burma...hang head in shame...

[suzycreamcheese]

david milliband ... could not answer pertinent questions on situation. newsnight lastnight..will get back to us on a website later wtf

all the arm dealers sellers and nations who sold to regime who are poised to use them, who made money from this despotic situation

all the western powerful leaders who spout rhetoric on democracy ..but do nothing when it really matters cause it doesnt matter to them

even though it chokes me to say it it was george bush who did announce sanctions..

the world as we sit by and watch complicit in the agony and poverty of a peaceful nation persecuted and tortured and starved on daily basis ..

rant over
well for me at least, thank you

I do agree with Sp, I think China hold all the aces and the key...

Gordon brown has led international condemnation against burma. Even GW has said some harsh things. Britain and the US have very few economic and no military ties with Burma.
The real culprits are

China
India
Japan

who all urge the burmese to restrain themselves whilst saying 'it's an internal issue' and investing heavily in the country.

THEY should be ashamed of themselves,

let's not foget Russis who along with China have armed the Junta...

I was brought to tears by the sight of the monks in the paper this morning. They are so brave

Oh yes the russian government is crap too. No principles.

But the only interest China has in tacking the Burmese regime would be to show the West how enlightened they are. And that arguement hasn't worked in terms of their position in Sudan, has it?

Look here: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darfur_conflict#Russian_and_Chinese_undermining_of_sanctions

I thought the chinese had agreed to threaten the sudanese government following speilberg's intervention?

as for the actual arguments we use to try and persuade china, I don't know, I'm not a diplomat. I still think as a plan it has a better chance of success than sanctions though.

Yes can't imagine the chinese coming down hard on burma in the name of democracy.

Let's try that link again:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darfur_conflict

(I can spell argument too. New here, and can't quite work out the posting system yet!)

I'm afraid I don't trust wikipedia for political truth. I'll have a look later anyway though.

Generally I'd agree with you, but it's a very thorough and well referenced article.

You hardly need Wikipedia to tell you that China has been a major stumbling block to getting action in favour of the poor bloody benighted people of Darfur, though, tbh.

Oh for goodness sake! Is this how you treat all new posters?

I know that I don't need Wikipedia. I'm interested enough in the issue to be posting on the thread. On the other forums I use we most often post links to explanatory or interesting stuff. Perhaps people don't do that here. Sorry.

If that's aimed at me, I think you misunderstood. I was responding to SP's post doubting the accuracy of Wikipedia - however variable Wiki is, it's clear that China is playing a very dangerous role in Darfur.

And I have no idea how long you've been here.

The mionks are brave indeed, after reading the article on whitehead monks (the newly shaved men who then join the ranks of the monks as government-led firestarters) Dh adn I were picking them out- there did seem to be some truth in the Times article about thhem being infiltrated .

Buddhist monks have a long history of peaceful and strong protest, of course their religion provides them with a certainty many of us don't have- the concept of non-self and the search for nirvana- and when I hear of people laughing (as they do) at eastern religions (even terming them new age) I wonder if they relaise how strong and noble these people really are.

I don't know what we shoudl be doing in this situation- sanctions caused devastation in Iraq, the burden serves only to punish the have nots further; it's a sad day for Humanity as a whole though when these things happen

edam: I know, hence my backing of the leaning on china argument for both darfur and burma. That it hasn't worked yet doesn't mean it won't work.

So frustrating that Russia and China blocked Security Council yesterday. Poor bloody Burmese.

poor bloody burmsese
says it all, edam

So we can gather from this mornings news and pictures that all the monasteries are being attacked...

Absolute fecking bastards

democracy,its a wonderful thing,
but its just a word really
what i would give to feel represented, somewhere in sometime by someone....

all this shit about iraq and democracy and the deaths and horror before during and afterwards..

and for burma they have a meeting
wtf

what shoudl you expect from a bunch of war criminals though

now they are firing into the crowds and killing people

this is going to be such an awful episode I can feel it.

yes where is team america world police and it's trusty deputy dawg britain for the burmese.

this is just too depressing for me to talk about tbh.

China - Tianamen Square. Can't see them bothering to intervene in Burma, ?

OK, now all internet connections in/out burma are jammed by the military so we have no chance to see what they are really doing.
One japanese photo journalist shot yesterday.

Reports are that hundreds of monks have been arrested and we all know what happens in those torture centres.
Most people in the streets are civilians, and God knows that if they are torturing monks, they won't hesitate to shoot point blank civilians.

Diplomats posted in Burma acknowledge the death toll is much higher than what's been reported so far.