Once called the Golden Land, Burma lies tarnished; starving, devastated and repressed under the cruel and insular hand of the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC), formerly the State Law and Order Council (SLORC). The SPDC is the political name of a military regime led by General Than Shwe. It has a documented history of mismanagement through incompetence and greed, of corruption as well as devastating ongoing widespread human rights abuses. The SPDC has a deliberate and systematic plan for destroying ethnic groups who continue to resist.
The distant past of Burma is an exotic but incomplete documentation of the rise and fall of empires and kingdoms and migration, by Shan, Bamar, Mon, Pyu and many others. Only rarely under a great King was the area of Burma ever completely united, until the British, with trading ambitions, entered the scene in the early 1800s. After annexing lower Burma to India and later gaining a tenuous control of upper Burma, they finally made Burma a country in 1937.
War World War II saw the Japanese aided by the Burman Independence Army, conquer all but small northern parts of Burma with the British in rout, burning and destroying as they left. Three years later the reverse occurred, with the destruction continuing as the British and the allies decimated the fleeing Japanese, while Nationalist Chinese in the North created horror in Kachin State. This war, which began days before Pearl Harbour and ended in '45 did not gain international attention and has been referred to as the Forgotten War. Martin Smith in his 'definitive' book Burma Insurgency and the Politics of Ethnicity writes ' it is largely in the perceptions of this war, so shortly before Burma's Independence that many of the revolutionary traditions developed which have fuelled 50 years of insurgency.
Six months before Burma gained her independence from Britain, January 1948, the intended Prime Minister, (General) Bolyoke Aung Sang was assassinated. With a weaker, less popular, Prime Minister the new and diverse country struggled for reconciliation between ethnic groups, policies and philosophies until finally in 1962 the military dissolved parliament and began ruling the country.
The General, Ne Win, superstitious and repressive, working within tightened borders, managed to reduce this once productive country to near ruin. In 1988 (a year before Tiananmen Square Massacre) the students, monks and intelligentsia led an organized protest which was met by the regime with the slaughter, imprisonment and the disappearance of up to 10,000 people.
In this year Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, Bolyoke's daughter, returned from England to be with her ailing mother. She quickly assumed popularity and began to accept a national political responsibility. Ne Win ostensibly resigned as a result of the military's shameful response to the peaceful protests and free elections were allowed in 1990. Aung San Suu Kyi's popularity caused fear within the military and she was placed under house arrest before the election. With the world slightly more aware of this forgotten land and in the years after Tiananmen Square, a free election took place with Aung San Suu Kyi's party, the National League for Democracy, winning 82% of the vote. General Ne Win's State Law and order Council ignored the election pending the forming of a Constitution. This process has never been completed. Since that time Daw Aung San Suu Kyi has been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize (1991) and many other humanitarian awards. She has been released for short periods but when they realize that despite their adverse propaganda her popularity continues she is quickly returned to house arrest or as in May 2005 attacked and imprisoned then confined to her home where she remains today.
We are not alone in our belief that if Aung San Suu Kyi and the other political prisoners were released, and a constitution formed hopefully with participation from all groups or even if another election took place including multi ethnic participation and was honoured, Burma could retake its place as a productive contributing country. Meanwhile sanctions, an arms embargo as well as increased pressure on the countries that continue to feed the SPDC seem to be the only possible means of informing the the SPDC that a government's job is to serve its people.
It will take generations for the wounds and animosities to heal but a beginning is possible through continued steady and dedicated world pressure and the use particularly of new technologies that prevent the Generals from hiding their atrocities.
Our particular concern from our location is the Karen who have never completed any peace negotiations with the SPDC.
more> The Karen People
