While headlines of Kim Jong Ill’s civilian oppression filled the pages of The New York Times, Than Shwe’s crimes against humanity went unnoticed. When news stories about Iran’s anti-Semitism broke by the minute on Fox News, the story of thousands of Buddhist monks remained hidden among countless news archives. Whereas Vladimir Putin’s censorship of Russian media provoked the second Red Scare through America, the story of Burmese media censorship, expulsion, and repression barely caught American interest at all. And although stories of poor Chinese peasantry, rampant African disease, ruthless Darfurian massacres, and violent Iraqi skirmishes made news by the day in America, similar events in Burma stayed on the backburner. However, as news of the twisted Burmese situation continues to leak out of Asia’s poorest nation—a nation dictated by martial law—China, Russia, Singapore, South Korea, and India refuse to act. As men die, as monks suffer, and as Aung San Suu Kyi remains under house arrest, some of Asia’s powerful members choose energy investments in Burma over man’s most unalienable right: freedom.
Burma’s history is a tumultuous one. Led by military governments from 1962, Burma held national elections in 1990 by the declaration of the then-ruling junta. After Aung San Suu Kyi’s pro-democracy party won almost 80% of seats in the Burmese Parliament, the ruling military junta nullified the voting results, choosing to rule Burma by their own martial law instead. The junta confined Suu Kyi to house arrest, and has kept her there for the past seventeen years, with a few short and haphazard breaks. In that time, as Suu Kyi has organized Gandhi-inspired protests for democracy, the junta has organized human rights violations which the Freedom in the World Report, 2004 claims they have perpetrated “with impunity.” Amnesty International claims that the junta holds 1,300 political prisoners, and Freedom House claims that Burmese not only have no freedom of speech, assembly, press, or association, but also are subject to random search and seizures at all times. Some claim that up to 70,000 of the 400,000 soldiers in the junta’s army are kidnapped children. Furthermore, there exist at least three separate reports of widespread, state-sponsored rape of minority women and girls, all designed to suppress and brutalize the Burmese. The naming of the country as “Burma” has been all but banned, with the renaming of the nation in 1997 as Myanmar symbolically eradicating any notions of a democratic past or future. Myanmar, thus, is the official name of the country—at least in the eyes of the government and the censored press; whereas the name “Burma” inspires hope in the Burmese for the days when the junta dissolves, the name “Myanmar” symbolizes hate, poverty, rape, oppression, and the government that has turned Burma into the destitute brother of North Korea.
Burmese monks have thus embraced their traditional Burmese role as leaders of revolution, gaining support in a campaign that has called for the breakup of the junta. And as these protests have gained steam, monks continue to be defaced in public, and brave protesters in Rangoon continue to be murdered by Myanmar’s military forces (although no one can know the count for sure, because Myanmar releases few national statistics to the world). Meanwhile, as the US attempts to spearhead a movement to punish Myanmar, China and Russia have vetoed all UN resolutions regarding Myanmar; likewise, India has all but avoided the issue of Myanmar altogether, offering the world nothing but four sentences of simple admonition. Even the EU has been rather quiet regarding Myanmar, thanks to French interests in Myanmar oil fields, although recently it has taken more action to reprimand the junta. South Korea and Singapore have simply remained mum about the topic, happily drilling for oil while the Myanmar government oppresses its citizens. And China has more or less backed the tyrant government, forcing Bush to desperately urge the Chinese to think otherwise.
Ironically, while nations complain of the US’s entering Iraq for oil’s sake, many of the same nations choose to endorse the raping of young girls, the conscription of young boys, and the murder of many of Burma’s 500,000 Buddhist monks simply so that they may continue to drill for oil.
So why is it, then, that democracies such as India and South Korea can so stoically accept such injustices? One need not think hard to see that the US was the primary beneficiary, in terms of oil, from our war in Iraq. As few other countries benefited from the war, and saw only civil war come out of American occupation, it was easy to blame the US, thanks to jealousy and a lack of rewards. On the other hand, while human rights violations persist in Burma due to the Myanmar government, nations avoid moving, knowing that personal interests, namely oil revenues, are at stake. It only follows, then, that if China had gained oil from the US occupation of Iraq, we might have seen a different stance in Beijing regarding the War in Iraq. Indeed, these nations are nothing other than hypocrites, valuing energy over life, while simultaneously chiding the US for doing the same.
So we hope—and wait. We wait as nations continue to block American, European, and Southeast Asian initiatives to punish the Myanmar government. We wait as China endorses the brutal Burmese oligarchy, and as India remains inert on the issue. We wait as Burmese bloggers risk their lives by circumventing Myanmar firewalls and releasing stories, pictures, and videos of unspeakable horrors for international eyes to see. We wait despite the enormous number of Facebook groups forming in defense of the Burmese, despite the campaigns pledging to help save Burma, for the Chinese continue to block us. We wait as the UN sits at a stalemate, as foreign oil companies earn billions. We wait, as Myanmar murders, rapes, abducts, and kills Burmese children younger than we are.
Indeed, if we continue at our current pace for saving the Burmese, Myanmar will remain as such on the world map for a very long time.
