Issue 157

Burma blackout as Junta tightens the noose

08th October 2007

The situation in Burma continues to deteriorate as the military junta in charge proceeds to crackdown on pro democracy protestors. It has been two weeks since the protest began, inspired and led by the country's much revered Buddhist monks.

However the government has acted with swift and brutal action, on Thursday 27 September they opened fire on the unarmed protestors. In the capital Rangoon nine people were reported dead including Kenji Nagai, a Japanese Video Journalist, and was met with condemnation from the international community.

This was followed by the decimation of the Buddhist Vanguard, arresting hundreds of the monks and the desecration of shrines and temples which had provided the linchpin of this latest uprising, they have now been largely removed from the equation.

Phone and internet links to the country have been cut with news organisations such as the BBC website no longer receiving either emails or reports from within.

Meanwhile the United Nations Special Envoy Ibrahim Gambari has met with detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who remains under house arrest in an attempt to mediate an end to the bloodshed.

8-8-88

This is not the first time the voice of the people has been crushed in Burma, in 1988 the then ruling General Ne Win cancelled all Kyat Notes except 45 and 90 thus wiping out many of the peoples savings.

On the 13th of March protesting students at the Rangoon Institute of Technology clashed with police with one student killed as a result.

On the 8th of August hundreds of thousands of people including the Monks took to the streets in protest, General Win resigned as leader and Aung San Suu Kyi was welcomed as leader with popular acclaim, it seemed like the dawn of a new world for the Burmese people, but it was not to be, on the 26th of September the army opened fire on the protesters, order was restored and 3,000 people lay dead, and the Army was once again in charge.

The most striking thing about the recent events in Burma is not the shootings, the arresting of the country's monks, it is not even the media blackout and the silencing of the internet.

It is the impotence of the western powers; both governments in Europe and the United States have condemned the actions of the military junta for this brutal crackdown.

President Bush addressed the UN pushing for sanctions as has Gordon Brown but the Burmese government carries on, why?

Because the countries that matter to Burma India, Thailand, and most importantly China, all of which have extensive economic connections (particularly the Indian and Chinese who rely on the countries vast oil, gas and mineral wealth), have so far said nothing; simply the Burmese government dose not care what the West says for once it is not us that matter because what we do in the west, it won't effect them unless only the Chinese and the other Asian countries can but the pressure nedded, and until they do the future looks bleak and democracy a distant dream.

Jac Smith