Alumna Jailed At D.C. Free Burma Protest

A Harvard alumna was among a group of protesters arrested last week for demonstrating in front of the Burmese Embassy in Washington, D.C.

Renu "Rain" Madan '96 and 12 other students were arraigned on federal misdemeanor charges for civil disobedience Tuesday. If convicted, they could face fines up to $500 or six months in jail.

The students were protesting the current Burmese government, "which has maintained a campaign of harassment, torture, and murder of Burmese students," according to a press release from the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee (UUSC), an international human rights organization based in Cambridge.

"We were there protesting the people occupying the embassy," said Madan, an employee of the UUSC. "The demonstration in D.C. was to express our solidarity with [Burmese student activists] in their struggle."

Madan attended the protest as a representative of the UUSC.

Burma's form of government is at the heart of an international controversy. In 1990, The National League of Democracy won the general elections in Burma, but the military junta that has led the country since 1962 refuses to abdicate.

Over 50 people attended last Tuesday's protest, but only the 13 students were arrested for blocking the entrance to the embassy by handcuffing themselves together. Five protesters attacked their necks to a railing using bicycle locks, which took firefighters half an hour to remove. The protest was peaceful.

The protest was organized by the Free Burma coalition, an umbrella group of organizations working to free Burma from the military junta. The organization has chapters at many universities, including Harvard.

"[The embassy] is occupied by a group of illegitimate agents of the junta," said the founder of the coalition. "If the world believes this regime is not legitimate, they should close down the embassies."

Madan said she was inspired to join the protest by the detention of 18 people in Rangoon for distributing prodemocracyleaflets last August, an event that madeinternational headlines. The students wereoriginally sentenced to a five-year prison termbut were instead deported after pressure fromother countries. Two of the people arrested inRangoon also participated in the D.C. protest.

Madan was not involved in any student humanrights organization that also support the FreeBurma movement while at Harvard. She becameinterested in the movement when she began workingfor the UUSG, she said.

Madan said that hearing the stories of studentactivists in Burma also moved her to act.

"I felt like the action that I was about totake was nothing compared t what Madan said. "Iwant to make a difference here."

Madan's trial date is set for December 8.Supporters of the demonstration hope that thepunishments will be lenient.

"I hope the moral reasons [for the protest] aretaken into consideration, said Shalini Nataraj, aprogram associate with the UUSC. "I hope that thejudge o magistrate looks at in within thiscontext."

"They broke the law, technically Zarni said,"but they believe were pursuing a higher goal.

Madan was not involved in any student humanrights organization that also support the FreeBurma movement while at Harvard. She becameinterested in the movement when she began workingfor the UUSG, she said.

Madan said that hearing the stories of studentactivists in Burma also moved her to act.

"I felt like the action that I was about totake was nothing compared t what Madan said. "Iwant to make a difference here."

Madan's trial date is set for December 8.Supporters of the demonstration hope that thepunishments will be lenient.

"I hope the moral reasons [for the protest] aretaken into consideration, said Shalini Nataraj, aprogram associate with the UUSC. "I hope that thejudge o magistrate looks at in within thiscontext."

"They broke the law, technically Zarni said,"but they believe were pursuing a higher goal.