Monday, October 31, 2011

Light a Candle for Ashin Gambira













Monday 31 October 6–9 p.m.
Urgend humanitarian intervention needed Everyone remembers images of the hundreds of thousands of saffron-robed monks marching through the streets of Burma, chanting the Metta Sutta in 2007. One of the main organizers of the peaceful uprising was Ashin Gambira. We now have very alarming details of his current condition in prison.
Ashin Gambira, a young Buddhist monk and a leader of the All Burma Monks’ Alliance (ABMA), has been sentenced to 63 years in prison for his role in organizing these peaceful protests. He has not committed any crime for which he deserves to be imprisoned.
He is one of around 200 Buddhist monks that are still behind bars and subjected to regular mistreatment. U Gambira is currently being held in the remote Kalay Prison, far from his family and friends. He is suffering from serious back and head pain as a consequence of repeatedly being interrogated and tortured.
After prisoners who were released from Kalay Prison on 12 October reported about the deteriorating health of the monk U Gambira, Wong Kai Shing, Executive Director of the Asian Human Rights Commission, wrote an open letter to Burma’s president U Thein Sein. In this letter he asked for the “prompt transfer back to a facility in Yangon where Ashin Gambira can receive appropriate treatment and also be close to his family”.
Fellow inmates have told of the monk “suffering from fits, in which he frequently cries out in pain and clutches at his head. The prison authorities then have to hold him down to administer a drug via injection, perhaps a sedative, after which he goes quiet and falls unconscious. When he comes out of unconsciousness, he slurs his speech.”
Both the physical and mental health of U Gambira seem to be in very precarious situations. He clearly requires urgent medical treatment and an end to the abuse at the hands of the prison authorities. There is no hospital and no staff doctor at Kalay Prison.
To raise awareness about Ashin Gambira and all of the political prisoners in Burma, we ask you all to light a candle on Monday 31 October. Meet with friends in public, or light a candle at home. Then upload a photo of the candle to our event page to show your support for the call to free Ashin Gambira and all political prisoners in Burma immediately.
by Alexandra Rösch

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