Image via the BBC. Of course, today’s big news was that Prime Minister-elect and Nobel Peace laureate Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s house arrest was extended, but there’s more:
At the Guardian, Simon Tisdall points out that “condemnation of Aung San Suu Kyi’s renewed house arrest was not universal,” and that “sustained, unified action is needed” because “the Burmese junta thrives on world division.”
Suu Kyi’s lawyer tells the BBC he’s not surprised by the outcome of the trial.
Reuters reports that the White House has denounced the junta for Suu Kyi’s conviction and sentencing.
The Agence France-Presse reports that the U.N. Security Council will meet Tuesday to discuss Suu Kyi’s conviction and sentencing.
The Christian Science Monitor‘s editorial board writes that “as Obama reviews US policy toward the Burmese regime, he must look to the country’s Buddhists.”
IOL reports that Archbishop Desmond Tutu has condemned Suu Kyi’s “illegal” trial.
Burma's home to some of the largest natural-gas reserves on the planet. In 2008, it experienced a 250 percent increase in the number of Chinese companies involved in mining, oil and gas, and hydropower development over the year before; trade between the two countries is up to $2.6 billion, from $630 million in 2001. Japan (along with China and Russia) rejected a proposal to bring a draft resolution on Burma to the Security Council in 2006, pandering to the regime, some analysts say, in an effort to counter Beijing's influence on it. And Thailand has the rights to nearly two trillion cubic feet of natural gas in one Burmese concession alone. Last year, more foreign companies had invested in Burma than ever, and Burma's neighbors—energy starved, overpopulated neighbors—are not about to just pull their money out because the U.S. and EU keep telling them to.
Especially considering that the U.S. and EU aren't pulling their own money out, either. Though the U.S. has banned new investment in Burma since 1997, our sanctions exclude oil and gas companies—Chevron helps operate a pipeline that earns the junta hundreds of millions a year. The U.K., too, forbids dealing in, say, Burma's garment industry, but not its energy. In a statement responding to Aung San Suu Kyi's sentence, French President Nicolas Sarkozy urged more EU sanctions—but "in the wood and ruby sector." Further highlighting the unlikelihood of an EU oil-and-gas moratorium on Burma is the CEO of French oil and gas giant Total telling Newsweek last month that critics of his company's involvement there "can go to hell."…
Unjust as it is, Aung San Suu Kyi's illegal detention is far from the most upsetting thing going on there: thousands of political prisoners, violent racial and religious oppression in the west, the world's longest-running civil war in the east. And if the horrifically underreported atrocities of Burma ever find their way onto the map of global consciousness, maybe that commission, Burma's best real hope, will get set up after all.
It's fascinating to follow all of these events, and the reportage. I felt that Obama's statement was a bit dull.
How would you characterize the Burmese nation's oppression of the Karen people to the east? Doesn't it qualify as Genocide? At what point does the UN qualify a situation as genocide, and thus by its charter, have to intervene?
Image via the BBC.
You can e-mail the junta: mewdcusa@gmail.com
OK, well, it's the embassy…
I did.
Danny:
Did you catch this at the Daily Beast? Eye-opening:
Burma's home to some of the largest natural-gas reserves on the planet. In 2008, it experienced a 250 percent increase in the number of Chinese companies involved in mining, oil and gas, and hydropower development over the year before; trade between the two countries is up to $2.6 billion, from $630 million in 2001. Japan (along with China and Russia) rejected a proposal to bring a draft resolution on Burma to the Security Council in 2006, pandering to the regime, some analysts say, in an effort to counter Beijing's influence on it. And Thailand has the rights to nearly two trillion cubic feet of natural gas in one Burmese concession alone. Last year, more foreign companies had invested in Burma than ever, and Burma's neighbors—energy starved, overpopulated neighbors—are not about to just pull their money out because the U.S. and EU keep telling them to.
Especially considering that the U.S. and EU aren't pulling their own money out, either. Though the U.S. has banned new investment in Burma since 1997, our sanctions exclude oil and gas companies—Chevron helps operate a pipeline that earns the junta hundreds of millions a year. The U.K., too, forbids dealing in, say, Burma's garment industry, but not its energy. In a statement responding to Aung San Suu Kyi's sentence, French President Nicolas Sarkozy urged more EU sanctions—but "in the wood and ruby sector." Further highlighting the unlikelihood of an EU oil-and-gas moratorium on Burma is the CEO of French oil and gas giant Total telling Newsweek last month that critics of his company's involvement there "can go to hell."…
Unjust as it is, Aung San Suu Kyi's illegal detention is far from the most upsetting thing going on there: thousands of political prisoners, violent racial and religious oppression in the west, the world's longest-running civil war in the east. And if the horrifically underreported atrocities of Burma ever find their way onto the map of global consciousness, maybe that commission, Burma's best real hope, will get set up after all.
It's fascinating to follow all of these events, and the reportage. I felt that Obama's statement was a bit dull.
How would you characterize the Burmese nation's oppression of the Karen people to the east? Doesn't it qualify as Genocide? At what point does the UN qualify a situation as genocide, and thus by its charter, have to intervene?