth birthday of a Burmese dissident in Prague

By People in Need • June 15, 2010

Graffiti wall in the center of Prague at Těšnov will be decorated by a large portrait of imprisoned Burmese dissident and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Su Kyi from this Friday. People will be able to leave a short note and a birthday wish on the wall as well. Public happening organized by People in Need will be held on Friday June 18, 2010 at 5pm at Těšnov, Prague 1 (at the graffiti wall near tram stop Těšnov). A photo from the event will be sent to Czech, European and Burmese exile media and also to Su Kyi as an expression of Czech support. People in Need want to call the attention to the violations of human rights in one of the most severe authoritarian regimes of present time.

Public figures will hold short speeches at this gathering such as MP Marek Benda (member of the Czech parliamentary group for Democracy in Burma), former MP Petr Bratský, the director of the Czech Helsinki Council Anna Šabatová and others. In paralel there is a campaign on Facebook where supporters are asked to leave a birthday wish on the Facebook wall of the Czech groups in support of democracy in Burma (Svobodu pro Su Ťij!! Svobodu pro Barmu!! http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=82234729378&ref=ts)

The leading Burmese dissident is celebrating her sixty-fifth birthday on June 19. For already fifteen years she has been celebrating them under house arrest. Currently the only detained Nobel Peace Prize laureate Su Kyi won a landslide victory in Burmese elections in 1990 as a leader of a political party National League for Demcoracy (NLD). But the results of these elections were never recognized by the Burmese junta and the members of NLD and the democratic opposition are since then persecuted and even imprisoned. For this year the junta has announced first elections since 1990 but the rules by which the elections will be organized denied democratic principles and basic rights of citizens.

“It seems that the goal of these elections is to legitimize the military rule since Su Kyi and more then 2100 of other political prisoners cannot take part. People in Need organization therefore consider the planned elections as non-compliant with international standards of democratic elections and thus non-democratic,” stated Marie Peřinová, the head of the Burmese projects of People in Need organization.

The legal framework of Burma – new constitution issued by the junta in 2008 and the election laws issue in March 2010 – discriminate the opposition political representatives. For example they do not allow running for the elections of those who are under prosecution or imprisoned which is a tool against Suu Kyi and other imprisoned opposition members. They also do not allow the candidacy of more then 400 000 of Buddhist monks and other members of religious groups. The international community together with the Czech republic must therefore keep the pressure on the Burmese junta and demand the release of all the political prisoners, start up of a dialogue about the future of the country with Su Kyi and the representatives of the ethnic groupand stop the violence aimed at the ethnic groups.

For more information please contact

Kristina Prunerova at [email protected] or 420 777 787 917.

Tags: 65th Birthday, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, Ethnic Nationalities, National League for Democracy, People in Need, Political Prisoners

This post is in: Press Release

Graffiti for Aung San Su Kyi: People in Need will commemorate the sixty-fifth birthday of a Burmese dissident in Prague

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