Letter to President of European Council

AN APPEAL LETTER TO EU TO PRESSURE BURMA JANTA TO RELEASE 8888

GENERATION NOW

Herman Van Rompuy

The President of the European Council

Rue De La Loi 175,

B-1048 Brussels

Belgium

Date : November 22, 2010

Dear Mr. President,

First of all we appreciate EU, US and UN’s pressure against Burma junta to release our utmost

valuable and leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi finally paid off. We have sensed EU’s affinity with the

junta behind the scene carried much weigh in this regard as well. And, we also understood that EU

has been quietly pushing the junta for democratic reform via the outcomes of election that somehow

needed to show some signs of democratic way forward. In this regard, we would like to appeal you

to push the regime to release all the political prisoners- including the ethnic leaders like U Khun

Htun Oo ( SNLD ), Gen. Sei Htin ( SSA ( South ) ) and many others, especially the 8888

generation- before the junta’s announcement to convene the parliament that needs to prove itself

democracy.

The 8888 uprising erupted in Rangoon on August 8, 1988 was wide-spreaded throughout the

country. Hundreds of thousands people in all walks of lives including Buddhist monks and nuns, led

by the student leaders staged a peaceful demonstration against the regime in Burma. The uprising

ended on September 18, after a bloody coup by the military junta. Tens of thousands of innocent

people had been shot-dead by the military in due course while authorities in Burma however put the

figure at around 350 people killed.

Many of those remaining student leaders like Min Ko Naing struggled in active and kept on fighting

for social injustice aftermath of the 8888 uprising by naming themselves as 8888 generation. Min

Ko Naing, Ko Ko Gyi, Ko Mya Aye, Ko Pyone Cho, Ko Jimmy and Ko Yin Htun were considered

to be the leaders of 88 Generation Student group.

Their movement was neither partisan nor a threat to the ruling body but purely social injustice and

against poverty and destitute nature of the general public. Min Ko Naing the most popular student

leader, however, was arrested on 23 March 1989, sentenced to 20 years in December 1991, which

was later commuted to 10 years. He was not released after completing his sentence in 1999. Finally,

Min Ko Naing was only free for 11 months after a 16 year term in the Akyab prison in 2004; Ko Ko

Gyi the another popular student leader was released in March 2005 after nearly 14 years

imprisonment.

Immediately after their releases, they had kept on calling for social justice. On August22, 2007, a

rare public protest over a sharp rise in fuel prices led to a wave arrests by the Burmese junta. Those

arrested included the senior leadership of the 88 Generation Students group as well as members of

other student and civil advocacy groups. Hundreds of demonstrators had taken to the streets to

express their concern and to appeal the ruling junta for the surprise increase in fuel prices. Natural

gas prices had risen 500% and petrol and diesel prices had almost doubled, according to the

government run media. The rise hit poor laborers particularly hard swallowing up to half of their

daily income that barely made their end meets. As a result, Min Ko Naing, Ko Ko Gyi, Ko Mya

Aye, Ko Pyone Cho, Ko Jimmy and Ko Yin Htun were among those from the 88 Generation

Student group arrested. On August 22, 2007 14 student leaders of the 88 Student Generation of

Democracy were arrested. They were arrested by security officials and members of the state backed

Union Solidarity Development Association (USDA) now has become the winner party (USDP) via

2010 fraudulent election.

No warrants were issued for the arrests nor no proper legal charges were made and according the

state-run medias they will be charged under Law 5/96, which provided for up to 20 years in prison,

for their involvement in “acts undermining the efforts to successfully carry out peaceful transfer of

state power and facilitate the proceedings of the National Convention. Such bogus allegations had

led them to long-term imprisonments to serve up until today. Thus, the 8888 generation’s call for

social justice and democracy was responded with outrageous imprisonments without a fair trial by

the military junta, who kept on promising democracy in Burma still.

Due to such precarious nature of them and their sacrifices for the whole nation of Burma, we the

8888 activists overseas have responsible to urge much regarded organizations and governments like

EU, which have wider view and tremendous power over Burma, to sort it out such predicament of

8888 generation like this for sure. We are quite certain that your conventional wisdom and

enthusiasm undoubtedly can manage to open the regime’s prison doors releasing our 8888

generation leaders so that they can continue their good effort fighting for justice for all.

Co-opreative Organizations

1 ) Overseas National Students' Organization of Burma ( H.Q ) Denmark

Tay Za Thura

General Secretary

E-mail : tayzathura@gmail.com

2 ) Burmese Democratic Community ( Netherlands )

Ko Myat Thiha

Political Dept

E-mail : myatthiha101@yahoo.co.uk

3 ) International Foundation for Burma National Congress ( USA ) ( I.F.B.N.C )

Ko Htun Hlaing

Director ( Political Action Committee )

E-mail : kyiwayphy0@yahoo.com

4 ) National League for Democracy ( L.A ) Netherlands

Ko Hla Myint Naing

Chairman

E-mail : hlamyintnaing@yahoo.com

5 ) Overseas National Students' Organization of Burma ( Branch ) Sweden

Ko Toe Win

Political Dept

E-mail : kotoegyi1@yahoo.com