The Ethnic Nationalities Council (ENC) strongly condemns once again the military regime’s violent suppression of peaceful demonstrations and demands immediate release of all who have been arrested. The ENC is gravely concerned about the health of detainees, especially the 88 Generation leaders who are said to be hospitalized due to unexplained reasons, and the news of the death of Kyaw Min Yu (a.k.a. Jimmy).

The ENC welcomes the international community’s condemnations on the junta leaders’ “tyrannical behaviour” and recent violent crackdown in
Burma. The ENC would like to congratulate the political courage shown by the world leaders, especially Mrs Laura Bush for her long-standing concern about
Burma. Word alone, however, is not enough. Action is needed. The ENC thus calls upon the international community to respond to the situation in
Burma more quickly with substantive actions. “We welcome the recent UN Security Council resolution on Darfur, but the situation in Burma is the same as in
Darfur, if not worse”, said ENC Chairman Saw Ba Thin.

In Burma, more than 3,000 villages are destroyed recently in
Eastern Burma alone, millions of internally displayed persons are made homeless, hundreds of thousands of refugees are fleeing to neighbouring countries, and more than 1,200 political prisoners are still serving unjust sentences in modern gulags around the country. During the past few weeks the junta has violently crushed street demonstrations all over the country, and deployed troops to disperse the Buddhist monks who joined peaceful demonstrations with the people to demand reduction of fuel and commodity prices.

The ENC calls the United Nations Security Council to discuss the situation in
Burma as soon as possible. With the backing of Security Council, the ENC further calls upon the UN Secretary-General, Mr. Ban Ki-moon, to organize an “International Conference on
Burma”. The ENC would like to see our neighbouring countries, especially China, India, and Japan, as well as ASEAN play a leading role and take initiative for such an International Conference in order to find the means to solve this political crisis in
Burma through a negotiated-settlement.

It is the fundamental rights of citizens to express their extreme sufferings and their desires peacefully and freely. Hence, we, the Ethnic Nationalities Council (Union of Burma) (ENC) demand the immediate release of the arrested protesters, including the student leaders Min Ko Naing and Ko Ko Gyi, without exception.

In order to solve the country problems peacefully, the ENC demands the SPDC to engage a meaningful dialogue with the winner party of 1990 election, National League for Democracy (NLD), and ethnic nationalities as called for the United Nations General Assmbly since 1994. The ENC firmly believes that a Tripartite Dialogue is the best way to solve the political crisis in
Burma.