May 21, 2009
FREEDOM FOR AUNG SAN SUU KYI NOW
An urgent global petition (see below) to free jailed Burmese democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi offered sad
evidence once more about the unwillingness of our mercenary governments to punish maverick regimes that are
lucrative trading partners. In the end it is left to a concerned grass root public to clamor for the freedom of the
Nobel peace laureate who has become a Mandela-like icon of resistance to a brutal and anachronistic military
dictatorship.
As another Kafkaesque show trial began on drummed up charges against Suu Kyi our western governments
mouthed the usual banal phrases that serfs of the system trot out periodically in their tepid attempts to persuade
bullnecked Burmese supremo, General Than Shwe, to free the much loved and admired pro-democracy lady.
The few minor sanctions the international community imposed over the years have hurt more the people of Burma
then the uniformed rulers who continue to live a life of luxury thanks to the export of Burma’s rich natural
resources. The rest of the country exists in dire poverty.
Instead of parroting their time-worn exhortations to be ‘humane’ and return Burma to democracy
why do our governments not strike at the military dictators where it hurts them most - by freezing their
foreign bank assets and refusing visas for all visits abroad?
Ever since her democratic party won a landslide victory in 1990, this valiant lady warrior for an end to military
dictatorship was kept under house arrest or in jail without access to visitors and without the international
community able – or willing – to do more then lip service to the condemnation of her ordeal.
Burma has a solid ally in China, its main trading partner, a country which can hardly condemn the generals for
cracking down on dissent or pro-democratic movements, a practice China embraces whole-heartedly in order to
maintain its own communist-party dictatorship. But other neighbors, like India and Thailand, major trading partners
and both democracies, must exert pressure on the generals even if only by refusing to host them during their
periodic swings abroad.
The generals must become international pariahs.
One could then ask the question why ‘The Alliance of the Willing’ so readily attacked Iraq (where there was
no pro-democracy movement) but has never threatened or intimidated the Burmese military thugs who brutally
murdered or jailed pro-democracy civilians and monks for years?
Since we are not likely to have an answer to such questions those of us who feel we must do something, even if it
only turns out to be a gesture of solidarity, need to sign the petition being circulated now.
Click on the link to sign the petition.
http://www.avaaz.org/en/free_aung_san_suu_kyi/96.php/?CLICK_TF_TRACK
FREEDOM FOR AUNG SAN SUU KYI NOW
An urgent global petition (see below) to free jailed Burmese democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi offered sad
evidence once more about the unwillingness of our mercenary governments to punish maverick regimes that are
lucrative trading partners. In the end it is left to a concerned grass root public to clamor for the freedom of the
Nobel peace laureate who has become a Mandela-like icon of resistance to a brutal and anachronistic military
dictatorship.
As another Kafkaesque show trial began on drummed up charges against Suu Kyi our western governments
mouthed the usual banal phrases that serfs of the system trot out periodically in their tepid attempts to persuade
bullnecked Burmese supremo, General Than Shwe, to free the much loved and admired pro-democracy lady.
The few minor sanctions the international community imposed over the years have hurt more the people of Burma
then the uniformed rulers who continue to live a life of luxury thanks to the export of Burma’s rich natural
resources. The rest of the country exists in dire poverty.
Instead of parroting their time-worn exhortations to be ‘humane’ and return Burma to democracy
why do our governments not strike at the military dictators where it hurts them most - by freezing their
foreign bank assets and refusing visas for all visits abroad?
Ever since her democratic party won a landslide victory in 1990, this valiant lady warrior for an end to military
dictatorship was kept under house arrest or in jail without access to visitors and without the international
community able – or willing – to do more then lip service to the condemnation of her ordeal.
Burma has a solid ally in China, its main trading partner, a country which can hardly condemn the generals for
cracking down on dissent or pro-democratic movements, a practice China embraces whole-heartedly in order to
maintain its own communist-party dictatorship. But other neighbors, like India and Thailand, major trading partners
and both democracies, must exert pressure on the generals even if only by refusing to host them during their
periodic swings abroad.
The generals must become international pariahs.
One could then ask the question why ‘The Alliance of the Willing’ so readily attacked Iraq (where there was
no pro-democracy movement) but has never threatened or intimidated the Burmese military thugs who brutally
murdered or jailed pro-democracy civilians and monks for years?
Since we are not likely to have an answer to such questions those of us who feel we must do something, even if it
only turns out to be a gesture of solidarity, need to sign the petition being circulated now.
Click on the link to sign the petition.
http://www.avaaz.org/en/free_aung_san_suu_kyi/96.php/?CLICK_TF_TRACK