Mar 9, 2009 (DVB), Exiled Burmese women's activist group, the Women's League of Burma, have marked International Women's Day by calling for the release of all women political prisoners in Burma.
The WLB in India, Bangladesh and Thailand yesterday organised social gatherings, discussion forums and marches to show solidarity for imprisoned women activists.
Saw Mya Yazar Linn, a board member of the WLB, said that about 50 people attended the Women's Day discussion forum organised by the group in Dhaka, Bangladesh.
"In the forum, we mainly discussed the government's upcoming elections in 2010, which was based on a constitution which won't do anything good for the people of Burma," he said.
"We call for the release of all women political prisoners in Burma, including Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, Ma Nilar Thein, Mee Mee and Su Su Nway.
"We also call for the release of Ni Ni Myint who is being detained and tortured in Arakan's Butheetaung prison, and Ma Pan Pan Yin who is also detained in Arakan state," he added.
Thin Thin Aung, joint secretary of the WLB, who was in India yesterday, said Burmese woman groups in capital New Delhi and Mizoram state's Aizawl gathered up to mark the Women's Day in discussion forums.
"We invited Burmese women migrants to the forum in Aizawl and lectured them about the Women's Day: how it started, about the women's rights movements around the world and on how Burmese and other women around the world were being discriminated," he said.
WLB's other joint-secretary, Tin Tin Nwe, said the group, along with several other women and NGOs in Chiang Mai, Thailand, organised a march to show support for the Burmese women activists under detention.
"The WLB cooperated with the Migrant Assistance Program foundation and the Empower group to organise the march together," said Tin Tin Nwe.
"During the march, we called for a release of all women political prisoners in Burma, and also for a round table dialogue which involves all the political groups."
Dr. Myint Cho, of Australia-Burma council in Sydney, Australia, said Burmese women living there also joined together in a protest.
Reporting by Yee May Aung
