Rev. Danny Fisher

The U.N. continues to let Burma down: the General Assembly yesterday rejected a request from the winners of Burma’s 1990 elections (all members of Nobel Peace laureate and Prime Minister-elect Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy party) to replace representatives of the country’s current military junta at the U.N. Today, permanent members of the Security Council and most Asian nations held their first ministerial meeting “aimed at pushing for reforms” in Burma. With Russia and China, the two countries that have consistently vetoed efforts to honor the will of the Burmese people, at the table, what do you think the chances are that nothing substantive happens at these meetings?

Visit http://www.savedarfur.org.

Reuters is reporting that Chinese police in Tibet beat up fifty monks who had tried to complain about the beating of one of their colleagues. The Free Tibet Campaign explained:

The monk had left the monastery earlier that day, having obtained the relevant permission from the monastery authorities. As the monk returned to the monastery a short time before dark, he was stopped by Chinese armed police. According to the source, the returning monk was beaten so badly by the armed police that he was bleeding when he managed to return to the monastery.

The mass beatings came after the monk’s brethren visited the police and “demanded an explanation.” Four of the monks had to be hospitalised, according to the Free Tibet Campaign.