Nobel Peace Prize Laureates Speak Out

This week, nine Nobel Peace Prize laureates called on the United Nations and the international community to impose sanctions, including a ban on arms sales, on Myanmar (Burma).

The petition was signed by prize laureates Archbishop Desmond M. Tutu, His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Shirin Ebadi, Adolfo Perez Esquivel, Mairead Maguire, Rigoberta Menchu Tum, Professor Elie Wiesel, Betty Williams and Jody Williams. The petition also expressed support for their fellow Nobel Peace Prize winner, Aung San Suu Kyi, asking for her release from house arrest as well as the release of Buddhist monks and others now political prisoners in Myanmar.

"We can not, and will not, forget the events of the Saffron Revolution and the courage of the Burmese people in asserting their right to live in peace and freedom. Despite decades of repression and in a world wracked by violence, their peaceful demonstrations represent a model for the proper and rightful expression of political dissent of which they are entitled", the petition said.

An editorial in yesterday's Boston Globe called the nine laureates "the World's conscience on Burma." "Tutu and his fellow peace prize winners are defending the interests of humanity," the editorial said.

Photo Caption: A Burmese monk holds a placard during a protest outside the Myanmar embassy on September 28, 2007 in Bangkok, Thailand.

Photo Credit: Chumsak Kanoknan / Getty Images