Burma -Massacre Of The Monks

The following is an excerpt from a shocking report which appears in Australia's largest selling daily newspaper the Herald Sun:
A SENIOR Burmese intelligence official claims thousands of protesters are dead and the bodies of hundreds of executed monks have been dumped in the jungle.
After defecting from the military junta and fleeing to the Thai border, Hla Win told a reporter from London's Daily Mail: "Many more people have been killed in recent days than you've heard about. The bodies can be counted in several thousand."
The horrific details emerged as Burma's top general continued to snub the UN's peace envoy, who is in Rangoon on a mission to convey the world's outrage to the junta.
With protests quashed and many monasteries empty, fears are growing for those who have disappeared into Burma's grim jails.
Observers say many detainees have been taken to the city's notorious Insein prison, the Government Technological Institute, the police battalion number seven compound, the Kyaikkasan racetrack and possibly elsewhere.
Mr Win said he fled when he was ordered to help massacre holy men.
Other exiles along the frontier confirmed that hundreds of monks had simply "disappeared".
Pro-democracy campaigners inside Burma yesterday released a graphic video showing the semi-naked body of a badly bruised monk, floating face down in a Rangoon river.
Mr Win, 42, a former chief of military intelligence in Rangoon's northern region, said: "I decided to desert when I was ordered to raid two monasteries and force several hundred monks on to trucks.
"They were to be killed and their bodies dumped deep inside the jungle. I refused to participate in this," he said.
Dissidents hiding along the Burma border said thousands of monks had been locked up and were being beaten inside blood-stained temples.
A Swedish diplomat told the Daily Mail of more reports that monks had been tortured and killed in large numbers. .................

It appears likely that the Burmese Monsters are guilty of more crimes against humanity. The full report indicates a level of barbarism on a par with the atrocities perpetrated by Pol Pot in Cambodia. Bloggers have been silenced. There is a strong suspicion that some have been tortured and may even have been murdered. Burmese leaders who sanction atrocities must be tried for war crimes.
Voters in democracies throughout the world must flood their Departments of Foreign Affairs with demands for coherent International Action. Meaningful sanctions must be imposed. The time for pious platitudes is over. The international community stands indicted for its relative lack of activity in relation to the crisis.
The following is a message from Radio Netherlands:
Hello, People can send messages of support to the demonstrators in Burma via our web page and radio broadcasts. We are Radio Netherlands Dutch international broadcaster and we have Short Wave transmissions into the country our homepage www.radionetherlands.nlbest regards Andy Clark - head English department Radio Netherlands Worldwide

Burma-The People versus the Junta

Burma is a country whose junta has been at war with its people. It has not been slow to put down popular uprisings. In 1988 soldiers killed 3,000 people. Murder rape and torture are some of the weapons used by the military against the pro democracy movement.

Protests erupted on August 19th when the Government raised fuel prices. Since then demonstrations have gained momentum. Up to 10,000 Buddhist monks walked Mandalay (Saturday). It is estimated that there were several thousand onlookers on both sides of their route.

Thousands of Buddhist monks and their supporters marched in Rangoon today. This is the biggest show of defiance against Burma's ruling junta in almost 20 years.
At least 30,000 people led by about 15,000 monks marched through the streets of Burma's main city. Some estimates put the number involved as 100,000.

This has all the appearances of a popular uprising against a repressive regime. So far the junta has held back hoping that the protests will subside. However there are indications that this approach is about to change. The ruling junta has now threatened to take action against Burma's Buddhist monks.

It is believed that over 200 pro democracy activists have been arrested. Some have been tortured and ill-treated in custody.

The United States and EU countries are preparing to challenge Burma at the United Nations General Assembly this week. Dramatic change in the country's political situation remains unlikely, due to support for the junta from major powers such as India, Russia and China.

Essentially the UN is a toothless tiger.

Meanwhile Burma teeters on the brink of disaster. The junta may be about to declare all out war on its people. At some point this tyrannical regime corroded by injustice and corruption must inevitably collapse in a manner similar to the Communist regimes of Eastern Europe.

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.