Message of our leader to John Humph

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Subject: Re: Message of our leader to John Humphrey's freedom award ceremony

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To: Conference reg.burma <burmanet-l@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: 14 December 1999 09:08
Subject: Message of our leader to John Humphrey's freedom award ceremony


>Text of Message of Aung San Suu Kyi, leader of the National League for
>Democracy, Burma.
>**********************************************************************
>
>It is a great pleasure for me to speak on the occasion of the awarding
>of the John Humphrey prize to Min Ko Naing and Dr Cynthia Maung. It
>gives me great pride that two people from Burma have been found worthy
>of this
>prestigious human rights prize.
>
>Everybody knows of what Dr Cynthia Maung has done on the border for
>Burmese refugees, for political refugees and economic migrants, as well
>as for people from Burma who are finding it very difficult to get
>medical care on our side of the border. It is a sad reflection on the
>state of things in Burma that many people from our side of the border
>feel impelled to cross
>the border to go to Dr Cynthia Maung for treatment. But it is also proof
>of her great compassion and the importance of what she is doing.
>
>We need more people like Cynthia Maung. I am particularly happy that she
>belongs to the karen ethnic group, because it helps the world to realize
>that Burma is a country of many peoples. It is not just made up of the
>majority Burmese, but of others like the karens, the Mons, the Kachins,
>the Chins, the Shans, the Arakanese, and many other smaller ethnic
>groups.
>
>We think that it is not only through genuine unity that we will be able
>to build up the future of our country. And these people who are going to
>Dr Cynthia Maung today are not just karens, not just people from other
>ethnic nationalities, but people from the majority Burmese ethnic group
>who go to her for help. When it comes to humanitarian issues, there is
>no question of
>difference of race, or difference of citizenship, or difference of
>religion. Humanitarian aid should be given without consideration of
>these matters. For this reason, I am extremely grateful to Dr Cynthia
>Maung. What she has done for our people, and what she has done for our
>country, has shown that we have people like her in our country - people
>who care and people who will build up the future of our country.
>
>Min Ko Naing, people know less about because he has been incarcerated in
>a prison in Burma for the last ten years. He is a young man who is one
>of the student leaders who started the 1988 movement for democracy, and
>he has stood firm against all pressure from the authorities.
>
>He has been kept in solitary confinement for all these ten years. At the
>moment, he is no longer in a prison in Rangoon but has been transferred
>to one in the Arakhan division. This ,means that his family faces
>enormous difficulties in going to visit him. Political prisoners in
>Burma are allowed one visit a fortnight. Fifteen minutes a fortnight.
>But if you are in a prison in the Arakhan division and your family is in
>Rangoon, you are lucky if you get a visit once in 6 months. His family
>is devoted to him, but it is extremely difficult for them both
>practically and financially, to see him even once a month. Sometimes
>they do not manage to go for several months.
>
>This is a lot of many others in Burma. Min Ko Naing represents many
>others who are suffering from the injustices of the present military
>regime. That the prize has been awarded to him gives us all great hope,
>great pride and great pleasure, because it shows that the world has not
>forgotten our cause, and that the world is not ignoring our people who
>have been ignored
>by the military regime for so long. Even if the military authorities do
>not recognize our peoples as human beings who need help, who need
>compassion,and who have the rights to justice, we know now that the
>world recognizes it. That in the world there are people who stand on the
>side of justice and on the side of humanity, whatever authoritarian
>regimes may do.
>
>For this reason, I would like to thank those who have been responsible
>for awarding the John Humphrey prize to Min Ko Naing and Dr Cynthia
>Maung - for the great honor they have done to my country and for the
>compassion they have shown.
>
>Thank you very much
>
>10 December 1999
>
>