Free the Iron Butterfly!
In today's world, I think it's safe to say that there are few people left that draw the pretty much universal admiration of most of the world, either for their genuine goodness and piousness (say John Paul II and Mother Teresa) or for their dedication to the cause of freedom- in which case you can count former South African President Nelson Mandela and Burmese Pro-Democracy Activist Aung San Suu Kyi as very high on the list of people that I admire.
Suu Kyi, daughter of Burma's founding leader, General Aung San and head of the National League for Democracy has been under house arrest for much of the past 15 years, (Her party, the NLD won a landslide victory in the 1990 elections- Burma's first multi-party elections. The Military Junta crushed the pro-democracy movement and refused to recognize the results.) and two days ago, the NLD confirmed what the Burmese Junta had already announced: that her house arrest had been extended for another year. The international community has roundly condemned the extension.
The international community has been trying a variety of approaches to prod the military government to political reform, but none seem to be working. The U.S. and company have taken to strong condemnations and sanctions against the regime, while some of Burma's Asian neighbors seem to be angling for more of a 'carrot type' approach. Fifteen years since democracy in Burma was crushed, not a whole lot seems to be working anymore.
Some news and blog sources, if you want to follow Burma a bit more:
Democratic Voice of Burma
The Irrawady
Free Burma Coalition
Burma Underground
BurmaWatch.com
Burma Digest
USA Today also had a good editorial today on her, so check it out here.
Suu Kyi, daughter of Burma's founding leader, General Aung San and head of the National League for Democracy has been under house arrest for much of the past 15 years, (Her party, the NLD won a landslide victory in the 1990 elections- Burma's first multi-party elections. The Military Junta crushed the pro-democracy movement and refused to recognize the results.) and two days ago, the NLD confirmed what the Burmese Junta had already announced: that her house arrest had been extended for another year. The international community has roundly condemned the extension.
The international community has been trying a variety of approaches to prod the military government to political reform, but none seem to be working. The U.S. and company have taken to strong condemnations and sanctions against the regime, while some of Burma's Asian neighbors seem to be angling for more of a 'carrot type' approach. Fifteen years since democracy in Burma was crushed, not a whole lot seems to be working anymore.
Some news and blog sources, if you want to follow Burma a bit more:
Democratic Voice of Burma
The Irrawady
Free Burma Coalition
Burma Underground
BurmaWatch.com
Burma Digest
USA Today also had a good editorial today on her, so check it out here.
posted by Tom @ 3:14 PM
1 Comments:
At 12:30 PM,
Anonymous said…
I'm a Burmese who's been living in the US for the past four years. And I'm so happy to meet someone here who's aware of the Burma situation and who is, wonder of wonders, aware of Aung San Suu Kyi, our hope for democracy and true independence. I worked for one academic year at Western Illinois University and I met only two persons, one is a professor, who knew about Burma and Daw Suu. I was so disappointed that Americans generally are so insular and so unaware of international affairs. Please do your best to spread the story of our benighted country and the citizens suffering from nearly 50 years of military tyranny. Thank you.
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