FreieWelt.net: After a short period of wordwide attention during the “Saffron Revolution” in September 2007, Burma has largeley disappeared from the international news. How ist the situation in Burma now?

Ashin Sopaka: It looks very quiet but of course the monks want to do something. They are waiting for a time to issue a protest.Yesterday I met with some monks who are studying here in Bankok And they are also waiting for the time that they can participate in protests. So even if it looks very quiet people are trying to connect to each other to find more links to other groups. And I got a lot of links right now. I am very happy that even young people are very activly working now. For example as I know right now inside Burma there are around 2000 Bloggers who are secretly writing about the situation of the country.

There are about 2100 political prisoners including Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and 200 Buddhist monks in jail right now. Daw Aung San Suu kyi is on trial in Insain prison in Rangoon, which is very notorius. I think this trial on Aung San Suu Kyi is not legal because you know, the regime is using this story very obviously.

The american man (John Yettaw) who entered her house, has done this before. Normally the regime would block such people from coming back to Burma again. They put them on a list not to come back. But this man was allowed to come back because they knew he would try to go to her house again and they wanted to make a fake story to put her into jail.

The people inside Burma are of course very afraid of being arrested and of the repression. This regime treats protesters very brutaly. So the people are vey afraid right now. But I know from my friends inside Burma that after the 2007 Saffron Revolution the people are talking more openly, they are openly criticing the regime.

FreieWelt.net: Several companies such as American Tobacco, Texaco, Levi Strauss and many others have withdrawn from Burma. How does this kind of economic pressure affect the life of the burmese population and how does it affect the government?

Ashin Sopaka: Not to work with the regime means not to acciocciate with the foolish.
According to Buddhas teachings there are 38 blessings. The first blessing is not to associate with the foolish man.

That american companies don’t want to work anymore with this regime is very upsetting to the Burmese generals. As you know many companies and business are owned by the generals.

If american companies dont work together with them, of course this will have an effect on the owners and also some people who are working for this companies. But in Burma only a few people have jobs. So the sanctions effect mainly and directly the Burmese generals.

Actually the operatives are very dissapointed about the economoc sanctions. They always make propaganda on the TV and radio abou it “we dont care, we dont care about the sanctions” But on the other hand they are indirectly making porpaganda to remove the sanctions.

Asian countrys like China, Thailand, India and even Japan which are the main trade countries benefit from the sanctions. They get commodities much more cheaper because the Burmese regime can not sell to other countries.

It is like a house with two doors. One on the west side is closed but the other one on the east side is open. The owner will use the open door to go out. Like this the regime uses the asian countries as partners.

FreieWelt.net: In 1999 you have co-founded “The Best Friend” Children Education Projects with the purpose to educate children who can not go to school. What have you achieved so far?

Ashin Sopaka: We achieved a lot so far. At the beginning our aim was to set up libraries, we have now 16 libraries inside Burma. And our purpose is not only to educate children but also to build a movement for democracy. In 2007 for example, The Best Friend co-founder King Zero was one of the leaders of the Saffron Revolution movement. He worked together with U Ganbira (leader monk of the Saffron Revolution), whom he met first in 2006. So I would say that the 2007 Saffron Revolution movement is also one of our achievments.

Now we are working togehter to educate refugee children in Thailand. We have two schools and one library in Mae Sot and there are many many students inside Burma with whom we are cooperating, working together on education and libray projects.

And you know even though The Best Friend started at the Buddhist Universaty in Rangoon/Burma in 1999 we now have many international friends around the world. For example in Germany, Swizerland, America who are working together with us and I would say this is also one of our achievments: we achieved friendships with people from other countries.

FreieWelt.net: What are the future plans for your projects?

Ashin Sopaka: In the future we want to set up more libraries inside Burma and especially help poor children not only inside Burma but also in other countris. For example poor children in Africa because we grew up in poor families we know what difficulties poor families face and we want to help them in the future.
We want to aslo open a small clinic in each library that we can provide basic health care. And if Burma is free we can work more insde. We could focus on education and health care.

FreieWelt.net: What is your hope for the future of Burma?

Ashin Sopaka: We must have hope. Without hope we would not be alive anymore. We need hope to bring home our struggle. Our hope is that Burma will be free and a peaceful country.

With our peaceful movement we also want to show an example for other countries. For example the 2007 movement: the monks peacefuly protesting. This peaceful protest should go to other countries which are not free yet. Right now we need to focus on Burma’s freedom but in the future we want to help other countries like Tibet, North Korea and some African countries which are not free yet, they are our future plans, they are our friends, they are together with us. We want to also think about these countries too.

The Interview in Deutsch here: http://www.freiewelt.net/nachricht-1494/wir-brauchen-hoffnung—int…

Tags: ashin, burma, interview, sopaka