I watched over the weekend The Lady' about Aung San Suu Kyi - despite having followed Burma closely over the years I still found the film harrowing and shocking - it is therefore wonderful that Aung San Suu Kyi was finally able to deliver her Nobel Peace Prize lecture, 21 years after receiving the award.....although there is a long way to go....today she arrives in the UK.
Aung San Suu Kyi used the lecture to make an impassioned call on governments to increase funding for refugees from Burma who live in camps in Thailand. She recently visited one of the refugee camps, and was concerned to hear stories of the situation in the camps, where people have faced ration cuts of 25 percent and no longer get support for clothes and shelter: “Can we afford to indulge in compassion fatigue? Is the cost of meeting the needs of refugees greater than the cost that would be consequent on turning an indifferent, if not a blind, eye on their suffering? I appeal to donors the world over to fulfil the needs of these people who are in search, often it must seem to them a vain search, of refuge.’
Please join me in sending an email to Andrew Mitchell, Secretary of State for International Development, calling on him to increase British government funding for refugees. You can send an email here:
http://www.burmacampaign.org.uk/index.php/campaigns/actions/aid-to-burma/aid-to-burma-letter
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