Protest against junta at UN office

By Madhushala Senaratne

Nearly 100 Burmese Buddhist monks in Sri Lanka protested last afternoon outside the United Nations office in Bauddhaloka Mawatha against Myanmar’s military junta’s referendum.

The peaceful protest organized by the Myanmar Student Monk Association in Sri Lanka aimed at saying ‘No’ to the existing Myanmar military junta’s constitution in the upcoming referendum. “We are urging the UN not to accept the military junta. The referendum demonstrates the lack of equality and democracy. We are against it. We are saying ‘no’ to it,”a spokesperson for the Myanmar Student Monk Association, Ven. Nyanuhara said.

On Friday, the monks appealed to the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon to take strong action against the Burmese military junta. The monks demanded the release of prominent figures such as Aung San Su Kyi, leader of the Buddhist alliance,Ven. Ganbira and other political prisoners before the upcoming referendum. They also called for a Security Council meeting to find a long-lasting solution to the country’s problem.

Other demands by the monks include taking steps to allow election monitoring representatives to participate at the referendum to ensure that its done in a free and fair manner; taking steps against officials selling weapons to the military junta and ordering them not to do so and help stop the killings by the Government forces of minorities in border villages.

“April 26 marks seven months since the killing by Burma’s military junta of monks and civilians who participated in a peaceful protest. Even today, the military junta is in search of those who participated in that protest in September.

The junta has not paid attention to the appeals of the UN, US and human rights organizations to respect the rights of the people,” the organization said in a letter to the Secretary General.