Protest At Beijing Women's Meet Against Ruling Burmese Junta

September 11, 1995- (Reuter) Three women staged a brief protest during a speech by Burma's official delegation to the world's women's conference on Monday, unfurling a red banner demanding freedom for Burma.

The three, two of whom were from Norway and Thailand, unfurled the banner during a speech to a plenary session by the senior military officer heading the Rangoon military government's delegation to the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing Burma's Minister of Social Welfare, Relief and Resettlement Major General Soe Myint did not falter in his speech during the protest, which lasted less than a minute.

UN security guards in pale blue uniforms quickly gathered up the bright red banner that read: "Free the People of Burma", and removed one women from the conference hall. The other two disappeared into the crowd.

"We want to show the world that nothing has changed in Burma," said protester Katherine Biering of the Norwegian Burma Council in Oslo. She accused the military government of continued human rights abuses in Burma despite its release last July of Nobel Peace Prize-winner Aung San Suu Kyi after six years of house arrest.

"The international community should really know that this man standing up here, a general in the Burmese army, and this army is violating human rights every day in Burma," she said. Soe Myint addressed the session in civilian clothes.

From: http://www.burmanet.org/bnn_archives/1995/bnn092395s.txt