Burma: It Can't Wait

Take Action: Click to Take Part In the October 6th Global Day of Action for Burma

China is paralyzing UN Security Council action on Burma. They are the main economic, military, and political supporters of the military junta. For fifteen years China has refused to press its closest ally to allow its people human rights, and used its veto power to block the UN Security Council from acting. As a result, the UN is making the same mistakes it made on Darfur and Rwanda. We are calling on people of conscience throughout the world to boycott the 2008 Chinese Olympics, join our efforts.

Courage and Outrage

The largest peaceful demonstrations in Burma in 10 years, and the regime responds with brutal force. On September 5th, troops sent in for first time and fire warning shots at monks.

On August 15th, the regime hiked up fuel prices - up to quintupling the price of natural gas; this is despite the fact that the regime makes billions from the export of oil and natural gas. Then on the 19th, peaceful protests began in the capital Rangoon, and since then have spread. The speculations that protests would die down in Burma have proven wrong, and even though over 150 democracy activists have been arrested so far, many people are stepping up and calling for an end to injustice. Day after day people continue to march through the streets in towns all over Burma, making their simple and peaceful demands.

Many are also calling for recognition of basic human rights and democracy. Their courage is reminiscent of the history of the brave people of Argentina, Peru, East Timor, South Africa, India, and elsewhere in which peaceful demonstrators have faced deadly force with nothing more than their belief in telling the truth. Dozens have been beaten, arrested, and carted off to Burma's feared torture centers. Many governments, organizations, and world leaders have spoken out against this crackdown, and we are asking the UN Security Council to take action.

The United States Campaign for Burma (USCB) is a U.S.-based membership organization dedicated to empowering grassroots activists around the world to bring about an end to the military dictatorship in Burma.

We speak at schools, organize campus and community chapters of the USCB, and use our grassroots power to tell the US government what their foreign policy on Burma should be - to support the non-violent freedom struggle led by Aung San Suu Kyi, the world's only imprisoned Nobel Peace Prize recipient.

Join us. You can make a difference.

About Burma:

Burma is home to 53 million people, and one of the world's worst human rights-abusing military dictatorships in the world. The list of human rights abuses is staggering:

-- Systematic Military Rape
-- More Child Soldiers Than Any Other Country in the World (70,000), many of whom are abducted, drugged, beaten, and forced to fight
-- State Torture and Extrajudicial Executions (Murder)
-- 1,100 Political Prisoners, including Nobel Peace Prize Winner Aung San Suu Kyi, the leader of the pro-democracy movement
-- Forced Labor - a "modern form of slave labor"
-- 700,000 Refugees Fleeing Fighting and the Burning of Their Villages
-- HIV/AIDS Epidemic
-- A Destroyed Educational and Health System - the Military Government spends less than 2% of the National Budget on Health and Education Combined, and 40%+ on the Military
-- The Longest Currently-running Armed Conflicts in the World

Check Out the Website, www.uscampaignforburma.org to join our listserve and find out what you can do to help. And you can help.

Read the US Campaign for Burma blog: http://freesuukyi.blogspot.com
Learn about the situation in Burma, and what activists are doing about it around the world!

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