Burmese Democratic Movement Association (BDMA)

Burmese Arts Festival Fundraiser

This inaugural festival (14-17 October 2010) will bring together a unique group of Burmese contemporary artists and artists inspired by Burma, many for the first time. Curated by Htein Lin, the festival will include new presentations and productions and a celebration of Burmese culture to share with UK audiences. The three days will encompass theatre, dance, film, installations, music, food and workshops, including a conference on the roles artists and performers can play in a changing Burma. The full programme will be announced in August.

The festival is organised by a group of Burmese and British artists, including the Burmese Theatre Workshop, the only Burmese theatre company in Europe, in association with prominent UK free expression organisations Index of Censorship and English PEN.

In order to raise sufficient funds to bring artists to the UK, we will be holding a fundraiser on Friday 30 July and would be delighted if you could join us. We would also be most grateful if you could spread the word to anyone that might be interested in attending, or recommend suitable people for us to invite. Join us for an evening benefiting the first ever Burmese Arts Festival, an event designed to highlight the role of artists in bringing about change in Burma.

The evening will feature a special preview excerpt from the new film "This Prison Where I Live", featuring imprisoned poet and comedian Zarganar, who describes himself as the 'loudspeaker' for the Burmese people. We will also be presenting a Burmese Theatre Workshop dance performance and their new piece Beyond Nargis. There will be delicious Burmese food, a raffle and an auction of art work by Burmese fine artists, including Htein Lin, Khin M Weinman and Phi Phi.

Event type: Cultural, fundraising
Admission: Tickets are £20. To book your place, please contact the Free Word Centre on 0207 3242 570 or email info@freewordonline.com
Date: Friday 30th July
Time: 18:30
Venue: Free Word Centre, 60 Farringdon Road, London, EC1R 3GA
Details: For more info pls visit the organisers' website

Demonstration to reject conspiracy of overturning History of Burma (သမိုင္းေၾကာင္းကုိ ေဇာက္ထိုးေျမလွန္ လုပ္ႀကံေျပာင္းလဲလိုသူမ်ားအား ဆႏၵျပပြဲ)

Nowadays, it is observable that Dictators in Burma are trying to seek legitimacy to cling onto power permanently. For this purpose, there has been a lot of obvious plot by ruthless military dictators to make the dictatorship period prolong in Burma such as vanishing dignity of father of independence Bogyoke Aung San and Daw Aung San Suu Kyi.

Similarly, overturning the history of Burma by any available media is one of the plots. It is intolerable that the movie “THE WATER-LILY THAT BLOOMS AT THE CRACK OF DAWN အာရုဏ္ဦးမွဖူးသည့္ၾကာ” totally point up the opposite of current situation in Burma. The movie will be shown in London along with those actors who perform in the movie by the sponsorship of the plotters, the officials of Burmese embassy in London.

Therefore we, students of Burma are protecting against those conspirators for the conspiracy of overturning history of Burma.

Event type: Demonstration
Date: Saturday, 31 July 2010
Time: 18:00 - 20:00
Venue: Copland Community College, Cecil Avenue, HA9 7DU

Arakanese (Rakhing) Culture Dances & Food Fair

Event type: Cultural
Date: Sunday, 01 August 2010
Time: 17:00 - 22:00
Venue: Wiseman High School, 358 Greenford Road, Greenford, London
Details: For more info and to see who is attending, pls visit the organisers' Facebook event

Demonstration in Commemoration of 8888 Uprising in Burma

Event type: Demonstration
Etiquette: Please refrain from excessive shooting of still photography or video recordings.
Date: Wednesday 6th August (in lieu of 8th August)
Time: 12:00 - 13:00
Venue: In front of the Burmese Embassy, 19A Charles Street London W1J 5DX

Cultural Evening with the Karen People of Burma

The aims of the event are to raise awareness about the Karen people, our culture, tradition and the situation in Karen areas. At the same time we would like to raise fund for our organization to continue our activities to help our people back home in Burma.

Zoya Phan will be hosting the event.

Event type: Cultural
Programmes: traditional Done dance, music performance, Karen clothes fashion show, Karen handicraft, traditional clothes sale, raffle prize
Admission: Normal ticket is £10 per person and Solidarity ticket is £15 per person. Ticket includes free food and soft drinks.
Date: Saturday 28th August
Time: 17:00 - 21:00
Venue: St Ethelburga's Centre for Reconciliation and Peace, 78 Bishopsgate, EC2N 4AG
Details: For more info and to see who is attending, pls visit the organisers' Facebook event

Pro-junta Lobbying in Violations of Vienna Convention on Consular Relations

Dear all activists

Myanmar Association ( UK ) in London is being sponsored by the Burmese Ambassador Maj-Gen.Nay Win long ago. This MAUK is pro-SPDC and a military related association. This is unlawful association in London. Maj-Gen.Nay Win, who is the Ambassador of the Embassy of the Union of Burma is in charge of the sale of tickets for Myanmar Association ( UK ), Myanmar Anyeint & Music Concert hold on 31st July 2010 at Cophland Community College,Cecil Avenue , Wembley. HA9 7DU, London, during office hours in Embassy premises.

According to the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations, article 55-Sec 2, the consular premises shall not be used in any manner incompatible with the exercise of consular functions. Also in article 57-Sec 1 , it is clearly stated the career consular officers shall not carry out any professional or commercial activity in the receiving state.

Our view to this matter is also that this group falls into the third category ( personnel benefiting from the SPDC ) and should be banned from entering the European Community countries. To avoid the ban of European Community visa to those benefiting from the SPDC, the Burmese Ambassador of UK have used Burmese doctors residing in the UK to sponsor the Burmese singers and dancers to acquire vistor visas to enter the UK. Also the Burmese singers and dancers have no right to perform without UK work permit and they no right to sell tickets without VAT and Commercial taxes.

Sincerely yours
U Khin Maung Kyi Former Burmese Diplomat and on behalf the Burmese Community ( UK )