GET TO KNOW BURMA—SO-CALLED MYANMAR!!
GET TO KNOW BURMA—SO-CALLED MYANMAR!!
By Kevin A. Stoda
Since 10,000 Burmese monks made the Voice of America Radio news, I thought I would enquire how many readers know of Burma and the people’s suffering and struggle there.???
Too few Americans can find Burma on the world map. This is partially because a military regime, called SLORC, changed the name of this ancient land a few years ago.
Burma is still located between India and Thailand and has been economically and socially stagnant under the extended elite regime’s leadership of the past 5 decades. Most “people in the know” and “lovers of Burma” refuse to call the country Myanmar in support of the many indigenous peoples and monks who have bravely fought SLORC and its supporter, but they have been put down many times. All around the border of the country of Burma are dozens of refugee camps—some 4 or more decades old.
I visited one of the camps on the border near Mae Sot, Thailand a decade ago. I met very wonderful Burmese—Christian, Muslim, Buddhist, Chin, Shan, Mon and others—many more have been forced to live in jails, enslavement, or live abroad in exile over a very long period of time. They are fantastic people. I was even blessed to donate money and medicines to the humble yet famous Dr. Cynthia’s Clinic.
It was an honor to meet Dr. Cynthia for a few minutes in 1994. Read her tale in a review of Journey of the Heart: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/special/burma/cythia.html
In the early and mid-1990s, there were regular reports that whole Burmese villages or--in some cases—only healthy youths—were being forced at gunpoint to carry out lengthy duties and build roads for the SLORC soldiers. U.S. companies, like Unical and Chevron Oil , have continued to be allied with the SLORC regime as have several European and Asian firms.
These companies are still there despite the fact that an executive order was issued in 1997 banning U.S. firm involvement in Burma/Myanmar.
DAW AUNG SAN SUU KYI
One of the more famous individuals from Burma is Aung San Suu Kyi, who has been imprisoned by the SLORC government in Burma for most of the past two decades. Suu Kyi led a successful & peaceful election campaign to oust the military dictators in 1990, but the elections were thrown out by the military junta.
As is occurring in Burma today in 2007, many Burmese Buddhist monks in 1990 had begun to protest the government’s behavior by refusing to accept alms from the military personnel of the land. The government repressed even the monks at that point.
Meanwhile in 1991, the world community called on the Noble Prize Committee to select Aung San Suu Kyi as Peace Prize winner. This, in fact, did occur.
[Get to know Suu Kyi by checking out one of the websites on her below in the NOTES section of this writing.]
GEOGRAPHY OF PROTEST: BURMA
For the fifth day in a row monks in the capital of Rangoon, thousands of orange-dressed monks have been marching and demanding respect from the national government and military in Myanmar/Burma.
Why is this marching happening now in Burma?
In short, “[T]he protest movement began Aug. 19 after the government raised fuel prices, but has its basis in long pent-up dissatisfaction with the repressive military regime. Using arrests and intimidation, the government had managed to keep demonstrations limited in size and impact, but they gained new life when the monks joined.”
This week, Aung San Suu Kyi was able to wave at the 10,000 monks who marched by her home, where she has been under house arrest for far too long.
According to an Australian reporter, “The monks also strike a strong chord of public sympathy by gathering at the Shwedagon [pagoda], which is not only a religious centre but also a historical focal point for social and political protests. Student strikers against British colonial rule gathered there in the 1920s and 30s, and the country's independence hero, Gen. Aung San, took up the same cause there in a famous 1946 speech.”
General Aung San is Aung San Suu Kyi’s own parent. Suu Kyi had grown up in a semi-exile abroad and had been married in the UK, but she had returned to her homeland just prior to the 1988 uprising in order to take care of her aged mother.
The Australian press adds that “to many people, the pagoda [Shwedagon] is best remembered as the site of a vast Aug. 26, 1988, rally where Aung San's daughter Aung San Suu Kyi, took up leadership of a pro-democracy movement. The 1988 pro-democracy demonstrations were crushed by the military, and Suu Kyi has spent 11 of the past 18 years in detention.”
WORRIED? … AND WHAT CAN ONE DO?
This is a sobering moment for the Burmese. Many are happy and supportive of the Monks current stand on their behalf. However, in 1988 and again in 1990 similar protests were put down by the SLORC regime and its predecessors.
Besides prayer, what can one do?
I’d suggest that interested parties go first to Burma support organizations, like at the Burma Guide address: http://burmaguide.net/index_html See what various groups things can be or should be done.
Second, contact the more-than-a-dozen senators on the Senate Relations Committees, like Sen. Biden or Sen. Lugar. Let them know that you want freedom and justice to be what the U.S. is seen as as supporting abroad in 2007 . Try this link for help in contacting these senators: http://www.congress.org/congressorg/directory/committees.tt?commid=sfore
Third, continue to push for the U.S. to back up prior executive orders and prior congressional demands that U.S. firms stay out of Burma.
Chevron bought Unical some time ago and has become the largest foreign investor in Burma. Surely, Chevron should be expected to do what justice and freedom demand, too. Let Bush and Congress know that Americans are concerned and watching whether Chevron will continue to be blatantly ignore the executive branch to thwarting the laws of the land.
For example, the following is what has been reported by Marco Simons in Thomas Paine reported on the horrors that Unical/Chevron have been up to with their SLORC buddies over the past days and years:
“When refugees who had suffered rape, torture, enslavement, and murder at the hands of soldiers protecting the Yadana pipeline sued Unocal in U.S. court, the Bush administration intervened to try to convince the courts that the lawsuit should not proceed. The administration essentially argued that, even if the case would not actually interfere with U.S. relations with Burma, holding Unocal liable would create a precedent that could conflict with U.S. foreign policy in other parts of the world. (The lawsuit, Doe v. Unocal Corp., was ultimately resolved before the courts considered the administration's position, with Unocal compensating the victims in a historic settlement—see http://www.earthrights.org/legal/unocal/.) If the Bush administration opposes accountability for human rights violations committed by the oil and gas industry in a pariah state such as Burma, the situation is even worse when oil companies commit abuses in countries friendly to the United States. In the troubled Indonesian region of Aceh, security forces hired by ExxonMobil have committed rape, murder and torture against local villagers. When the victims filed suit in federal court against the oil giant for compensation, the Bush administration sent a letter to the court stating that the case could cause a ‘serious adverse impact’ on ‘the ongoing struggle against international terrorism.’ The judge subsequently dismissed parts of the case.”
In short, the struggle for the Burmese people is related to the struggle for- and with Big Oil dependence.
We are all part of this struggle. Find time to do something.
Finally, get your peace- and other community organizations supportive and provide teach-ins on the multi-ethnic and long suffering peoples of Burma.
Thanks.
P.S. SLORC leadership, by the way, have recently signed a contract with Russia to build a Nuclear power plant—a la Iran? Or North Korea?
NOTES
1991 Nobel Piece prize Winner, Aung San Suu Kyi”
http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/1991/kyi-bio.html
“10,000 Monks Protest in Burma”, http://www.voanews.com/english/2007-09-22-voa4.cfm
“A Land of War: A Journey of the Heart”, http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/special/burma/
Burma Guide to Rights and Democracy”, http://burmaguide.net/res-en/BIG17_39_en/view
“Daw Aung San Suu Kyi”, http://www.dassk.com/
“Over 1500 Monks Protest in Burma”, http://www.thewest.com.au/aapstory.aspx?StoryName=420714
Russia to Build Nuclear Reactor in Burma, http://www.dw-world.de/dw/function/0,,12215_cid_2516959,00.html?maca=en-rss-en-all-1573-rdf
Simons, Marco, “Big Oil Trumps Freedom”, http://www.tompaine.com/articles/2006/09/26/big_oil_trumps_freedom.php
By Kevin A. Stoda
Since 10,000 Burmese monks made the Voice of America Radio news, I thought I would enquire how many readers know of Burma and the people’s suffering and struggle there.???
Too few Americans can find Burma on the world map. This is partially because a military regime, called SLORC, changed the name of this ancient land a few years ago.
Burma is still located between India and Thailand and has been economically and socially stagnant under the extended elite regime’s leadership of the past 5 decades. Most “people in the know” and “lovers of Burma” refuse to call the country Myanmar in support of the many indigenous peoples and monks who have bravely fought SLORC and its supporter, but they have been put down many times. All around the border of the country of Burma are dozens of refugee camps—some 4 or more decades old.
I visited one of the camps on the border near Mae Sot, Thailand a decade ago. I met very wonderful Burmese—Christian, Muslim, Buddhist, Chin, Shan, Mon and others—many more have been forced to live in jails, enslavement, or live abroad in exile over a very long period of time. They are fantastic people. I was even blessed to donate money and medicines to the humble yet famous Dr. Cynthia’s Clinic.
It was an honor to meet Dr. Cynthia for a few minutes in 1994. Read her tale in a review of Journey of the Heart: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/special/burma/cythia.html
In the early and mid-1990s, there were regular reports that whole Burmese villages or--in some cases—only healthy youths—were being forced at gunpoint to carry out lengthy duties and build roads for the SLORC soldiers. U.S. companies, like Unical and Chevron Oil , have continued to be allied with the SLORC regime as have several European and Asian firms.
These companies are still there despite the fact that an executive order was issued in 1997 banning U.S. firm involvement in Burma/Myanmar.
DAW AUNG SAN SUU KYI
One of the more famous individuals from Burma is Aung San Suu Kyi, who has been imprisoned by the SLORC government in Burma for most of the past two decades. Suu Kyi led a successful & peaceful election campaign to oust the military dictators in 1990, but the elections were thrown out by the military junta.
As is occurring in Burma today in 2007, many Burmese Buddhist monks in 1990 had begun to protest the government’s behavior by refusing to accept alms from the military personnel of the land. The government repressed even the monks at that point.
Meanwhile in 1991, the world community called on the Noble Prize Committee to select Aung San Suu Kyi as Peace Prize winner. This, in fact, did occur.
[Get to know Suu Kyi by checking out one of the websites on her below in the NOTES section of this writing.]
GEOGRAPHY OF PROTEST: BURMA
For the fifth day in a row monks in the capital of Rangoon, thousands of orange-dressed monks have been marching and demanding respect from the national government and military in Myanmar/Burma.
Why is this marching happening now in Burma?
In short, “[T]he protest movement began Aug. 19 after the government raised fuel prices, but has its basis in long pent-up dissatisfaction with the repressive military regime. Using arrests and intimidation, the government had managed to keep demonstrations limited in size and impact, but they gained new life when the monks joined.”
This week, Aung San Suu Kyi was able to wave at the 10,000 monks who marched by her home, where she has been under house arrest for far too long.
According to an Australian reporter, “The monks also strike a strong chord of public sympathy by gathering at the Shwedagon [pagoda], which is not only a religious centre but also a historical focal point for social and political protests. Student strikers against British colonial rule gathered there in the 1920s and 30s, and the country's independence hero, Gen. Aung San, took up the same cause there in a famous 1946 speech.”
General Aung San is Aung San Suu Kyi’s own parent. Suu Kyi had grown up in a semi-exile abroad and had been married in the UK, but she had returned to her homeland just prior to the 1988 uprising in order to take care of her aged mother.
The Australian press adds that “to many people, the pagoda [Shwedagon] is best remembered as the site of a vast Aug. 26, 1988, rally where Aung San's daughter Aung San Suu Kyi, took up leadership of a pro-democracy movement. The 1988 pro-democracy demonstrations were crushed by the military, and Suu Kyi has spent 11 of the past 18 years in detention.”
WORRIED? … AND WHAT CAN ONE DO?
This is a sobering moment for the Burmese. Many are happy and supportive of the Monks current stand on their behalf. However, in 1988 and again in 1990 similar protests were put down by the SLORC regime and its predecessors.
Besides prayer, what can one do?
I’d suggest that interested parties go first to Burma support organizations, like at the Burma Guide address: http://burmaguide.net/index_html See what various groups things can be or should be done.
Second, contact the more-than-a-dozen senators on the Senate Relations Committees, like Sen. Biden or Sen. Lugar. Let them know that you want freedom and justice to be what the U.S. is seen as as supporting abroad in 2007 . Try this link for help in contacting these senators: http://www.congress.org/congressorg/directory/committees.tt?commid=sfore
Third, continue to push for the U.S. to back up prior executive orders and prior congressional demands that U.S. firms stay out of Burma.
Chevron bought Unical some time ago and has become the largest foreign investor in Burma. Surely, Chevron should be expected to do what justice and freedom demand, too. Let Bush and Congress know that Americans are concerned and watching whether Chevron will continue to be blatantly ignore the executive branch to thwarting the laws of the land.
For example, the following is what has been reported by Marco Simons in Thomas Paine reported on the horrors that Unical/Chevron have been up to with their SLORC buddies over the past days and years:
“When refugees who had suffered rape, torture, enslavement, and murder at the hands of soldiers protecting the Yadana pipeline sued Unocal in U.S. court, the Bush administration intervened to try to convince the courts that the lawsuit should not proceed. The administration essentially argued that, even if the case would not actually interfere with U.S. relations with Burma, holding Unocal liable would create a precedent that could conflict with U.S. foreign policy in other parts of the world. (The lawsuit, Doe v. Unocal Corp., was ultimately resolved before the courts considered the administration's position, with Unocal compensating the victims in a historic settlement—see http://www.earthrights.org/legal/unocal/.) If the Bush administration opposes accountability for human rights violations committed by the oil and gas industry in a pariah state such as Burma, the situation is even worse when oil companies commit abuses in countries friendly to the United States. In the troubled Indonesian region of Aceh, security forces hired by ExxonMobil have committed rape, murder and torture against local villagers. When the victims filed suit in federal court against the oil giant for compensation, the Bush administration sent a letter to the court stating that the case could cause a ‘serious adverse impact’ on ‘the ongoing struggle against international terrorism.’ The judge subsequently dismissed parts of the case.”
In short, the struggle for the Burmese people is related to the struggle for- and with Big Oil dependence.
We are all part of this struggle. Find time to do something.
Finally, get your peace- and other community organizations supportive and provide teach-ins on the multi-ethnic and long suffering peoples of Burma.
Thanks.
P.S. SLORC leadership, by the way, have recently signed a contract with Russia to build a Nuclear power plant—a la Iran? Or North Korea?
NOTES
1991 Nobel Piece prize Winner, Aung San Suu Kyi”
http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/1991/kyi-bio.html
“10,000 Monks Protest in Burma”, http://www.voanews.com/english/2007-09-22-voa4.cfm
“A Land of War: A Journey of the Heart”, http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/special/burma/
Burma Guide to Rights and Democracy”, http://burmaguide.net/res-en/BIG17_39_en/view
“Daw Aung San Suu Kyi”, http://www.dassk.com/
“Over 1500 Monks Protest in Burma”, http://www.thewest.com.au/aapstory.aspx?StoryName=420714
Russia to Build Nuclear Reactor in Burma, http://www.dw-world.de/dw/function/0,,12215_cid_2516959,00.html?maca=en-rss-en-all-1573-rdf
Simons, Marco, “Big Oil Trumps Freedom”, http://www.tompaine.com/articles/2006/09/26/big_oil_trumps_freedom.php
posted by Kevin Anthony Stoda at 5:23 PM
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