Dharma Punk

CANDLES AND PRAYERS FOR BURMA
PLEASE HELP CYCLONE VICTIMS, Donate now to DEC's Burma Cyclone Appeal, www.DEC.org.uk/Burma
VISIT www.alertnet.org, the Reuters Foundation, alerting humanitarians to world emergencies.

BURMA: "WE ARE LIVING IN HELL... PLEASE HELP US" Burma is home to 53 million people, and one of the worst human rights-abusing military dictatorships in the world, which has once again launched a brutal crackdown against peaceful protesters. Many have been killed, the bodies taken from families by soldiers. Thousands of monks have been arrested, activists are facing brutal torture. The list of human rights abuses is staggering: STATE TORTURE AND EXTRAJUDICIAL EXECUTIONS: Once in prison, democracy activists face horrific torture, including electric shocks, rape, iron rods rubbed on shins until flesh rubs off, severe beatings, solitary confinement and death. POLITICAL PRISONERS: Burma holds 1,100 Political prisoners, including Nobel Peace Prize Winner Aung San Suu Kyi, the leader of the pro-democracy movement. CHILD SOLDIERS: Burma has more child soldiers than any other country in the world (70,000), many of whom are abducted, drugged, beaten, and forced to fight. Children as young as 11 are snatched by soldiers on their way home from school and forced to join the army. Often their parents are not told what has happened to their child. FORCED LABOUR: Across Burma, thousands of men, women and children have been forced to work for the regime without pay and under threat of beatings, torture, rape and murder. People are forced to work as construction workers or as porters for the army. Porters are also used as human minesweepers, made to walk in front of soldiers in areas where there are landmines. ETHNIC CLEANSING: The regime has been waging war against ethnic minorities, such as the Karen, Karenni and Shan, for decades, driving hundreds of thousands of people from their homes. More than 3,000 villages have been destroyed and countless civilians killed. 700,000 refugees have fled from fighting and the burning of their villages. SYSTEMATIC MILITARY RAPE: The Burma army uses rape as a weapon of war against ethnic women and children as young as five years old. Rape is regularly committed by officers in front of their troops and often involves extreme brutality, torture and even death. Generals order their military to attack ethnic groups throughout the country and in 1988 issued a blood assimilation order to their troops to marry or rape the ethnic women in order to "purify" the ethnics' blood lines HEALTH AND EDUCATION: Burma has destroyed its own educational and health system. The military government spends less than 2% of the national budget on health and education combined, and over 40% on the Military AND NOW THEY REFUSE HUMANITARIAN AID TO THEIR OWN PEOPLE DEVASTATED BY CYCLONE NARGIS "Most of the people lost their family members while they were clinging to each other... Many people are traumatized" Survivor, Irrawaddy Delta.For more information, please visit www.burmacampaign.org.uk they are desperately in need of donations
Burma Cyclone by Aljazeera - Part 1 (7.5.08)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hnc3W-K9u2A

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AN OPEN LETTER to TIBETANS and TIBET SUPPORTERS
Dear friends,
It is working. It…is...WORKING.
This is our time.
Everything that has happened since 1950 right up until this day has been leading us to this.
All the Tibetans inside Tibet who have endured the brutal occupation, all those Tibetans who gave their lives along the way, all the brave Khampas who took up arms to resist China’s rule - and those Khampas who could not face the pain of defeat and took their own lives – all the thousands of Ama-las and Pa-las who toiled and died in labor camps and government farms, all the monks and nuns who kept their spirits strong through years of forced ’re-education’ - and all those that were finally broken - all the political prisoners, the Drapchi 14, the unsung heroes like Thrinley Chodron who died years before anyone in the outside world knew of Tibet and her pain… all of their sacrifice has led us to this moment.
All the tireless efforts of His Holiness to seek a solution, all the constant work of Tibetans in Exile, all the injis who recognized an unjust situation and gave their time and energy, all the groundwork we set so we would be prepared when the time came, all the protests we all have weathered, all the many times handing out leaflets in the snow outside shut embassy doors and wondering when the world would listen…
The world is listening.
And this is our time.
Tibetans in Tibet have shown the world exactly what it means to live under Chinese rule. They have shown us how much the actions of a few brave souls can change the course of history. They have poured out of monasteries, ridden in on horseback, raised the Tibetan flag, and faced unimaginable consequences to show us that THEY ARE NOT FREE.
As much as our Tibetan brothers and sisters have shown us that they are not free, the Chinese government has shown us that THEY HAVE NOT CHANGED. They have shown the world exactly who they are. All notions of ’progress’ and ’development’ have been cast to the wind. A tiny flame, a little Olympic flame -- right from the country that invented democracy -- has cast a light that reveals the monster for exactly what it is. The light is on them now, and it will not go away. They have ignored us, they have laughed at us, now they are fighting us. Next up…. We win.
This is our time.
The world is listening.
Today, China’s dream of Han unity was completely dashed, on the global stage. Today, Hu Jintao and his cronies are sweating in backroom meetings wondering what went wrong and trying to resurrect the party line. Today, the International Olympic Committee is staring down the throat of the biggest disgrace they have ever witnessed. Heads are rolling. And change is coming.
To Tibetans in Tibet: I will not presume to advise you on what course to take. You know far better than I what to do. But I will tell you this. Whatever you do, we will support you. We will counter their lies, scale their walls, rattle their doors, hang banners off their bridges, pursue their leaders, confront their ambassadors, and continue to protest in all ways open to us, until you have your freedom.
We will not fail you.
Tibetans, we will not stop until you are free.
Bhöd Gyalo! From Josh Schrei, www. phayul. com

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