i just wanted to post a note on our site about the current goings on in Burma..
Burma is a medium sized, predominantly buddhist nation located between india, china and thailand in the south east asia. winning its independence from colonial rule in 1948 burma has been ruled in one way or another by its "socialist" military junta for the best part of the last 60 years, creating wave upon wave of appalling human rights abuses, snubbing international opinion and, by the same stroke friendship.
in recent years there have been many calls for democracy, famously answered by the junta in 1988 demonstrations by the casual massacre of over 3000 burmese citizens, and also the "democratic" elections in 1990 in which, nobel-prize winner and burma's strongest hope for democracy, Aung San Suu Kyi, won and was exiled for her efforts, only to return for more repression and on and off detention of one degree or another.
burma, (or Myanmar as the junta have re-named the country) is now once again in the midst of a popular uprising, triggered by a severe inflation of fuel prices on the governments part, leading to widespread price rises in transport and consequently the price of living. Buddhist monks have now taken command of the demonstrations against the price rises and the old cries for democracy are once again being heard and now is a good time to get informed on the subject.
the governments way to deal with the peaceful protests has been to open fire on the crowds of unnarmed civilians, charge them with battons, set curfeews and arrest around 1000 monks, detaining them without, as you can expect from such a regime, a fair trial.
please check out these sights to find out more information on burma, and how you can help the burmese people through humanitarian aid, petitioning or pressurising your government into using sanctions, and if you belong to a faith of any kind, pray for them because they need it.
http://www.amnesty.org.uk/news_details.asp?NewsID=17458http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/7010202.stmhttp://www.newsdeskspecial.co.uk/burma/http://english.dvb.no/news.php?id=486http://www.freeburmacoalition.org/thanks a lot guys, our thoughts go out to the people of burma as i hope yours do too, Jah Bless x
Robin x
