No thread on the terrible events going on in Burma/Myanmar?

[J77]

No thread on the terrible events going on in Burma?

What can be done about this situation?

The dictatorial junta have even tried to close off all internet connections so the innocent can't report the slaughter of their fellow protestors.

If there's a country which the West should show a strong arm to, this should be one -- but hang-on, they've friends with big guns...

http://ko-htike.blogspot.com/

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/7011884.stm

 

[Astronuc]

Myanmar

Myanmar breaks up rallies, cuts Internet
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070928/ap_on_re_as/myanmar

YANGON, Myanmar - Soldiers clubbed activists in the streets and fired warning shots Friday, moving decisively to break up demonstrations in Myanmar before they could gain momentum. Troops occupied Buddhist monasteries and cut public Internet access, raising concerns that the crackdown on civilians that has killed at least 10 people was set to intensify.

Troops also fired tear gas to break up a demonstration of about 2,000 people in the largest city, Yangon, witnesses said. Five protesters were seen being dragged into a truck and driven away. The clash in an area near the Sule Pagoda was the most serious of the several sporadic — though smaller — protests that were reported.

By sealing monasteries, the government seemed intent on clearing the streets of monks, who have spearheaded the demonstrations and are revered by most of their Myanmar countrymen. This could embolden troops to crack down harder on remaining civilian protesters.

Efforts to squelch the demonstrations appeared to be working. Daily protests drawing tens of thousands of people had grown into the stiffest challenge to the ruling military junta in two decades, a crisis that began Aug. 19 with rallies against a fuel price increase, then escalated dramatically when monks joined in.

Security forces first moved against the anti-government protesters on Wednesday, when the first of the 10 deaths was reported. Images of bloodied protesters and fleeing crowds have riveted world attention on the escalating crisis, prompting many governments to urge the junta in Myanmar, also known as Burma, to end the violence.

The United States imposed new sanctions on the junta's leaders, and the United Nations dispatched a special envoy, who is expected to arrive Saturday.

Police, Protesters in Deadly Standoff in Myanmar
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=14762296


More Deaths in Myanmar, and Defiance
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/28/world/asia/28myanmar.html
By SETH MYDANS

BANGKOK, Sept. 27 — Brutality and defiance marked the second day of an armed crackdown in Myanmar on Thursday as the military junta tried to crush a wave of nationwide protests in the face of harsh international condemnation.

The violence began before dawn with raids on Buddhist monasteries and continued through the day with tear gas, beatings and volleys of gunfire in the streets of the country’s main city, Yangon, according to witnesses and news agency reports from inside the closed nation.

Witnesses said soldiers fired automatic weapons into a crowd of protesters. State television in Myanmar reported that nine people had been killed and that 11 demonstrators and 31 soldiers had been wounded. The numbers could not be independently verified, and exile groups said they could be much higher. The Japanese Embassy said one of the dead was a Japanese photographer, Kenji Nagai.

International pressure on Myanmar built when President Bush asked countries in the region with influence on Myanmar’s authorities to urge them to cease using force, and the Treasury Department imposed economic sanctions on 14 identified senior Myanmar government officials.

China’s foreign minister, Yang Jiechi, at the White House for a scheduled meeting on Thursday with the national security adviser, Stephen J. Hadley, soon found himself in an impromptu Oval Office session with the president. Mr. Bush urged Mr. Yang to have Beijing “use its influence” in Myanmar to facilitate a peaceful transition to democracy, said the White House spokesman, Gordon D. Johndroe.

As Myanmar’s chief international patron, China blocked an effort on Wednesday by the United States and European countries to have the Security Council condemn the violent crackdown. On Thursday, while not going as far as Mr. Bush might have wished, China added its voice to criticism from abroad when it publicly called for restraint.

 

[Art]

China's record at home in regard to handling pro-democracy protests would suggest they are not about to do anything to reign in the junta in Burma.

 

[Yonoz]

China's record at home in regard to handling pro-democracy protests would suggest they are not about to do anything to reign in the junta in Burma.

Democratic powers share a large part of the blame too: Dilemma of dealing with Burma (20 October, 2004)

The latest political shake-up in Rangoon has strengthened hardliners and damaged prospects for democratic reform.

Western experts on Burma believe the head of its military junta, Than Shwe, removed Prime Minister Khin Nyunt as part of an internal power feud, to forestall any challenge to his own rule.

Burmese pro-democracy campaigners are shocked.

They say the man appointed to be the next prime minister, Soe Win, is a hardliner who master-minded the violent attack last year on pro-democracy leader Aung Sang Suu Kyi.
...
Many experts fear the new power line-up in Rangoon may spell a new phase of repression in Burma.
...
But the EU also compromised its principle of refusing all high-level contacts with Rangoon.

The Hanoi meeting was the first time that government heads from European Union countries had agreed to meet face to face with members of the Burmese junta.

There were harsh exchanges, and just two days later the 25 EU states formally announced they would extend their sanctions on Burma's generals, to ban any new investments in Burmese state-owned firms.

But international critics say those new sanctions are full of loopholes.

French President Jacques Chirac seemed to cast doubt on their effectiveness, saying he hoped the EU's sanctions policy would not damage the operations of the French oil firm Total, which has large investments in Burma.
...
The intransigence of Burma's army generals has made it harder than ever for other countries to support the people of Burma without further diluting their much-publicised "European values", especially regarding human rights.

 

[baywax]

I've never been to Burma. I don't know much about the situation with the acception of what the news and the internet tell me. I figure that buddhist monks aren't necessarily terrorists. They appear pretty calm on the outside. I've seen the smuggled footage from the main streets of the capital. Give an undereducated guy a big stick and a gun and look what happens. The whole scene looks a bit like Seattle during a WTO meeting. Only the guys with the big sticks and guns have bullet proof armour as well. What can we say? That is not our country. If there's a foster home for the civilian population of Burma then are we the big Social Services agency to go in and tear them away from their authorities?

As far as I can see and learn about this situation the monks and the civilians are dealing with their countrie's military rulers the best they can. Its a little lop-sided when the ruler has all the guns but, they will work it out for the better. Whenever outsiders get involved in these conflicts, there is opportunism and exploitation following right behind the do-gooders.

Give the Burmese people the credit and your belief that they'll commandeer their country back into their own way of rule... unless, of course, there's oil in them thar hills.