Supporters of the democracy movement in Myanmar organized a campaign in Taipei yesterday to voice their support for five female political prisoners, each of whom have been sentenced to 65 years in prison.
The campaign took place at the heart of the busy shopping district outside Zhongxiao Fuxing (忠孝復興) Mass Rapid Transit station.
“The area around Zhongxiao Fuxing station is a shopping paradise for a lot of women. But have we thought that, while many women in Taiwan are happily shopping here, there are other women out there living is horrible conditions, or put in jail by totalitarian regimes on groundless charges?” Amnesty International Taiwan director Wang Hsing-chung (王興中) said as he explained why the location was chosen for the event.
PHOTO: CHANG CHIA-MING, TAIPEI TIMES
The campaign was staged one day before International Women’s Day today because many women in Myanmar live in dreadful conditions, are forced to part with their loved ones and are tortured in dark prison cells, like the five female political prisoners who were arrested after taking part in a protest against the Myanmar military junta over skyrocketing oil prices in 2007, he said.
Five women who were in leadership positions during the anti-government demonstration — Mar Mar Oo, Nilar Thein, Sandar Min, Thet Thet Aung and Thin Thin Aye — were arrested in 2007 and 2008, and each was sentenced to 65 years in prison.
Unlike other campaign gatherings that involve slogans or marching, yesterday’s campaign featured music performances and postcards with lip prints that were sent to the military regime. The audience and passers-by were asked to sign their names on a pre-written postcard asking for the release of the political prisoners, and to either leave their own lip prints or stamp the postcards with a lip print stamp.
“We usually associate lip prints with women, and the lip print on a postcard with a powerful message to the military junta symbolizes the women’s power,” Taiwan Free Burma Network spokesman Yang Tsung-li (楊宗澧) said. “We want the dictator to feel the power of women.”
A man surnamed Yang (楊), who was meeting his friend at the MRT station, agreed to sign a postcard after an activist explained to him what had happened to the five women.
“I don’t know who these five women are, but I know they’ve done something right and I’d always support people who represent justice,” he said.
Khim Ohmar, one of the student leaders in a massive anti-Myanmar-government demonstration in 1988 and now still working to promote democracy in Myanmar from exile in Mae Sot, Thailand, also appeared at yesterday’s event.
She said that seeing so many people in Taiwan working to raise public awareness on the situation in Myanmar gave her more energy and hope.
She also expressed her hope that the Taiwanese government could give the freedom movement in Myanmar a hand.
“Tell your [Taiwan’s] government to send the message to China: Stop supporting the military regime and stop sending firearms to the military government,” Khim Ohmar said.
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