ANALYSIS
Nobel peace prize winner doing nothing as country slides further into squalor
Guardian (UK) Nov 11, 08 3:26 PM CST
(Newser)
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Aung San Suu Kyi, who’s spent 20 years under house arrest, is an almost sainted symbol of democracy to the people of Burma, the Guardian writes. But since 2003, the Nobel Peace Prize winner has offered no practical leadership for her party, the National League for Democracy, and has remained inexplicably silent as a monks' uprising was brutally crushed, and a cyclone killed 170,000 Burmese. Some within the party are seriously questioning her legacy.
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Associated Press Nov 11, 08 7:28 AM CST
(Newser)
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A closed-door court in Burma has sentenced 14 members of a noted pro-democracy organization to 65 years each. Family members and defense lawyers were not permitted at the trial, and relatives only heard of the sentence from prison officials. The activists were members of 88 Generation Students, a group formed out of the crushed 1988 democracy uprising; many played a part in last year's mass protests against the Burmese junta.
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Cyclone killed more than 80,000, with more than 50,000 others listed as missing
Associated Press Nov 2, 08 7:18 PM CST
(AP)
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Six months after Cyclone Nargis smashed into Burma's coastline, killing tens of thousands of people, aid groups say once-lagging relief efforts have picked up pace but the task of rebuilding and recovery is far from finished, the AP reports. Foreign aid staffers were initially barred from cyclone-affected areas and the ruling military junta was criticized for its ineffective response to the disaster last May.
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Buddhist movement gets bolder; some suggest stockpiling weapons
Christian Science Monitor Sep 20, 08 6:41 AM CDT
(Newser)
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After seeing nonviolent protesters killed or detained in last year’s protests against the ruling junta, younger segments of Burma’s Buddhist monks are becoming more radical, embracing armed resistance and overt dissent, the Christian Science Monitor reports. "We need weapons,” one young monk said. “That is the only way we can bring down this regime."
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Burma leader frustrated with UN, aides say
Associated Press Aug 26, 08 12:23 PM CDT
(Newser)
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Myanmar's detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi has refused food deliveries to her house for two weeks, prompting speculation that she is on a hunger strike against the government, the AP reports. Supporters say she's grown increasingly frustrated with the UN's failure to intervene in the junta-ruled nation—the Nobel Prize laureate refused to meet with UN envoy Ibrahim Gambari during his visit last week.
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Glossies
New Yorker Aug 23, 08 6:51 AM CDT
(Newser)
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In the wake of the ruling junta's efforts to waylay foreign aid following May's Cyclone Nargis, Burmese citizens—including former political prisoners—created a grass-roots relief effort to help the embattled populace. In doing so, writes George Packer in the New Yorker , they may have created the catalyst for long-awaited political change in a once-prosperous nation impoverished by its military rulers.
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Leading opposition figure faces prison for aiding cyclone victims
Associated Press Aug 7, 08 9:54 AM CDT
(AP)
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A popular comedian who became one of the most prominent critics of Burma's military government has been formally charged with several political offenses. Zarganar, who had been leading a citizen effort to aid victims of Cyclone Nargis, has been indicted on five counts, including unlawful association and creating public unrest.
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Villagers tough it out through cyclone's aftermath
New York Times Jun 18, 08 5:13 AM CDT
(Newser)
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Delays in getting help to cyclone survivors in Burma's Irrawaddy Delta have not caused the catastrophe initially feared, according to aid workers. Hardy villagers have managed to survive on fish and coconuts, helped by aid from private Burmese citizens and monks, reports the New York Times . Expected massive outbreaks of disease have not occurred—but aid workers warn that many are still at risk.
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opinion
US blunder has weakened the case for global intervention
New York Times Jun 11, 08 7:53 PM CDT
(Newser)
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The Myanmar junta’s shameful cyclone response illustrates some global truths we must face, writes Madeleine Albright in the New York Times . Among them: President Bush's ill-advised attack of Iraq has made it all the more difficult for the international community to intervene in the world's trouble spots. Instead, the principle of national sovereignty now rules the day, even when people are suffering.
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Official media threatens democracy leader with violence
Reuters Jun 11, 08 4:35 AM CDT
(Newser)
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Official media controlled by Burma's junta said today that Aung San Suu Kyi, the democracy leader and Nobel laureate, deserves to be flogged "as in the case of naughty children." Editorials in several Burmese newspapers accused Suu Kyi of being in the pay of rebel guerrillas and foreign governments, Reuters reports. The victor of Burma's 1990 democratic election has been under house arrest for 13 of the last 19 years.
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Popular funnyman had criticized junta and led team in relief effort
Associated Press Jun 10, 08 5:00 AM CDT
(Newser)
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The UN's human rights official in Burma expressed concern over the arrest of a popular Burmese comedian who’d been helping cyclone survivors, the AP reports. The comedian, known as Zarganar, was nabbed Wednesday by authorities after traveling to the hard-hit Irrawaddy Delta to donate supplies, a relative said. He had led an aid group of 400 and had criticized the government in foreign interviews.
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Dissident comedian Zarganar taken away
by secret police
Reuters Jun 5, 08 6:58 AM CDT
(Newser)
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The Burmese junta has arrested a leading activist who led a private aid program for victims of last month's Cyclone Nargis. Zarganar, a top comedian in Burma who was also arrested during September's protests, was taken away by secret police last night, Reuters reports. The junta continues to block aid to millions of survivors, and today four American warships abandoned efforts to provide aid.
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Junta refuses aid 15 times
Reuters Jun 4, 08 6:04 AM CDT
(Newser)
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US warships laden with aid for Burmese cyclone survivors will sail out of the region tomorrow still carrying their loads, Reuters reports. Burma's military junta has refused 15 requests to allow American forces to deliver aid supplies to the disaster zone, according to the admiral in charge of the operation.
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