The Trouble With Burma

October 21, 2007

Over the last few weeks, I’ve written a fair amount about the situation in Burma. It now appears as if the situation is at an impasse. After a tumultuous month, the wave of opposition has crested, and what has it led us to? The UN envoy that passed through Burma several weeks ago achieved little, if anything. The new head of the UN, Ban Ki-moon, even admitted to the press that negotiations in Burma were fruitless efforts.

Just a day ago, President Bush spoke openly about the atrocious misdeeds committed by the Burmese regime. That seems sort of odd to me, because sanctions were already pretty severe there to begin with. I can’t really think of any goods sold between the two countries, and the only exchange of money that takes place are the few tourist dollars spent by travelers there.

Regardless, those sanctions were placed on the heels of EU sanctions and Australian sanctions. India will surely bow in soon to international pressure and follow suite and China, being China will probably try a more superficial route. China remains heavily invested in Burma, especially considering Burma’s vast timber and oil resources and China’s still booming economy. There actions will probably amount to little more than a slap on the wrists.

But what is to be done? How do you oust a government that is really only justified in their own eyes? Paranoia hangs, and has hung, around the necks of Burmese bigwigs for the past several decades. Allegations of American infiltration amongst the ranks of Burmese monks, and attempts to train the monks to overthrow the government, have again come to the fore.

This is a country that has hit rock bottom, repeatedly, with a dull, heavy thud. In the process, they’ve managed to stir up enough dust to get the world to sit up and take notice, at least for awhile, until more pressing issues with Brad Pitt or Angelina Jolie take over.

Thanks to the wonders of the internet and the modern age, two things that weren’t a reality back in 1988 when the previous uprising happened, we have witnessed first hand, in real time what has happened. It is highly probable that scores of new killings will be revealed, but we have already seen a few that have happened, and for a gut wrenched public, it was quite a few too many.

I overheard a conversation today about a kid in Burma who was killed, allegedly, by brutal Burmese soldiers. I’m going to neglect to delve into the details, but the killing involved a hammer, a wall, and the poor kid’s skull. I can only hope that it was a quick death. This is yet another portrait of who is in control there.

The Burmese regime is not made up of real people. They have bones and skin and hair like the rest of us, but they’re not real, actual people. Real people don’t kill the spiritual leaders of a country. Real people don’t blatantly profit on a brutal and obvious illegal drug racket. Real people do not kill children with hammers. Real people don’t deserve to rot.

It seems as if the sanctions and outcries are slowly eating away at the insulated veneer of power that the government has built itself. Surely even right now, the leaders are sitting in their multi-million dollar mansions deep in the forests of Burma pondering their fate.

One day the regime will die out. One day, although that day hasn’t graced Burma in decades, there will be peace. Sadly, that day isn’t today. And with a 54 person retinue in charge of writing a “new constitution,” that day is likely very far off.