FBC denounces to Thai PM's comment on DASSK

Open letter to Ambassador H E Mr D Bunnag, Thailand Embassy, South Africa





Your Excellency,



I write on behalf of the Free Burma Campaign (South Africa). One of our patrons is Archbishop Tutu. We take the strongest exception to your Prime Minister's recent description of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi as a "political tool" of Europe and his statement that "efforts to engage the military regime would be more productive if Aung San Suu Kyi was left off the agenda.” We expect more intelligent, better informed and frankly a more polite and dignified comment from the Prime Minister of a great country like Thailand.



She has gone through immense suffering for Burma's struggle including being unable to be with her dying husband. That alone warrants a more, respectful and dignified response.



We need not remind you that the Oxford educated and only imprisoned Nobel Peace Laureate Daw Suu is nobody's fool and if she is a "tool" then she is the "tool" of Burma's peoples' democratic aspirations. Her party won the 1990 election by a landslide and despite her repeated periods of house arrest she remains her peoples' leader. This was clearly illustrated by the huge crowds that turned out to see her before her latest house arrest as well as the monk-led crowds that went to her house during last years inspiring demonstrations. It is the right of Burma's peoples to have their choice of leader respected and recognised as such. Hence your Prime Minister's comments were an affront to the will of Burma's peoples.



Furthermore her courageous stand has won her the full backing of very many moral giants, any one of whose support would be notable. These include Archbishop Tutu, His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Vแclav Havel, Dr. Oscar Arias, Rigoberta Menchu Tum, Betty Williams, Mairead Maguire and Jody Williams to name some.



Your Prime Minister's statement implies that all these great icons have got it wrong.



So, which moral icons have thrown their weight behind your Prime Minister?





Yours with the democratic support of Burma's peoples and the moral support of the above mentioned icons of humanity.



Date 31 August 2008





Free Burma Campaign, South Africa

http://www.freeburmacampaignsouthafrica.org.za





Copies to

- Department of Foreign Affairs, South Africa

- Political parties, South Africa

- Embassies, ASEAN countries

- Civil Societies in South Africa

- Media, South Africa