Today marks the 12th 22nd anniversary of the famous 8/8/88 protests in Burma, when hundreds of thousands of peaceful protestors took to the streets to call for human rights and democracy.

It was to end in bloodshed – a brutal crackdown by the ruling military junta would leave an estimated 3,000 people dead in the weeks that followed.

The leader of the protests back then was Min Ko Naing. He was also involved in organising the protests in 2007. He is now in jail and is one of Amnesty’s priority cases.

There are estimated 2,200 political prisoners there, and torture, slave labour and unfair trials are all far common place.

Waihhin is a Burmese student living in London, and her father Ko Mya Aye was also involved in both protests. He is currently serving a 65-year jail sentence.
Interview

You can find more about the human rights abuses in Burma at the Amnesty site.

From an Amnesty press release

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