Letter to UN by HFD Committe
On May 7, 2007
(Information-1)

May 07, 2007His Excellency Honorable Mr. Ban Ki Moon
Secretary General
The United Nations Organization
UN Headquarters
New York, NY 10017


Dear Mr. Secretary General

We congratulate you on your new position as the Secretary General of the United Nations and hope the UN will have great success under your leadership.  

On 7 May 1757 the Mon people lost their independence and many thousands of innocent Mon people were brutally executed by the Burman ruler, Aung Zay Ya (Alaung Paya). From this day we lost not only our sovereignty rights but also the right to freely practice our culture and learn our language, the right to freely determine our political, social and economic status and the right to freely determine our own future.

Mon people are one of the ethnic nationalities in Burma.  We, along with other ethnic nationalities, are seeking peace, justice, equal rights, and self-determination rights in Burma.  Mon people in Burma continue to suffer from extreme social and economic hardship, discrimination, and other human rights abuses under the Burmese regime.   These abuses are leading to the extinction of our people and our way of life in Burma. The present Burmese military regime is imposing an ethnic cleansing policy on non-Burman ethnic nationalities by increasing the military occupation in Mon and other ethnic nationality’s areas.  Such occupation is causing increasing human rights violations, environmental destruction, and land confiscation.  Over the past decade the Human Rights Foundation of Monland reported that the Burmese army confiscated over ten thousand acres of farmland and committed hundreds of rapes against Mon women and girls in Monland. Over the past decade these abuses in turn have caused thousands of Mon refugees to flee to the Thai-Burma border and forced hundreds of thousands of Mon to immigrate illegally to neighbouring countries such as Thailand and Malaysia.       

  In 1995 the New Mon State Party, the strongest Mon political organization with an armed wing, reached a cease-fire agreement with the Burmese military regime in the hope of solving the political problems through a dialogue in Burma. Although the party repeatedly called for political dialogue the regime has continued to ignore these requests. Instead, the regime continues human rights violations against Mon civilians in Monland, especially in Ye Township.

Therefore today we are holding a demonstration in front of the United Nations Headquarters in New York City to mark the 250th anniversary of Mon Kingdom Hongsawatoi (Pegu) Fallen Day.  We demonstrate to draw your attention in our concerns and we request you to encourage the Burmese military regime to immediately end human rights abuses in Burma and to respect our inalienable rights as guaranteed by the principles of the Charter of the United Nations.

Yours Sincerely,