burma - potential uprising?

[frogwoman]

At least they are recognising the NLD as a (semi)legitimate organisation - well, sort of.

As you say though its probably just a propaganda thing in the face of probably the most international criticism the junta have had to face in years...

 

[frogwoman]

I enjoyed reading the report about the panties protest xx

 

[fela fan]

In September we saw the fire. The whole world briefly sat up and took notice. At the least many people are now aware of the country and what goes on in there. This can only be a good thing.

The fire is not out. Embers are still burning, slowly and quietly, but they’re burning. And it seems they will not stop burning until the people get their freedom from their oppressors, the military ‘government’, and all the appeasers sitting in other governments around the world.

Have faith, keep positive, and most importantly keep the country in your consciousness. Freedom always wins in the end, it’s just how much injustice has to occur before this outcome. The Burmese people have had more than their unfair share, and kudos to the likes of the irrawaddy and their peers.


“International media interest in Burma seems to have cooled down after images of the violent dispersal of pro-democracy demonstrators were splashed on TV screens and newspapers late September. But exiled Burmese journalists are determined to keep the flame going over radio and the Internet.”

http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/11/09/5130/

 

[purves grundy]

Have faith, keep positive, and most importantly keep the country in your consciousness.

This is crucial. This has been a decades-long struggle and realizing the goal will take yet more time, and it'll be messy, and many more will sacrifice their lives and freedom for the greater good - a concept that many in the west can scarcely get their heads around. It makes me feel so small and quite pathetic when Burmese talk unflinchingly, and with a smile, about their duty. Not a duty to the flag or any arbitrary set of borders, but their obligation to all their people crushed by fear and poverty.

Free soon?

 

[ymu]

Avaaz are working on the Total/Chevron boycott - they're asking people to sign up here:
http://www.avaaz.org/en/burma_corporate/1.php/?cl=38178336

We, the undersigned, pledge not buy fuel from any gas station owned by Total Oil, Chevron, or any of their subsidiaries. The boycott will continue until the Burmese junta begins a genuine democratic transition and frees all political prisoner-- including Aung San Suu Kyi--or until the companies leave Burma entirely.

 

[purves grundy]

alritey ymu

Soz I missed you and all the other week, things have been a bit bleedin hectic lately

 

[ymu]

Aye here too - laptop died and various bits of the house fell to pieces/went on strike - ver complicated for a few weeks. We'll do it again some time.

 

[purves grundy]

Apocalypse Naypyidaw

I know we're all uncomfortable about American power and all that, but I'd bloody dance all night if this ever happened

 

[Jessiedog]

laptop died

Laptop is dead????









































































Woof

 

[purves grundy]

smash the fuckers.... i'll dance and spit on your broken faces, fucking twats, pathetic stinking scum

 

[purves grundy]

I hope some of the London based urbanites are thinking about going to Stick It Up Your Junta on Thursday and Friday. The line-up looks pretty good, should be a decent night and for a worthy cause.

Featuring: David Armand, James Bachman, Tom Basden, Katy Brand, Colin & Fergus, Kevin Eldon, Simon Farnaby, Richard Glover, John Hopkins, Shelley Longworth, Alice Rowe, Tom Meeten, Nick Mohammed, Steve Oram, Katherine Parkinson, Barunka O Shaughnessy, Skinner & Verrall, Nick Tanner & Gareth Tunley

 

[frogwoman]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/burma/story/0,,2228001,00.html

 

[purves grundy]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/burma/story/0,,2228001,00.html

nicely written.

"The problem the government has created for itself is that the conflict is no longer between the government and the people, it's between religion and the government. That's important because 80% of the population is Buddhist and the government is Buddhist. All the army is Buddhist. That will be its downfall,"

This is it. The character of rebellion has changed, the size of rebellion has changed - every good Buddhist now despises the government when in the past many of them would steer clear of politics.

http://www.burmanet.org/news/2007/12/14/irrawaddythe-role-of-buddhism-in-the-wake-of-the-crackdown-shah-paung/

 

[frogwoman]

http://www.everyclick.com/santaswing.html?mid=25043947

enjoy

 

[purves grundy]

http://www.everyclick.com/santaswing.html?mid=25043947

enjoy

hehehe

 

[purves grundy]

New footage of military scum beating up unarmed protesters and what appears to be a little kid: http://ko-htike.blogspot.com/2007/12/blog-post_25.html

And some brave souls are making sure as many people as possible can see it

 

[purves grundy]

How hard would it be to take these fuckers out?

 

[Brainaddict]

I have to say, I've often thought they should be prime targets for benevolent assassination

 

[frogwoman]

How hard would it be to take these fuckers out?

I wish someone would actually put the years the CIA spent researching how to put explosives inside chocolates to good use.

 

[fela fan]

Are they all the major leaders of burma in that picture?

Seeing faces somehow makes their evil all the more terrible and also all the more hard to understand.

One of the most incredible things about humans as a species is how so few people can so massively impact in such terrible ways on so many millions. Be it in burma, north korea, or the US (on citizens outside their own country). It boggles my mind and ties it into such a knot thinking how half a dozen or so people can be responsible for so much misery and inhumanity.

I only begin to arrive at answers when i view the bastards as insane, and the rest of us as either too selfish or too fearful to get bothered about other people's misery and injustices.

[Not all of us obviously, but a good 90% or more.]

 

[TAE]

It boggles my mind and ties it into such a knot thinking how half a dozen or so people can be responsible for so much misery and inhumanity.

It isn't just a few though - it's all the people who follow their orders and benefit from them, be it out of greed or fear.

 

[purves grundy]

It isn't just a few though - it's all the people who follow their orders and benefit from them, be it out of greed or fear.

Like under most regimes, there are strata of beneficiaries. I'd say a thousand or so follow and connive out of sheer greed for big returns, big even by UK standards. Even some of these people hate the military, but are unwilling to risk what they've got. The small-town bosses are both afraid and completely corrupt, while the rank-and-file soldier is brainwashed and afraid.

Even so, I find it hard to believe that deep down, when the top brass go to Bangkok for conferernces and such they don't feel horribly embarrassed about the contrast between there and what it's like back home. A friend who knows some of the top business cronies and some of middly-top military says most of them despise the way the country is today. It might be out of the news, but there's a lot bubbling under the surface right now...

 

[purves grundy]

Are they all the major leaders of burma in that picture?

I'm trying to find out who they are, but am told that, in addition to Than Shwe (being helped down the steps), it's some of his family and another senior govt. Just taking out Than Shwe could see the whole thing collapse... it's hard to say though, as it's not the kind of place from where you hear about cabinet squabbles.

 

[fela fan]

It isn't just a few though - it's all the people who follow their orders and benefit from them, be it out of greed or fear.

You appear to be agreeing with me exactly! For that is just what i've said. It IS a few, with everybody else falling into line through selfishness/greed or fear. Just only about half a dozen iron-boned acid-blooded fuckers who've hijacked a whole nation.

Six or so people causing untold misery for millions of other human beings. It most assuredly boggles my mind man.

 

[frogwoman]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/7185816.stm

 

[purves grundy]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/7185816.stm

It's either a scheme to unite the military once again against a common enemy, or ex-PM Khin Nyunt's 'friends' trying to destabilise things. Almost certainly not the KNU as alleged.

 

[kropotkin]

Why is it not the KNU? Do they shun terrorist tactics? They would be one of the few ethnic nationalist movements that do if this is the case.

[I'm on the trawl for Burma info as I'm off to work in Mae Sot on the border there for a couple of months later in the year. The clinic is run by a Karen doctor]

 

[purves grundy]

Why is it not the KNU? Do they shun terrorist tactics? They would be one of the few ethnic nationalist movements that do if this is the case.

They have repeatedly said they won't harm civilians. I sometimes wonder how much of this is a deliberate decision not to harm or a lack of firepower, as there's no love lost between many Burmese and Karen, or any minority ethnic group for that matter. But small bombs explode at convenient times - and to little effect - for the junta, and you can bet that it's either SSA or KNU who are blamed within hours.

Great that you're off to Mae Sot - first time over there? I've never been on the border, but lived in Burma for three years until a few months back so get in touch if there's anything particular you're wondering about.

 

[ymu]

Suu Kyi critical of Burma junta talks

By Aung Hla Tun in Rangoon
Thursday, 31 January 2008

The detained Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi is frustrated at a lack of talks on political reform with the ruling military junta since last year's bloody crackdown on dissent, her party has said.

Following the fifth meeting between Ms Suu Kyi and the junta liaison minister Aung Kyi, Ms Suu Kyi's spokesman Nyan Win said she held out little hope that unprecedented international pressure on the generals would bear fruit. She had also been allowed to meet leaders of her National League for Democracy (NLD) party.

"Let's hope for the best and prepare for the worst," he quoted her as saying, adding she worried that yesterday's meetings might give rise to "false hope". Mr Win said she had told Mr Kyi, appointed as go-between after the September crackdown, that talks must include representatives of Burma's many ethnic groups, which have been struggling for autonomy for five decades.

Ms Suu Kyi, who has been in prison or under house arrest for more than 12 of the past 18 years, also told her colleagues she feared she was being strung along by the junta, a group of generals who have refused to acknowledge their election defeat in 1990. "She is not satisfied with meetings with Aung Kyi and with the lack of any time frame," said Mr Win.

The NLD's vice-chairman Tin Oo, who has been under house arrest since May 2003, was barred from attending the meeting, which was held under heavy armed guard.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/suu-kyi-critical-of-burma-junta-talks-776185.html

 

[purves grundy]

Check out the new-look Irrawaddy