Burma's Military and the Monks
Posted on Mon Oct 01, 2007 at 12:47:18 PM EST
Tags: Myanmar, Burma (all tags)
Thousands of monks in Burma have been executed or moved into prisons.
According to one Swedish diplomat who has now left the country, the military has won.
Liselotte Agerlid, who is now in Thailand, said that the Burmese people now face possibly decades of repression. "The Burma revolt is over," she added.
"The military regime won and a new generation has been violently repressed and violently denied democracy. The people in the street were young people, monks and civilians who were not participating during the 1988 revolt. "Now the military has cracked down the revolt, and the result may very well be that the regime will enjoy another 20 years of silence, ruling by fear."
This was the lead and main story on the news in Spain this weekend....Sky News, BBC, CNN International, and Bloomberg devoted most of their half-hour programs to it. The military blocked journalists from entering the country so they reported news they received from "citizen journalists" and aired their videos. Some journalists reported from Bangkok. They also aired a lot of telephone calls they received from people inside the country.
Many monks were beaten and hauled off in vans. You heard the screams on the videos. The first day the military just fired into the crowds killing at least 9. They showed the footage. The next day protests in Rangoon included locals as well as monks, and they were beaten and arrested. Then the news reported the streets of Rangoon were empty because everyone was afraid to go out.
There hasn't been much talk of a solution. Everyone was upset about the monks as they are very beloved there.
This is a huge human rights violation. Amnesty International is calling for an international arms boycott to Myanmar.
As for what's being done about it, not much that I can tell. The U.N. Envoy was scheduled to meet with the leaders of the Myanmar military junta but it's now been delayed.
