Burma - Forgotten Land 2 comments

29 May 2005 @ 02:45, by Salama Shaquana Burma the little country which the world at large has conveniently forgotten. More importantly the self professed saviours of the modern world, the champions of the peace process and architects of liberation (said with tongue in cheek) from them nary a word is spoken. It is 15 years since the people of Burma elected the National league for Democracy with a whopping margin of 80% and in doing so appointed their leader Aung San Suu Kyi to lead their nation. As is the wont in Burma it was only a matter of days before the generals overturned the result in one of most sadistic and genocidal acts of terror in our history. Aung San Suu Kyi has been under house arrest ever since. This is 15-years held a prisoner and her crime she won a democratic election! Human rights abuse in Burma is breathtaking. Children used as slave labour, people used as human landmine detonators. The peoples of Chin, Kachin, Karenni, Mon, Karen, Arakan and Shan exterminated, women and children raped and why – because they have the temerity to want to retain their culture, nothing more, nothing less. These are peoples who live in the deep jungles but of course the jungles are rich in teak and it would be no surprise to discover that the generals who wreck such havoc on the lives of the peasant tribes have made them multi-millionaires. Sounds familiar doesn’t it. Just another country and another corrupt regime. When did you see this story on the front pages of the newspapers or on the TV? Well you don’t. American doesn’t care, we down here don’t care, the UK doesn’t care in fact no one cares. Burma used to be part of the British Commonwealth but as Frederick pointed out London is silent. The point of the story is this. If Iraq didn’t have weapons of mass destruction (as we are now told) and the free world only invaded Iraq because Saddam was a despot (but sorry we couldn’t tell you this before we went it) and the free world was liberating the people why are we not invading Burma to set their people free? After all the democratically elected leader of Burma was overthrown and is now held prisoner and she has been for 15-years. I would have thought our self-professed saviours of the modern world; the champions of the peace process and architects of liberation would be in there is a flash.

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