Narinjara news
Remembering Unforgettable
M Seing reports
At around 11:00 hrs (5:00 hrs UTC), about thirty exiled Burmese most of whom
are refugees recognized by the Bangladesh chapter of the UNHCR, assembled on
the sidewalk hugging the Education Building situated at the busy downtown area
of Dhaka, a stone’s throw from the Press Club. Carrying
placards and posters of Arakanese Monk U Ottama,
Father of the Nation General Aung San and the present charismatic Burmese
opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, the demonstrators denounced the present
State Peace and Development Council junta for its anti-people and
anti-democracy activities. They also demanded immediate restoration of
democracy in the country, and inclusion of minority nationalities in a tripartite
dialogue participated by the junta and Daw Aung san Suu Kyi’s National League
for Democracy for a sustainable form of democracy acceptable to the Free World.
In a statement delivered at the rally, the Arakanese for Democracy in Exile in
Bangladesh also denounced the gross human rights violations, ethnic cleansing
and use of ‘rape as a weapon of war’ perpetrated against the minority peoples
of Burma, recently in Shan State, and who have been driven out of their own
country. The statement also quoted experts’ claim of more than two
million minority people (non-Burman people) at present who are forced to
take illegal shelter in the neighbouring countries of
They also demanded that SPDC immediately release all the prisoners of
conscience politicians, journalists and
intelligentsia; hold a tripartite dialogue with minority leaders and National
League for Democracy; end military rule; stop ethnic cleansing and take legal
action against the perpetrators; and establish democracy.
In the statement they called on the world community to exert pressure upon the
SPDC junta for realizing those goals. A small schoolboy shouted: “We want
to go home!”
Go home every Burmese does want here, but not before the military dictators
quit and democracy is restored at home many of
the demonstrators stated.
The rally was participated by members of democratic
opposition of
At the beginning of the rally some local journalists expressed their surprise
at the presence of Burmese opposition in
Meanwhile, thousands of Arakanese Buddhists and minority Muslims who fled from
the wreath of the Burmese military continue to live a subhuman life in the
inaccessible border areas of Bandarban and Cox’sbazaar districts in the southeastern part of
Bangladesh, away from civilization, infested with malarial mosquitoes, without
access to safe drinking water, shelter, medicine, education and hope. #