[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 44, Number 38 (Monday, September 29, 2008)]
[Pages 1247-1248]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks Following a Lunch With Human Rights Activists in New York City

September 23, 2008

    The President. Laura and I and Secretary Rice and members of my 
administration have just had a wonderful lunch with democracy leaders, 
human rights activists, courageous men and women who have stood strong 
for freedom. I assured them that this Government--or my Government, 
believes in the universality of freedom. We believe there's an Almighty, 
and a gift of that Almighty to every man, woman, and child is freedom.
    They inspire us. Here in America, we have an obligation to help 
others realize the blessings of liberty. They have been on the 
frontlines of securing liberty. And so we want to thank you very much 
for your courage. We thank you for your set of beliefs that remain 
strong. Thank you for taking time to be with us today. And you might 
want to say something.

[At this point, First Lady Laura Bush made brief remarks, concluding 
with the introduction of human rights activist, U Kovida.]

    U Kovida. Thank you very much for inviting me here. This is really a 
nice day and my friends--discussion with many people. In Burma, many 
hundred people, a lot. We all need human rights, all the world's people, 
because we are all human. So if--when people, there's no human rights, 
there's no people and there's no human. So I hope so--

[[Page 1248]]

I hope that we all--international community need help the Burmese 
people, and I hope to get help to others--international community and 
the U.S. and the European, every country. And I hope we can change the 
government some without weapon in Burma and Tibet and other--Zimbabwe--
other countries, so around the world we all need peace for--need a 
change without weapon. Thank you very much.
    The President. Thank you all. Thanks.
    The First Lady. Thank you all very much.

Note: The President spoke at 1:32 p.m. at Governors Island. The Office 
of the Press Secretary also released a Spanish language transcript of 
these remarks. The transcript released by the Office of the Press 
Secretary also included the remarks of the First Lady.