Category: Myanmar/Burma

The ruling junta organized a rally in support of itself yesterday according to Reuters;

Burma’s junta staged a massive pro-government rally in its main city yesterday and arrested a top dissident as its relentless and ruthless response to last month’s pro-democracy uprising showed no signs of easing.

Htay Kywe, a prominent student activist from an uprising in 1988, was detained overnight with three others in one of the many raids still being conducted by police more than two weeks after soldiers were sent in to crush demonstrations.

The 39-year-old, a leading light in the so-called “88 Generation Students Group,” had managed to remain at large since 13 of his comrades were arrested in a series of midnight swoops on Aug. 21.

“They had felt the net closing in for several days,” a close friend, now in exile, said in Bangkok, the capital of neighboring Thailand.

But not to worry, the UN’s envoy is enroute to coordinate a local response, according to another Reuters story;

U.N. special envoy Ibrahim Gambari was flying into Bangkok ahead of Monday talks with Thailand’s leaders. He was then to travel to Malaysia, Indonesia, India, China and Japan before returning to Myanmar, where the junta faces growing pressure to halt its crackdown on pro-democracy protesters and open talks with the democratic opposition.

And the junta is very receptive to discussions with pro-democracy elements within the country as evidenced by this quote;

“There will emerge a peaceful, modern and developed democratic nation — according to the state’s seven-step road map,” a newspaper editorial said. It added that citizens “who are shouting at full-blast” for U.N. intervention were traitors “trying to hand over their motherland to alien countries.”

“Such national traitors will soon meet their tragic ends,” the editorial said.

Sounds like they’re caving, huh? Well, as long as there’s nothing to threaten China’s commerce in the area, what do the members of the junta have to fear with China and Russia running a screen play for them in the Security Council. I guess no one’s going to complain about President Bush’s unilateral actions against Burma are they?

The junta has restored internet access, but you can be sure that it’s not without a monitoring system in place;

“The Internet connection was restored on Saturday afternoon, but we still haven’t decided whether or not to reopen our internet cafe yet,” a Yangon Internet cafe owner said.

There had been intermittent access to the Internet over the past week, mostly during a curfew first imposed as the junta sent the army in to end protests led by thousands of Buddhist monks.

They’re still rounding up dissidents;

Security forces on Saturday arrested four prominent political activists who went into hiding to escape a government manhunt after leading some of the first major marches against the government several weeks ago, Amnesty International said.

Among those detained was one of Myanmar’s most famous dissidents, Htay Kywe. Others arrested were Aung Htoo and Thin Thin Aye, also known as Mie Mie.

The three were believed to be the last remaining activists at large from the 88 Generation Students’ Group — the country’s boldest dissident group — which was at the forefront of a 1988 democracy uprising and one of the main forces behind the protests that started in August.

A fourth activist, Ko Ko, was also arrested, the London-based rights group said. All four were believed to have been rounded up in Yangon, the country’s main city.

Gateway Pundit posted the shooting of a Burmese boy on Friday. Cheap Flights Asia blog reports that a London-based insurer has pulled coverage from Myanmar International Airways – the Burmese airline – effectively grounding flights from Burma. Agam’s Gecko posted a video of a multi-faith show of support for the Burmese people in northern Thailand. Five-Year.com has al-Jazeera video of interviews with Burmese dissidents in Thailand.

Pseudonymity reports that the Butcher of Depayin (from the 2003 uprising in Burma) has died. Warrior Lawyer writes that without an internal uprising among the Burmese military, the movement is probably doomed without international pressure.

Spanish Pundit reports that Burmese have been tortured to death;

Members of the 88 Generation Students and other detainees who have been arrested by authorities are now being tortured in Insein interrogation center and other detention facilities.Some have been tortured to death and others have been hospitalized in serious condition, according to sources.
A source close to authorities in Insein prison told The Irrawaddy on Thursday that many prisoners are tortured and some are now hospitalized in serious condition, including Min Ko Naing, a prominent student leader. The source requested anonymity for his safety. 

She also writes that India, North Korea, China and Russia are still selling weapons to the Myanmar Junta.

But it’ll end at any minute, now – the UN has issued an extremely tepid condemnation;

“Amnesty International believes that these high-profile opposition figures are at grave risk of torture and mistreatment,” said Daniel Alberman, an Amnesty spokesman. “The eyes of the world are on Myanmar, and the authorities will be judged by how all those who have been detained in recent weeks are treated.”

The United Nations has spearheaded an international effort to push the military, which has ruled Myanmar since 1962, to halt its crackdown and enter negotiations with detained National League for Democracy party leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

The U.N. Security Council issued its first statement on Myanmar on Thursday, condemning the violence against protesters and emphasizing “the importance of the early release of all political prisoners and remaining detainees.” It also called for a “genuine dialogue” between the country’s military rulers and the pro-democracy opposition.

Yeah, a “genuine dialogue”, I guess that’s not up for interpretation, is it? This has been going on since 1962 and this is the first time the UN has bothered itself enough to issue a statement? Yet how many statements has it issued against Israel and the US?

Why isn’t the UN getting ahead of impending refugee crisis? Reports of refugees being mugged at the Thai border (by the Thai military) are rampant – why isn’t the UN setting up refugee camps if they can’t drag their bloated asses into action to prevent the exodus? Well, the easy answer is; it’s easier to ask for money from UN members when there are pictures of grisly scenes. That’s what the UN is waiting for – propaganda to hold a telethon. You’d think that people whose only job is to provide for refugees would be on top of this, wouldn’t you? (I’m assuming my readers are rational people – not UN beaurocrats)

Just like in Darfur where hundreds of thousands are dead and millions displaced – it’s been going on for twelve years but now everyone is getting exercised over it as a fundraising tool. So let’s have a genocide conference and beg someone else to do it.

Hoping the world is still looking at the two Koreas and the South African mine disaster, the Myanmar government stepped up repression of the revolt last night (CNN/AP); 

After crushing the democracy uprising with guns, Myanmar’s junta stepped up its campaign to intimidate citizens Wednesday, sending troops to drag people from their homes in the middle of the night and letting others know they were marked for retribution.

“We have photographs! We are going to make arrests!” soldiers yelled from loudspeakers on military vehicles that patrolled the streets in Yangon, Myanmar’s biggest city

People living near the Shwedagon Pagoda, Myanmar’s most revered shrine and a flash point of unrest during the protests, reported that security forces swept through several dozen homes about 3 a.m., taking away many men and even some women for questioning.

A U.N. Development Program employee, Myint Nwe Moe, and her husband, brother-in-law and driver were among those detained, the U.N. agency said.

Dozens of Buddhist monks jammed Yangon’s main train station after being ordered to vacate their monasteries — centers of the anti-government demonstrations — and told to go back to their hometowns and villages.

Another AP story on CNN tells of the brutality perpetrated on ethnic minorities in Myanmar;

The Karen, the Shan and other minority groups who live along the Myanmar-Thai border have been attacked, raped and killed by government soldiers. Their thatched-roofed, bamboo homes have been torched. Men have been seized into forced labor for the army, while women, children and the elderly either hide out in nearby jungles until the soldiers leave or flee over the mountains to crowded, makeshift refugee camps.

“Many, many thousands of Karen have died in those 60 years,” Karen National Union secretary general Mahn Sha said this week of his people’s struggle for autonomy since 1947.

The military junta has denied reports of atrocities and says the ethnic rebels are “terrorists” trying to overthrow the government.

And the UN fiddles. Meanwhile, Enzo  (with a hat tip to Kate) reports that, after the night time raids;

The only thing of which one can be sure is that somewhere in the country large numbers of people are being held in an invisible prison camp, without charge, without legal recourse and without the ability to communicate.

Incognito warns that there’s a Burma-related email virus. Kate emails me that Sylvester “John Rambo” Stallone witnessed the atrocities in Burma while making Rambo 4 – but one must wonder why he waited for Myanmar to become world news before he bothered to mention it – couldn’t be the publicity, could it?

Gateway Pundit reports 50 students get 5 years at hard labor for last week’s protests.

As the world’s attention shifts elsewhere this week, things are looking bad for the Burmese. The UN official tasked with seeking a solution to the Myanmar government’s brutal suppression of protests last week, finally met with the junta leader, Than Shwe, after waiting four days and got a whole 15 minutes, according to Gateway Pundit.

Spanish Pundit writes, from Burmanet News that the Burmese monks, which have survived, could be forced into hard labor.

Among those detained are young monks aged between 16 and 18, and novices as young as 5 to 10 years old. Nuns are also being held at the compound, along with 140 other women. All monks and nuns have been disrobed and made to wear civilian clothes.

Yahoo’s India News reports that thousands may already be in concentration camps;

Thousands of pro-democracy protestors, including several hundreds monks in Yangon have gone missing, and are reportedly being lodged in secret government buildings which have been converted into concentration camps, according to a London daily.

Seventeen hundred protestors, including monks, women and children, have been reportedly confined inside the former campus of the Government Technology Institute.

Blogmeister reports that now that junta has rounded up monks and safely dealt with them, the Myanmar government is now hunting Burmese bloggers – the major source of reports of events there. An AP report tends to suggest that’s true;

The government has ordered local officials and hotels to be on the lookout for key pro-democracy activists, sending out their names and photos, said a local official who asked not to be named for fear of retaliation.

“We have been instructed to inform higher authorities immediately if we sight any of these people in our area,” he said. The list of dissidents includes at least one member of the 88 Generation Students group, the most active in carrying out nonviolent anti-government protests, the official said. Most of the group’s top members were arrested Aug. 21, two days after the first of the current round of protests.

And the Myanmar government has learned from Noreiga and Chavez to use civilian thugs to do the dirty work;

 “I believe the junta does not use uniformed personnel because they don’t want to be blamed for their action,” said a diplomat who asked not to be identified because of protocol. “Now that they are using civilians, they can claim, as they have done in newspapers, that it was the agitated public that stopped the protesters.”

Times Online tells the story of one Myanmar soldier’s decision to flee instead of shooting Monks. And just now, more than week after the brutal killings in Rangoon, the UN starts shifting around in it’s collective ample seat.

CNN quotes an aide worker’s account of the violence last week;

“There was a body lying on the road, there was another body slumped over the back of the truck,” said the woman, who did not want to be identified for security reasons.

“There were crowds gathered approximately 400 meters away but they were not coming closer to help out. And it just looked like (the bodies) had been left there for people to witness, for people to see what they were capable of.”

And Myanmar’s foreign minister charges political opportunists;

Myanmar’s foreign minister U Nyan Win on Monday blamed intense pro-democracy demonstrations in his country on “political opportunists” and declared that “normalcy has now returned to Myanmar.”

Addressing the U.N. General Assembly, Win defended what he called the government’s “seven-step road map” to draft a new constitution and hold elections.

“Recent events make clear that there are elements within and outside the country who wish to derail the ongoing process so that they can take advantage of the chaos that would follow,” he said. “They have become more and more emboldened and have stepped up their campaign to confront the government.”

Bloodthirsty Liberal and Christopher Hitchens (ya know, I saw him at the protest last week, I recognized him as someone I should know, but I couldn’t figure out who Hitchens was – I realize it was him now – but he got a haircut since last time I saw him) identify the common thread that runs through every brutal regime in the world, including Burma - China;

China, a key trading power and importer of gas from Myanmar, has refused to take sides in the unrest so far, and Premier Wen Jiabao called Saturday on “all parties” to exercise restraint and seek stability “through peaceful means”.

But Russia’s not much help, either;

Russia’s ambassador to the council did strike a more moderate tone, saying that Myanmar’s problems should be solved by peaceful dialogue and democratic changes without any pressure from outside.

With rumors of tens of thousands of dead, negotiation hardly sounds reasonable at this point. Kate of A Columbo-Americana’s Perspective writes that there’s another protest at the Myanmar Embassy Friday.