Makati City, Phils, May 19 — About 40 activists belonging to the Alliance of Progressive Labor (APL), the Initiatives for International Dialogue (IID) and the Free Burma Coalition -Philippines (FBC-Phils) organized a rally in front of the SPDC – Myanmar Embassy in Makati City at 10:30 am today.

The activists denounced the ploy to extend the incarceration of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, leader of the National League for Democracy and popular icon of the Burma democracy movement. They called for the immediate and unconditional release of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and all the more than 2,000 political prisoners in Burma.

Makati City, Phils, May 19 — About 40 activists belonging to the Alliance of Progressive Labor (APL), the Initiatives for International Dialogue (IID) and the Free Burma Coalition -Philippines (FBC-Phils) organized a rally in front of the SPDC – Myanmar Embassy in Makati City at 10:30 am today.

The activists denounced the ploy to extend the incarceration of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, leader of the National League for Democracy and popular icon of the Burma democracy movement. They called for the immediate and unconditional release of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and all the more than 2,000 political prisoners in Burma.

Representatives from different organizations and workers’ unions took turns lambasting the mock trial staged by the junta to try and sentence Daw Aung San Suu Kyi to an extended prison term.

“This is a ploy of the SPDC military junta to constrict the democracy movement inside the country as the 2010 elections draw near.  We know that Daw Aung San Suu Kyi can rally the NLD and the democratic forces into voting out the military junta and they (SPDC) want to start maiming the movement by extending Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s prison term,” says one of the activists.

A young woman representing the APL-Youth expressed, in behalf of the young women workers, expressed solidarity with the young women of Burma who suffer great injustices under the junta’s  iron rule. “There are also women and young people inside the prison cells, detained for just voicing their grief and discontent.  We must all work together to help free them,” she said.

The activists also called on the ASEAN to take decisive actions to push the SPDC into instituting concrete democratic reforms, starting with the respect and protection of human rights of all the people.

At the end of the rally, the activists staged a “die-in”, lying down on the pavement in front of the Embassy building in a vow of stronger solidarity and support to the people of Burma.

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For more info: please call Gani at 0929-4109647 or Egoy at 0920-9132472 or call IID Office at 435-2900 or 911-0205