AN APPEAL LETTER TO EU TO PRESSURE BURMA JUNTA 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