Reprisals

The Daily Mail is reporting that people in Burma are bracing for reprisals now that the junta that has ruled - ruthlessly - since 1962 has the upper hand in suppressing the popular uprising against it.

Burma was yesterday bracing itself for a wave of bloody reprisals as military generals claimed victory over pro-democracy protesters.

Squads of soldiers were being sent out to track down and punish the leaders of the revolt.

And suspected protesters were forced to kneel on the pavement in front of troops in a humiliating pose normally used to show respect towards senior monks.

As UN special envoy Ibrahim Gambari arrived in Burma to meet the country's generals, activists feared a brutal crackdown against the monks and students who led last week's protests.

Last night, about 1,000 monks were said to have been incarcerated in Rangoon's infamous Insein Prison and it was claimed that some have already been sentenced to six years in jail for their actions.

Anti-junta groups said 200 protesters had been killed in the uprising in Rangoon alone. Burmese authorities, however, claimed there had been only nine deaths.

The army's victory seemed almost total as columns of military trucks accompanied by crack paramilitaries drove up and down Rangoon's key roads.

Agam has more, including a number of organizations that have been documenting the junta's brutal crackdowns on ethnic minorities. One thing I've noticed. The left in this country - and in the west in general - has largely remained silent on what is happening in Burma. Just as they are silent about the totalitarian moves of (T)hugo Chavez in Venezuela. Just as they are silent about what Robert Mugabe is doing to the people of Zimbabwe.  

Who says the left has one, damned thing liberal about them?

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  By syn, Sunday, 30 September , 2007 @ 9:45 am

  Here’s an example of why I distrust those institutions representing God, both the Dalai Lama and the Pope are busy whooping it up to bother with events in Venezuala or Burma.

  I know the Buddhist inherited Xerox’s wealth and Richard Gere pumping in the Hollywood money but the Catholics Church is so beyond wealthy that one would think they’d at least have the goodness of heart to sell off just a portion of their NYC real estate to help stop Chavez’s quest to ‘help the poor’ by killing the dissenters.

Other Links to this Post

1. Blue Crab Boulevard » The Modern Left ExposedExplained — Saturday, 29 September , 2007 @ 9:25 pm