The World Must Speak On Burma

There were small protests around the world today to call attention to the massacres and human rights atrocities in Burma that followed a government crackdown on pro-democracy reformers, including Buddhist monks. While the leader of the military junta has tentatively agreed to meet with reform leader Aung San Suu Kyi, he has only done so on the condition that she stop calling for popular resistance of his regime. This is a dodge, and an attempt to stave off additional sanctions in the world community. It should not be seriously considered.

What ought to be done is full economic isolation and a denial of all Burmese natural resources at market, and in particular, those multinational corporations still doing business with the military junta, like Chevron (they of the supertanker named after Condoleezza Rice), must cease immediately propping up the government with their payments of taxes in exchange for access to their resources.

Human rights activists urge the oil companies to take a principled stand.

"They need to strongly condemn what the government is doing and make their voices heard," said Arvind Ganesan, director of Business and Human Rights Program at Human Rights Watch. "Being silent isn't constructive engagement."

Chevron, Total and other oil companies have poured billions in Myanmar's booming natural gas industry in recent years. Natural gas projects generated $2.16 billion in revenue for Myanmar's military regime in 2006, according to Human Rights Watch. Human rights groups say the revenue from taxes and fees on the gas pipelines have become the largest source of cash for Myanmar's generals and have helped to prop them up.

"Whenever you have billions of dollars in revenue that flow directly to a government that does not express any interest in looking out for the benefit for its people, it certainly helps them stay in power," said Ganesan.

No excuses. And activists in this country can put pressure on companies like Chevron to do the right thing. Longtime readers know that I called on the California Democratic Party to return corporate donations from Chevron. This would be one reason why. They should be isolated as Burma is isolated, until they change their behavior.

Gut-Wrenching Tragedy

The monks in Burma may be all gone.

Now comes an unconfirmed report in The Daily Mail in Britain with a staggering claim of mass slaughter. The paper quotes Hla Win, described as a Burmese general who has deserted his post in protest of the regime’s harsh tactics.

“Many more people have been killed in recent days than you’ve heard about,” Hla Win said. “The bodies can be counted in several thousand.” [...]

The 42-year-old chief of military intelligence in Rangoon’s northern region added: “I decided to desert when I was ordered to raid two monasteries and force several hundred monks onto trucks.

“They were to be killed and their bodies dumped deep inside the jungle. I refused to participate in this.”

This has been backed up by other sources, and raids on monasteries continue. Meanwhile the UN envoy has been frustrated in his attempts to meet with Gen. Than Shwe, the junta leader. This is tentatively scheduled for Tuesday, but that's the same day he's scheduled to leave the country, so we'll see if it happens.

What we have is a modern-day killing fields reminiscent of Cambodia and the initial 1988 power grab by the military junta that left thousands dead. But systematically murdering and dumping the monks, probably designed to initimidate all of the others, is just unspeakable.

This all started when the government decided to cut back on fuel subsidies, which is a side note that speaks to what really animates people. But the Burmese have lived under this repression for too long, so whatever the spark was, it simply set off other, larger rumblings.

Murky In Burma

There's a lot of surmising going on about Burma, and with communication down it's hard to knw what the truth actually is. This blogger claims that there's been a coup attempt and an Army mutiny, paving the way for dissident Aung San Suu Kyi to take over as the new leader. Considering how revered Buddhist monks are in the country, and that the junta leaders demanded that the Army attack religious leaders overnight, it makes sense that there would be defections. But we just don't know.

Meanwhile Gordon Brown says what we're all fearing.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has said he believes the loss of life in Burma has been "far greater" than that reported by the authorities.

He was speaking after holding talks by phone with US President George W Bush and Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao.

Burmese officials said nine people were killed on Thursday as troops fired tear gas and bullets to disperse crowds of anti-government protesters in Rangoon.

Most internet links have been severed and mobile phone networks disrupted.

''I want to condemn absolutely the appalling level of violence against the people of Burma.

"I am afraid that we believe the loss of life in Burma is far greater than is being reported so far," Mr Brown said.

He said he hoped the combined international pressure from the US, China, the EU and UN would "begin to make the regime see this cannot continue".

From the wayback machine, we find out who was one of Burma's best customers: Fourthbranch.

For example, Halliburton is one of the few US companies that still (as of 2001 - ed.) does business with the thuggish, totalitarian rulers of Burma. Not only did Burma's thugs overthrow democracy there, but they maintain their power through human rights violations so severe that they give brutality a bad name.

Corporations like Halliburton have long done business deals with these thugs, providing the foreign capital for them to buy the weapons they need to keep repressing Burma's people. But in the 1990s, the repression got so repulsive that dozens of corporations pulled out. Not Halliburton, though.

With Cheney at the helm, Halliburton defied human rights advocates and the Burmese democracy movement by continuing to do business there. One of its joint-projects with the thugs was building the Yadana pipeline. To build it, farmers and others were conscripted by the dictators and forced at gunpoint to work on the pipeline. In turn, the thugs will pocket hundreds-of-millions of dollars from Halliburton and other foreign partners. Asked about this, Cheney said dismissively, "you have to operate in some very difficult places and oftentimes in countries that are governed in a manner that's not consistent with our principles here in the United States."

Not consistent NOW... but if Fourthbranch has anything to say about it...

"Why'd You Say Burma?" "I panicked!"*

I was completely mistaken yesterday in calling the country experiencing protests and curfews "Myanmar". Myanmar is the name the ruling junta placed upon them. The country is called Burma, and the Burmese are out in the streets despite attempts at oppression. And I'm glad the Washington Post is using the proper nomenclature, too.

Burma's military rulers imposed a nighttime curfew and banned assemblies Tuesday after thousands of Buddhist monks defied warnings and mounted another day of pro-democracy protests to the cheers of crowds in the streets of Rangoon.

Although Tuesday's demonstration was allowed to proceed peacefully, several truckloads of soldiers and armed police were seen taking up positions in Burma's largest city late in the day, according to news agency reports and videos e-mailed out of the isolated Southeast Asian country.

Here are some really good pics coming out of Burma, via a flickr user.







(* - The title is from an old Monty Python sketch)

UPDATE: Much like Darfur, the key to stopping this oppression appears to be China, the country with the most direct influence on the junta.

Never Underestimate The Power Of A Few Committed Citizens

A few monks in Myanmar have led the President of the United States to pay attention to a 19-year old despotic regime:

US President George W Bush is to announce new sanctions against the ruling military junta in Burma, the White House has said. Mr Bush seems poised to impose a US visa ban and financial restrictions on members of the government. The move comes after eight days of increasingly popular protests against the junta led by Buddhist monks. The junta, which violently repressed protests in 1988, said it was ready to "take action" against the monks.

Mr Bush is expected to announce the new restrictions during his speech to the United Nations General Assembly. The BBC's Jonathan Beale, in Washington, says the US has already made clear that it is preparing to take unilateral action against Burma's military dictators. Washington is also hoping that its steps will encourage other nations to act and embolden the protesters on Burma's streets, he adds.

More likely, it's that Bush was looking for something broadly popular that fits with his whole "freedom agenda" to tout at the UN. But Myanmar has hardly been in the global spotlight, until the monks started leading protests last month. The ruling junta has stifled dissent for years, with prominent human rights leaders jailed. They actually picked up and moved the capital city, in its entirety, without warning a couple years back, shaking up lives and stranding its increasingly burdened populace. And here's something interesting.

Mr. Steinberg said the demonstrations appeared to involve younger monks rather than the hierarchy of the country’s religious establishment.

Monks have been at the forefront of protests in Myanmar since colonial times, before the country, then known as Burma, won independence from Britain in 1948. They were prominent, along with students, in the nationwide uprising of 1988 that was crushed by the military with the loss of thousands of lives [...]

This time the junta has appeared reluctant to use force. The protests come at a time when Myanmar is attempting to present itself to the world as a democratizing nation, with the adoption early this month of new constitutional guidelines.

The technology of rapid communication is spreading film and photographs of the demonstrations both within and outside the country, and the junta can no longer operate in the shadows as it has in the past. Two weeks ago, however, soldiers reportedly manhandled a group of protesting monks in Pakokku, near central Mandalay, and fired several shots into the air.

In response, some monks briefly kidnapped a group of officials at a monastery and vandalized buildings belonging to members of the government. The confrontation in Pakokku apparently helped fuel the larger demonstrations that have taken place this week. They began after the government failed to offer an apology demanded by the Buddhist clergy.

The fact that younger monks are leading this fight, emboldened by new communication tools and a sense of standing outside the ruling establishment, shows that a parallel movement for change can happen virtually anywhere.