Seriously, Everything in Burma is Terrible

After oppressing it's citizens, killing Buddhist Monks, and restricting aid to cyclone victims, any new awful behavior rising out of the shit-pile military junta of so-called "Myanmar" comes as no surprise. Still, this is just pathetic.

During the recent cyclone it seems as though riot police and soldiers opened fire on prisoners who understandably became agitated when the roof of their prison came off during the storm. Over thirty prisoners were killed.

Burma: American Corporate Complicity

Last Friday's Democracy Now! program ran a story about Chevron's business dealings in Burma. Chevron is the only remaining major U.S. corporation in Burma. In 2005 Chevron purchased Unocal, an oil company that was accused of actively assisting the Junta in "the torture, murder and rape of villagers during construction of a pipeline". There are also reports of forced labor by the nearby villagers. That's right, an American corporation using a foreign military government to force its citizens to provide labor for that coporation. Chevron has been allowed to continue doing business in Burma despite U.S. sanctions against the government because it was "grandfathered" in. Of course, this exemption only works because Unocal was purchased by Chevron thus allowing Chevron to gain the exemption that would have gone to Unocal.

It should be noted that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is a former Board Member on the Chevron Board of Directors and had a tanker named after her in the Chevron fleet, The Condoleezza Rice...seriously!

I am sure this has nothing to do with Chevron's continued business in Burma, afterall the tanker's name was changed after it received too much attention. And Rice was only on Chevron's Board for ten years, resigning when she was appointed Bush's National Security Advisor.

Burma: More Murder

A report now says thousands of protestors have died in Burma including hundreds of Buddhist monks who's bodies were dumped in the Burmese jungle. The increase in the number of deaths comes from an intelligence official who recently defected from the military government after he was ordered to participate in a massacre of monks. Last week reports stated that monks were no longer present in the groups publicly protesting. I guess many were laying dead in the jungle.

Burma: Hundreds Now Dead

Reports now say that up to 200 demonstrators have been killed by the military during peaceful protest. The UN is sending an envoy to Burma in an attempt to end the violence.

China continues to prevent a larger response from the UN. Being one of the UN's permanent Security Council Members China has veto power over any UN action. Russia, France, the United Kingdom, and the United States also have this veto power. Here is a good article from the BBC that explains China's relationship to Burma and why it is reluctant to do anything about the violence happening there.

Burma-Myanmar

The military government changed the name of the nation from Burma to Myanmar, so we'll go with Burma.

The internet has been shut down by the junta government resulting in a slowing of information coming out of the country. A few Burmese living abroad have been blogging about the protests. Some have been receiving smuggled data consisting of pictures and videos from underground reporters in Burma. This blog is taking Burmese blogs and translating them to English and including their pictures.

Here is a site that has been trying to draw attention to Burma and is calling for intervention by the U.N.

What's Happening in Myanmar?

I heard someone ask today, "What's happening in Myanmar?" The story is not easy to get a real good grasp on because accounts out of the country have been relatively hard to come by. Essentially what is happening is this. Last month the government of Myanmar (formerly Burma) drastically hiked the price of fuel. Small demonstrations popped up in various spots. At one of the demonstrations soldiers fired warning shots over the head of the demonstrating monks. The monks demanded an apology which never came. The failure to apologize resulted in the large demonstrations that began last week.

After a few days of protests the governement warned that it would take action against the protestors in accordance with the law. Within the last few days police have conducted raids of Buddhist monastaries and the first injuries and deaths of citizens, including monks, have been reported.

Many wester nations and Japan have enforced economic sanctions on the government in response to elections in 1990 when the results were ignored by the militant government. However, China has continued to have normal diplomatic relations with the government.

Similar events occured in 1988 resulting in wide spread bloodshed and unrest. Known as the 8888 Uprising hundreds of protestors were murdered. It looks like the same thing is about to happen.