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Time
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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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New York Times
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Oct 15, 07 12:00 PM CDT
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Laura Bush has been amping up her public profile lately, becoming increasingly outspoken in the waning months of her husband's administration, the New York Times observes. She's been the administration's leading voice on Burma, calling UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, testifying before Congress and writing an op ed piece in the Wall Street Journal . This week she is flying to the Mideast on a breast-cancer-awareness mission.
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BBC
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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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Time
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Oct 14, 07 7:07 PM CDT
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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
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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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Reuters
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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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Reuters
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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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Wall Street Journal
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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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Guardian (UK)
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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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Guardian (UK)
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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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Times (UK)
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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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Council on Foreign Relations
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Oct 7, 07 11:33 AM CDT
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International policy on Myanmar is at an impasse because the world went two different ways on the military junta—the US chose isolation while its neighbors chose constructive engagement—and both strategies failed. The country has gone from “antidemocratic embarrassment and humanitarian disaster” to “serious threat” to security, Foreign Affairs ’ Michael Green and Derek Mitchell argue.
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BBC
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Oct 6, 07 10:36 AM CDT
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Protesters around the world staged a series of rallies today to protest Burma's crackdown on dissent and show support for the nation's monks. The protests began in New Zealand and were to continue in big cities throughout the world at noon local time, the BBC reported. The US and other Western nations, meanwhile, began pushing for UN sanctions.
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Associated Press
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Oct 5, 07 6:56 PM CDT
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The UN's envoy to Burma told the Security Council today that a proposed meeting between the country's military leader and detained activist Aung San Suu Kyi was a "historic opportunity"—but only a first step toward ending mistrust that contributed to the government's recent crackdown. The US ambassador reiterated his threat of Council action, though China and Russia oppose any move.
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Wired
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Oct 5, 07 1:50 PM CDT
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Mammoth networking site Facebook is triggering a massive mobilization of protesters around the world who will hit the streets this weekend in support of the Burmese monks, Wired writes. Nearly 300,000 people have joined the Facebook group "Support the Monks' Protest" since a story on the movement broke last week, and thousands of those are expected to turn out for marches tomorrow in cities from Taipei to Vienna.
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