Burmese monks

bobbyjoe

Fair play to these guys. Hope there isn't another Tienanmen Square.

http://www.breakingnews.ie/world/mhcwsnauqlql/

Burma monks continue protest
23/09/2007 - 11:44:36

About 3,000 Buddhist monks demonstrated against the military junta in Burma's largest city today, cheered on by as many as 5,000 onlookers chanting religions slogans and support for detained democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, witnesses said.

The monks set off from the famous Shwedagon Pagoda and then headed over to the nearby Sule Pagoda before passing the US Embassy, witnesses said.

It was the sixth straight day monks have marched in Yangon, and came a day after they were allowed to march past Suu Kyi's compound in a symbolic gesture of support.

Their activities have given new life to a protest movement that began a month ago after the government raised fuel prices.

The_Minister

I wonder how long the government will hold off the troops?

paddymorrison

I never thought I would respect monks and nuns so much. Fair play to them. Now, all we need is China pulling the plug, the regime will collapse right away.

seamus

This is an interesting one.

A lot has changed since the last such protests in '88. China aren't likely to pull the plug and remove their support - China has its hands on much of Burma's ample natural resources and gets plenty of money out of Burma.

On the other hand, China now recognises its pseudo-capitalist communist economy. China at the moment gets inward investment and employment because companies kind of paper over the cracks and the abuses. The populations of western countries have fallen into the attitude that China isn't the most human-friendly place in the world, but Tiananmen Square was years ago and China are being friendly now.

So China seems to be aware that if it backs Burma and the military end up going medieval on the monks, then it could have massive knock-on effects for the Chinese economy as western public perception of China turns cold again.

It's a bit of a status quo. China will veto any UN sanctions or action. The U.S. would be unlikely to start military action for a number of reasons. It may be a matter of letting China deal with it. They may just put a squeeze on the Burmese "government" and take control with little or no struggle.

bobbyjoe

Looks like its started.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/burma/story/0,,2177297,00.html

If they go medieval on the monks countries should seriously consider boycotting the Olympics.

The_Minister

Why boycott the Olympics? Wrong country no?

Dave!

The_Minister wrote:

Why boycott the Olympics? Wrong country no?

It seems that China supports the Junta and sells them weapons. They also vetoed this UN resolution:
http://www.undemocracy.com/S-2007-14.pdf

bobbyjoe

The_Minister wrote:

Why boycott the Olympics? Wrong country no?

China pulls the strings there.

flogen

bobbyjoe wrote:

Looks like its started.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/burma/story/0,,2177297,00.html

If they go medieval on the monks countries should seriously consider boycotting the Olympics.

About as much chance of that happening as the Western world boycotting Chinese exports in general.

moe_sizlak

i dread the day china becomes the greatest power on earth , they have always been completely lacking in empathy towards human suffering
china is the main obstacle to sorting out the problem in darfur aswell , they do business with the khartoum goverment
john o shea of GOAL was on radio some months ago saying that ireland should take the lead and boycott the olympics in china next yr in protest at chinas refusal to do anything about darfur
if only our goverment and its yes man leader had the moral courage of john o shea
the way i see it , it would be a win win situation if we boycotted , it would embarras the chineese and would save the tax payer money on sending a bunch of no hopers over to return as usual empty handed with zero medals

Dave!

moe_sizlak wrote:

i dread the day china becomes the greatest power on earth , they have always been completely lacking in empathy towards human suffering
china is the main obstacle to sorting out the problem in darfur aswell , they do business with the khartoum goverment
john o shea of GOAL was on radio some months ago saying that ireland should take the lead and boycott the olympics in china next yr in protest at chinas refusal to do anything about darfur
if only our goverment and its yes man leader had the moral courage of john o shea
the way i see it , it would be a win win situation if we boycotted , it would embarras the chineese and would save the tax payer money on sending a bunch of no hopers over to return as usual empty handed with zero medals

I'd support that...

eoin5

moe_sizlak wrote:

i dread the day china becomes the greatest power on earth , they have always been completely lacking in empathy towards human suffering
china is the main obstacle to sorting out the problem in darfur aswell , they do business with the khartoum goverment
john o shea of GOAL was on radio some months ago saying that ireland should take the lead and boycott the olympics in china next yr in protest at chinas refusal to do anything about darfur
if only our goverment and its yes man leader had the moral courage of john o shea
the way i see it , it would be a win win situation if we boycotted , it would embarras the chineese and would save the tax payer money on sending a bunch of no hopers over to return as usual empty handed with zero medals

I wouldnt be so quick to dispose of the chinese, they may be our only hope for survival. I'm not defending what theyre doing, but its certainly not as horrible as what the US are doing to the world.

The_Minister

eoin5 wrote:

I wouldnt be so quick to dispose of the chinese, they may be our only hope for survival. I'm not defending what theyre doing, but its certainly not as horrible as what the US are doing to the world.

That is just blatant anti-Americanism. America's crimes are nothing to China's, we just ignore China's because we expect no better from them.

eoin5

The_Minister wrote:

That is just blatant anti-Americanism. America's crimes are nothing to China's, we just ignore China's because we expect no better from them.

I dont ignore Chinas crimes, but I'm trying to be objective. Chinas crimes are nothing to Americas in the last 50 years. America is the greatest threat to the world at the moment, and China is the only country capable of applying real pressure on America.

McArmalite

flogen wrote:

About as much chance of that happening as the Western world boycotting Chinese exports in general.

Good point flogen. Sadly very true. Surely a warning from the EU and USA that there exports may/would be stopped to us would push the right buttons. The realpolitic of it is that no real pressure will be put on China as buying cheap goods/making euros or dollars is number 1 sadly.

moe_sizlak

The_Minister wrote:

That is just blatant anti-Americanism. America's crimes are nothing to China's, we just ignore China's because we expect no better from them.

while im saying i agree with the comment that china is a more benign force than the usa , i think its lazy of you to use the by now lazy cliched anti american line
makes you sound like eoghan harris
harris about a month ago when briefly refferring to the great john pilger , told a some what humorous fantasy story about john pilger looking like crocodile dundee and him meeting up with george galloway , galloway says to pilger , heres an anti american conspirocy theory to which pilger replies , you call that an anti american conspirocy theory , this is an anti american conspirocy theory
while a funny picture was created , it was to the backdrop of harris review of pilgers recent docu war on democrocy which explored the usa,s actual interferance in latin america over the yrs, much of show show focused on venezuela and how during the 2002 coup against hugo chavez , the white house press spokesman went before the press and spoke of how chavez had ordered the shootings of protesters in the street who wanted chavez out , theese protesters were actual supporters of chavez and were shot by those attempting to over throw the democtatically elected chavez , the usa who has always made no secret of there dislike for chavez gave diplomatic support to the anti chavez brigade and while eoghan harris might like to refer to pilgers claims as being merely anti american conspirocys
i saw with my own 2 eyes the white house spokesman ari fleisher tell lies about who was shooting who in carraccas that day
someone needs to tell harris that for something to be a conspirocy theory , it has to have no factual evidence

eoin5

Its says on the wiki entry for Burmas foreign relations that we have an ambassador with them. When I searched further I could only find some stuff about it back in 2004 and nothing since. Anyone know if we have an ambassador and if so who is it?

paddymorrison

Wouldn't it be wonderful if the whole of EU and most of the western countries boycott Beijing? *dream on*

http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSL2759374820070927

Dave!

http://www.agi.it/world/news/200709271333-cro-ren0034-art.html

BURMA: JAPANESE PHOTOGRAPHER KILLED IN YANGON

(AGI) - Yangon, Sept 27 - The ambassador of Tokyo in Yangon has announced that officials of the Burmese military junta have informed him that a Japanese has been killed in the centre of the former capital during the protests. The Japanese agency Kyodo reported this. Earlier hospital sources reported that a foreign photographer apparently Japanese had been killed near the pagoda of Sule where soldiers had opened fire to spread out the crowd of protesters.



They're also after cutting internet access........

jonny72

Read through this..

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7011884.stm

The media spotlight is on their country, this is their only chance. I very much doubt that Chinese media is covering this event too closely.

Victor

eoin5 wrote:

Its says on the wiki entry for Burmas foreign relations that we have an ambassador with them. When I searched further I could only find some stuff about it back in 2004 and nothing since. Anyone know if we have an ambassador and if so who is it?

Not listed here: http://www.dfa.ie/home/index.aspx?id=285

It is possible it is dealt with by another embassy.