Burma

The brutality in Burma continues, while the rest of the world can't do much more but protest.

A Democratic Voice of Burma report says that Ko Win Shwe, 42, a member of the NLD who was arrested on 27 September, has died in custody - according to a CNN report he was aparently tortured to death (or as they put it: "died during interrogation" - let's just say that it's rather odd that a 42 year old falls dead from a chair in the middle of a normal interrogation process and gets cremated even before the next of kin get access to his body).

It's more than just another sad story - so here's some food for thought for this weekend:

Aparently China is once again blocking any comments that may be worded a bit harsher - which somehow does not really come as a surprise, given the close economic ties between China and Burma, including their thirst for oil there. But can economic interests alone really be the only defining factor for UNSC comments?

"Myanmar needs to take major steps towards democratizing, protecting human rights and accelerating its national reconciliation process" - that's what Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said on Friday, calling Burmese authorities’ recent use of force against peaceful demonstrators in the Asian country “abhorrent and unacceptable.”

Well. At least that's a start, Mr. Ban Ki-moon, but it certainly can not be all there is to it - especially as Burma these days seems to fall out oof the focus of international news agaencies: aparently the junta there has done a good job at hiding the gory details which usually make up headline news internationally, so the press is more inclined to use other "more newsworthy" events to fill their pages.

I call that a betrayal of the Burmese people - it's one thing to have a dictatorial military junta subjugating its people, but I find it more than hard to swallow that aparently the events in Burma are only followed up by the international media as long as they are blood stained enough to sell the papers and keep viewer interest for TV channels high.

Thousands of people in Burma are unaccounted for, with a brutal military junta choking the newsfeed to the media as good as they can - and our press just goes: "OK, next please..."

What a disgrace!

Aparently, today we had International Day of Non-Violence. Obviously nobody told the military junta in Burma though - where according to the US Campaign for Burma, the regime (obviously in an attempt to hide their deed from future "nosy" inquiries by the UN once they get back from their celebrations) is burning the bodies of protestors -

INCLUDING THOSE THAT ARE STILL ALIVE!

(phone call in Burmese, look for the translation on the page of the US Campaign for Burma I linked to further up)

Is this really a great day to celebrate, dear United Nations? If it wouldn't be such an unspeakable brutal act, one could quip "enjoy your BBQ then" - but please note that your continued inaction makes you as guilty as it has when you did nothing during the Rwandan genocide!

What a disgrace to this world...

If you are as unhappy as I am about the inaction of the UN, please feel free to send a letter to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon now.

This horror has to end - hear what Jim Carrey has to say about this:

According to a report by the Democratic Voice of Burma, the military junta has been forcefully staging a "counter protest".

At the same time, foreign minister Nyan Win is cited by the UN website that "normalcy has now returned".

He also warned against “neo-colonialist attempts” to undermine the country, which he said can only result “in conflict and untold sufferings” for the people of Burma.

Too often, according to the Foreign Minister, certain countries conduct media campaigns against a targeted State, “spread disinformation that the country concerned is committing gross human rights violations,” portray the campaign as a fight for democracy and then impose sanctions and provide material support to create unrest in the country.

The similarity between these comments and certain other comments of certain other politicians in Namibia certainly gives me a chill down the spine - especially as so far there seems to be no official statement by the Namibian government regarding the situation in Burma to date. I wonder what they are pondering about...

A Slashdot report links to a UK Times Online report about bloggers in Burma who risked (and aparently: still risk) their lives to reveal the brutality in the crackdown of that countries military junta.

On kho htike's blogspot (an exiled blogger said to be a sudent in London), even more regularly updated stories and pictures of what is going on in burma can be viewed.

He also maintains a Burmese arrest list on Esnips.com that at the time of writing contains the names of 344 people, their place of arrest as well as the date of their arrest plus the name of the organisation (if any) they have been involved with.

Few monks are listed there - but it becomes blatantly aparent that the Burmese military junta is also specifically targetting members of the NLD, the very party that won elections back in 1991.

The Burma Campagin UK has created a "dirty list" of international companies that continue to do business with Burma despite of what is going on there, calling on its readers to (politely!) write to the heads of these companies to sever these business ties as soon as possible.

Please note that this list already stands there on the Internet for quite a while, aparently nobody has yet taken much note of it, which is why I refer to it here.

Aparently, this list already induced some action - according to a press release, MK ONE has stopped sourcing clothes from Burma. Aparently even Tony Blair publicly condemned British companies trading with Burma in 2003: "..we do not believe that trade is appropriate when the regime continues to suppress the basic human rights of its people."

I wonder why still only very few companies seem to listen - aparently even the Sunday Telegraph, The Times, The Guardian and The Observer still continue to publish advertisments of travel companies advertising holidays in Burma. Probably alongside the gruesome photos and reports they receive from the various press agencies?

The Irrawaddy continues to publish the latest developments in Burma, despite the fact that the site itself has come under attack both by the military junta as well as rogue hackers that have infested the web server with a virus (rest assured that just calling the page won't give you a virus infection - I checked that personally).

Some of the most eery photographs of the uprising can be seen if you click on the September 27th tab: blood stained flip-flops in a pool of blood, a Japanese photographer trying to "shoot" with his camera what is going on - and getting killed in cold blood by being shot at extremely close range for that "deed".

FNN News has the video as proof (WARNING: VERY graphic content!!):



And the rest of the world looks on in shock and horror - yet once again does nothing, and in fact makes Britney Spear's custody case headline news. Talk about sarcasm...

We need to keep sources like The Irrawaddy up and running - and that obviously also means financially. If you can afford a subscription, I would like to urge you to do so.