Anj — 3 Articles on Burma
Topic(s): Burma | Comments Off on Anj — 3 Articles on Burma3 Articles on Burma
1. Inside a city under siege: gunfire breaks the silence as troops
reclaim the streets
2. Burma: Hundreds may be dead, as junta tries to keep brutality unseen
3. Hope wanes among protesters in Myanmar
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Inside a city under siege: gunfire breaks the silence as troops
reclaim the streets
David Jiménez in Rangoon
Saturday September 29, 2007
The Guardian
The monasteries are surrounded, the monks held inside at gunpoint,
whole districts are sealed off, and the internet has been closed down.
Soldiers have taken over the streets, carrying guns at their waists
and always pointing forwards. Fresh army divisions have reached the
city gates from neighbouring provinces.
Rangoon is a city under siege.
The sound of sporadic gunfire broke the unusual silence which cloaked
the centre of the city. It was proof that the killings of the past two
days had not weakened the determination of the thousands of Burmese
protesters ready to risk their life in defiance of the regime.
Article continues
Many of them disobeyed the ban on gatherings of more than five people,
confronting the troops once again – unarmed and without violence.
Without a clear leader, and with the monks confined to their
monasteries, young civilians have taken up the baton, and form the
front line of the protests. Thein, an adolescent with long hair and
Buddhist scriptures tattooed on his body, showed his bare chest to a
file of soldiers in Anawrahta street near the centre.
He carried a sheet of paper with a copy of a blurred image of Aung
San, the hero of independence and father of the opposition leader Aung
San Suu Kyi. Was he afraid of death? “I have no work. My father has no
work. I have nothing to lose,” he said.
Yesterday’s demonstrations brought out fewer people than in previous
days. The junta had sealed off entire Rangoon neighbourhoods, stopping
the people from gathering. The protests were dispersed, and the main
march of 5,000 people opted to head for the city outskirts.
The five principal pagodas of Rangoon, which had been centres of the
protest, were taken at dawn by soldiers; it was impossible to enter or
leave them. But spontaneous and disorganised protests continued to
break out throughout the afternoon. What began with 10 people shouting
with their fists in the air became a demonstration with hundreds of
voices. In a few minutes, a thousand more had joined in. People who
out of fear did not join in the protests applauded from balconies and
doorways.
Seeing a foreign journalist, many offered food and drink. “Don’t
leave. We need you,” they shouted.
The killings of Wednesday and Thursday had the effect desired by the
soldiers: they have been a warning that the junta is ready to do
anything to stay in power.
The official death toll from the government – nine on Thursday,
including a Japanese videojournalist – seemed more and more
improbable. Western diplomats based in Rangoon speak of dozens of
dead, and several witnesses said they saw 35 bodies next to the post
office in Sule Pagoda Street, in the centre of Rangoon.
Yesterday the military used live rounds again, but they fired above
the demonstrators’ heads. It was a day of truce for both sides.
The junta wanted to avoid another bloodbath on the eve of a visit by
the UN special envoy Ibrahim Gambari. The demonstrators took a break
after 10 days of protest, prayed for their dead and prepared for new
gatherings at the weekend.
The few monks who ventured into the streets were alone and most tried
to avoid the protests.
They have borne the brunt of the repression with which the junta has
responded to the worst challenge to its power in two decades. Although
it is impossible to know the extent of the campaign against
monasteries and pagodas across the country, dissidents say that at
least 2,000 have been arrested. Their whereabouts are unknown.
One exception yesterday was Nay, a young monk with a shaven head and
the saffron tunic, from which the uprising has taken its name. “We do
not have material possessions and we do not hope for power,” he said.
“We have less to lose, and that is why we are ready to sacrifice
ourselves for the people. As soon as they can, my brothers will return
to the street.”
Nobody in Rangoon has much confidence in the diplomatic offensive
which begins this weekend with the arrival of the UN representative.
Many question whether international pressure can stop the repression
ordered by a group of generals who have proved to have little contact
with reality and whose isolation has increased now that they govern
the country from the new capital of Naypyidaw, 200 miles from Rangoon.
The note sent by the government to foreign diplomats yesterday to
justify its actions was one more piece of evidence: the incidents of
the past days had been organised by “conspiratorial foreign elements”,
it said, even though the press, NGOs and international organisations,
such as the Red Cross, are not allowed into the country and the junta
only has relations with allies who do not doubt its monopoly of power.
Rumours of divisions inside the regime are also hard to verify.
The possibility that there is a splinter group of commanders offended
by the attack on the monks – the most respected figures in the country
– seemed stronger after several witnesses of demonstrations in
Mandalay, the country’s second city, said that soldiers from one
division had disobeyed the order to fire against the monks.
The secrecy of the regime makes it hard to distinguish between reality
and the hopes of the Burmese people.
El Mundo
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Burma: Hundreds may be dead, as junta tries to keep brutality unseen
By Rosalind Russellin Rangoon
Published: 29 September 2007
Burma’s military leaders locked down monasteries, arrested dissidents
and set up barricades across Rangoon yesterday in an attempt to
suffocate the waves of street demonstrations calling for an end to
their rule.
They also tried to cut off ordinary people’s communication with the
outside world, heightening fears that the crackdown that appears to
have knocked the wind from the demonstrations could become more violent.
Yet, despite the regime’s best efforts, a day after security forces
killed at least nine demonstrators – dissident groups say the total
could be as high as 200 – hundreds again risked their lives to defy
the government in small but angry protests across Burma’s main city.
Locked inside their monasteries, or banished from the city, the
cinnamon-robed monks who have formed the backbone to the dignified
protest of the past week were largely gone. In their place were
civilians, less disciplined and more angry, some with bandanas around
their faces. Shouting, jeering groups moved quickly around the city in
an attempt to gather in large numbers. But the military, with soldiers
packed in the back of trucks, raced after them, quickly breaking up
gatherings with threats and force.
In Thanwe township, a decaying residential area in north-east Rangoon,
witnesses said soldiers fired shots amid skirmishes with protesters.
“It’s finished!” shouted a soldier as a group of young men scattered.
When faced with lines of soldiers with rifles and riot shields, some
protesters threw rocks and bottles in retreat.
Without the moral authority, organisation and discipline of the
country’s much revered Buddhist clergy, it seemed the soldier’s words
may ring true. With the civilian leaders of the pro-democracy movement
who organised the initial protests last month having been arrested and
jailed, Burma’s rulers seem to have taken the upper hand.
“Government go away!” a young man in a sarong and flip-flops shouted
in English, banging on the roof of our car as it moved through an
agitated and disorganised crowd.
Gone was the pride and hope that accompanied the well-ordered marches
led by the monks. In its place came fear and confusion. One Western
diplomat said that, in another blow to the protesters, hundreds of
suspected dissidents were arrested in raids across the city yesterday,
with 50 taken in one swoop alone.
The military had moved on the monks overnight, raiding monasteries
that were identified as hotbeds of protest, beating them up by the
dozen and shipping them back to their villages – all away from the
eyes of the world. Rangoon’s temples, including the Sule and Shwedagon
pagodas around which the monks had been rallying, have been declared
“danger zones” and cordoned off with barbed wire.
Yesterday, authorities shut Burma’s only internet server and blocked
all text and picture messaging on mobiles, in an effort to stem the
violent images leaving the country, including pictures of a Japanese
photographer shot in front of the Sule Pagoda. Though foreign
journalists are banned, the regime ordered soldiers to go door-to-door
at some hotels looking for foreigners.
With widespread outrage and words of encouragement, but so far no
practical support from the outside world, the protesters’ only fuel is
pent-up anger at 45 years of unbroken military rule. Burma’s generals
have ruined a resource-rich country through mismanagement and greed. A
hike in fuel prices in August was the final straw for citizens who
have kept quiet since a 1988 uprising was brutally crushed, killing up
to 6,000 people.
Last night, the UN’s special envoy to Burma was heading to the country
to promote a political solution and could arrive as early as today.
Also the UN Human Rights Council announced it would be holding a
special session about Burma next week. It will be the first meeting of
its kind since it gathered to talk about Darfur last year.
At the same time, a disturbing picture was emerging of Thursday’s
crackdown. Bob Davis, Australia’s ambassador to Burma, said he had
unconfirmed reports the death toll after two days of violence was
“several multiples of the 10 acknowledged by the authorities”. The
Washington-based dissident group, US Campaign for Burma, said around
200 protesters had been killed.
“It’s tragic,” said Shari Villarosa, the most senior US diplomat in
the country. “These were peaceful demonstrators, very well behaved.”
A Burmese journalist who gave her account to The Independent, said:
“The police were shooting everything – houses, trees, anything. The
bullets were flying over our heads. It was as if they were on drugs
and were crazy.” Seven young people ran from the protest in Thanwe and
tried to hide in long grass, the 23-year-old journalist said.
“Informers were pointing to the grass, people got up and ran, but the
police just fired into their backs. Four were gunned down straight
away. Shot dead.”
Following phone talks with the US President, George Bush, and the
Chinese Premier, Wen Jiabao, Gordon Brown said: “I am afraid we
believe the loss of life is far greater than is being reported.”
The Prime Minister called for greater UN efforts and EU sanctions.
“Now we have seen pictures from Burma and now we can hear voices from
the Burmese people, there is no amount of censorship and no amount of
violence that can silence the will of the Burmese people,” he said.
Mr Brown added: “The eyes of the world are not only upon them. The
anger of the world is now being expressed.”
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Hope wanes among protesters in Myanmar
By DENIS D. GRAY, Associated Press Writer 28 minutes ago
BANGKOK, Thailand – Watching soldiers firing their guns and beating
die-hard protesters with clubs in the streets of Myanmar, a distraught
man shouted, “Bloodbath again! Bloodbath again! Why don’t the
Americans come and help us?”
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With the streets eerily quiet Saturday after the military’s brutal
crackdown on three days of demonstrations, many protesters were losing
hope and falling back on a familiar plea for intervention by the
outside world.
It’s a call made every time the pro-democracy movement has dared stand
up against Myanmar’s 45 years of harsh military rule, only to be crushed.
Some of those challenging the regime in the most forceful
demonstrations in nearly two decades still hope such help — even in
the form of U.S. bombing — may arrive. About 300 die-hard protesters
marched down a street in the Chinatown section of Myanmar’s main city,
Yangon, on Saturday, waving the peacock-emblazoned flags of the
democracy movement. They dispersed when soldiers arrived.
Monks and civilians called diplomats to report that troops had shown
up at three different monasteries late Saturday, but were prevented
from entering by people in the neighborhood who massed outside them.
The soldiers departed, but with threats of returning in larger numbers.
U.N. envoy Ibrahim Gambari also rushed to Myanmar Saturday and was
taken immediately to Naypyitaw, the remote, bunker-like capital where
the country’s military leaders are based. The White House urged the
junta to allow him to have access to Aung San Suu Kyi, the Nobel Peace
Prize laureate who is under house arrest, and ordinary Myanmar residents.
Many people in Myanmar said that despite Gambari’s visit, however,
they’re resigned to a repeat of the 1988 uprising when the
international community stood by as thousands were gunned down.
“Gambari is coming, but I don’t think it will make much of a
difference,” said one hotel worker, who like other residents asked not
to be named, fearing retaliation. “We have to find a solution ourselves.”
A young woman who took part in Thursday’s massive demonstration in
Yangon said she didn’t think “we have any more hope to win.” She was
separated from her boyfriend when police broke up the protest by
firing into crowds and has not seen him since.
“The monks are the ones who give us courage,” she said, referring to
the clergymen who have been the backbone of rallies — both those of
this week and in past years. Most are now besieged in their
monasteries, penned in by locked gates and barbed wire surrounding the
compounds.
The demonstrations began last month by people angry over massive fuel
price hikes, then mushroomed to crowds of tens of thousands after the
monks joined in.
The junta, which has a long history of snuffing out dissent, started
cracking down Wednesday, when the first of at least 10 deaths was
reported, and then let loose on Thursday, shooting into a crowd of
protesters and clubbing them with batons.
The crackdown has triggered an unprecedented verbal flaying of
Myanmar’s generals from almost every corner of the world — even some
criticism from No. 1 ally China.
But little else that might stay the junta’s heavy hand is seen in the
foreseeable future.
The United States, which exercises meager leverage, froze any assets
that 14 Myanmar leaders may have in U.S. financial institutions and
prohibited American citizens from doing business with them. The
leaders, including Than Shwe, are believed to have few if any such
connections.
The United Nations has also compiled a lengthy record of failure in
trying to broker reconciliation between the junta and detained
pro-democracy leader Suu Kyi. Gambari, the top U.N. envoy on Myanmar,
has been snubbed and sometimes barred from entry by the ruling State
Peace and Development Council, as the ruling junta is formally known.
“Unless and until Beijing, Delhi and Moscow stand in unison in
pressuring the SPDC for change, little will change,” says Thitinan
Pongsudhirak, a political scientist at Bangkok’s Chulalongkorn
University. “The SPDC has virtually invented its own ‘great game’ in
which it has become a masterful manipulator and has been winning to
the consternation of the wider world.”
However, China, India and Russia do not seem prepared to go beyond
words in their dealings with the junta, ruling out sanctions as they
jostle for a chance to get at Myanmar’s bountiful and largely untapped
natural resources, especially its oil and gas.
The United States, Japan and others have turned a hopeful eye on China
— Myanmar’s closest ally and biggest trading partner — as the most
likely outside catalyst for change. But some Chinese academics and
diplomats say the international community may be overestimating what
Beijing can do.
“I actually don’t think China can influence Burma at all except
through diplomacy. China’s influence is not at all decisive,” said
Peking University Southeast Asia expert Liang Yingming.
India has switched from a vocal opponent of the junta to one currying
favor with the generals as it struggles to corner energy supplies for
its own rapidly expanding economy.
The Association of Southeast Asian Nations, or ASEAN, a 10-member bloc
which includes Myanmar, also has given no indication that it is
considering an expulsion or any other action.
As governments heap criticism on the junta, Myanmar and foreign
activists continue to call for concrete, urgent action.
“The world cannot fail the people of Burma again,” said the National
Coalition Government of the Union of Burma, an exile group based in
Thailand. “Selfless sacrifices deserve more than words and
lip-service. They want effective intervention before it is too late.”