Czechs have celebrated Aung San Suu Kyi’s birthday and call for the release of the Burmese political prisoners

By People in Need and Burma Center Prague • June 17, 2011

On Friday 17th June 2011 several dozen supporters of the Burmese dissident and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi gathered on a bank of the river Vltava in Prague to commemorate her 66th birthday. The organizers of the event, People in Need and the Burma Centre Prague, used political cartoons by the popular exiled Burmese artist Harn Lay to familiarize participants with last year´s political development in Burma. The purpose of the happening was to emphasise that although Suu Kyi was released from house arrest in November last year, there are still more than 2000 political prisoners in Burmese jails, many of them close friends and colleagues of Aung San Suu Kyi. Photos of the people gathered in front of the central cartoon, which was drawn especially for this event, will be sent to Aung San Suu Kyi as an expression of Czech support for Burma´s democracy movement.

Although Aung San Suu Kyi has been released, there are substantiated worries about her security as the new government, which has clearly remained faithful to the authoritarian style of governance of the previous military junta, has repeatedly warned her that it cannot guarantee her security if she tries to leave Rangoon. Despite government threats Aung San Suu Kyi has already announced that she will set out on a tour across Burma by the end of June to listen to the needs and problems of the Burmese people and inspire in them hope for peaceful transition to real democracy.

Several important public figures among them members of the Czech Parliament, representatives of the U.S. embassy and Czech non-governmental organizations attended the event and made a short speech. Marek Benda, a member of the Czech Parliament and also a member of a Czech Parliamentary Caucus for Democracy in Burma mentioned the disappointing amnesty that the new government proclaimed in May and called for the immediate and unconditional release of all political prisoners: “Reducing the unfair punishments of Burmese political prisoners who had been sentenced to decades of imprisonment by one year is extremelly cynical. All political prisoners in Burma must be released immediatelly and unconditionally.”

Petr Bratský, Member of the Senate of the Czech Parliament and member of the Czech Parliamentary Caucus for Democracy in Burma highlighted the cruelty of the punishments and disregard to vulnerable people such as old, diseased or women in Burma prisons: “Nilar Thein, a Burmese activist imprisoned since August 2008 is a clear example of inhumanity of the Burma justice system. A mother of four-years-old daughter was sentenced to 65 years of imprisonment for her involvement in student demonstrations in 2007.”

Similar events, during which people express their sympathy to prodemocracy activists in Burma and sign petitions for the release of Burmese political prisoners are being held in many countries around the world at this time including several Central and Eastern European countries. Eight non-governmental organizations from the Czech Republic, Estonia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania and Slovakia have therefore released a common statement expressing support for Aung San Suu Kyi and calling for the release of the remaining Burmese political prisoners. The text of the statement is attached.

See more photos here.

For more information please contact:

Vlastimil Blecha, coordinator of Burma projects, People in Need. cell: +420 777 787 916,
mail: [email protected]

Eva Homolková, head of Burma projects, People in Need. cell: +420 739 220 248,
mail: [email protected]