Prominent activist Kyaw Min Yu (Ko Jimmy), left, and former NLD lawmaker Phyo Zayar Thaw. Credit: CNN
FORSEA Event to Honour Lives of Four Executed Myanmar Activists
Outraged by Myanmar military junta’s cold-blooded murder of the 4-pro-democracy activists in the country a week ago, an international group of activists, concerned scholars, musicians and singers have teamed up with Myanmar dissidents to host a 2-hour YouTube LIVE event this coming Saturday, 30 July. The event will commence at 7 pm Yangon, 1:30 PM London; 8:30 AM New York, and ends at 9 pm Yangon; 3:30 PM London; 10:30 AM New York.
The event’s Burmese organizer Dr Maung Zarni of the Forces of Renewal for South East Asia, a network of concerned scholars and rights activists, said, “the (Myanmar) regime that only 6 years ago violated all grave crimes in international law – including genocide against a national minority Rohingyas – has once again proven capable of such cold-blooded murder of our fellow activists in the name of law.”
He added, “this Saturday’s event is not a memorial service to mourn the murdered activists, but to both honour their lives and exemplary sacrifices and more broadly to celebrate Myanmar’s spirit, strength and stamina of resistance against successive murderous military leaderships.”
Nine different performing artists and/or bands including hip hop and classical musicians, from New York, Sarajevo, Phnom Penh, Kuala Lumpur and Northern Myanmar will perform as an act of solidarity to Myanmar resisters.
The event will be opened by String Quartet Sinfonietta SA, led by Professor Belma Alic of the Music Academy of Sarajevo. The quartet will play 'Stone sleeper', by the Bosnian composer Vladimir Milosevic.
The acclaimed Burmese dissident vocalist and musician Mun Awng will perform LIVE from his native highlands of Kachin, Northern Myanmar.
Among the international speakers are: Malaysian Foreign Minister Saifuddin Abdullah, Yale’s renowned scholar of everyday resistance Professor Emeritus James C. Scott, and veteran Malaysian dissident Hishamuddin Rais.
They will be joined the fellow Myanmar resisters: Moethee Zun, former head of the All Burma Students’ Democratic Front; Moe Thway, a founding member of Generation Wave; Nay San Lwin, co-founder of the Free Rohingya Coalition; and Ma Khaing Zar Aung, President of the Industrial Workers’ Federation of Myanmar.
To watch the event, go to: https://youtube.com/channel/UCfB6hOaCGI1yXA2yPKDvpJQ
Contact: info@forsea.co & What’s App: 00 44 771 047 3322
BACKGROUNDER:
The Execution of 4 Activists should Strengthen Myanmar People’s Resolve & Unite their Resistance against the Genocidal Military Junta
Performing Artists
String Quartet Sinfonietta SA, led by Prof. Belma Alic from the Music Academy of Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina
Mun Awang, Acclaimed Dissident Musician, Liberated Area, Myanmar
Pich Charya, Renowned classical Khmer Musician, Documentation Centre of Cambodia, Phnom Penh, Cambodia
George Mathew, Conductor and Director of the Music For Life International, New York City
Kultur Shock, Seattle-based gypsy punk with root in Bosnian Federal Republic of former Yugoslavia
HIPHOPDECONTROL, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
YaRobin, underground hip hop group, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Mulham Abordan, Syrian refugee and musician, Austria
Solidarity Speakers
Moethee Zun, Veteran Leader of All Burma Students Democratic Front and founder of Students for A New Society in Burma (1988)
Moe Thway, A Founder, Generation Wave, Myanmar
Khaing Zar Aung, President of Industrial Workers’ Federation of Myanmar (IWFM)
Laura Watson, Global Women’s Strike, UK
Hishamuddin Rais, Veteran dissident, educator & performing artist, Malaysia
James C. Scott, renowned scholar of everyday resistance, Yale University and author of The Art of Not Being Governed: An Anarchist History of Upland Southeast Asia, New Haven, CT, USA
Saifuddin Abdullah, Foreign Minister, Malaysia
Jay Kerr, Labour Rights Campaigner with No Sweat and Punk Ethics, UK
Nay San Lwin, Free Rohingya Coalition, Frankfurt, Germany