Alliance Youth supports Burmese monks in stand against tyranny

10.50.00pm BST (GMT +0100) Thu 27th Sep 2007

Alliance Youth has come out strongly in support of recent pro-democracy protests in Burma, condemning the recklessness with which the military junta has used violence to oppress its own people. It has joined International Liberal Youth colleagues across the globe calling for the people of Burma to be given back control over their own government.

Alliance Youth Secretary Stephen Martin commented: "Recent protests led by Buddhist monks against the regime in Burma have challenged the military's brutal and oppressive grip on power. During the years since the overwhelming pro-democracy election results in 1990 were ignored, thousands of political opponents have been imprisoned, tortured and murdered. The directly elected leader of Burma, Nobel Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi, is recognised as a truly inspirational leader and we join our Liberal colleagues internationally in calling for her immediate release from house arrest. The people of Burma deserve to live a life of freedom and dignity, free of the scourage of dictatorship."

The Lagan Valley representative added: "We are outraged by the willingness of the Burmese military to direct violence against its own citizens in order to cling to power. Surely we, in the international community, must now stand with the Burmese people as they stand against their oppressors."

ENDS