USA/MYANMAR: Celebrities Gael Garcia Bernal and Peter Gabriel use their fame to raise awareness and call for UN action on Burma

Actor Gael Garcia Bernal and singer Peter Gabriel sent letters to U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan, calling on the U.N. Security Council to pass its first resolution on Myanmar, whose military regime has waged a brutal offensive against ethnic minorities. Since 1996, an estimated 3,077 villages have been destroyed by the army and more than 1 million people uprooted from their homes, some 500,000 of them living along the Thai border. But that figure probably underestimates the true numbers since some areas are too dangerous to survey, human rights groups have said. After co-hosting a benefit for a non-profit human rights organisation WITNESS, Gabriel and Bernal sent letters to the office of U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan. WITNESS says the letters came after hundreds of activists gathered in New York earlier in the week to raise awareness for the humanitarian crisis in Myanmar. Speaking at the benefit, Bernal told the audience he did not believe the international community had owned up to its responsibilities. "So what is the world doing to stop these abuses? Until recently, not much. There have been 28 consecutive non-binding United Nations resolutions in Burma, many international envoys have tried to prod the regime toward change. But tragically, the SPDC has rebuffed all efforts at cooperation and the abuses of civilians, political prisoners and political leaders, like the democratically elected Nobel Prize, Nobel Peace laureate, Aung San Suu Kyi continue," he said. Currently, The United States is circulating a Security Council draft resolution that would require Myanmar's government to change policies considered a threat to international peace and security. The letters said the council should approve the resolution before the end of the year. Other celebrities who signed letters include actor Tim Robbins, Kate Pierson of The B-52s, Nile Rodgers of the band Chic, singer Angelique Kidjo and American singer Suzanne Vega. The event, sponsored by WITNESS, the international organization that deploys video and technology to promote human rights worldwide, focused attention on the human rights abuses in the region. Myanmar has been under military-rule of one form or another since 1962, during which time its economy has collapsed and dozens of ethnic militias have waged civil war against the Burmese-dominated central government. Just last month, military-ruled Myanmar ordered the Red Cross to close its five field offices in the former Burma, effectively ending its humanitarian work in ethnic conflict areas. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), which has already been forced to end visits to political prisoners, has said that in the last few months its work had been reduced to a few, limited projects helping amputees. Since 1996, an estimated 3,077 villages have been destroyed by the army and more than 1 million people uprooted from their homes, some 500,000 of them living along the Thai border. But that figure probably underestimates the true numbers since some areas are too dangerous to survey, the rights group said. According to the Thailand-Burma Border Consortium, a humanitarian group based in Thailand, some 95,000 people are hiding out in conflict zones, with limited access to food, health and education. About 287,000 civilians are said to be sheltering in dozens of locations in areas where the army and insurgents have called a cease-fire, TBBC said. A third group, estimated at 118,000 people, were forcibly removed from villages destroyed by government forces and are living in government-controlled relocation camps where they are often used for forced labour for the army, TBBC said.

ITN Source | December 21, 2006

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