Media Contacts
Lesley Crosson, (212) 870-2676, lcrosson@churchworldservice.org Jan Dragin - 24/7 - (781) 925-1526, jdragin@gis.net UN BRIEFING ON BURMA VIOLENCE - GLOBAL PROTESTS MAY 16
BURMA U.N. SERVICE OFFICE AND CHURCH WORLD SERVICE WILL URGE ACTION TO PROTECT KAREN CIVILIANS IN BURMESE CONFLICT AT TUESDAY U.N. BRIEFING
EDITORS NOTE: UN presenter Church World Service's Erol Kekic is available for interviews on request
NEW YORK-Mon May 15 - Responding to current reports of escalating violence by the Burmese (Myanmar) ruling military junta against thousands of ethnic minority Kayin (Karen) villagers, The Burma UN Service Office and global humanitarian agency Church World Service (CWS) will present a briefing Tuesday, May 16 at the United Nations.
The briefing is part of a day of global protest in more than 12 countries against the brutal suppression of political and ethnic opposition to the junta's rule.
Church World Service Immigration and Refugee Program Associate Director Erol Kekic, who will address the current refugee crisis, will present at the briefing along with Karen spokespersons and officials of the National Coalition Government of the Union of Burma (NCGUB), says, "We have a humanitarian catastrophe in the making on our hands with more than 15,000 people newly displaced within Burma and 2,000 new refugees fleeing to already over-crowded camps in Thailand just since December. We want the international community represented within the United Nations to act now to prevent another Rwanda or Darfur from happening."
The group will press the United Nations Security Council to call for Burma's ruling military junta, the State Peace and Development Council, to stop its recent offensive against civilians in Karen State; call for the release of political prisoner Aung San Suu Kyi, a 1991 Nobel Peace Prize laureate; call for U.N. General Secretary Kofi Annan to publicly condemn the violence; and call for the U.N. to protest the ethnic cleansing in Burma.
Recent escalation in the brutality is forcing more Karen to seek refuge in neighboring Thailand. Thousands are waiting to cross the border and, Kekic says, "some observers believe the junta was actually hunting down some 2000 people who had escaped from ravaged villages.
WHAT AND WHO:
Caught in the Crossfire: The Plight of Karen Civilians in Burma's Armed Conflict
A Briefing at the United Nations by:
* Louisa Craig, Representative of the Karen National Union * Erol Kekic, Associate Director, Church World Service Immigration and Refugee Program * Stephen Dun, Karen * Bo Hla Tint, MP-elect, Minister (Office of Prime Minister), National Coalition Government of the Union of Burma
WHEN AND WHERE:
Tuesday May 16 1:00 - 3:00 PM 777 UN Plaza, Drew Room Corner of 44th St. and First Avenue New York, New York
RSVP to: Burma UN Service Office, burma1un@igc.org Phone: (212) 338-0048
To further draw attention to the plight of Karen minority civilians, Free Burma activists around the world will demonstrate outside the embassies of the Burmese ruling military junta in Washington, DC; London; Vancouver; Paris; Melbourne; Tokyo; New Delhi; Brussels; Bangkok and other internation al cities. info@uscampaignforburma.org
Citing the massive current violence against people of the Karen minority by the Burmese military regime-including rape, murder, torture, forced labor, and forced relocation-- Church World Service's Kekic said the question for the U.N. is "Do we have to witness genocide before any action is taken?"
On Friday the U.N. announced it will send senior official Ibrahim Gambari to Myanmar in the near future.
BACKGROUND:
In a communique on Thursday (May 10), Church World Service Immigration and Refugee Service Director Joseph Roberson requested that UN Secretary General Kofi Annan ask that the UN Security Council pass a binding resolution requiring Burma's regime to stop attacking ethnic minorities, and that the UN and Under Secretary General for Public Affairs, Dr. Ibrahim Agboola Gambar, publicly condemn the latest attacks on Karen minorities in eastern Burma.
Roberson also urged President Bush and U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to press the U.N. Security Council to pass the binding resolution and to publicly condemn the attacks, and to continue U.S. support of UNHCR efforts to assist Burmese refugees who have fled into Thailand.
Church World Service has also launched a national advocacy campaign urging its participating denominations and refugee resettlement affiliate agencies to press the White House and U.S. State Department for stronger action to stop the violence.
One of the largest donors to the Thailand Burma Border Consortium (TBBC), Church World Service provides financial assistance to the consortium for food and shelter for 140,000 people in refugee camps in Thailand. CWS is one of the nine agencies preparing to resettle as many as 9,000 Karen refugees from Burma whose processing is expected to begin soon by directive of the U.S. State Department.
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