Ms Chocaholic with lots of opinions and an attitude

Friday, September 28, 2007

We must act NOW. stop the violence in Burma

In recent days the junta in Burma have started to use violence to disperse the demonstration against the regime. Many have been reported dead, including atleast one international journalist (Japan -- with the incident captured in photos and on video), possibility of an American and a German journalist too, a curfew installed, theres talks of internet being cut off.

Theres been lots of call to get China to pressure Burma, or even calls to Russia and India. My question is, is that enough? and pressure Burma to do what? The regime has been talking about their roadmap for transition to democracy for years! Yet year after year the Lady remains in house arrest. They have shown no sign of relenting and have exacerbated the suffering of Burmese people. Is it not time for the international community to take some real action?

The
UN Human Rights Council is finally calling for an emergency session to discuss the Burma crisis amid crackdown on the anti-regime protesters. Would be interesting to see if they can even decide on any action apart from discussing it. They have been doing discussions for far too many years!
The EU Parliament has included Burma on the agenda for their urgency debate session. Again to be seen what derives out of that meeting.
ASEAN has issued a statement...in my opinion less than lukewarm considering the graveness of the situation (and yes I know I would NEVER make a diplomat).
ASEAN need to move away from its 'non-interference' excuse. The effects of what happens in Burma is most definitely not contained within Burma (Thailand should know this better than anyone! Currently Thailand hosts hundreds of thousand Burmese refugee, and some 2 million migrant workers from Burma...legal and illegal ones).

For those that are interested to find out more...apart from conventional media like Reuters and BBC (who have extensive coverage) you can also visit Burma/Myanmar Genocide blog
which is an
up-to-minute translated English version of many Burmese/Myanmar blogs from within the country.
Those that read the language or wish to see the photos (must warn you they are far from pleasant) you can also access some of the blogs that provide the source such as these ....

There are also images here.

There are also unconfirmed report of dissent by some section of the army, as well as disagreement amongst the Generals over the violent suppression. If this is true, perhaps we can hope for some change for the better?

I also urge you to sign this online petition that has been runnning since some years, in particular since a report commissioned by Desmond Tutu and Vaclav Havel(Threat to the Peace) was released in September 2005. The report calls on the UN Security Council to take action....

if any of you wish to read the report, its available on the same site,

I dont know what the best solution maybe...but atleast it will let the powers that be know there are enough people that feel the situation going on in Burma is unacceptable......
Time to act!

Labels: ,

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]



<< Home