BURMA IS known as "the Ireland of Asia" because of its history of opposing British rule, and it was very grateful to the Irish people who have always been supportive of democratic movements in the country, pro-democracy activist Aung San Phyo said in Dublin yesterday.
He was speaking at a rally by Burma Action Ireland opposite the GPO on O'Connell Street, which was organised to mark the 20th anniversary of a massacre of over 3,000 protesting students in Burma on 8-08-88 (August 8th, 1988). The rally was also timed to coincide with the Olympics opening ceremonies in Beijing yesterday. China has been supportive of the junta in Burma.
Among the attendance were about 100 refugees from Kayin (also Karen) state in southeast Burma, control of which is disputed by the Burmese junta and local national groups known as Kawthoolei.
The refugees came to Ireland last year and are based in Ballina and Castlebar, Co Mayo. They had been received at the Mansion House earlier by Lord Mayor of Dublin Cllr Eibhlín Byrne.
Aung San Phyo was a physics student at Rangoon University in 1988 and had to flee the country because of his role in the protests. He spent many years in Thailand fighting against the Burmese regime. He later went to India, before coming to Ireland in 1997. "Burma is nearly 50 years under military rule," he said, pointing out that in 1990 elections, 82 per cent of the people supported the opposition, but the junta refused to hand over power.
Gearóid Killgalen, chairman of Burma Action Ireland, described the 1988 massacre as "a stain on the whole world". Burma is further away from democracy than ever, he said.
The junta's actions following the recent cyclone showed they didn't give a damn about their own people, he added.
Thanking the Lord Mayor for receiving the refugees, he pointed out that Burmese democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi was a freewoman of Dublin city and that her father Aung San, who negotiated Burma's independence from Britain in 1947, had books on Ireland's War of Independence. He read messages of support from film-maker John Boorman, president of Burma Action Ireland; former UN human rights commissioner Mary Robinson, and U2 singer Bono. Other speakers included artist Robert Ballagh and Prof John Maye of TCD.
Also present were Sr Angela Hurley and Sr Jo Quinn of the Franciscan Missionaries of Mary congregation, which was expelled from Burma in the 1960s.
