Monks protest against the Burmese governing junta at the Cannes Film Festival

(19 May 2008)
CANNES PROTESTS AGAINST BURMESE MILITARY JUNTA

The international protest against the Burmese governing junta came to the Cannes Film Festival on Monday (May 19th)
Actor Jane Birkin joined five exiled Burmese monks in a march to demand that foreign aid workers be let into the country in the devastating wake of Cyclone Nargis.

Jane Birkin told AP Television "Let us in. Let us in and let us help. We've just come to help, please, otherwise there will be three hundred thousand people that will die."

"The one opportunity in Cannes is to be able to talk about it again because we're talking about a hundred thousand deaths, two hundred thousand, three hundred thousand. We don't know if things can't get in there," she added.

U Uttara, a senior exiled Burmese Monk said "Even if they are not listening to the Indionesian community concerns for Burma we have another solution for intervention also, without permission to go and help. This is a humanitarian crisis. We need help."

Scores of protesters walked past the famous Cannes landmarks, chanting and praying and holding Burmese flags.
Meanwhile, three days of official mourning for the victims of the cyclone have been declared , seventeen days after the event on May 2nd.

Burma has agreed at an emergency summit in Singapore to accept more aid. The military rulers have been criticised for their slow response to the disaster, which has killed more than double the number estimated in the earthquake in China.

EU nations have warned that the junta could be committing a crime against humanity by blocking aid for survivors.

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