Embassy refuses list of protests

Susanne Nylén

Aftonbladet's team stopped outside the building in London

100 000 of Aftonbladet´s readers have signed the list of protests.

But the Burmese embassy refuses to receive the letter.

– We do not accept it and you are not allowed to enter the building, says the ambassador through the entry phone.

Protestors are gathering at the street outside the embassy of Burma in London. They’ve been here each day since the 21 of august. Some days they’ve been more than hundred persons.

To elude the protests the embassy workers resolutely closes the doors. A hand-written sign on the door says that they have temporary closed the embassy for three hours. The receptionist says they went for lunch.

But the police have another explanation.

– We patrol the area in the view of the protests, and it is because of them the embassy is closed, says an officer to Aftonbladet.

It turns out to be an impossible mission to hand over the letter whom the chief editor of Aftonbladet, Anders Gerdin, and aftonbladet.se´s publisher in charge, Kalle Jungkvist, has signed.

The ambassador says through the entry phone that we’re not allowed to be in the area.

– We do not want the letter and we will under no circumstances accept it, says a man who answers at the third try.

The police have had enough and indemnifies the building.

– Please, do not misapprehend us. We support the protestors but we have to do our job. This doorstep belongs to Burma and you are not allowed to stand on it, says the officer.

Instead he suggests us to send the letter through regular mail.

– But I guess the embassy workers will burn it anyway.

But the denary protesters read the letter with joy.

– It means a lot that other countries supports our cause. But the only thing that really would improve the situation in Burma is weapon. The UN needs to send its peacekeeping troops and the US its army, says Kyaw Zwa, 40.

He and the protestor Yelin Zaw, 27, haven’t heard a spoken word from their relatives in three weeks. But they’ve heard that the situation now is calmer because of the huge numbers of people who fled to Thailand.

– Everyone is afraid. Hundreds of monks have fled from the monasteries every night. Otherwise they take the risk of being killed or imprisoned, says Yelin Zaw.