8/14/2019 Over 250,000 signatures for Burma's political prisoners _PDF

1/2

FREE BURMAS POLITICAL PRISONERS NOW!

Sign the Petition at www.fbppn.net

Tell your friends to sign the petition

888,888 Signatures for Burma

Press Release

For Immediate Release

Mae Sot, Thailand, 21 April 2009

Over 250,000 signatures secured for Burmas political prisoners

We must show them they have not been forgotten, says Nobel Peace Prize Laureate

A global petition campaign for Burmas political prisoners has secured over a quarter of a

million signatures. Campaign activities are taking place across five continents in 32 countries

around the world, from the Czech Republic to South Africa. The campaign - which launched

on 13 March Burmas Human Rights Day - aims to collect 888,888 petition signatures before

24 May 2009, the legal date that Daw Aung San Suu Kyi should be released from house

arrest.

Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Jody Williams today called for increased support for the global

campaign to free all of Burmas political prisoners, including fellow Laureate Daw Aung San

Suu Kyi. She is the only Nobel Peace Laureate currently imprisoned, and has been under

house arrest for 13 of the past 19 years.

Williams won the Peace Prize in 1997 for her work to secure an international treaty to ban

antipersonnel landmines. Speaking on behalf of the Nobel Womens Initiative, founded in

2006 by six of the seven living women Nobel Peace Laureates, she said, Many of us struggling

for peace around the world can use our freedom to express our views. But the people of

Burma risk prison to do this. We need to stand shoulder to shoulder with those democracy

activists who have been locked up in the dark. We must show them they have not been

forgotten. Please embrace our fellow Laureate Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and her colleagues as

heroes for freedom, peace, and democracy, and sign the petition.

The petition calls on the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to make it his personal priority

to secure the release of all political prisoners in Burma, as the essential first step towards

national reconciliation and democratization in the country. The target symbolizes 8.8.88, the

day the junta massacred some 3,000 people who courageously protested in Burmas largest

democracy uprising.

To sign the petition, visit www.fbppn.net

8/14/2019 Over 250,000 signatures for Burma's political prisoners _PDF

2/2

FREE BURMAS POLITICAL PRISONERS NOW!

Sign the Petition at www.fbppn.net

Tell your friends to sign the petition

888,888 Signatures for Burma

-ENDS-

For media interviews, please contact:

Tate Naing (Assistance Association for Political Prisoners Burma) - +66(0)812878751

Dr Naing Aung (Forum for Democracy in Burma) - +66(0)818837230

Notes to editors:

1. The campaign is led by the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (Burma) andForum for Democracy in Burma.

2. 199 organizations worldwide have endorsed the campaign. For the full list, please clickhere