Burmese hunger strike in full swing: Please take easy action!!!

Sorry it's been so long. I'm frantically (still) trying to get Andy and Alice and their children out of Iraq, along with several other families. Nothing happy to report yet, but I am hopeful something will happen soon.

Meantime I've been distracted with Burmese news and other pressures. Today I sent a letter to UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, as the 11th day of the Burmese hunger strike begins in Washington, DC. The group moves tomorrow, Saturday, Sept. 16, to UN Headquarters in NYC and hopes to get an interview with Mr. Annan or his representative.

We'd really love your help in our efforts to get the UN Security Council to act on Burma! Please customize the letter below and send it to Mr. Annan at the fax number listed--and let me know if you have done so. Please also feel free to publicize our efforts or send donations; we're running on a shoestring and all funds are coming out of the pockets of the (mostly underemployed, certainly underpaid) Burmese hunger strikers.

Thank you! Write me for more info: mstephens [at] ithaca.edu

Name

Address

Country

E-mail address

15 September 2006

United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan
Office of the Spokesman for the Secretary-General
United Nations, S-378
New York, NY 10017
Via fax to 1-212-963-4879 and 1-212-963-7055

Honorable Secretary-General Kofi Annan:

I have learned of the current hunger strike by Burmese freedom activists in front of the UN this week.

I urge you to meet with these brave people, who are so valiantly trying to get your attention and to raise the concerns of people worldwide to the plight of their countrypeople still in Burma, who live under a brutal military regime that appears to be totally disinterested in their basic human rights. Indeed, the Burmese people suffer imprisonment, forced labor (slavery), forced conscription, rape, torture, and displacement on a regular basis.

Yet the United Nations Security Council has not found a way to address this issue, instead issuing numerous useless resolutions to urge the regime to change. The regime will not change until serious economic actions are taken by your august body. Please meet with the hunger strikers to discuss their concerns, and make a real effort, while you are still Secretary-General, to effect meaningful change in Burma toward freedom, democracy, and national reconciliation.

Sincerely,

[Signed]

cc: Maura Stephens, US representative for the U.S. Campaign for Freedom of Aung San Suu Kyi and Burma, mstephens [at] ithaca.edu