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Today, I’ll talk about Burma. Do you know Burma? I went to Ritsumeikan University to take a lecture about Burma on Saturday before last. That day, Mr.ココラット,a Burmese living in Japan, talked to us about his country desperately. I didn’t know all about the country. Then I thought I should tell the real to many people, so I’ll tell.

Burma is so terrible country now, because there is a mad government. Burma is Myanmar. Burma is Southeast Asian country bordered by China, India, Thailand and Bangladesh. Before the year 1962, Burma was so rich country. However, now, people of Burma live under autocratic military regime. Government of Burma use 50 % of its revenue for military affairs, and less than 10% is for health and education, so only 10% is for citizen! And government kills people who have anti-government, and harm their citizen by extrajudicial execution, rape, torture, summary or arbitrary executions, enforced disappearances, inhumane treatment, mass arrest, forced labor, forced relocations and denial of freedom of assembly, association, expression and movement. (法廷外の強制執行、レイプ、拷問、即決処刑、強制失踪、非人道的扱い、大量逮捕、強制労働、集会・組合・表現・移住の自由の否認). It is notorious for the news which Nagai Kenji(長井健司),a free journalist, was killed by military in Burma in 2007. Therefore, we can’t go there and citizen can’t live peacefully.

This topic was written by using “Burma”, not “Myanmar”, because Myanmar is imitation. There are so many severe histories in Burma. In 1962, autocratic military regime robbed political power of Burma. In 1989, citizen had anti-government movement, but more than 1,000 people were killed by the then government for only three days. And the military government fired into the crowds, massacred Burmese, imposed strict regulation and changed the name of country from Burma to Myanmar arbitrarily, so, citizens don’t admit the name yet. A lot of Japanese may know only Myanmar, but it’s not Myanmar.

There are so many Burmese refugees in Burma and other countries because they have no way or escaping. Now refugees in other countries are about135, 000 people, and there are 9 refugee camps at a nearby border in Thailand side. In the camp, they can receive education, but they have no job. And they can live, but can’t go out from the camp during theirs lifetime, so Children in the camp have no dream. They can live, but can’t live freely. However, people who can reach the camps are so lucky because a lot of people who escape from Burma are killed on the way by military of Burma. So, Burmese refugees are suffering large pain.

Now, Japan support Burma by giving big money; in 2006, the total of Japanese fund to Burma was 10, 35 billion yen. The money must be used for military, so Japan torments Burmese. Do you know this fact? I didn’t know, and I was surprised. We, Japanese don’t know anything about Burma and use the name, “Myanmar”. I feel ignorance is dangerous.