FOREWORD

The peoples of Burma are today struggling to reclaim their rights and their country from one of the world's cruelest and longest-lasting dictatorships. The cost is high. Thousands of peaceful democracy activists have been killed. Many have been tortured and imprisoned. Yet even as individuals fall prey to repression, the democratic spirit of Burma's peoples refuses to die.

The Burmese junta has refused my requests to visit Burma to meet with my fellow Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, democracy leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi. But on the Burmese frontier, I have met with Burmese refugees forced to flee their homes. In terrible and terrifying detail, they told me of the tragic realities of life under military rule in Burma. Through censorship and repression, the dictators seek to disguise to the world the true nature of their brutal rule.

But the facts cannot be hidden, and we outside Burma cannot look away and ignore the plight of Burma's peoples. Our religious and philosophical teachings tell us that human suffering anywhere must be accepted as our own suffering. And our worldly experience convinces us that only practical political action can help end that suffering.

The foundation for action is information and education. In South Africa, global support for the anti-apartheid struggle grew as more and more people came to understand the realities of the minority regime. Increased awareness grew into a groundswell of grassroots support for change in South Africa. And it was this popular sentiment that finally convinced governments around the world to take effective action to demand reforms leading to peaceful transition to majority rule.

International knowledge regarding the situation in Burma is rising. This booklet will increase that awareness, and with it, the basis for action. It provides concise background facts about events in Burma. And perhaps more important, it offers contacts for the growing global network of activists who are using e-mail and the World Wide Web, as well as more traditional means, to inform, energize, and demand international action to promote peaceful change in Burma. Many people may right now be reading this in its electronic version and can gather more information and contact local and international activists with just a few computer keystrokes.

I ask you to use this booklet to learn about Burma. And I urge you to turn that knowledge into action. In South Africa, we gratefully learned that the people's voice raised is indeed a most powerful tool. It is time we raised our voices together to demand that our governments and the world community take effective action to bring respect for human rights and democracy to Burma.