August 7, 2003

10:00AM - Protest at the Embassy of Burma's Regime, 2300 S Street, NW

8:00PM - Candlelight vigil at Ambassador's residence, 2223 R Street, NW

On May 30th, Burma's ruling military dictatorship launched a bloody new crackdown on the democracy movement. Scores of people - possibly as many as 70 - were killed in attack on Aung San Suu Kyi's motorcade by thugs in the regime's employ. Members of the democracy party, the National League for Democracy (NLD), including Nobel Peace Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, have been imprisoned, attacked, intimidated, and harassed while traveling the country, seeking to rebuild the party. The regime has shut down NLD party offices to try to prevent a popular reaction against the repression.

The new crackdown echoes events fifteen years ago in 1988, when the regime violently crushed a mass pro-democracy uprising in a bloodbath that dwarfed the violence of China's Tiananmen Square a year later. Millions of people from all walks of life took the streets to call for an end to dictatorship and one-party rule. The regime responded by opening fire on them, killing between 3,000 - 10,000 people in cold blood.

Please join members of the Free Burma Coalition, the Committee for Restoration of Democracy in Burma, the Democratic Burmese Students Organization, and others for a protest against the new crackdown at the embassy of Burma's regime, 2300 S Street, NW at 10:00 AM; and a candlelight vigil of remembrance for the victims of "8888" in the evening at the residence of the regime's ambassador, 2223 R Street, NW, at 8:00 PM.

For more information, contact:

Dan Beeton, Free Burma Coalition - 202-547-5985

Aung Din, Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (Burma) -
301-602-0077

Tin Maung Thaw, Committee for Restoration of Democracy in Burma -
703-834-5670

Yin Aye, Democratic Burmese Students Organization - 240-432-5097.