Burma Road

I have not commented about the situation in Burma - or Myanmar - since it started. I'm not all that up on the situation there. But Buddhist monks have been marching in greater and greater numbers there against the military junta that has ruled there for many years now. With China's help, by the way. For a more local perspective, Agam, over at Agam's Gecko is following events in Burma. And it looks fairly bleak at the moment.

This is the only clear photo I could find of the appearance of Daw Suu on Saturday. The marchers made an effort to go to her house again Sunday, but they were turned back by an increased security force which kept the street blocked. Since the first protests began last month with very small, but very courageous actions by freedom activists, about 200 of these activists have been taken into custody. Others are now in hiding, including a young woman named Nilar Thein. Her story provides a taste of the reality in this Orwellian state.

She has been hiding for a month now - moving every couple of days to a new house - hunted by a huge force of security officials, plain-clothed policemen, informers and hired thugs.

Nilar and her husband Jimmy have a five year old daughter, Nay Kyi, or Sunshine. Jimmy has already been apprehended, and like the others taken up in the sweep, no one knows where he is.The Red Cross hasn't been allowed to see the junta's prisoners for years. They are but two of Burma's "8888 Generation," so named for the student-led movement that began on August 8, 1988. It was crushed with an estimated 3000 citizens slain by their own government.

Nilar took the child with her at first. But Sunshine's cries were in danger of giving them both away. Now Jimmy's elderly mother is looking after her.

One night recently, Nilar sneaked back close enough to hear her baby crying through an open window.

"They are using her as bait," she said. "I should be breast feeding her. But I cannot give in."

Aung San Suu Kyi's fellow Nobel laureate, the Dalai Lama is no stranger to the extreme repression of totalitarian regimes. Tibetan monks and nuns have been at the forefront of the Tibetan freedom movement for more than half a century. It is only since the Burmese monks and nuns have taken up freedom's torch, passed from the hands of those like Nilar Thein who have kept the dream alive, that what seemed hopeless just a few weeks ago has begun to gain serious momentum.

Agam also notes that the junta has announced a crackdown. They are banning gatherings of more than five people and have imposed a curfew.

The "international community," functioning as the United Nations, turned its back on Tibet in 1950 — one of the most pathetically shameful episodes in the organisation's history. World leaders are gathering in New York today for the opening of its new session. Have they learned anything in the past 57 years? "Deep concern" just isn't going to cut it.

Agam has a lot more.