This year at Glastonbury 2011…
This year at The Little Burmese Tea Shop we are gearing up for a very busy time at Glastonbury.
Glastonbury 2010
Glastonbury celebrated its 40th anniversary in 2010. Festival goers were allowed into the grounds a day early and for the teashop this was a very busy Glastonbury with continual tea servings, many requests for the famous ginger salad and lots of political awareness raising!
As the Military regime were calling for an election in November 2010 it was felt that this year the main awareness raising would be around the sham elections taking place later in the year.
The current ruling party, the Junta’s State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) – in its new constitution (which it took over a decade to write up) had disallowed Aung San Suu Kyi’s party, The National League for Democracy (NLD), the main opposition to take place in the elections. The clause within the deeply flawed constitution stated that those who had been imprisoned previously or currently were not able to stand in the elections. Considering that imprisonment for political activism and pro democracy activities was common place, with many still serving long sentences (of up to 65 years) this ruled out a large proportion of NLD members. The elections taking place in 2010 had not gathered international support and the structuring of the elections was neither fair nor free. The sham election was designed to allow the SPDC to continue to stay in power, to maintain the status quo and to continue with the same atrocious human rights abuses. Very little change would happen for the citizens of Burma and the teashop talked about these issues to bring to light the false elections.
To see all the photos from 2010:- Glastonbury 2010 photos
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Glastonbury 2009
The Teashop in 2009 focused on raising awareness of two main issues.
The Constitutional Referendum in Burma and the effects of Cyclone Nargis,
also Aung Sun Suu Kyi’s unjust imprisonment because of an American man
swimming out to her house unannounced was discussed.
Cyclone Nargis had inundated the Irrawaddy Delta region of Burma, unofficial
death toll ran at 140,000 people. The regime refused to acknowledge the
severity of the disaster, and obstructed aid – domestic and international -
from reaching the victims. Two weeks after the Cyclone, victims were evicted
from shelters to makeway for polling stations for the referendum.
Since 1996 the military has been re-writing the constitution, excluding the NLD
and ignoring ethnic interests. Ethnic groups have been calling for a Federal
solution since the Panglong Agreement of 1947 with General Aung San.
The new 2008 Constitution enshrines military domination of the legal and
executive branches of government, places the military above the law,
legalises military coups and prohibits Daw Aung San Suu Kyi from taking
any lead positions.
At the widely attended Speakers Forum a generous donation was given to
the campaign by a shop steward of a major union who spoke at the forum
about the workers striking at Total refineries in the UK.
The French oil company Total’s involvement in Burma funds the military
regime through the Yadana gas pipeline which crosses the Karen state
onshore. This business presence of Total in Burma is complicit with
the human rights abuses and turns a blind eye to the corrupt Junta
slaughtering its citizens who are working for a free and democratic
Burma.
To see all the photos from 2009:- Glastonbury 2009 photos
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At Glastonbury 2008
The main campaign focus of The Little Burmese Tea Shop for Glastonbury 2008 was increasing awareness around political prisoners in Burma and working to free those still imprisoned for their activism and/or political beliefs.
In 2008, the tea shop was attended by two previous political prisoners, Zaw Zaw Aung and Khun Saing. With their personal experiences of imprisonment whilst in Burma, they were able to offer first hand accounts to visitors who came to the tea shop. Zaw Zaw Aung and Khun Saing spoke at the Speakers Forum in the Green Futures field to further illuminate the horrors of imprisonment to a captive audience.
Whilst at the Speakers Forum, Zaw Zaw Aung graphically demonstrated the dehumanising experiences of imprisonment. A form of punishment for prisoners is to be kept in leg irons with an iron bar across the ankles which restrict movement. Whilst he was cuffed in the irons other members of the teashop explained that the leg irons were metered out for long periods of time which could make tasks such as sleeping and walking barely possible. Further to this as another form of punishment, a prisoner was sometimes forced to balance on the balls of their feet and they were beaten if they placed their heals on the floor. For more information please see this link to The Assistance Association for Political Prisoners in Burma:- www.aappb.org
To see all the photos from Glastonbury 2008:- Glastonbury 2008 photos
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Preparing for Glasters
We are getting ready, see links for more info and where to find us…..
