Police arrested three students from Georgetown, George Washington and American universities for unlawful assembly during a protest outside the Embassy of Myanmar last Friday. A political prisoner was also arrested.

About 15 students from area colleges joined members of the local Burmese community to demand the release of political prisoners on the birthday of Min Ko Naing, a student leader imprisoned since 1989.

Naing led a series of pro-democracy protests by Burmese students in 1988, in which the government allegedly killed thousands of the protesters. Naing has been imprisoned since 1989.

Protesters gathered across the street from the embassy, flanked by a contingent of police officers, since members of the group had planned to conduct acts of civil disobedience, which would lead to their arrest.

The four protesters attempted to enter the embassy and upon being denied access, they sat in silence in the middle of S Street, holding posters with slogans including “Free all political prisoners.”

“We’re just asking that you bring freedom to people that are just speaking their mind,” Dominic Nardi (SFS ’05) said over a megaphone.

After refusing to get out of the street, police arrested Nardi as well as Elliott Bynum from George Washington, Jacqueline Pilch from American and Aung Din, a former Burmese political prisoner.

According to Capt. Register of the Secret Service Uniform Division, the protesters had been arrested for unlawful assembly because they were obstructing traffic by sitting in the center of the street.

Register said that they would then be taken to jail, where they would be able to pay $50 bail and be released. Demonstrations take place at the Embassy of Myanmar frequently, he said, although arrests are less common.

According to Nardi, the protesters had arrived early to discuss these plans with the police force on the scene. Nardi is a member of Georgetown’s chapter of Amnesty International and has spearheaded the club’s involvement in the Burma issue.

“Most of the police are on our side,” Nardi said, “They understand that we are protesting against the Burmese military, not the American government.”

Myanmar has had a military dictatorship for over 40 years. According to Tamla Saw, an intern with the U.S. Campaign for Burma, who lived as a Burmese refugee in Thailand before coming to the United States, Myanmar was the name put into place by the military government of Than Swe, and is not recognized as a legitimate name by most Burmese and pro-democracy advocates worldwide.

The demonstration was also focused on Aung San Suu Kyi, a prominent political prisoner who is the leader of the Burmese National League for Democracy. He was attacked by pro-government thugs in May 2003.

As a result of this action, the United States imposed sanctions against Myanmar.

Students at universities across the nation, including eight Georgetown students, chose to fast on Friday to show solidarity with the Burmese political prisoners.

“We hope this will let [the Burmese people] know that people around the world are with them,” Nardi said. “We want to show them that people in America are doing something, are sacrificing.”

Nardi said that the protest would be transmitted – via the radio show Voice of America – to the Burmese people. The protesters began by chanting slogans and speakers made announcements over a megaphone.

“We as Americans stand in front of this so-called embassy to stand with the Burmese people . who live in an enormous prison called Burma,” Jeremy Woodrun, a representative of the U.S. Campaign for Burma, the group that organized the protest, said.

Throughout the protest, embassy officials remained inside the building, intermittently peeking out through the curtains of the windows and sometimes taking photographs of the demonstrators.

Amnesty International at Georgetown held several events leading up to the Burma protest, including showing the film Beyond Rangoon and inviting Din as a speaker last Tuesday.