Burma-It is now or never.

According to the Irrawaddy "More than 100 monks in Pakokku Township in Burma’s Magwe Division marched in a peaceful demonstration through the town on Wednesday morning. The monks paraded through the streets chanting the “Metta Sutta” (the Buddha’s words on loving kindness). ...................." This provides clear cut evidence that resentment continues to smoulder.
The junta can kill people but not ideas.
The Burmese Government is finding it difficult to recruit adult soldiers. In addition large numbers are deserting. Increasingly the gaps are being filled by child soldiers as young as ten. Children are kidnapped by the military and forced to fight. It maintains its grip on power by brute force, torture and terror. The power structure is crumbling from within. The tyrants are at war with the people.
It is time for the younger officers in the Burmese army to rebel. There are indications that many of these officers are unhappy. They must put this tottering regime out of its misery.

The US and EU have imposed sanctions. Unfortunately China, India and Russia continue to support the Butchers of Rangoon. Without this support the regime would crumble.

Junta leaders must realise that eventually the guns will be turned on them. They may face a lynching as pent up resentment of the population seeks retribution. China India and Russia should offer political asylum to Burmese leaders as a means of transferring power to Aung San Suu Kyi.

Western nations should threaten to withdraw from the Beijing Olympics in 2008. In the unlikely event of this happening Western athletes participating could draw attention to China's activities in Burma by protesting at opening and closing ceremonies. This would certainly spoil the party for the Chinese.

Burma-UN Security Council in a shameful abdication of responsibility

The UN Security Council has “strongly deplored” the use of violence by the military junta against peaceful pro-democracy demonstrators. In a compromise wishy-washy statement, the Council called for “genuine dialogue” between the Burmese junta and Opposition, including detained leader Aung San Suu Kyi. But the formula of words was much watered down from the one proposed by the United States, Britain and France after opposition from Russia and China. It reeks of insincerity.


According to the statement “The Security Council strongly deplores the use of violence against peaceful demonstrators in Burma.” The statement also emphasised “the importance of the early release of all political prisoners and remaining detainees”. The US and others endeavoured without success to include the word condemn in the statement and sought the immediate release of all political prisoners, including Aung San Suu Kyi. China and Russia refused to accept the word condemn so this was replaced in the statement with the words “strongly deplore”. A reference to “immediate release” of political prisoners was dropped.


The milk and watery statement is a graphic illustration of the relative powerlessness of the UN Security Council. It could not even condemn the slaughter and brutality in Burma. Russia and China have combined to protect the butchers of Rangoon. The junta can continue the crack down on the pro democracy group happy in the knowledge that its worst excesses will go unpunished in the short term. The UN is a toothless tiger. It is a waste of tax payers money. Russia and China continually abuse the veto at the UN and allow war criminals in Burma and Darfur to murder and torture with impunity.

Suu Kyi ally dies in Myanmar after torture, says rights group

As the UN Security Council- because of the Chinese opposition- has failed to ensure an adequate international response to the monsters of Rangoon, pro democracy groups are more and more dependent international news organs to highlight murder and torture. Unfortunately the media is now beginning to avert its gaze and move onto the next crisis. The brutal regime in Burma is busy subjugating the pro democracy groups by murder rape and torture happy in the knowledge that in general international attention is no longer sharply focused on the country.
Fortunately some media groups continue to expose the corrupt regime's activities. AFP carries the following story:
Win Shwe, a 42-year-old member of the opposition National League for Democracy, was arrested on September 26 near Myanmar's second city of Mandalay, the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP) said in a statement.
He was held along with four other people for joining anti-government protests led by Buddhist monks in Mandalay.
"He died as a result of torture during interrogation. However, his body was not sent to his family and the interrogators indicated that they had cremated it instead," the Thailand-based watchdog said.
AAPP is run by former political prisoners who now live in exile in neighbouring Thailand. The group monitors conditions in Myanmar's notorious prisons.......

Burma-International community fails pro democracy movement

The UN Security Council has once more displayed its powerlessness in the face of tyranny. Ibrahim Gambari, addressing the U.N. Security Council after a four-day visit to Myanmar said that the Burmese government must recognize that what happened there "can have serious international repercussions." Interesting to note the use of the word can. This illustrates clearly the ineffectiveness and relative powerlessness of the UN. Once more China has intervened to protect the junta. China opposes the sanctions on the basis that that the measures will impact on the population more than the government. This is a cop out. It is not in the least concerned with human rights violations in Burma once its economic interests are protected. The same applies to India and Russia.
China and Russia are major obstacles to world peace and are neutralising the UN Security Council through the use of the veto.

Detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi's party dismissed the Burmese junta's offer of talks as a surrender demand on Friday. Her steely determination is an inspiration to all who seek justice There is an interesting contrast between her approach and that of the
lily-livered leaders of China and Russia.

The obduracy of the Junta is buttressed by the support it is receiving from China and Russia. It is time for the international community to boycott the Beijing Olympics of 2008. The international outcry at the brutality of the junta has been negatived by the absence of worthwhile action by the major powers to cripple the tyrants of Rangoon.
Citizens in the US and EU countries must keep up the pressure on their governments to take meaningful action to remove the Butchers of Rangoon.

Burmese Government Continues Campaign of Fear and Repression

This report in its entirety is taken from VOA. Further comment is superfluous.
The military government in Burma continues its campaign of fear and repression against its citizenry as the world waits for a report from U.N. envoy Ibrahim Gambari. He met with Burma's military leaders and detained democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, following violent suppression of pro-democracy protests in Burma last week. VOA's Nancy-Amelia Collins in Jakarta has more.

Ibrahim Gambari (L) with Myanmar's Senior Gen. Than Shwe (2L), and other leaders after a meeting in capital Naypyidaw, 02 Oct 2007Reports of soldiers in military trucks looking for pro-democracy protesters, going into homes and arresting people filtered out of Burma's largest city Rangoon, as the military government continued to quash dissent against its harsh 45-year rule.
Meanwhile, U.N. special envoy to Burma Ibrahim Gambari briefed Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong about his four-day visit to Burma where he met twice with detained democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi and once with Burma's military ruler General Than Shwe.
The Singapore prime minister said it was encouraged by the access and cooperation given to Gambari by the Burmese government. He had been sent by the United Nations to express the world's outrage over the violent crackdown and to negotiate a peaceful solution to the crisis.
Adding to the international chorus of condemnation was Australian Ambassador to the United Nations Robert Hill.

"We call for the immediate release of those arrested for exercising their fundamental human rights to peaceful protest and for humane treatment of all those detained," said Hill. "Australia is also introducing targeted financial measures against members of the Burmese regime and its supporters to increase pressure on them to engage in genuine political reform and national reconciliation."

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations or ASEAN, currently chaired by Singapore, has been seeking ways to respond to the repression in Burma. In an unusually sharp rebuke, it expressed "revulsion" over member Burma's actions last week.
A Singapore government statement said Prime Minister Lee told Gambari that ASEAN is fully behind the U.N. mission.

Gambari, who has refused to comment publicly on his mission, was in Singapore on his way to New York where he will brief the U.N. secretary general later this week.
A steep hike in fuel prices prompted protests against military rule in August that turned into massive demonstrations last month led by Burma's revered clergy.
The government responded by shooting, beating, killing and arresting monks, students, and civilians.

Rights groups fear the official figure of 10 dead during the crackdown is much higher, and put the number of arrests in the thousands.
Independent verification is difficult because foreign journalists are not allowed to enter the country.

Burma needs action from the West, not cheap platitudes

Scotland's Sunday Herald has an excellent article - on the crisis in Burma- which laments the absence of deeds by the international community.
Here is a small extract:
"Earlier last week, our own foreign secretary, David Miliband, joined the fray. "I for one thought it was brilliant to see Aung San Suu Kyi alive and well outside her house last week. I think it will be a hundred times better when she takes her rightful place as the elected leader of a free and democratic Burma," said Miliband, addressing the Labour Party's annual autumn conference in Bournemouth.

It's easy to agree with Miliband's sentiments but rather harder to see exactly how much our own own government has been doing to ensure that "Mandela moment" arrives sometime soon for the resourceful and charismatic Suu Kyi, who has been the perennial symbol of resistance to the generals who run this impoverished nation despite being held under house arrest for many years. ................................................"
The full article is an eyeopener.

Aung San Suu Kyi appears at protest in Burma and prays with protesting monks

In 1990 the National League for Democracy led by Aung San Suu Kyi won elections in Burma by a landslide. The military refused to accept the result.




Aung San Suu Kyi leads the pro-democracy movement against the repressive military regime. She is strongly influenced by Mahatma Gandhi and is a strong believer in non violence. She has been detained at her home for 12 of the past 18 years. She has no telephone and little contact with the outside world.

She has said that "fear of losing power corrupts those who wield it and fear of the scourge of power corrupts those who are subject to it." She has won the Nobel Peace Prize and The Sakharov Prize.

Protests erupted on August 19th when the Government raised fuel prices. Demonstrations have been gaining in momentum. In their biggest march yet, at least 5,000 Buddhist monks walked Mandalay today (Saturday). Some estimates put the marchers at nearly 10,000.
It is estimated that there were several thousand onlookers on both sides of their route.

Witnesses say Aung San Suu Kyi, who remains under house arrest, came to the gates of her University Avenue compound, where the monks said prayers before leaving. The fact that the monks have been able to get through the barricades to pay Aung San Suu Kyi a visit is highly significant and indicates that the military regime is afraid to crack down too hard on the protesters for fear of triggering a massive popular revolt. In 1988 3,000 people were killed when soldiers fired on protesters. There are some 1,100 pro-democracy activists being held in jail or under house arrest throughout the country.

The following quotation from Aung San Suu Kyi gives an insight into her sufferings "Sometimes I didn't even have enough money to eat. I became so weak from malnourishment that my hair fell out, and I couldn't get out of bed." What a sad testimony to the barbarism of the military junta.

In his book, "Courage: Eight Portraits" (Bloomsbury), British Prime Minister Gordon Brown states:
"So Suu Kyi's courage is the courage to sacrifice her own happiness and a comfortable life so that, through her struggle, she might win the right of an entire nation to seek happy and comfortable lives. It is the absolute expression of selflessness. Paradoxically, in sacrificing her own liberty, she strengthens its cry and bolsters its claim for the people she represents."

Aung San Suu Kyi is a heroine extraordinaire.