Aung San Suu Kyi to be charged and tried

The armed thugs who claim to be the government of Burma are, apparently, about to charge Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, along with her two live-in maids, with harboring a US national secretly in Suu Kyi's lakeside home for two days.

The Golden Land is full of nutty stories, but this is one of the nuttier I can recall.

It seems a John Yettaw, which may be a vaguely Burmese name, although I could be quite wrong on that, who is from the US, swam the lake to reach Suu Kyi's home. He stayed in the home for two days, and has since been arrested, although not charged. US diplomats were able to visit him, but haven't spoken publicly about the case yet.

The 63-year-old Suu Kyi, who has been under detention of one form or another for most of the past 20 years, has been rumored to be in poor health lately. According to her doctor, she suffers from dehydration and low blood pressure. Who knows what that really means.

There's some conjecture by the Beeb that this is an effort to put Suu Kyi away until after next year's "elections", which is as good an explanation as any. Suu Kyi pretty much is the opposition, such as it is, and locking her up where no UN or Western representatives can get a look at her would certainly prevent her from making any public noise.

Still, this represents something of a departure for Than Shwe and his minions. Up until now, they've been treating Suu Kyi with white gloves. They allow her no freedom, but they have resisted the notion of tossing her in the clink or any other drastic actions. They have to know that this is going to make some headlines in the West (not to mention spark the ire of certain bloggers, which I'm sure has them quaking in their Buster Browns), but since when has that stopped them from doing anything? Locking Suu Kyi up this far ahead of the elections makes sense, in their little dinosaur brains, in that it will have faded from attention by the time it matters.

In the pantheon of near-hopeless to hopeless situations, lost causes to causes well on their way to lost, from Zimbabwe to Gaza to GM, Burma has a place of honor: The spot on this little planet of ours furthest from any sort of hope at all.

Why Isn't Matt in Colfax?

I stumbled upon this and I have smiled and smiled and smiled and smiled for so long my lips fell off (but they landed in one of the dogs' food bowls which made him smile and smile and smile).

This is how we should all be spending our time.

Thank Goat for Matt!

Daily YouTube: Celebrities speaking on Burma

I normally have about zero patience for "celebrities with causes". I mean, what the hell does Pam Anderson really know about fur? Do you think Lindsay Lohan knows a frickin' thing about the science behind the global warming debate? C'mon.

Lately, a LOT of celebrities have have spoken about a story I follow closely: Burma. Now, do I really think Sarah Silverman knows anything about the history between the Karen and the Shan? Do I think Will Ferrell knows (or cares) about the role Buddhism has played in the subjugation of the population?

Of course not. They're celebrities. By definition, they don't know what they don't know. In this case, however, it doesn't matter.

Rarely does the real world resemble some random work of fiction. And, by that, I mean rarely is the world really white and black, good vs. evil. In Burma, however, it really is that clear. The "government" of Burma, that paranoid clique of superstitious, narrow-minded, and sociopathic senior military men, is so clearly evil, so clearly the "bad guys", that even empty-headed actors, singers, and other entertainers really can express valid opinions.

There's not much we can do about what's been happening, continues to happen, and will continue to happen in Burma. Keeping it up front, in conversation, in people's minds is really it. Everyone, including celebrities, needs to do his/her part.

Diatribe over. On with the video clip:

Burma descends further into hell

I've stayed away from the situation in Burma following Cyclone Nargis with some deeply mixed feelings.

On the one hand, this is one of the worst natural disasters to hit anywhere in recent memory. Millions homeless, tens of thousands dead, an entire heavily-populated region under water - this is as bad as anything that's happened in Bangladesh or Timor or wherever you want to name, certainly the worst natural disaster since the tsunami.

On the other hand, it's so predictable. The fascist thugs who constitute the "government" of Burma are so vile, so completely unconcerned about the welfare of the people they profess to care for, all this is to them is another exercise in clamping down on information, lying to the press and the rest of the world, and an excuse to go shopping in the tons of relief goods stuck in Rangoon warehouses.

See, I've upset myself just writing that one paragraph. This is why I've stayed away from the story. It infuriates me, and there is NOTHING we in the West can do about it.

Amidst all the horror, death, disease, and utter destruction of the Irrawaddy Delta, Than Shwe and his fellow thugs pushed thru the referendum on the new constitution (you know, the one that took 14 years to write and pretty much guarantees military dominance, crushing of democracy, and repression of everyone not above the rank of captain into perpetuity) and got, shockingly 92% approval. Who, I wonder, were the 8% who voted against it? What a disgusting joke.

Maybe, just maybe, the unholy disaster in the south actually causes something to change. Maybe the government has shown it total disregard for the welfare of the people so blatantly and so repugnantly that the population comes to the conclusion (not wrongly, btw) they have nothing to lose in a widespread revolt. It could happen.

But I doubt it.

Free Burma!

Burma: An interview (from 2000) w/ Aung San Suu Kyi

An NBC interview with Aung San Suu Kyi. The last interview she has done w/ Western Media.






And this one, from Brit John Pilger, originally aired on ITV in 1996:

Burma: A college editorial with good facts but a shaky premise

Neil St. Clair, a senior at goold ol' Boston University and writing an op/ed piece for the Freep, trys to sum up how China effectively blocked US options on Burma (he throws in Sudan/Darfur as well, but I don't know nearly as much about that situation).

I look for reasons to argue with pointy-headed college students on these matters. However, I have to give St. Clair an overall thumbs up (validation I'm quite sure he craves - NOT) on his general approach. Despite an awkward and sorta uncomfortable opening allegory, once he settles into facts, he does OK. It's just that I disagree pretty strongly with his overall thesis.

China has the only bit of international clout in Burma. That's well-established fact. China has also managed to get through the past weeks' events without saying anything harsher than "Gesundheit" - also well established. However, I'm not so sure they have "blocked" any US actions.

What action was the US going to take, China or no China? Lots of harsh rhetoric? Did that. Additional sanctions? Did that too. Make all kinds of noise at the UN? Check. Send troops? No how, no way, China or no China, Iraq or no Iraq, never. Even if the army had used Agent Orange, botulism bacteria, Ebola virus, nerve gas, and tickle torture on the populace. There was NEVER any chance of a military intervention.

For my part, I don't see how China changed US policy on Burma one bit. I would have liked to have seen China do more, much more, on their own, but I don't think they affected US or Western policy one bit.

Burma; Time to talk aftermath

After a week and a bit of sustained protest, followed by a violent response by the illegitimate military government, matters in Burma have settled back into a tense and fearful sort-of normalcy.

The government says they killed ten people while trying to subdue the uprising. Predictably, government mouthpieces are spouting all sorts of revisionist crap. Nyan Win, the Foreign Minister, told the UN General Assembly that "neocolonialism" had distorted news from Burma, and that "political opportunists" had co opted small protests against increased fuel prices and in support of mistreated monks.

At least they're original, right? "Neocolonialsm" is card that hardly ever gets played. Nice one, Nyan Win.

Elsewhere, UN envoy Ibrahim Gambari has apparently made a little progress. He actually got a meeting with big, scary Than Shwe in Naypyidaw (I keep referring to the new capital as Pyinmana - that was the name of the ville which previously occupied the site. Than Shwe and his evil minions have named their new insta-city Naypyidaw, or "Seat of Kings"). In addition to that somewhat remarkable accomplishment, Gambari met with Aung San Suu Kyi twice, and got to take a government sponsored field trip to Lashio to see a staged pro-government rally there.

Gambari has retreated to Singapore as of this morning. No word on whether he's going back to Burma or catching a red-eye to NYC.

Newsweek brings us word that the various rebel factions, mostly made up of ethnic minorities, are trying to unite in a political and, if necessary, a military front. These guys have been fighting the various rulers of Burma for hundreds of years, so it's difficult to see them as anything other than irritants to the junta. They do serve the purpose of providing a training ground for the Burmese Army's officer corps. I'm not sure they're worth the trouble.

Monks and monasteries are somewhat less watched at this point, although the army and it's hired thugs are still keeping the clergy under pretty tight wraps. Word is that hundreds of monks and nuns arrested over the past week will be defrocked and tossed out of the Buddha business.

And, finally, the Burmese people are more angry, frustrated, and beaten down than ever. Reading some of the quotes available on BBC, you get the sense that utter despair is settling in. The majority of the population hates their lot in life, but can't do anything about it. The army has the guns and the will to use them, the clergy (the big hope) has been beaten into submission, maybe never to recover, the world community clearly isn't going to come riding to the rescue (nor should they - beyond sanctions, sanctions, and diplomatic pressure, the world should not be sending armored divisions to the Irrawaddy Valley no matter how many bullets are flying), and there is no armed group within the country with anything like the resources required to take on the army.

The best hope, and probably the only hope, is to keep this story in the news as much as possible, to maintain pressure, to the extent pressure can be brought, on the generals, and to pray a lot. The very, very sad fact is the West has no real strategic or economic interest in Burma, and too much at stake with China to "make" them use their leverage, for any change to come from external pressures. Any change which is to come will have to come internally. And when the bad guys have the guns, internal change is hard to come by.

Burma: The evening report

The latest from Burma this evening: Significantly more violence in the cities today, and a jarring decrease in the amount of hard news coming out. Bloggers and "citizen journalists" are still getting pictures and accounts out via the miracle of foreign proxies and sites hosted in other countries. But there's less and less making its way West than in previous days.

BBC has a somewhat insightful background piece on what's next for the junta. The short version is "we don't know", as this is truly uncharted water for all involved. Do the generals soften the line and make some gesture, empty though it may be, toward reconciliation? Or do they mow down another couple of thousand civilians and beat the opposition (further) back into the Stone Age?

There's no telling.

It is nice to see the international community, from the US to ASEAN to the ridiculous UN, making major noise about Burma. The US has frozen assets of the military elite - a nice gesture, but those clowns have their money stashed in too many banking havens for that to really matter.

ASEAN has expressed "revulsion" at events in the streets of Rangoon. This is pretty strong stuff from a body which has turned its head from all sorts of atrocities in its midst over the years.

The UN has managed to get special envoy Ibrahim Gambari signed up for a visit to Pyinmana. This is a bigger step than I expected from that useless talk-shop, and a bigger concession than I expected from Than Shwe. We'll see if anything comes of it.

Still nothing helpful from China or India. Shocking.

Rumors persist about the current whereabouts of Aung San Suu Kyi. The Brit ambassador told BBC that the number of guards on University Ave, Suu Kyi's street, lead him to believe she is still in her home. But word about town is she's been taken to the Burmese Lubyanka, Insein Prison (NOTE: This is an OLD link - it says Suu Kyi is there, and she may have been when the article was posted back in 2003. And, yes, I know what an appropriate name "Insein" is).

The protests are clearly comprised of disorganized civilians now. Raids last night on monasteries seem to have backfired against the government - the population is stirred up but good now. We'll keep our ears to the BBC and blog ground, and provide another update tomorrow.

Keep praying for the Burmese people.

Burma: The gloves are off

As reported on BBC late last night (and mentioned here at little CIT as well), Burmese security police kicked in doors at six or more monasteries around the country in the middle of the night, and clapped irons on hundreds of monks.

We thought last night that this could be the spark which sets the whole thing off. According to reports, it appears that's exactly what has happened. Huge numbers of people were in the streets by about mid-day on Thursday in Rangoon, and it's overwhelmingly regular folks, not monks and nuns (many of the monks are in the Cross-Bar Hilton at the moment).

The army has fired shots again, but there are not reports of mass casualties. What's up with this? With fewer monks to take rounds, you'd think the army would be less restrained in their use of lead - the army may be wary of killing monks, but they've never been shy about mowing down civilians.

The international community is still going bananas, for all the good that will do. Still zippo from China, the only country on Earth who has any chance of getting the junta to listen.

Take a moment today to pray for the people of Burma. May their efforts to throw off the yoke of despotism succeed, and may the cost be small...

Burma: A bad day gets worse

Late word from the Golden Land, via BBC: Government troops have launched overnight raids on monasteries and have arrested bunches of monks.

This will either put paid to the uprising once and for all, or kick the Burmese people into rage-induced overdrive. Monks and monasteries are held in VERY high regard in devout Buddhist Burma. This may well have the exact inverse reaction to what the junta wanted.

Thursday, already dawned in South East Asia, is going to be tense, tense, TENSE in Burma.

Burma: A very, very bad day

Sadly, but not at all surprisingly, the Burmese army opened fire on peaceful demonstrators in Rangoon on Wed. At this point, information is scarce, jumbled, and not very reliable, but it appears at least five protesters were killed, several of them Buddhist monks.

In addition, it sounds like hundreds, also including monks, were arrested.

The government has imposed a dusk-to-dawn curfew and has banned any public gathering of more than five people.

The UN is making the expected noises, but that toothless talk-shop will take no action. The Chinese, the only nation on Earth which has any clout with the junta, have remained mute on the subject. The international community either cannot or will not take any action on behalf of the people of Burma.

As noted above, information coming out of Burma is scattered and sketchy. You can get a somewhat detailed overview of events from BBC or MSNBC (or any number of other mainstream news sites, I'm sure). However, blogs are turning out to be the best source of as-it-happens news, photos, and video. A few to peruse:

Ko Htlke
Burma Digest
New Mandala
Kachin News Group
Shan Herald Agency
Kaowao News Group
Irrawaddy

As we conjected yesterday, the streets of Rangoon and other population centers were blocked today, by soldiers and hired thugs. All were armed and at least some of those arms were used as they were in 1988.

Does it end here? What hits the Internet tomorrow? Is the Burmese population too beaten down to continue the effort, knowing more tear gas and live rounds await them? Or have they had it with the status quo? Has living in poverty amid vast natural resources finally pushed the average Oo and Tin to say, "Enough is enough"? Have the years of repression and fear sent the Burmese over the edge into out-and-out revolution?

I fear it ends here. A devoutly Buddhist nation, I suspect Burma and it's people do not resort to violence in the face of violence. And I don't know what the right answer is. I try to put myself in the shoes of the Ko-on-the-street, and I don't know what I'd do.

Burma: The military raises the stakes

After another day of marches in Burmese cities (the 8th, in case you're keeping score at home), several truckloads of troops and riot police filtered into Rangoon. Neither the soldiers nor the police dismounted - they stayed in the backs of the trucks and just let people take a look at them.

The message seems pretty clear: The army is in town, the populace has been warned. Another march tomorrow will be met by... what? Blocked streets? Arrests? Gunfire?

The government wants to see what kind of stones the protest leaders (whoever they are) have. How committed are the monks to their cause? The general population? Does the whole "Saffron Revolution" collapse, or are there enough people there who are willing to walk, unarmed, into who-knows-what?

Wow. There's really no telling what happens tomorrow.

What would you do in this situation?

Imagine you're some random, spare Burmese dude or dudette, driving a taxi or selling vegetables in the market. You clearly remember 1988, when huge numbers of protesters took to the streets, Ne Win's government fell, Aung San's daughter returned and emerged as a leader to be reckoned with, change seemed within reach, and the army showed up in trucks, much like today. Only, back in 1988, the soldiers did dismount. They formed lines, shouldered weapons, released safeties, and, staring down the barrel at their fellow citizens, they opened fire on command. And 3,000 people, random, spare Burmese dudes and dudettes just like you, died.

Now here you are, 19 years later (almost to the day). Protests are gathering steam. The army is in town. It's Wednesday morning in Rangoon. You get out of bed, have some tea, and look at yourself in the mirror. What do you do? Do you stay inside, play it safe, live with what you've lived with for the past 19 years? Or do you lace up the Nikes and step outside?

We all like to think we'd go fall in with our fellow citizens, hit the streets, and see it through. I'm not so sure I'd have that kind of courage...

Stay tuned...

Burma: The China angle

An analysis piece on BBC this evening provides a bit of background on China's role in Burma's current crisis.

Nothing much happens in South East Asia without China having some say in the matter, and the Chinese specialize in maintaining relationships with pariah regimes (see North Korea, Pol Pot's Cambodia, and the current thugs in Burma as evidence). Mix in Burma's vast treasure-house of natural resources and Indian Ocean ports, and you will quickly see the Chinese have some serious matters at stake in the Golden Land.

And that doesn't even mention the prestige and image offensives China is currently waging in advance of next summer's Olympic Games.

However, so far, the Chinese have lost the power of speech, at least as far as their little Pyinmana buddies are concerned. There's zip, zero, nothing coming out of Beijing with "Burma" (or "Myanmar" for that matter) in the subject line.

That's for public consumption. What, we wonder, are the Chinese saying to the Burmese generals behind the scenes? Having been through similar circumstances way back in '89 themselves, and having screwed the PR pooch in the biggest possible way, I sorta doubt they're urging Than Shwe and his minions to gas up the armored divisions.

But, you never know...

As for other international reaction, apparently President Bush is set to announce a whole new set of sanctions against the Pyinmana thugs tomorrow at the UN. Before you start hollering, "Its not enough!", ask yourself what the US can really do here.

It's hard to shake the feeling that things are building towards a climax way over yonder. Have the Burmese people had it to the point where even violence isn't going to stop them? I sure hope we don't find out, but it's hard to see how else it goes down..

Burma: Uh oh, this may get ugly soon

Monday in Burma saw still larger protests in all major cities. An estimated 50,000 to 100,000 monks and civilians marched in Rangoon, making for the largest anti-government demonstration seen in the country since 1988.

Amidst the mass marches, the government is showing signs of abandoning the restraint it's shown so far. Brig Gen Thura Myint Maung, minister for religion, warned elder monks to reign in the younger, more militant clerics who are leading the movement, saying action would be taken against the monks' protest marches "according to the law if they cannot be stopped by religious teachings".

Tuesday (already underway on the far side of the world) may be showdown day in the Golden Land. Stay tuned.

By the way, we keep referring to events of 1988 as a watershed moment in the history of Burma. For the full story, this Wikipedia article does a pretty good job of summing up events around what is known locally as the "8888 Uprising" (it got started on Aug 8, 1988, or 8/8/88).

Suffice it say here, the Burmese have been down this road before. Just when it looked like progress was being made, the army and government thugs went crazy in a way the '68 Chicago PD never even contemplated, killing an estimated 3,000 civilians.

As a bit of background, here are a couple of YouTube clips with a bit of narration (mostly in Burmese, I'm afraid), telling the story of that tragically failed bit. From a few students to huge crowds of marchers, the strangest version of Dust in the Wind you'll ever hear, and the start of Daw Suu Kyi's activism, well, you'll get the idea...

Burma: The crowd grows, and the Buddhist nuns join in

Yesterday's events in Rangoon, where Daw Aung San Suu Kyi was permitted to emerge from her home and greet the protesting monks, has drawn quite a bit of coverage in the international press. Consensus seems to be that the junta is waiting for these protests to die down on their own. We'll see how that works out, as the monks seem to be in it for the long haul.

Another day of peaceful protest in Rangoon and other population centers saw two notable developments:

1. The protests became significanly larger, with Buddhist nuns joining the monks and some regular folks in marches.
2. For the first time, the monks called their protests an "uprising".

We'll be carrying a daily update, and there's now a somewhat complete set of links to the left where you can read more.

Burma: Protests continue, Suu Kyi greets the monks

In what is beginning to look like a Saffron Revolution, Buddhist monks in Burma today staged their sixth consecutive day of peaceful protest in Rangoon, Mandalay, and other Burmese cities and large towns. As with the five previous days, there was no violence.

A couple of VERY noteworthy items about today's activities:

1. The protesters were allowed past police roadblocks to file past Aung San Suu Kyi's lakeside home/prison. Suu Kyi herself was allowed out of the house on to the porch or front yard. She prayed silently with the monks, appeared to be in tears, but did not speak.


2. The number of people involved in the protests has grown daily. Today's estimates from BBC are 2,000 marchers in Rangoon, and up to 10,000 in the religious center of Mandalay. This, in a country where protests involving 15 activists have been newsworthy in the past.

We'll keep our eye on MSNBC, BBC, and the US Campaign for Burma, and will try to stay on top of what may be the biggest story in Burma in 60 years.

And while we're on the subject of Burma

Go check out the US Campaign For Burma and Human Rights Action Center's YouTube channel. The latest celeb to make a plea for Burma is Jim Carrey, who has actually got two videos on the page.

Watch, read, and donate some dough. It's not going to change the strategic balance of the Free World, or solve our dependence on oil, but the clarity of right and wrong on this issue is as vivid as anything has been in the past 50 years.

The tensest of times in Burma

The political landscape in the Golden Land, fragile and tense at the best of time, has become more unstable than at any time since the 1988 uprisings which led to the (never honored) most recent national elections. The story is this:

Back in mid-August, the benevolent SPDC (State Peace and Development Committee - the polite name for the fascist thugs and drug dealers who comprise the military junta which essentially owns the country) decided it would be a good idea to raise the heavily-subsidized price of fuel by about 100%. Like most fascist thugs and drug dealers who happen to own entire countries, the SPDC "generals" are completely tone-deaf and out of touch with reality, so they didn't foresee their decision becoming an enormous sore spot for the population.

It did.

Protests by activists and members of the opposition party, the NLD, started almost immediately. The military, yawning, dispersed most of the protests with tear gas and violence, then started arresting the usual suspects; the same tactics used to smash protests of all sorts for the past 20 years.

But, this time, the protests didn't stop.

This time, some regular people began joining the protests. Not many, but some.

And then the Buddhist monks joined in. Not some, but many.

The protests continue, daily, and will likely continue for a while. The monks are saying they'll keep protesting until they have "wiped the military dictatorship from the land of Burma".

Like I said, a while.

This is unprecedented.

Protests in the past have usually been small affairs comprised of known activists and NLD members. They've been simple for the junta to stop. A few gas grenades to clear the streets, then a night or two worth of kicking in doors and clamping irons on activists' wrists, and voila, the protests end.

Monks are not so easily swept aside. Monks are revered by the populace and, its worth noting, the rank-and-file of the conscript army. Door kicking at monasteries and iron clamping on monk wrists will not be tolerated by the average U and Than on Rangoon streets. The thugs in the jungle capital of Pyinmana are afraid of the monks.

This one might (MIGHT!) be different.

What can you do to help? Write your elected representative, write to the UN (stop laughing first), maybe the most effective step: Go to freeburma.org and join. It's not much, but it all counts.

Burma: 14 years later, a constitution

In Burma, a hand-picked "special assembly" has convened its final session, and expects to have a new national constitution finalized within a couple of months.

Don't start sending congratulations telegrams to the NLD quite yet, though. The constitution, which has taken 14 years to write, is merely step 1 in the 7-step "Roadmap to Democracy".

A few interesting points included in the constitution:

1. It guarantees the armed forces 25% of the seats in parliament.

2. It requires the president to have significant military experience.

3. It allows the commander of the armed forces to declare a state of emergency without government approval.

4. It outright bans the president from having a foreign spouse or children.

Number 4 is clearly intended to keep Aung San Suu Kyi, widow of an Oxford don and mother of two mixed-race boys who live in England, from ever leading the country.

Not that it matters, of course. The military is going to own Burma for the rest of my life anyway.

One other note from the Golden Land: Today is Martyr's Day, the 60th anniversary of the assassination of Suu Kyi's father, independence hero General Aung San. For the 5th consecutive year, Suu Kyi did not attend the ceremony in Rangoon, although her estranged older brother, Aung San Oo (a US resident), made an appearance.