The Clinton Administration Thursday urged U.S. citizens not to travel to Burma in light the Burmese military’s massive crackdown on democracy activists. In the past few days, the soldiers have rounded up and detained over 200 pro- democracy activists on the eve of a party Congress of the National League for Democracy, the opposition party led by Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi (Chee). The Congress coincides with the 6th anniversary of a national election that Suu Kyi’s party won by a landslide, but, the junta never allowed the democratically elected party to take power. The U.S. government is considering stronger economic sanctions against Burma, a move supported by the Burmese democracy movement. Excerpt of Dennis Bernstein’s internview with Aung San Su Kyi Zarni, a University of Wisconsin Graduate Student with the Free Burma Coalition, which has been using the internet to coordination national and international grassroots activism and boycotts against the Burmese military regime. Zarni is in Washington D.C. where he and other activists are participating in a fast to draw attention to the plight of members of the Burmese pro-democracy movement.
StoryNov 21, 2024
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