Coalition Protests Burmese Junta

Fifteen students from Columbia’s Burma 88 Coalition, all clad in red, joined activists from across the region to protest the violence against dissidents in Myanmar Monday.

The Amnesty International rally in front of the Burmese mission on the Upper East Side was an attempt to gain supporters in the mounting opposition to the government’s actions in Myanmar, also known as Burma. Myanmar’s military junta violently attacked people protesting the country’s regime over the past week.

Geoffrey Aung, CC ’08 and Spectator opinion columnist, said that the demonstrators were aiming to encourage an international boycott of the 2008 Olympics in Beijing due to China’s alleged endorsement of the Burmese government.

Most protestors held red signs reading “Stop Killing the Monks” or “Free Burma.” Some posters had a large photo of Nobel Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, the elected official under arrest in Burma.

The official reported death toll is 10, but an Australian envoy reported that the actual tally is several times that number. “We don’t know how many have been killed,” said T. Kumar, an Amnesty International representative. “It could be hundreds, it could be thousands.”

Khin Phyuhtway, a second-year student at The New School and recent immigrant from Burma, said that according to family and friends still in the country, the death toll is around 200.

Several Burma-associated student groups met Sunday morning to unite, calling themselves the Coalition for Regime Change in Burma. Aung said the groups are working together “with an explicit goal of working towards regime change via calling for an international boycott of the Bejing Olympics, because China is really the main sponsor of the Burmese dictatorship right now.” Amnesty International is not yet associated with this movement.

Over 10,000 demonstrators, including many Buddhist monks, gathered in the center of Yangon, Myanmar’s largest city, in the largest-ever protest against the government of Myanmar, according to Bloomberg News.

The protestors at the rally in front of the Burmese mission gathered because “the crackdown by the government has forced us ... to make sure that the government is treating protesters appropriately ... and release political prisoners,” said Matt Kennis, Northeast regional field representative for Amnesty International.

Kennis began the organized chanting around noon. Protestors began by chanting “Allow peaceful protest, stop the killing!” so that “the Burmese mission knows that we are here!” as Kennis announced to the group before the chants began.

When the Columbia 88 Coalition arrived past noon, the sidewalk was filled. Protesters assembled behind a police line to allow traffic to pass on 77th Street. Later, the crowd swelled to several hundred people who spilled onto the street and beyond the police line in every direction.

The crowd included representatives from Amnesty International and other organizations, students from Columbia, New York University, and The New School, Burmese nationals and immigrants, as well as several concerned community members.
The Columbia 88 coalition has spread information about the violence in Burma. The students said they protested because they felt an overwhelming need to show support for the Burmese people, and to rally against the current government.

Several students missed classes to attend the rally. “We have to be able to cut classes and do whatever it is we can to support what they are doing ... to make sure that the eyes of the world are on the Burmese dictatorship so that they know that they can’t crack down on the protesters in Burma,” Emily Setton, CC ’08 said.

“It’s crucial that the international community is aware of what’s going on because this has been going on for decades and ... we should have been doing this constantly,” said MaryNell Nolan-Wheatly, CC ’08, who is heavily involved in the Burma 88 Coalition.
Both China and, to a lesser extent, India are accused of supporting the military government. Kumar, in his speech to the press, asserted, “It is extremely disturbing ... these two countries are the ones that are helping to track down innocent civilians and monks in Burma.”

They are also calling on the U.N. Security Council to impose an arms embargo on Burma, and to send a delegation to the country to assess what is actually happening. “We need the UN Security Council to act now,” Kumar said in his speech.

Another action the group called for was the release of the political prisoner Aung San Suu Kyi. A leader of nonviolent opposition, San Suu Kyi is under military detention in Burma as the leader of the National League for Democracy, which opposes the current government. San Suu Kyi was elected prime minister of Burma in 1990 when the country held free elections, but the military-junta government refused to hand over power, and she was instead placed under house arrest.

Here in New York and at Columbia, protesting will continue as the violence escalates across the globe. There will be a rally on Low Plaza at noon today, as well as a teach-in at the West Ramp Lounge in Lerner at 8 p.m. The teach-in will feature Sam Gregory, an activist, professor Dennis Dalton of the Barnard political science department, and professor Ronald Findlay of the economics department.

Aung said the purpose of the event “is to give a factual summary of what’s been going on in Burma so that people really know the basic information.” Currently there are close to 100 people associated with the coalition, with a core group of about 30 that have been very active in the past week.

Findlay, who was born in Burma and taught there for several years, said, “I am glad ... to explain just how awful this military regime is and what the international community can do to defeat it and restore democracy and hope to the people.”

Shane Ferro can be reached at news@columbiaspectator.com.