THE JOINT STATEMENT OF WORLDWIDE MON COMMUNITES ON THE 56th ANNIVERSARY OF THE MON NATIONAL DAY, FEBRUARY 17, 2003

 

        Mon National Day falls on the first waning of Maigh, the ninth month in the

Mon lunar calendar. Over fourteen hundred years ago, on this very day, the

Hongsawatoi Mon kingdom was born. As such, our benevolent Mon leaders

meaningfully organized for the benefit of all Mon people. The worldwide

celebration of Mon National Day began in 1947 and it honors the founding of

the peaceful Hongsawatoi, established in 1116 of the Buddhist Era or 573 AD

Common Era, located in the south-eastern parts of Myanmar.

        Wherever we may be in this world, on this day we join hands together to

commemorate our people’s history, our cultural lineage and tradition.

Serving as a reminder of our ancient cultural lineage, Mon National Day

reunites our people, rekindles their spirits, and preserves their original

traditions of, dress, dance, food, and conduct. In essence, the celebration

of Mon National Day intends to reawaken cultural and political awareness,

ceremoniously, in memory of Hongsawatoi.

        The downfall of Hongsawatoi arrived in May of 1757, when violently

oppressive military leaders occupied and attacked, directly inflicting

horrifying atrocities against innocent people without any regard for life or

for what the Mon people had given, in terms of both social and economic

contribution. This great loss of precious human life and culture was nothing

short of genocide. The shattering end of the Mon nation signified the end of

a thriving, peaceful, and wonderful culture, in Southeast Asia. The scarcely

remaining Mon people, without any rights to neither speak their indigenous

language nor acknowledge their own history and cultural lineage, live in

fear for their lives, and live under the discrimination of the masses of

people and are under a violent, racist, merciless military dictatorship.

        It is a matter of genocide, and one of public knowledge, that U Thant, a

former secretary general of the United Nations, said, “the last Mon is

dead.” This event happened in a United Nations conference on the minority’s

issues in Myanmar in 1970; Myanmar’s Central government denies the

recognition of Mon people’s political rights on the premise that there are

no differences between Mon and the Burmese people”. Since 1757, oppression

and violence against the Mon people has not ceased. Mon ancestors, striving

resolutely, vigorously fought, in self-defense, against the Myanmar central

government from 1948 to the present time.

        Myanmar is one of the poorest countries in the world as a direct result of

the decisions and overriding policies of its military dictatorship

government. In the face of the fact that Myanmar’s government and private

sector are extremely wealthy, the public remains under tyrannical toil and

in disease and poverty. In order to maintain its position of power, and to

control and deteriorate Myanmar people’s strengths and unity even further,

the government intentionally prevents the development of democratic

institutions or movements; such social-progress is a direct threat to the

relevant social and economic elites. With precise and deliberate calculating

inactions and actions, on the part of the government, the political reality

of utter oppression and tyranny, in Myanmar, increasingly and continuously

worsens.

        The military rule of Myanmar’s State Peace & Development Council (SPDC) has

systematically dismantled the democratic forces and divided ethnic

nationalities with conniving meticulousness.   The SPDC abolished The Mon

National Democratic Front (MNDF), which took part in the 1990 general

election and won a substantial amount of seats in the area. The SPDC

sentenced our leaders, Nai Ngwe Thein, Dr. Min Soe Lin, and Dr. Min Kyi Win

to long terms in prison without any regard to their poor worsening health

condition.

        Although the continued slaughter, torture, rape, forced labor, arrests, in

Monland, having merited basic news coverage, certainly are matters of public

knowledge, regrettably the majority of the global populace is not aware of

these atrocities.  The SPDC has conducted land confiscation of approximately

five thousand acres of Mon people’s land for the purpose expanding

ethnic-cleansing military bases and for other purposes.  The Myanmar

government has plundered entirely the most fundamental human rights to

freedom and self-determination; manipulating and stealing by fraud and by

force anything and everything that they wanted; therefore, ensuring that the

restoration of social, political, and economical, justice for people in

Myanmar remains hopeless and far out of reach.

        On each Mon National Day, we dedicate our energy and time to the Mon

struggle, anticipating a peaceful life and the exercise of our rights as

human beings and as Mon. Our objective is to stop those responsible for the

crimes against humanity in Myanmar and to bring them to justice

internationally.

 

For the purpose of working toward and achieving the goals stated below, we

request that the international community come together in support and in

solidarity for:

 

        The release of Mon leaders and all political prisoners in Myanmar

and the immediate halting of military-regime land confiscation in Mon State,

        The holding of a tripartite dialogue, comprised of democratic

groups, of ethnic nationality groups, and of the military regime itself,

  The withdrawal of the Burmese army from the ethnic nationality areas and

halting of forced labor and forced portering and relocation and the granting

of unrestricted access for the International community to all detention

centers and ethnic areas in Myanmar or anywhere crimes against humanity are

reported,

  The institution of global public awareness of the discrimination of Mon

native people in both

Thailand and Myanmar the end to aggressive harassment and violence that Mon

people are subjected to, by racist people both in Myanmar and Thailand, who

intend to the restrain, insult, and bring under control the Mon native

tongue, its dialectical features, accents, and colloquialisms.

The institutions of Mon people’s rights to assemble, organize, and protest

peacefully and the allowance to practice Mon literacy, Mon traditional and

cultural activities in Myanmar and in Thailand.

 

Committees and organizations

1. Association of Finn-Mon Community, Finland

2. Australia Mon Community, Sydney, Australia

3. Mon Cultural Society, Calgary, Canada

4. Mon Health Community, Monland

5. Mon National Council, Canberra, Australia

6. Mon National Day Celebrating Committee, Australia

7. Mon National Day Celebrating Committee, Netherlands

8. Mon Unity League, Thailand

9. Mon Workers Union, Malaysia

10. Mon Workers Union, Thailand

11. Mon-Canadian Association, Toronto, Canada

12. Monland Restoration Council (MRC), USA

13. Overseas Mon National Students Organization, North America

14. Overseas Mon Organization, Denmark

15. Overseas Mon Organization, Scandinavia

16. The Steering Committee of the Mon National Day, Ohio, USA

17. Mon Youth Liberty Organization (MYLO)

18. Mon Migrant Women Network

 

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ABOUT US

Kao-Wao Newsgroup is committed to social justice, peace, and democracy in

Burma. We hope to be able to provide more of an in-depth analysis that will

help to promote lasting peace and change within Burma. Editors, reporters,

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community based in Thailand. Our motto is working together for lasting peace

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