Junta offers talks to jailed leader after
Bush levies sanctions
Associated Press Oct 20, 07 3:34 PM CDT
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Burma is scrapping a curfew and a ban on assemblies of more than 5 people in Yangon, apparently assured that pro-democracy protests are dead. The junta also gave opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi a fresh invite for compromise talks, the AP reports. Both moves come after Bush imposed a new round of sanctions against Burma for its brutal crackdown on protesters.
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Urges China, India to respond to junta's 'vicious persecution'
Reuters Oct 19, 07 7:14 PM CDT
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President Bush expanded sanctions against Burma today, citing the junta's ongoing "vicious persecution" of protesters. Acknowledging the limits of US influence, he called on India, China and other neighbors to put pressure on the military regime he accused of "ongoing atrocities," Reuters reports. The new sanctions include a freeze on US assets of individuals and groups, and a ban on the sale of high-performance computers to Burma.
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Japan cuts aid, China supports UN diplomat
Associated Press Oct 17, 07 9:01 AM CDT
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Burma’s military regime imprisoned roughly 3,000 people in last month’s crackdown on pro-democracy protesters, the state-run newspaper announced today. Over 500 are still in custody, and more are being arrested each day. “Those who should be released will be,” the paper said. Meanwhile international outrage has prompted Japan and China to distance themselves from the regime, the AP reports.
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Sale of gems
supports the
junta's brutality
Der Spiegel Oct 16, 07 9:42 PM CDT
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Precious Burmese rubies account for 90% of the world's supply, and fund that nation's brutal military junta, according to Der Spiegel. Though some dealers maintain that ruby sales support the opposition, the German paper reports that profits instead go straight to the junta's coffers. Not only that, but gem miners (including children) work under hellish conditions where bosses mix amphetamines into drinking water to improve yield.
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China is ignoring rights abuses for economic interests, Time says
Time Oct 15, 07 3:25 PM CDT
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Diminished US influence is allowing human rights violators in Darfur and Burma to get away with murder, Harvard expert Samantha Power writes in Time . America is speaking up louder than ever, but Uncle Sam’s diplomatic nadir makes for “a void in global human rights leadership.” China has most influence over both pariahs, importing Sudanese oil and exporting weapons to Burma.
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EU set to impose harsher sanctions as crackdown continues
BBC Oct 15, 07 8:05 AM CDT
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European Union leaders meeting today are expected to set tougher sanctions against the Burmese military junta, banning imports of gemstones, timber and metal, Burma's most lucrative exports, BBC reports. UN envoy Ibraham Gambari, in Thailand to press for action against the Rangoon regime, decried the arrests of three of the remaining student leaders over the weekend as "extremely disturbing."
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Famed anti-Vietnam agitator supports
monks on US tour
Time Oct 14, 07 7:07 PM CDT
(Newser)
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Revered Buddhist spokesman Thich Nhat Hanh, famed for enlisting Martin Luther King's help against the Vietnam War, is supporting his spiritual brethren in Burma on a US tour. The monks' struggle against Burma is "already a success," he told Time , "because if monks are imprisoned or have died, they have offered their spiritual leadership."
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BBC Oct 13, 07 10:02 AM CDT
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Myanmar’s rulers have arrested just about every major dissident at large, the BBC reports. The junta rounded up three more prominent figures, among them Htay Kywe, who had been in hiding. He was a leader not only of the recent protests but of the 1988 uprising as well. Amnesty International expressed “fear that they risk torture and ill treatment.”
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China doesn't block UN panel's stance
Reuters Oct 11, 07 4:50 PM CDT
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The UN Security Council unanimously condemned the Myanmar junta's violent suppression of pro-democracy protests in an official policy statement today, demanding the prompt release of all political prisoners and serious negotiations with opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi. The council's first official action on Myanmar highlights a shift by China, who previously defended its trading partner before the council.
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Prisoners recount abject conditions after peaceful protests
Reuters Oct 11, 07 12:09 PM CDT
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Buddhist monks rounded up in protests in Myanmar faced torturous conditions, a recent detainee told Reuters. During days of interrogation, monks were beaten and denied medical treatment, water, and toilets. Prisoners were stripped of their iconic robes. “You are no longer a monk,” a guard told the prisoner, slapping him. “You are just an ordinary man with a shaven head.”
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Laura Bush blasts 'friendless regime' in Journal piece
Wall Street Journal Oct 10, 07 12:23 PM CDT
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The recent violent crackdown on peaceful protests in Burma have left the military regime friendless in the international community and reviled by its people, Laura Bush writes in the Wall Street Journal . The junta “must immediately stop their terror campaigns against their own people,” she writes, and then step down, making way for “a unified Burma governed by legitimate leaders.”
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Opposition leader rejects talk conditions
Guardian (UK) Oct 9, 07 1:19 PM CDT
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Aung San Suu Kyi will not meet with Burma's ruling junta, which insists that she soften her anti-regime position as a condition of scheduling talks. The opposition leader said in a statement today she will accept no conditions, the Guardian reports: “The success of a dialogue is based on sincerity and the spirit of give and take.”
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Authorities move to shut down last lines of communication to outside world
Guardian (UK) Oct 9, 07 4:06 AM CDT
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The Burmese government is cutting the last lines of communication with the outside world, confiscating satellite phones and computers that reporters and bloggers were using to spread news of the violent repression of pro-democracy protests. Officials even demanded to see permits for satellite phones at a United Nations office. Authorities also searched other offices in a Rangoon hotel and office building for equipment.
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Crackdown carries on, as soldiers arrest more activists and the wounded are refused treatment
Times (UK) Oct 7, 07 5:05 PM CDT
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Burma's army is burning the bodies of activists in secret cremations, hiding their true death count forever, the Sunday Times reports. Locals near Rangoon report trucks are driving by a crematorium at night as smoke rises constantly from its chimneys. Rumors of victims burnt alive have swept the city, but remain unconfirmed by outside observers.
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