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kenoodo
Lifeless Person
Joined: 17 Jul 2005
Posts: 1087
Location: MengDai
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 Posted: Fri Sep 28, 2007 7:55 am Post subject: 'More brutality' in Myanmar chaos |
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| Quote: | YANGON, Myanmar (CNN) -- Shots were fired to clear crowds defying a brutal crackdown in Myanmar Friday as authorities reportedly cut Internet connections and graphic new video footage showed troops using deadly force.
Witnesses told CNN that police opened fire on crowds to disperse demonstrators resulting in fatalities. There was no immediate way to confirm the claim.
The Associated Press said soldiers clubbed activists in the streets.
A day earlier, troops with automatic rifles fired into crowds of anti-government demonstrators, reportedly killing at least nine people in the bloodiest day in more than a month of protests demanding an end to military rule.
The governemt also cut Internet connections Friday, according to reports, severing a vital information link that has been used to digitally smuggle images of the violent suppression out of the secretive state.
British Ambassador Mark Canning told CNN that troops had opened fire in Yangon on Friday.
"We have heard shots in the last 15, 20 minutes," British Ambassador Mark Canning told CNN.
U.S. Charge d'Affaires Shari Villarosa said crowds were not as large as on previous days, when thousands of red-robed Buddhist monks swarmed the streets of major cities.
Meanwhile, a Western diplomat told CNN that witnesses said security forces were firing rubber bullets into a small crowd outside Sule Pagoda -- the site of previous clashes with government forces.
With tough controls over foreign journalists reporting on the situation, details from inside Myanmar were sketchy. Both opposition and official Web sites that have been a major source of information showed few updates Friday.
A resident of Yangon, who did not wish to give his name, told CNN that police in had told people to remain indoors after midday.
Friday's restrictions came after the government had imposed a night curfew and banned gatherings of more than five people, the U.S. Embassy said, effectively clearing streets overnights, according to witnesses.
The Democratic Voice of Burma (Myanmar) reported that many privately-owned weekly news journals in Myanmar had decided to stop publication in protest of official demands to publish pro-government propaganda.
According to the DVB, authorities are ordering the publications to print articles written by state media and other stories blaming the All Burma Student's Democratic Front and the National League for Democracy for the protests.
The opposition National League for Democracy party won general elections in 1990, but the military refused to honor the results and has repeatedly placed party leader and Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi under house arrest.
DVB also released video on Friday that appeared to show someone being shot at close range in Yangon a day earlier. The person flies backward into the street as shots ring out and the crowd scatters.
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"reportedly cut Internet connections and graphic new video footage " I can't tell what exactly is happening there, but this is really bad. I heard that it is not easy for common people to use internet in Myanmar before, and this time, it might be impossible to touch anything that could report any message to the outside world.
I have some Burmese friends, they can speak English very fluently. They tell me that they have chance to learn English in the school from they are very young, you know the reason this country used to be a British colony in Asia, though English is not their official language. In this case, the internet would be much flourishing without the Burmese government's restriction.
How can Burmese people to get a better standard of living, to live better under such condition while the other people of the planet are living in the information age? |
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kenoodo
Lifeless Person
Joined: 17 Jul 2005
Posts: 1087
Location: MengDai
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| Posted: Sat Sep 29, 2007 9:19 am Post subject: |
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| Quote: | "We are trying to send a message to the military junta that we are watching from the sky," Aung Din, policy director for the interest group U.S. Campaign for Burma, said Friday at a briefing on the photos.
The American Association for the Advancement of Science said it has compiled satellite images that provide evidence of village destruction, forced relocations and a growing military presence at sites across eastern Myanmar.
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The military's ruling junta of Myanmar can close the borders, shut down the media, expel dissidents and restrict visitors and even cut the internet connection and send the army censors to control everything and restrict the power of journalists, but there is one thing that they can not do nothing about, the satellite cameras that high up in the sky.
I have no idea how and what these satellite cameras could do from that high, but it is a way for us to get something from Myanmar.
Ruled by such a government, the Burmese people must have a very tough life.
It is good to know from the CNN that an United Nations envoy has been send to Myanmar to talk peace today. |
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spock
iSpock
Joined: 23 Mar 2005
Posts: 2866
Location: The Netherlands
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| Posted: Sun Sep 30, 2007 8:06 am Post subject: |
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Actually there's not much information here about what's happening there, but because of the fact we don't hear a lot, and all we hear is that the internet is shut down and that the Burmese 'government' is killing reporters and basically killing everyone who can tell the outside world what is going on is a very bad thing.
I really think the situation there is currently really, really bad.
I think there should be done something about it, but I'm not sure what the rest of the world can do to stop the military regime in Burma. I think it's really hard to think of a good solution that would prevent the civilians in Burma from being harmed.
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kenoodo
Lifeless Person
Joined: 17 Jul 2005
Posts: 1087
Location: MengDai
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| Posted: Tue Oct 09, 2007 10:17 am Post subject: Myanmar opposition warn on talks |
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| Quote: | YANGON, Myanmar (AP) -- The party of Myanmar's detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi on Tuesday urged the military junta not to set preconditions for a meeting with her in the wake of a bloody crackdown on pro-democracy protesters.
The junta leaders have offered to meet with Suu Kyi, who is under house arrest, but only on condition she renounce widespread calls for international sanctions against the military regime, which has been widely condemned for breaking up the protests September 26-27.
"The success of a dialogue is based on sincerity and the spirit of give and take," said the National League for Democracy statement, which was based on past speeches by Suu Kyi. "The will for achieving success is also crucial and there should not be any preconditions."
The statement, which follows similar ones by NLD figures, came after the junta said it hoped to achieve "smooth relations" with Suu Kyi. On Monday, the regime suggested her release from house arrest was unlikely anytime soon.
Protests erupted August 19 after the government raised fuel prices, but anger mushroomed into nationwide marches by tens of thousands demanding democratic reforms.
The junta's troops crushed pro-democracy demonstrations with gunfire, beatings and arrests. The regime said 10 people were killed, but dissident groups put the toll at up to 200 and say 6,000 people were detained, including thousands of monks who led the rallies.
Ye Min Tun, a diplomat at Myanmar's embassy in London, resigned to protest the crackdown, the British Broadcasting Corp. reported Tuesday.
"I have never seen such a scenario in the whole of my life. The government is arresting and beating the peaceful Buddhist monks," he told the BBC. "I think that my fellow colleagues will make their decision on their own -- but I can't say that anybody's going to follow my way."
No one at the embassy was willing to comment on the report or confirm the diplomat was on staff. British government records list a Ye Min Tun as a second secretary at the embassy.
Global outrage was directed at the junta, with the international community condemning the crackdown and calling for the release of the 62-year-old Suu Kyi, a Nobel peace laureate who has been under house arrest for 12 of the past 18 years without trial.
The government said last week that the junta leader, Senior Gen. Than Shwe, was willing to meet personally with Suu Kyi, but only if she met certain conditions. Than Shwe has only met with her once before, in 2002, and the talks broke down quickly.
While resisting preconditions, the NLD said it strongly favored dialogue.
"The will to meet and negotiate is the key to resolving the country's dire problems," said the statement.
The party statement, although its first since Than Shwe's offer to meet with Suu Kyi, could not be taken as her personal reaction, since the NLD has not had contact with the democracy leader since May 2004.
While many nations have called for sanctions to punish the regime and force it to open up the political process, China -- which has a veto on the U.N. Security Council -- is arguing against them.
"Sanctions or pressure will not help to solve the issue in Myanmar," Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao told a regular news conference in Beijing on Tuesday. He said China was encouraged that the situation in Myanmar was calmer. "We hope this momentum can be maintained," he said.
The New Light of Myanmar newspaper, a mouthpiece of the junta, said Deputy Labor Minister Aung Kyi had been appointed to coordinate contacts with Suu Kyi.
U.N. special envoy Ibrahim Gambari suggested creating the Cabinet-level job during his visit to Myanmar last week, the announcement said. It added that the junta had accepted the idea "in respect of Gambari's recommendation and in view of smooth relations with Daw Aung San Suu Kyi." "Daw" is a polite term for addressing older women.
The printed statement came amid intense international pressure for the junta to enter talks with Myanmar's democracy movement. The junta did not indicate when Aung Kyi might meet with Suu Kyi.
It appeared, however, that Aung Kyi would coordinate Suu Kyi's contacts with both the regime and the U.N., which is seeking to end the political deadlock between democracy advocates and a military that has ruled since 1962.
Aung Kyi has a reputation among foreign diplomats, U.N. officials and aid groups as being relatively accessible and reasonable, compared with the top junta leaders.
The military presence has considerably eased in Yangon's streets in recent days. There were no more barricades, except along the road going to Suu Kyi's house, which has three layers of barbed wire barricades and sandbagged troops' positions.
On Tuesday, a few monks could be seen walking along the streets, holding begging bowls. People crowded open-air food stalls in the evening, before the 10 p.m. curfew. Some residents, however, continued to feel uneasy despite the calm, fearing sporadic raids and possible arrests.
The junta came to power after crushing a 1988 pro-democracy uprising by killing as many as 3,000 people. Myanmar's previous constitution was suspended in 1988. The junta then allowed elections in 1990, but nullified the vote after Suu Kyi's party won.
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That is news from BBC.
After so many days passed, what we can get is still such unclear information.
Maybe it happened at the wrong place and the wrong time, or it is totally wrong. I can't understand why there is only few the UN or the international countries could do to help Myanmar's people. |
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martin
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Joined: 17 Mar 2005
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| Posted: Thu Oct 25, 2007 7:39 am Post subject: |
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I'm convinced that UN must do something to ensure democracy all over the world. Totalitarism is not accepted for me. It's all about humans rights and freedom.
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wellingtonboots
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Joined: 02 Dec 2005
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Location: London
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| Posted: Sat Dec 01, 2007 1:40 pm Post subject: |
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The UN is not the most effective of structures and I suppose by the time they have actually done something hundreds of thousands of lives will have been lost. Unfortuately I don't see how the junta can be defeated. The more they are isolated from the world and the more hostility they recieve the more determined they will be to keep a hold on the country to prevent widespread rebellion. As the west governments have been trying so hard to get through to the military regime and the ordinary people, I think the regime will simply tighten its grip out of fear because they know how unpopular they are and how they won't be able to survive if they were overthrown. In the last ditch attempt they are just going to get even more vicious and kill even more people to keep power through fear.
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kaleo
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Joined: 29 Nov 2007
Posts: 33
Location: The most beautiful place in the world
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| Posted: Sat Dec 01, 2007 4:09 pm Post subject: |
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| martin wrote: | | I'm convinced that UN must do something to ensure democracy all over the world. Totalitarism is not accepted for me. It's all about humans rights and freedom. |
The problem is that the UN, as such, has very little power. Basically, it only has so much power as countries give it, and especially with Bush's attitudes towards it it has been greatly undermined.
Additionally, I would point out the the times that democracy has succesfully taken over from Totalitarianism have almost always started within the country. The people of the country may have gotten help from outside, but the main movement was within the country. As we've seen in Iraq, just marching in and telling them to form a democracy hasn't been that succesful. I dunno, maybe I'm totally off, but it seems to me that it needs to be supported by the people of the country, not a bunch of foreigners. . .
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blightyred
Savant Poster
Joined: 12 May 2007
Posts: 137
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| Posted: Sat Dec 01, 2007 7:08 pm Post subject: |
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Shame Myanmar doesn't have any oilfields.
The country would be 'liberated' immediately by the coalition. |
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kaleo
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Joined: 29 Nov 2007
Posts: 33
Location: The most beautiful place in the world
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| Posted: Sun Dec 02, 2007 7:54 am Post subject: |
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Cynical much, blightyred? Though you do have a point. Iraq was hardly in this state of lockdown when the US went in, and now we're being told that that was to liberate the country (and of course it was all along, even when they said something different!) Politicians = hypocrites most of the time, I fear. I could lose all my faith in the world if I hadn't already lost it.
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Maneechan
Novice Poster
Joined: 28 Dec 2007
Posts: 17
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| Posted: Fri Dec 28, 2007 9:54 am Post subject: |
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I pity our Burmese siblings it's inhumane to kill monks! The latest news is that Than Shwe is going to burn vcds/dvds of monks sermons  |
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