The global signature campaign for the release of Burma’s political prisoners has got off to a flying start. On the first day of the campaign a new person signed the worldwide online petition every fifteen seconds.
The campaign aims to collect 888,888 signatures before 24 May 2009, the legal date that Nobel Peace Prize winner Daw Aung San Suu Kyi should be released from house arrest.
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 symbolises 8.8.88, the day the junta massacred some 3,000 people who courageously protested in Burma’s largest democracy uprising.
“The regime has jailed thousands of political prisoners because it wants the world to forget them,” said Anna Roberts, Director of the Burma Campaign UK. “Already there is a clear message to Ban Ki-moon, you must make securing the release of Burma’s political prisoners your top priority.”
The number of political prisoners has doubled in the past two years. Many are kept in appalling conditions, and denied medical access.
The online petition can be signed at:http://www.burmacampaign.org.uk/index.php/burma/campaigns/political-prisoners
For more information contact Anna Roberts on 020 7324 4710