09 November 2007
The plight of the Buddhist monks in Burma is the focus of West Ham MP Lyn Brown's exclusive column for the Recorder this week.

She writes:

The last week of October was not the best of weeks. I finally succumbed to the dreaded flu virus on Sunday night and, without giving too many unpleasant details, was horribly ill.

I took my first day off due to illness from the whip - my first day's sick leave from Parliament. Trying to persuade the whips to sanction a day off is a story in itself - sometimes the relationship with that office is a little like being back at school . . . except without the pastoral care.

Being poorly meant I missed the opportunity to accompany Cllr Lakmini Shah and five Buddhist monks to Downing Street to hand in a petition on behalf of five Buddhist temples in Burma.

The petition asked the Government to investigate the recent violence in Burma against the Buddhist monks. I had watched, like many others, pictures on our television screens that displayed the dignity and bravery of the Buddhist monks leading and galvanising the protests.

The indiscriminate and brutal violence of the security forces against unarmed and non-violent protestors clearly demonstrated the moral bankruptcy of the Burmese military regime.

These haunting images also showed the true nature of that military regime - a regime whose only ideology appears to be its own self-preservation, and whose only aim seems to be the subjugation of its own people.

We did not see pictures of the thousands of political prisoners held by the regime. We did not see footage of the appalling prisons in which they are held. We do see all too brief glimpses of Aung Sung Suu Kyi.

I think that we have not discovered the full extent of the violence or the numbers of protestors killed. It is chilling that Western diplomats based in Rangoon say with confidence that the death toll is far higher than the ten reported by the regime's media outlets.

The televised violence of the military's crackdown is merely an indication of the wider brutalities and human rights abuses perpetrated by the Burmese military across this beautiful country of more than 50 million people.

Parliament was debating Burma last week, so I penned a small speech of support, a small gesture to show my solidarity with those peaceful, oppressed people.

A backbench MP like me only gets called four or five times in a year to make a substantive speech and, as I am a newcomer, the protocol is that we are called last in debates.

Given the rarity of opportunity I usually save my participation in debates for when I have something unique to contribute, something not said before and mostly directly relevant to people in Newham.

This time I felt a moral obligation to make a contribution and I did not care if I was going to echo all those who had gone before in my condemnation of the brutal military regime. Sometimes it is worth risking repetition for a cause which clearly needs as much attention as possible.

But there is an old saying. If you want to give God a laugh, tell Him your plans. I got in Monday to be told gently and firmly that there was no way I would get the chance to speak - too many old hands wanting to contribute.

As our borough is very diverse, with people from all parts of the world, I do get a substantial amount of letters asking me to press for intervention and diplomatic pressure in many different countries.

I am happy to hear from you on these issues and happy to continue to do as much as possible to ensure people in other parts of the world enjoy the freedoms we all take for granted.

You can contact me by e-mail on brownl@parliament.uk, write to me at Lyn Brown MP, House of Commons, SW1A 0AA, or you can call my office on (020) 7219 699.