News from Rangoon, Burma

In June I was in Burma (a.k.a. Myanmar) and of all the places I visited over this past year, it was the country that affected me the most: the time-warp feel of the place (Rangoon - 1950s, the countryside 1920s), the beautiful scenery, the backdrop of countless golden Buddhist pagodas and of course the people. The people above all else: their smiles, their welcome, their generosity, their honesty and their inner peace. And of course the thousands upon thousands of monks everywhere, from young boys of 10 to gracefully aged men, majestic and striking in their orange & maroon robes and shaved heads. It is hard to believe that a body of Burmese are in illegitimate power and act out the antithesis of all the qualities that were so abundantly obvious to me from the people I met: brutality, oppression, violence, hatred, malice, greed...basically evil.

Well, you'd have to have been on the moon not to know that it's all kicked off in Burma over the past 10 days. Public demonstrations, protests against the twisted regime and calls for political change was always a 'when' not an 'if' issue. It could have taken years or decades perhaps but history tells us that masses oppressed by a tyrannical regime will revolt.

Perhaps that it happened now was predictable - the information age accelerates people's understandings of their position relative to citizen's of other countries. After all, information is power. The Burmese en masse are learning what is going on in their own country and in the outside world, and what the outside world thinks of Burma, despite the regime's attempt to prevent any access to politically sensitive websites. They are getting a feel for how bent out of shape their country is due to its leaders greed and hunger for power and control. Access to foreign media and email, particularly from Burmese dissidents in exile in other countries, brings information on the human rights abuses carried out primarily on borderland ethnic minorities and anyone speaking out against the military junta.

In addition to the flimsy and ineffectual direct sanctions imposed on Burma by the US and EU, there has also been recent and unprecedented political pressure from Burma's wary allies in the form of the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN), of which Burma is a partner. There has been barely disguised calls for political reform, something that has never happened before, brought on by the fact that Burma's shocking political and human rights reputation is scuppering trade deals between ASEAN and other trade bodies such as the European Union.

Throw into the mix widespread economic oppression - massive taxes on rice and other food produce going directly into the military generals' pockets and a doubling of state controlled fuel prices for no fiscally excusable reason and I guess that was the match to the tinder dry bonfire of public revolt.

Where it goes from here we shall have to wait and see. I suspect, whatever the outcome, there will be bloodshed along the way. Here's hoping reform, democracy and freedom are the outcome and the bloodshed is as minimal as possible.

The eyes of the world are indeed on Burma.

The beautiful side of Burma (Bagan, June 2007)
Further Burma photos

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Christina's currently in the thick of the the action in Rangoon (or Yangon depending on your stance, just to confuse matters). Here are some extracts from an email I received to give you a flavour of what's going on on the ground (assuming you're bored of the BBC's coverage).

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....well... as the sky darkens (its nearly black, and its only 2pm!) and the lightning shards pierce the sky (I'm getting all poetic now, in the face of doom), we hear the first reports of shooting, albeit in the air as warning shots...for now.

The monks carried on protesting (some just went by), followed by truck loads of special army commandos brought in from the eastern fronts. They are the tough guys.

We had reports of tear gas and riot police beating the monks in the big pagoda (Shwedagon), which is very bad. Roads are getting blocked to stop movement. Hospitals on standby. Not a good sign.....we are all safe in the office and not allowed out for now, stocks of every thing we need.

...the march that came past our office today had a few hundred monks at the front, and then civis with banners saying 'keep the world's eyes on us'... and indeed we should!

Justin just back from the front line, and interestingly his take is that it's not quite as 'drastic' as the media is making out. Sure there are confrontations, the police, the gas etc., but we are not talking organised violence or resistance, more of a scrappy skirmish.

We know a monk has been killed, and that is dreadful. The next few days are crucial now. Thai airways have cancelled their flights today, so we have to think of Plan B for getting out! Having said that Ros is on her way tomorrow... somehow! Funny we are getting more live news and pics from the cable TV as comms here are so bad!