The 88 Generation Students group has today delivered a strongly worded message to the international community, appealing for a comprehensive boycott of the Summer Games.
The call to action comes as the group maintains that China continues in its "unilateral" support for Burma's ruling junta, its uncritical support for the regime said to be directly linked to a pervasive atmosphere of fear and trepidation among Burma's citizenry.
88 Generation urges all conscience-minded people "to pressure the Government of China to withdraw its unilateral support of the Burmese military junta and to boycott the 2008 Beijing Olympics in response to China's bankrolling of the military junta that rules our country of Burma with guns and threats," reads the protestation.
"Supporting a regime that is brutally suppressing its people is an indirect oppression of the people. We are protesting this act," Tun Myint Aung, an 88 Generation student who is on the run told Mizzima via telephone.
"Following the September Saffron revolution, China openly supplied military hardware, including armor trucks and weapons, to the Burmese regime," Tun Myint Aung added. "Instead of protecting the people of Burma from the regime's suppression China calls it an internal affair. But on the other hand they supply military hardware to the regime; so China has been backing the junta which is directly responsible for human rights violations and economic deterioration in Burma."
The letter proceeds to accuse China of undermining "diplomatic efforts to free the world's only imprisoned Nobel Peace Prize recipient Aung San Suu Kyi and all political prisoners."
Though China, along with Russia, vetoed a Security Council resolution on Burma in January of 2007, China did support a Security Council statement in October of last year condemning the use of violence in suppressing the Saffron Revolution as well as championing the causes of an all-inclusive process and the freeing of political prisoners.
Signatories to the statement called on the junta to include all parties in a process directed at working together "toward a de-escalation of the situation and a peaceful solution" achieved through "genuine dialogue."
Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi further informed United Nations Special Envoy to Burma, Ibrahim Gambari, that China fully supports the mediation efforts of the United Nations in resolving Burma's crisis.
The conversation, on the 19th of this month, led Gambari to comment as to his appreciation for the important role that China is playing with respect to Burma and his mission.
It is widely believed that Chinese intervention and pressure is directly linked to the junta's willingness to officially invite Gambari to the country.
Moreover, United States President George Bush has continually reaffirmed that he plans on personally attending the Olympics this August, viewing the conduct of the Games purely as a matter of sport.
"I'm not gonna you know, go and use the Olympics as an opportunity to express my opinions to the Chinese people in a public way," Bush can be heard commenting in a BBC interview conducted earlier this month.
The 88 Generation Students however, with or without an overarching boycott, make an overture to citizens throughout the world to avoid watching the Games on television or partake in the purchase of any souvenirs or items whose proceeds would benefit the 2008 Olympics.
Referencing the coincidence in date for the opening of the 2008 Games, August 8, 2008, the 20th anniversary of the 8-8-88 uprising from which the group derives its name, 88 Generation "urge people of conscience throughout the world – including the hundreds of thousands of Burmese in dozens of countries – to pledge to not watch or support in any way the Beijing Olympics."
No comments:
Post a Comment