Protests against Burma’s bloody crackdown on dissenters took place in cities around the world on Saturday, with thousands demonstrating in London and smaller gatherings held in Sydney, Stockholm, Bangkok, Paris and elsewhere.
The coordinated displays of public condemnation followed the violent crackdown by Burma’s junta on thousands of activists in late September. At least 13 people were killed and 2 000 detained.
In Britain, Burma’s former colonial power, thousands crowded through streets behind saffron-robed Buddhist monks who threw petals into the River Thames.
Police said 3 000 people took part. Organisers put the figure at 10 000.
After stopping at British Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s Downing Street offices to tie red headbands to the gates, the demonstrators went on to Trafalgar Square to hear MPs, human rights campaigners and Burma exiles exhort the United Nations to take action against Yangon’s junta.
Amnesty International’s secretary general Irene Khan said: ”Burma is not a human rights emergency of today, last week or last month. It is a human rights emergency that the world has chosen to forget for the last 20 years.
”We will not forget this time round, we will not let the people of Burma down.”
Brown issued a message of support to the people of Burma, telling them: ”Today [Saturday] is above all about repeating a firm message: the world has not forgotten — and will not forget — the people of Burma.”
In Sydney, hundreds rallied outside the landmark Opera House. Another 1 000 marched through Melbourne, some carrying red banners that read ”no more bloodshed”.
Other protests took place in Perth, and in Brisbane, where organiser Natasha Lutes said: ”This is about getting a message to the people in Burma.
”They’ve been struggling to get the message out about the atrocities that are happening in Burma, putting their lives on the line. We want them to know the world has been listening and ordinary people everywhere support them.”
Dozens also gathered in front of the Burma embassy in Bangkok, shouting ”Free Burma” and brandishing pictures of Burma’s pro-democracy activist, Aung San Suu Kyi.
Campaigners in India were to hold a candle-lit vigil outside a war memorial in the heart of New Delhi.
In Singapore, a vigil outside the Burma embassy involving an opposition political party and members of the Burma community entered its seventh day on Saturday.
Amnesty International Korea said about 200 protestors, including immigrant workers from Burma, would stage a protest outside the country’s embassy in central Seoul on Sunday to press for the release of prisoners of conscience.
In Paris, 200 people gathered at a Buddhist temple where they placed yellow roses at the feet of a giant Buddha statue.
A similarly sized demonstration occurred in Vienna, with those taking part wearing saffron as a sign of solidarity. A union leader, Rudolf Hundstorfer, said ”we can fear the worst” for those detained in Burma.
Brussels, the Belgian city home to the main institutions of the European Union, saw 400 demonstrators gather.
”We have to know where are the people who have been arrested, and they must be freed — you are their last hope,” one of the organisers told the crowd, which included Belgian MPs.– AFP
