European Karen Network Statement On Karen Resistance Day 2010

European Karen Network Statement On Karen Resistance Day 2010

European Karen Network

Statement On Karen Resistance Day 2010

For immediate Release 31st January 2010

On this day the European Karen Network, representing Karen communities in Europe, pays tribute to the tens of thousands of Karen people who have lost their lives in the past 61 years as we struggle for our freedom and our very survival.

The Karen people had been peacefully calling for political, social and economic rights, but instead were met with oppression, violence, including state sponsored communal violence, and then faced armed attacks against civilians, and raids and arrests of our political leaders.

Since our people first took up arms to defend ourselves we have been faced with increasingly brutal treatment, as ruling governments and dictatorships have tried to eliminate our culture and our people through suppression and military violence.

We pay tribute to the leadership of the Karen National Union (KNU), which for decades has defended the Karen people, often at great personal sacrifice to its members. Without the KNU all Karen people in Burma would long ago have been under the oppressive rule of the dictatorship, facing policies of Burmanisation, and the destruction of our culture and our people. The KNU has been the voice of our people, ensuring that we are not forgotten.

All Karen people have the responsibility to join the struggle for our freedom. Hundreds of thousands of Karen people have been forced to flee our home country, but wherever we are in the world we must continue to fight for our freedom, and we must keep our culture and traditions alive, teaching our history to our children. Failure to do so will be a victory for the dictators whom have oppressed us for so long.

Our fallen hero Saw Ba U Gyi was on his way to Thailand to tell the world what was going on when the Burma Army killed him to stopped him. They cannot stop the truth now.

We have justice and truth on our side. We have international law on our side. If we all work together, with all the people of Burma and those around the world who support our struggle, freedom will come as inevitably as the sun rises in the morning.

For interview please contact Mahn Aung Lwin, board member of European Karen Network, on + 49 1752433418. (European time).

Mark Farmaner
Director
Burma Campaign UK
28 Charles Square
London
N1 6HT
Direct Tel: +44 (0)20 7324 4713
Mobile:+44 (0)7941239640
Email: mark.farmaner@burmacampaign.org.uk
Web: www.burmacampaign.org.uk