Zoya Phan, Campaigns Officer at Burma Campaign UK, received a standing ovation at the Conservative Party conference today as she called for international action to help the people of Burma.
Zoya Phan is a political exile from the Karen ethnic group, which has been subject to a campaign of ethnic cleansing by the regime. She was 14 years old when soldiers attacked her village and she was forced to flee to refugee camps in Thailand.
Full text of her speech follows:
Ladies and gentlemen
A year ago you kindly invited me to speak to your conference about the situation in Burma. I called for international action to help my people. It is a call that we have been making for almost twenty years, and one that was ignored again last year, just like all the rest.
Now, once again, people are being shot on the streets of Rangoon, just as they are being shot every day in the part of Burma I come from, the jungles of Karen state. I am angry, because governments have known what has been going on for so long, and have done almost nothing to help us.
The messages the Burma Campaign UK is getting from Rangoon break my heart. One person told us: “All night long I could hear people screaming and crying out for help. Soldiers were beating everyone they found. We are living in hell. Please help us.” Every one we speak to asks for help from the international community.
The world warned the regime not to use violence, and said there would be consequences if they did. The regime used violence, where are the consequences? Only the USA has imposed new sanctions. Once again the regime gets the message that it can literally get away with murder.
We must keep the pressure on China, but we can’t just pass the buck as if it is just their responsibility, every government can do something that will make a difference. We can stop doing business with this regime when we know they spend the money they make on the guns and bullets killing people on the streets. We can stop selling them guns. I asked last year and I ask again. Why isn’t there a United Nations arms embargo against the regime?
These shackles were smuggled out of a prison in Burma. This is what those monks who have been arrested will be forced to wear while they face torture including electric shocks and the iron road, where a rod is rubbed up and down on your shins until the skin and flesh is worn away and the rod is grinding on bone.
No matter what the regime does to us, we won’t stop demanding our freedom, our basic human rights. They might have suppressed protests in the short term, but we will not give in. We will win our freedom. But without more support from the international community, my people will have to pay for their freedom with their blood. So many of us are being killed, so many being tortured. I ask again as I asked last year, please help us.
For more information contact Mark Farmaner on 02073244710.