NGOs from 20 Countries Ask UN Security Council
to Take Action on Burma

Press Release:
June 28th, 2006

Contact: Erol Kekic, Church World Service:
Jeremy Woodrum, U.S. Campaign for Burma: 202-223-0300

(Washington, DC) Over thirty non-governmental
organizations from twenty countries today sent
a letter to UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan
and members of the United Nations Security Council,
calling for a peaceful, binding resolution on
the Southeast Asian country of Burma. The letter
adds to a growing chorus from the international
community calling for action on Burma .

The letter states: “The Burmese junta has
ignored 28 UN General Assembly and Commission
on Human Rights resolutions. Now is the time
for UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan and members
of the UN Security Council to move beyond discussion
and take action in the Council. The situation
for Burma ’s 53 million people grows more desperate
and horrific each day.”

The crisis in Burma has escalated in recent
months with a brutal military offensive by the
Burmese regime against Karen villagers, displacing
up to 20,000 civilians. More than 2,000
of the displaced have fled to neighboring Thailand
, while others are desperately trying to survive
in the jungle with little or no access to food,
water, or safety. The Burmese army has
planted thousands of landmines to prohibit the
fleeing villagers from accessing humanitarian
aid, and barred all humanitarian groups from
the area. These 20,000 displaced Karen villagers
join more than 1 million that have already fled
the country and more than 500,000 living in
fear as internally displaced persons.
The use of rape as a weapon of war continues
unabated throughout Burma ’s ethnic areas, including
Shan State. Burma ’s military junta is the world’s
leading user of child soldiers, forcibly recruiting
up to 70,000 children.

In December 2005 the United Nations Security
Council held it’s first-ever briefings
to discuss Burma , followed by one this past
May. The letter refers to the 2005 discussion:
“It is essential for the United Nations
Secretary-General and Security Council to follow
up the historic December and May consensus discussions
with concrete and urgent action to address the
escalating catastrophe in Burma .”

Organizations signing the letter
include:
American Jewish World Service (United States)
Action for Democracy in Vietnam (France)
Alliance for Reform & Democracy in Asia
(Hong Kong)
Asia Pacific Solidarity Coalition of 15 organizations
from 11 countries (APSOC) (Philippines)
Australian Catholic Relief in Cambodia,
Canadian Friends of Burma (Canada),
EarthRights International (United States),
FORUM-ASIA (Thailand),
France Libertés - Fondation Danielle
Mitterrand (France),
Foundation for Media Alternatives (Philippines),

Globe International (Mongolia),
IBON Foundation Inc. (Philippines),
Initiatives for International Dialogue (Philippines),
International Movement for a Just World (Malaysia),
Jesuit Refugee Service (United States),
Jubilee Campaign (United States),
Umzbalazo we Jubilee (South Africa),
Korean House for International Solidarity (South
Korea),
Network of Women in Growth (Ghana),
People in Need Foundation (Czech Republic),

Peoples Forum for Human Rights and Development
(Bhutan),
Polish Helsinki Committee (Poland),
Pontis Foundation (Slovak Republic),
Refugees International (United States),
Reporters Without Borders (Reporters Sans Frontières)
(France),
Rencontre Africaine Pour la Défense des
Droits de l’Homme (RADDHO) (Senegal),
TENAGANITA (Women’s Force) (Malaysia),
The Rafto Foundation for Human Rights, Bergen
(Norway),
U.S. Campaign for Burma (Unite States),
United Lao Action Center (France), and
WARIPNET, West African Refugees and Internally
Displaced Persons Network (Senegal).