CATHERINE JUN Environmental Coalition members
Kevin Rudiger and Christine
Riordan participate in a "die-in" in Westwood Plaza
Thursday.
By Scott B. Wong
Daily Bruin Staff
Five students from the Environmental Coalition staged a
“die-in” at noon Thursday, chalking outlines of bodies
in the center of Westwood Plaza and laying themselves face-down on
the hot pavement in the name of Burma.
Since 1988, the Southeast Asian country has been under
military-rule.
Students said it’s up to those who have a voice to
overthrow the structure of the Burmese government.
“We need a lot of student demand focused on this
issue,” said Christine Riordan, a third-year international
development studies and Spanish student.
For the past four months, EC members have pressed the University
of California Board of Regents to divest in corporations located in
Burma, like Proctor & Gamble and Halliburton, which
manufactures hardware for oil and gas pipelines.
“We need to cut their military off economically,”
Riordan said.
The bodies and coffin, she said, evoke an unpleasant image,
depicting the “murder, torture, rape, and coerced
labor” the Burmese government inflicts upon its people to
maintain rule.
Kevin Rudiger, a second-year graduate student in urban planning,
said the black outfits worn by members symbolized remembrance and
mourning.
“We’re paying tribute to those who have suffered so
much more than we can even begin to suffer,” he said.
Hundreds of people passed by the exhibit ““ some
obliviously walking right through it, others stopping to look.
One onlooker said she was curious, but didn’t know what
was happening in Burma.
“But if they think that lying on the floor will perpetuate
awareness, then why not?” she said.
Third-year psychobiology student Cindy Jimenez said there are
many atrocities happening in the world.
“It’s sad that this is just another one.”