Students Demonstrate For Freedom in Burma

Members of the Garden City High School branch of Amnesty International gathered to support the pro-democracy movement in Burma.

Just after dawn on a gray October morning, Garden City High School students in the Amnesty International Club gathered outside the High School to express their support for freedom in Burma, also known as Myanmar. Drivers honked and waved at the students, who paraded in front of the High School with signs that read "Free Burma Now," "Peace for Burma and It's People," and "Join the Fight for Human Rights in Burma."

Burma, a country of some 50 million people, is ruled by a military machine of about 500,000 soldiers. The decade-long imprisonment of pro-democracy advocate and Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi and a recent brutal crackdown by the military brought Burma's plight to the attention of club members.

"Demonstrating in support of a free Burma highlights the repression that is taking place in this Southeast Asian country and reminds us of the freedom we enjoy in our own country," Club Advisor Doug Sheer said. "This simple demonstration would have been repressed in Burma with imprisonment or bullets."