North America Campaign for Free Burma Road Trip (Pasadena)

 

Kyaw Si Thu, a Burmese refugee is driving his car across North America as part of Free Burma Campaign aimed to raise awareness of humanitarian crisis and brutality going on in military-ruled Burma. His solo driving journey started out on December 1, 2007 at Toronto, Canada where he lives. He stops in Pasadena on the 16th of December 2007.
Burmese and a Burmese monk have testified in front of the Pasadena City Council and the Pasaden Commission on Human Relations about China's complicity on human rights violations in Burma. On October 29, the Pasadena City Council voted against the Commission recommendations in making a strong statement about China's human rights violations. Mayor Bogaard's subsequent letter to the Sisters Cities even referred to those testimonies and reports from Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, U.S. State Department on China as merely "allegations". Former Pasadena Mayor Bill Paparian, Visual Artists Guild Chair Ann Lau, Burmese-American Pyi Maung, Burmese community and the human rights community welcomed Si Thu to Pasadena.
In the video, the Pasadena police tried to pressure the protestors into not going to the Mayor's house to submit the letter from Si Thu. The police wanted the letter to be given to her at City Hall.