A press release from Congressman Don Manzullo:
Burma’s Aung San Suu Kyi to Address House Foreign Affairs Asia Subcommittee Via Videotape
WASHINGTON – Nobel Peace Prize winner and democracy advocate Aung San Suu Kyi, who had been detained for many years by Burma’s ruling military junta, will testify to Congress via videotape Wednesday on the recent sham elections and current conditions in the Southeast Asia nation.
The hearing of the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Asia and the Pacific will begin at 12:30 p.m. ET Wednesday, June 22, in Room 2172 of the Rayburn House Office Building. The hearing will also be carried live via webcast at http://www.hcfa.house.gov
Entitled “Piercing Burma’s Veil of Secrecy: The Truth Behind the Sham Election and the Difficult Road Ahead,” the hearing will also feature testimony from Aung Din, Executive Director and Co-Founder of the U.S. Campaign for Burma, as well as Chris Beyrer, Director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Public Health and Human Rights.
U.S. Rep. Don Manzullo (R-IL), who chairs the Asia subcommittee, condemned the fraudulent Nov. 7, 2010 election in Burma that reinforced the rule of the military junta there.
In a statement following the election, Manzullo said the junta’s claim of receiving 80 percent of the vote “comes from the barrel of a gun.”
Don Manzullo
As the election returns were coming in to Burma, junta troops engaged in shootouts with ethnic minority forces in border areas, sending tens of thousands of refugees fleeing into Thailand, Manzullo said.
“Artillery fire even flew over the border, injuring refugees, Thai civilians and Thai soldiers on the Thai side,” Manzullo said.
“This hearing will highlight these sham elections and Burma’s difficult road ahead. I am excited to share the videotaped testimony of Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi — the daughter of Burma’s revolutionary hero General Aung San — with my colleagues and the public so everyone can hear of the junta’s continued military offensives against ethnic groups and the dire human rights situation in Burma.”
Manzullo, a longtime champion of freedom and human rights in Burma and other countries, previously co-authored a bill that was signed into law in 2008 awarding Aung San Suu Kyi the Congressional Gold Medal for her brave fight for democracy in Burma.
Manzullo has also kept pressure on the military junta in Burma by working annually to renew economic sanctions against them.
Manzullo is also a member of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China that monitors human rights and rule of law violations in China.