Burmese Spring!

[4est_4est_Gump]

Obama really seems to embolden tyrants of all stripes!

MONYWA, Myanmar (AP) - Security forces used water cannons and other riot gear Thursday to clear protesters from a copper mine in in northwestern Myanmar, wounding villagers and Buddhist monks just hours before opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi arrived in the area to hear their grievances.

The crackdown at the Letpadaung mine near the town of Monywa risks becoming a public relations and political fiasco for the reformist government of President Thein Sein, which has been touting its transition to democracy after almost five decades of repressive military rule.

The environmental and social damage allegedly produced by the mine has become a popular cause in activist circles, but was not yet a matter of broad public concern. However, hurting monks - as admired for their social activism as they are revered for their spiritual beliefs - is sure to antagonize many ordinary people, especially as Suu Kyi's visit highlights the events.

"This is unacceptable," said Ottama Thara, a 25-year-old monk who was at the protest. "This kind of violence should not happen under a government that says it is committed to democratic reforms."

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20121129/DA2RIK7O1.html

 

[LiFeNdEaTh]

thanks for sharing pancho lol

 

[RobDownSouth]

Bitter AJ clings to his isolationist blankie.

 

[4est_4est_Gump]

I say that big talk’s worth doodly-squat!

 

[4est_4est_Gump]

thanks for sharing pancho lol

I read a book about the Jadeite mines...

Truly brutal.




http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0316095583/gemsandwhywelove

 

[Byron In Exile]

I read a book about the Jadeite mines...

Read "Burmese Days" by Orwell.

 

[4est_4est_Gump]

Read "Burmese Days" by Orwell.

I'll see if I can find a free version...

 

[4est_4est_Gump]

Didn't Obama talk to these people about human rights?

The AP team that visited Sin Thet Maw observed four-man government teams conducting interviews with dozens of Muslim families. The Rohingya live in a separate part of Sin Thet Maw that is completely segregated from the Buddhist side of the village by a wide field running hundreds of meters (yards) inland.

Most of those interviewed had temporary national registration cards that were issued by authorities ahead of elections in 2010 in an apparent effort to secure their support. The cards granted the Rohingya the right to vote, but they were stamped with a major caveat that read: "Not proof of citizenship." Most also showed government-issued forms on which their family members had been registered.

There was one question, though, that the officers did not ask - the one that mattered above all the rest. It was represented on the forms by a blank line beside the entry: "Race/Nationality."

After each interview, the officers filled in the empty space with the words: "Bengali," or, "Bengali/Islam."

The consequence of such answers is unclear. One officer, Kyi San, said only: "We're collecting data, not making decisions on nationality."

But several Muslims interviewed by the AP complained that officers refused to classify them as Rohingya, declaring that "the Rohingya do not exist." One man said he was beaten after refusing to sign a form identifying himself as Bengali.

"Being Bengali means we can be arrested and deported. It means we aren't part of this country," said Zaw Win, one of the Muslims who had been interrogated. "We are not Bengali. We are Rohingya."

Aye Aye Win and Yadana Htun contributed to this report.
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20121130/DA2S6P002.html

Did he not even put in a word for his Muslim allies?

 

[ChinaBandit]

Jade is a terrific investment! That is all I am going to say.

 

[4est_4est_Gump]

Cum on babe,
Show me the cash money.

 

[4est_4est_Gump]

The truth is that the Chinese have been able to take advantage of lower paid displaced ethnic minority Burmese labor. The question arises as to whether Obama realizes he is placing the United States in a position of interference in an area that long has been, if not a sphere of Chinese influence, certainly a convenient resource-rich neighbor easily exploitable through its long border area with China. Encouraged by Hillary Clinton's personal friendship with Aung San Suu Kyi and George Soros' longtime interest in gaining a foothold in the mineral rich potential of Burma, President Obama has taken the first steps to exerting American influence in both the political and economic life of this complicated Asian country.

Is this what the American president meant last fall when he announced his intention to "pivot" U.S. interests to the Far East and away from Middle Eastern conflicts? Certainly Beijing does not look kindly on Washington involvement in an area China has long cultivated. The chances are that the Obama Administration, enamored of the heroic story of The Lady's struggle for democracy in Burma, has leaped rather naively into a portion of Asia as complicated and danger-filled as any in the region.

Barack Obama is attempting to make his mark in a part of the world he sees as less of a problem than that with which he has been struggling in the Middle East. He has been encouraged to see the future democratization of Burma as a potential major policy accomplishment. His aim to be acclaimed as a great peacemaker internationally fits this targeting perfectly. The problem is that Burma is just not the safe and innocent object that he views it as being.

Whether because of (1) the Chinese perception that the U.S. is involving itself where it has no rightful place, or (2) the ongoing conflicts of the mountainous northern states with the Burman majority's government instruments, or (3) the pivotal role of the country's military structure and its authoritarian social class, Burma is hardly a trouble-free part of the world. Washington should involve itself only in a peripheral manner unless it truly wishes to pivot to challenge Beijing's broader ambitions.

George H. Wittman
'http://spectator.org/archives/2012/11/30/burmese-briefing