The international emergency petition to stop the crackdown on peaceful protesters in Burma is exploding - nearly 500,000 signatures from every nation of the world. Tomorrow will see action by bloggers - bloggers supporting the Burmese people will not post anything tomorrow accept a banner re Burma (see previous post on Burma) - then Saturday will see a Global Day of Action for Burma and a march in London. Avaaz writes:"The situation in Burma remains desperate, with reports of hundreds of monks being massacred and tortured. Burma's rulers have also killed and expelled international journalists, cutting off global media coverage of their cruelty. China is still the key - the country with the most power to halt the Burmese generals' reign of terror. We're delivering our message this week with a massive ad campaign in major newspapers, beginning Thursday with a full page ad in the Financial Times worldwide, and in the South China Morning Post. The strength of the ad comes from the number of petition signers listed – can we reach our goal of 1 million signatures this week? The link to sign the petition and view the ad is below, forward this email to all your friends and family!
"China continues to provide key economic and military support to Burma's dictatorship, but it has been openly critical of the crackdown. Now we need the government to match words with actions. Our ad paints a powerful moment of choice for China in its relationship with the world – will it be a responsible and respected member of the global community, or will it be associated with tyranny and oppression?"
Please act now:
Action in Gloucester on Saturday - A peaceful demonstration is planned outside the Total garage near the Barnwood roundabout, Eastern Avenue from 12 noon tomorrow in support of the Burmese people. No 10 bus drops off there - for details call: 07948615561
Sign petition:
http://www.avaaz.org/en/stand_with_burma/u.php
Email EU President and Gordon Brown:
http://www.burmacampaign.org.uk/crackdown.php
Join march: protests are expected right across the world at 12-noon local time. They have already been scheduled in key locations including: Austria, Australia, Belgium, Canada, India, Ireland, France, New Zealand, South Korea, Thailand, the UK and the US. In London, the day of action will start at 11am with monks leading a march from Tate Britain over Westminster Bridge where they will drop petals into the Thames. They will then stop and tie their headbands onto Downing Street gates before proceeding to a rally at Trafalgar Square at 12.45 ish. Around the world campaigners will wear red headbands in solidarity with the monks under arrest and tie these onto government buildings, religious shrines or key landmarks to signify the thousands of lives currently hanging in the balance.
For a map of the route, please visit:
www.burmacampaign.org.uk / www.amnesty.org.uk
Boycott/write to the 'Dirty List' of companies who do business with Burma:
http://www.burmacampaign.org.uk/dirty_list/dirty_list.html
Petition to Chevron:
http://www.petitiononline.com/urgeChev/petition.html
3 comments:
So we've all signed the Burma petitions but will it make any difference?
As the world starts to run short of fossil fuels do we really think the
great powers really care about human rights, who runs a country or
whether it's a democracy?
Whilst the Burmese Junta were putting down the uprising they were also
busy finalising a $150million oil exploration deal with India.
"On September 24, for example, India’s state-controlled Oil and Natural
Gas Co (ONGC) signed a deal with Myanmar Oil and Gas Enterprise. Under
the deal, Oil and Natural Gas Co pledged to invest US$150 million
through ONGC Videsh.
India’s minister for oil, Murli Deora, traveled to the Burmese capital
last week to sign the agreement as thousands of protesters in Burma took
to the streets to call for political freedom."
See Human Rights Watch report on oil and gas interests in Burma.
http://hrw.org/english/docs/2007/10/01/burma16995.htm
Just sounding off.
Yesterday, the petition to China and the UN Security Council to stop the brutal crackdown on peaceful Burmese protesters is being delivered to the world in a full page ad in the Financial Times worldwide -- but the ad was rejected by other newspapers like the South China Morning Post and the Singapore Straits Times. Our message is an invitation to China to do the right thing in Burma, not an attack -- yet even that seemed too much for media that fear Chinese reprisals.
We won't let our voice be silenced like this. We're taking our message to the streets, in an international day of action on Saturday -- details are on our petition page, and below. And we're redoubling our efforts to make our voice louder: our petition is approaching 600,000 signatures, closing fast on our 1 million goal.The petition link is below - send this email to all your friends and family and help us reach 1 million voices by Saturday!
http://www.avaaz.org/en/stand_with_burma/w.php
As Burmese myself, we've been looking for the best opportunity how to cry out loud to the world.
Most importantly, we need strongest voice to boycott China, the world criminal.
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