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We Must Free Aung San Suu Kyi

We watch now with absolute disbelief as, once more, the courage of the monks and people of Burma are flashed across our television screens. They reject the brutal dictatorship of the junta and call for the release of Aung San Suu Kyi, my own personal heroine and a model of Buddhist compassion in her non-violent struggle to take her place as the rightful leader.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has labeled the use of force against peaceful protestors in the regime’s renewed crackdown “abhorrent and unacceptable” and called for “bold action” from the junta “towards democratization and respect for human rights.” But the UN Security Council has issued only a nonbinding statement that “strongly deplores” the violence. Pro-democracy leaders, in a letter issued from a place of hiding, said the council’s statement “is not enough.” They plead urgently for a binding resolution calling for a release of all political prisoners, including Aung San Suu Kyi, and for the regime to “engage in a meaningful political dialogue” with her party, which won a landslide victory in 1990 elections that the junta refused to recognize.

I lay in bed at night with Suu Kyi’s lovely face committed to memory. I pray to the God of my understanding to help us free this incredible woman and allow her to alleviate the appalling suffering perpetrated on her people by the illegal military junta. And I must confess I oft times wonder if Suu Kyi were a man would the governments of the “free world” be more inclined to push the junta harder to release the true leader of Burma.

Sixteen years ago this week it was announced in Oslo that Aung San Suu Kyi was the recipient of the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize. The prize along with her overwhelming majority vote as the democratically elected leader of her country afford her the right to expect other democratically elected leaders worldwide to scream for her freedom.

India, the world’s largest democracy and birthplace of Buddhism, is silent. “Why?” we may ask. I’ll tell you why. Because India and the Southeast Asian democracies have put commercial interests before principles. How Gandhi must weep as his spirit feels the pain.

It is our duty and the duty of women worldwide to help free Aung San Suu Kyi. Women need to be leading the charge to ensuring a more peaceful and prosperous world. Suu Kyi, a phenomenal female leader, can inspire us.

So with all the love I can muster and all the prayers I can pray I will continue to push for the freedom of my heroine.

Look again at the world we live in. The men in power over these past centuries have committed crimes against humanity, crimes so horrendous they are beyond the comprehension of the vast majority of women in our world.

The Crusades, the World Wars, Hitler, Stalin, Spanish dictators, South American despots, Saddam Hussein and now America, the so-called leader of the free world, with a pre-emptive strike on Iraq. Shock and Awe. You bet it was shock and awe. According to the Lancet medical journal (October 11, 2006), a study using credible methodology shows that 650,000 Iraqis have perished and 800,000 have been severely injured and most have no access to medical help or care. God help the women who bear the losses. And those who mourn the American troops—all 3,829 of them who were sent to war or thrown into a bloody battle with little understanding of the Middle East and even less understanding of Muslims, only to return to their families in body bags.

The British made that same mistake in Ireland. Their pre-emptive strike led by Oliver Cromwell caused reverberations lasting 850 years. It also became the greatest enlister for Irish terrorism.



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