The Myanmar Protests and Government-Approved Killing, Beating of Budhist Monks

[The Chemist]

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/6D940FC3-0955-4C11-AE86-0F7A88A1C3B8.htm
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/E6AFDA55-BED6-4537-B580-D75B0EB7D968.htm
http://ca.today.reuters.com/news/NewsArticle.aspx?type=topNews&storyID=2007-09-28T013229Z_01_B588599_RTRIDST_0_NEWS-MYANMAR-COL.XML

Discuss.

[Mr. Ron]

Its absolutely detestable.

[Eliminator]

i beat my monk every day

[The Chemist]

i beat my monk every day

Irrelevant and immature. Leave.

[lfantwister]

its sort of ironic that theyre pacifists

i hear the burmese army put in about 3000 troops dressed like monks to instigate the violence

[The Chemist]

Plus all the midnight abductions, beatings and killings of monks, in their own monasteries...

[lfantwister]

how about that old democratic leader? i know they took her away--do we know if she's ok?

[The Chemist]

She's still in prison.

[lfantwister]

super rad

[Smokey D]

I don't think the regime would risk killing Aung Su Kyi in an environment like this. It'd probably make control even harder to hold on to.

[The Chemist]

Naturally. I think that we'll see a repeat of 1988.

[hotpants_67]

http://www.uscampaignforburma.org/

this is the only way to help that i can think of atm

[badtaste]

I just heard on the news that their Government has shut down the internet to stop all these 'rogue' reporters from revealing what is going on there.

[Akira]

Until hearing about this the other day I had thought that Myanmar had changed its name back to Burma.
Messed up stuff.

[badtaste]

Until hearing about this the other day I had thought that Myanmar had changed its name back to Burma.
Messed up stuff.

Well, Myanmar was the name imposed by the military controlled government. I guess people are protesting against them by using the old name, Burma.

[Akira]

Oh, okay.

[Independent_CA]

ARMED resistance people, ARMED resistance.

Protesting is a waste of time.

[Against Miik!]

I prefer Burma. It sounds less awkward. My input ends there.

[Dave de Sylvia]

ARMED resistance people, ARMED resistance.

Protesting is a waste of time.
That probably wouldn't end well.

[Independent_CA]

It has more chance of success than this did.

[Dave de Sylvia]

I don't think immediate success was the object (or expectation).

[Smokey D]

Historically, armed resistance against those sort of regimes doesn't have a very good success rate compared to unarmed resistance.

[Surtr]

To be honest, do you really think giving monks guns and telling them to kill all these misguided people would work? I wouldn't imagine.

The way these Monks are going about this is, in my opinion almost as well. It's not calling for a mass attack, and in the rush, the possibility of failure or obtaining their goal of removing the rulers and replacing them with someone worse. No, the way they are going is slower, but ultimately it's more peaceful, it yields most likely fewer deaths and shows a lot more strength among the people resisting.

It's easy to pick up a gun and shoot at a man shooting at you. It's self-defence.

It takes something else to stare down a gun and not fight back, but hold your ground and remain, knowing you could be killed right there, or later that night without anyone ever seeing.

[fathergoat]

To be honest, do you really think giving monks guns and telling them to kill all these misguided people would work? I wouldn't imagine.

The way these Monks are going about this is, in my opinion almost as well. It's not calling for a mass attack, and in the rush, the possibility of failure or obtaining their goal of removing the rulers and replacing them with someone worse. No, the way they are going is slower, but ultimately it's more peaceful, it yields most likely fewer deaths and shows a lot more strength among the people resisting.

It's easy to pick up a gun and shoot at a man shooting at you. It's self-defence.

It takes something else to stare down a gun and not fight back, but hold your ground and remain, knowing you could be killed right there, or later that night without anyone ever seeing.

I agree with this fully. And what is going on is disgusting in my opinion.

I was surprised to see Jim Carrey's name pop up in an article on this and how he is trying to contact/convince the UN to do something. I am not sure if it will work but surprising nonetheless.

[badtaste]

I'm guessing you guys have heard about that Japanese reporter being shot. Doctor from the Japanese embassy in Burma says that he was shot pretty much head on (I think there's even footage of the reporter's death). Of course, the Burmese government say that it was a stray bullet.

[RIP Ian Curtis]

The Burmese Junta seems remarkably stable. It's not the norm for a military dictatorship to remain in power for so long, one would think they would have been violently deposed by another bunch of psychos by now. Makes you wonder what keeps them propped up.

[Blackichan]

Well China is one of their allies so that would help.

[Iskandar]

I read an article in the Toronto Star about how India could exert its influence over Burma in support of the democracy movement (and formerly did support it), but chooses not to because of business ties in the region.

[Smokey D]

Most countries do that. The western province of Burma (bordering Bangladesh and India) is extremely rich in natural gas, so India is turning a blind eye to the regime.

However, it's China that really pulls the strings (as much as any foreign country exerts influence over the junta).

[Iskandar]

So profit matters more than democracy here. Nice.

[Smokey D]

Standard fare, unfortunately.

I find it interesting that China is calling (admittedly very conservatively) for Burma to move towards democracy, while maintaining an incredibly repressive state apparatus of its own. Brilliant example of double think.

[Iskandar]

Standard fare, unfortunately.

I find it interesting that China is calling (admittedly very conservatively) for Burma to move towards democracy, while maintaining an incredibly repressive state apparatus of its own. Brilliant example of double think.Yeah, they'll do that.

I was going to say something about China, but I think that might be a matter for another thread.

[Superfly]

We may see the Shan and Karen rebel groups take advantage of this as the army is leaving the areas they're in ...