Bo Kyi's Call to Action on Burma

On a recent Friday night in Earl Hall, students, activists, and concerned members of the community gathered to hear Bo Kyi's account of the deteriorating human rights situation in Burma. As the co-founder of the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners in Burma and a former political prisoner himself, his narrative of Burma's human rights crisis holds considerable weight.

The contemporary human rights challenges presented by the Burmese dictatorship are rooted in a long history of neglecting the rights of its own people. The US Campaign for Burma, a dynamic advocacy group I work with, recognizes the legacy of oppression in Burma. On its Web site, it says, "The people of the Southeast Asian country of Burma are locked in one of the world's great freedom struggles. The country's military rulers, the State Peace and Development Council, have run the country with an iron fist for the past 15 years, after they assumed power from a 26-year socialist dictatorship." In August of 1988, a massive student-led uprising aimed to bring down the authoritarian rule. The military responded by gunning down thousands of protesters and imprisoning thousands more, eventually including Bo Kyi, a major organizer of the "8-8-88" protests.

During his speech on campus, Bo Kyi helped those of us in the audience gain a better understanding of the current situation on the ground in Burma. Systematic sexual violence, along with widespread extrajudicial executions, torture, and forced abduction, has allowed the military to raze over 2,700 villages in the eastern portion of the country. Many of these attacks have focused on Shan State, the region of the ethnic Shan minority, leading some groups in Thailand to suggest genocide. Meanwhile, 1,200 political prisoners remain in Burma's jails, including Aung San Suu Kyi, the head of the National League for Democracy and the world's only imprisoned Nobel Peace Prize laureate.

Furthermore, Bo Kyi was explicit about what he needs students-and particularly New Yorkers like us-to do. Senator Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) should speak out on Burma, calling not only for the release of Aung San Suu Kyi and all political prisoners, but also for U.N. Security Council intervention, as advocated in a recent report released by Václav Havel and Desmond Tutu. We need to tell him to do so. In addition, Aung San Suu Kyi's birthday is in June. People are signing up to "arrest themselves" for a day in a widespread grassroots effort to raise awareness and funding within their communities for the U.N. Security Council push. These efforts and parties, which will take place specifically on June 19, will be beamed into Burma via satellite TV as expressions of hope to Aung San Suu Kyi and all of Burma.

At the event, as I moved about the room, snapping pictures and distributing handouts, I couldn't help but feel like Bo Kyi and I had come a long way together. The reality is that we'd met for the first time two nights before when I picked him up at JFK Airport, but something about the warmth of his personality and the comfort of his presence, despite significant language and cultural barriers, created the impression that we were actually longtime friends.

When the event ended that night, and I bid him good bye, he reaffirmed his wish to meet my grandmother, who for the past four decades has been an active voice in the Burmese democracy movement-in-exile. I told him that when the dictatorship crumbles, my grandmother will be the first person off the first plane to Rangoon. As he and I parted ways, I looked forward to a time when that vision- an oft-stated wish in our household growing up-would pass from the realm of a hopeful future to a realized present.

The author is a Columbia College sophomore.