Posted by Cockney Robin | Notwithstanding Gordon Brown's warning to the Burmese generals that
they could no longer act "with impunity," they are sufficiently
unconcerned with the world's opinion to wreak revenge on their
political enemies. The Independent describes a "hidden crackdown...as
methodical as it is brutal."(Independent) It's already known that the police turned guns and truncheons on demonstrators
and that at least 13 are dead as a result. Reports smuggled out of the
country provide some notion of the price that the
demonstrators---including mere bystanders---are now paying. According
to The Independent's sources, one detained opponent of the regime, Win Shwe, has been tortured---or rather, 'interrogated'--- to death. (Independent) Will other deaths follow?
Burmese officials are "scrutinising photographs and video footage to identify demonstrators and bystanders" and the people of Rangoon say they hear their neighbours being dragged off every night. ""We all hear screams at night as they [the police] arrive to drag off a neighbour. We are torn between going to help them and hiding behind our doors. We hide behind our doors. We are ashamed. We are frightened.""(Independent) And, as The Independent points out, "[f]or each story smuggled out to The Independent, someone has risked arrest and imprisonment."(Independent)
The monks were, of course, the "backbone" of the protests and those regarded as ringleaders can expect to suffer the consequences. Others regarded as followers rather than leaders seem to have been released, though not without first undergoing their own terrifying ordeal. A 24 year old monk ("too frightened to be named") who was held for 10 days at a prison camp for suspected dissidents described the conditions at the location formerly known as "The Government Technical Institute." "There were about 400 of us in one room. No toilets, no buckets, no water for washing. No beds, no blankets, no soap." Nothing..."(Independent) As The Independent puts it, they were confined in a room---400 men, mind you (how is that even possible?)---with their own excrement. Put yourself there and choose your own degree of outrage at a regime who would treat defenceless human beings worse than a civilised human being would permit even a savage to treat any animal.
One woman was beaten up by the soldiers because a camera caught her coming out of her house to smile and clap to the chanting of the monks.(Independent)
The Independent calls the response of the international community "strangely muted." (Independent)
But First Lady Laura Bush---who to her credit, has been "more and more visible in her denunciations of the generals"---yesterday published an 'op-ed' in The Wall Street Journal. Evidently Mrs Bush read Aung San Suu Kyi's book Freedom from Fear years ago, and has been deeply concerned about events in Burma for years. Though she always expected her role to be "domestic," she's keen to use her "influence is really in being able to shine a spotlight on human rights situations that I want the American people to look at."(Independent)
Bush has quietly promoted Suu Kyi's cause and democracy in Burma for at least five years. She learned about them from Elsie Walker, a Bush family cousin and human rights advocate for Burma and Tibet.
The first lady's activism became public last year at the United Nations, when she hosted an international roundtable on Burma. She submitted written testimony last week to the Senate, calling again for the removal of the military government. (USA Today)
The Bush Administration is calling for investigations into the death of Win Shwe. (Independent) She said that the junta has "days" to act before her husband will "slap sanctions" on them. Well done, Laura (if I may so refer to you)! While I'm not exactly convinced that either the threat or the act will get the junta to "start moving toward democracy," it's something to find myself in agreement with anyone by the name of 'Bush.' Somehow, I find it ever so slightly heartening. (USA Today). You can read her interview in USA Today here.
RELATED BN-POLITICS POSTS
To the Monks of Burma (a Photo essay)
In Burma, the Resistance and Repression Carry On (updated)
Burma's Ruling Junta vs. the People
Government Accountability in China: The Death of a Food Regulator.
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