By Jeremy Reynalds Senior Correspondent for ASSIST News Service
SURREY, ENGLAND (ANS) -- Prominent Burmese dissident Ludu Sein Win has sent a message to a human rights organization in which he calls on people around the world to unite in the struggle for freedom and justice.
According to a news release from Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) Ludu Sein Win, 70, is one of Burma's leading journalists. He spent 13 years in prison and was one of the founding members of the National League for Democracy (NLD), led by Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi. CSW met him recently in Rangoon, and he gave the group a written message.
“Dear Friends of Peace, Freedom and Justice around the world,” CSW said he wrote. “I am Ludu Sein Win, a journalist and former political prisoner from Burma. I am sending this message to you to request your kind help in fighting against tyrants all over the world. Right now, the brave people of Libya, Syria, Yemen and other Middle East countries have risen up against the brutal dictators of their respective nations and to our heartfelt regret we found that hundreds of people have been killed every day by those dictators. They urgently need help from the world.”
He added, “We Burmese people also have been continuously fighting for our freedom for fifty years, and still we are hopelessly far away from the end of our destination. During the course of this long journey thousands of innocent souls have been slain on the streets and many hundreds have been killed in the prisons. Right now more than 2000 people, especially young students, monks and women are still in the prisons. They need your help."
CSW said Ludu Sein Win reminded readers that “more than half of the world is living under various dictatorships, deprived of all their basic human rights and suffering unbelievable miseries.”
He called on individuals and organizations worldwide to unite in support of freedom.
“Hundreds of thousands of ordinary people around the world are trying hard to help the suffering people. Many civic and religious organizations, international Non-Governmental Organizations (INGOs) and activists are also working to that end. If we can organize those different groups to coordinate their efforts and resources for the common cause, we can even challenge the heavens,” he wrote.
CSW said he continued, “I would like to ask all people of the world to unite and form 'People Power World Wide', in your city and in your community to work for peace, freedom and justice in our humanity. All civic and religious organizations, rights groups, aid groups, advocacy groups should co-ordinate their activities for our common cause.”
CSW's East Asia Team Leader Benedict Rogers said in a news release, “Ludu Sein Win is a courageous campaigner for freedom, who has taken grave risks in order to speak out. In sending this message he is taking yet another risk, and we owe it to him, the people of Burma and people suffering oppression and persecution throughout the world to listen to it and respond. His message is clear: in Burma the suffering continues, the dictators remain in power and nothing has changed. We all need to work together to build public consciousness, mobilize people and organizations, and strengthen co-ordination of international solidarity with the people of Burma.”
Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) is a Christian organization working for religious freedom through advocacy and human rights, in the pursuit of justice.
For further information visit www.csw.org.uk.
Jeremy Reynalds is Senior Correspondent for the ASSIST News Service, a freelance writer and also the founder and CEO of Joy Junction, New Mexico's largest emergency homeless shelter, http://www.joyjunction.org He has a master's degree in communication from the University of New Mexico, and a Ph.D. in intercultural education from Biola University in Los Angeles. His newest book is "Homeless in the City." Additional details on "Homeless in the City" are available at http://www.homelessinthecity.com. Reynalds lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico. For more information contact: Jeremy Reynalds at jeremyreynalds@comcast.net.
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