Dear Secretary General Ban Ki Moon,We send our greetings and blessings at this end of the year. We appreciate your continued focus on the terrible suffering in Burma, and support your plans for a potential visit there soon. We have two requests. The monks of the International Burmese Monks Organization (IBMO) would like a meeting with you at the earliest time.

We also request that you insist that all political prisoners, including Daw Aung Saw Suu Kyi, be released by the end of December, 2008 or you will recommend to the Security Council that they pass an arms embargo against Burma. The regime must also agree to allow the ICRC access to all political prisoners immediately without conditions.

We are the voice for the voiceless in Burma. We know too well the extreme suffering of the Burmese, both in and out of the prisons. Many of us have suffered at the hands of the regime. As you know, the extreme prisons sentences recently handed down to monks and activists demonstrate the regime’s continuing intransigence. The 2100 political prisoners are suffering unspeakable atrocities in the Burmese prisons. That number is growing as every day, more are arrested. We receive daily calls from inside Burma of monks still on the run and hiding. We know that over 400 monks are still missing since the Saffron Revolution in 2007.

The situation in Burma is getting worse under your watch. The Burmese generals are acting in direct defiance of the UN Security Council presidential statement issued in October 2007, calling for the release of all political prisoners. The UN is obligated to take stronger action to make way for change there. A high level visit from you, the envoy will be much more fruitful with.

The Burmese are waiting for the United Nations to assist them in their simple quest for human rights, democracy, and a decent life not lived in constant fear and deprivation.

Thanks you for your response to this letter.

In Peaceful happiness,

 

Venerable Pannya Vamsa

President

International Burmese Monks Organization