Protesting Burma's Brutality

"Hey man! Guess what? I'm in front of history here. There's a protest!...It's awesome!"

That is what an excited passerby said on his cell phone while watching the Amnesty International Free Burma protest in front of the Permanent Mission of the Union of Myanmar (Burma) to the United Nations on 77th St. I was at that protest, for what it's worth. I wish I could say our protest did some good, but right now I have to tell you that we need to do a lot more to have much of an effect. A lot of us need to act if we want to stop the latest massacre in Burma.

First off, Burma or Myanmar? Which is it? The official name, according to both the United States and Britain, remains Burma. The current regime of military strongmen led by Than Shwe changed the official name from Burma to Myanmar. But since the US and UK do not officially recognize the regime of military strongmen as the legitimate government of the nation, that change is not officially recognized.

In reality the two words are, believe it or not, synonymous. According to BBC News:

The two words mean the same thing and one is derived from the other. Burmah, as it was spelt in the 19th Century, is a local corruption of the word Myanmar.

They have both been used within Burma for a long time, says anthropologist Gustaaf Houtman, who has written extensively about Burmese politics.

"There's a formal term which is Myanmar and the informal, everyday term which is Burma. Myanmar is the literary form, which is ceremonial and official and reeks of government. [The name change] is a form of censorship..."

Richard Coates, a linguist at the University of Western England, says adopting the traditional, formal name is an attempt by the junta to break from the colonial past.

"Local opposition groups do not accept that, and presumably prefer to use the 'old' colloquial name, at least until they have a government with popular legitimacy. Governments that agree with this stance still call the country Burma.

So, for those who agree that a military junta that orders the massacre of peaceful protestors should not be legitimized, let's call it Burma.

In Manhattan this last week, a small group of protesters joined Amnesty International to protest in front of the Burma UN Delegation. Since someone else was using the microscope I needed at work, I snuck away to join in. When I first arrived there were only about 50 people. But ultimately it grew to about 100-150, spilling out of the tiny area originally allocated by the police. The police at first tried to keep the road open, but eventually decided to close off the block.

Unlike the passerby, I am more jaded when it comes to protests. I have been to too many and they tend to blend together. There are only so many times you can hear "What Do We Want? (Fill in the Blank)! When do we want it? Now!" before it starts to lose its thrill. This protest, in itself, was not different except for the handful of people who were actually from Burma. To them, the protest was clearly extremely important and that made it more meaningful to me.

And that got me thinking. Why was the violence in Burma getting to me as much as it was? I keep track of so many horrible situations around the world, reporting on some of them, but there is something about the current situation in Burma that has been nagging at me.

First off was the image of the Japanese reporter, shot, seemingly deliberately, by the Burmese military. (photo included in the Culture Kitchen version of this diary)

When I first saw that image I remembered the first time I saw someone really shot on television. The situation was parallel. In 1979, ABC reporter Bill Stewart was stopped at a checkpoint by the brutal National Guard of Nicaragua under the dictator Somoza. As his cameraman filmed the incident, the Nicaraguan Natioanl Guardsman made Bill Stewart kneel...then lie down. Then, on camera, the Guardsman shot Stewart. I remember watching this, seeing Stewart's body jerk and lie still. The camera then jerked away as the cameraman got away. Off camera, Stewart's interpreter was also shot.

That moment, shown over and over on television, turned America against Somoza, allowing the Sandinistas to oust him. Reporters are killed all the time, sad to say. I dated a woman whose father was killed by a Contra landmine (probaly supplied by the US to some of the same National Guardsmen who supported Somoza) on the border between Nicaragua and Honduras. A reporter being killed doesn't change much. But when it happens on camera for all to see, it tends to turn people against the regime responsible.

Deep down, I am feeling like the deliberate shooting of Kenji Nagai by Burmese troops on camera may ultimately do to the Burmese dictators what the deliberate shooting of Bill Stewart on camera by Nicaraguan National Guardsmen did to Somoza. I have no reason to believe this will be so. But my brain is superimposing these events and I can only hope that we are seeing the beginning of the end for Than Shwe and his fellow thugs.

The second thing that has made the current situation in Burma get to me is the slaughter of the Buddhist monks. Look. I am not terribly religious. But when clergy of any religion in any country is being slaughtered for peacefully protesting, something is pretty messed up. Burmese troops shot down protesting monks in cold blood (warning: disturbing picture). Now thousands of surviving monks are being rounded up to be imprisoned for their role in the protests.

Finally, there is the quiet, serene face of Aung San Suu Kyi, leader of the Burmese democracy movement and Nobel Peace Prize winner. A regime that is afraid of Buddhist monks and a 62 year old woman whose main inspirations are Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King, jr. is a regime that deserves no legitimacy.

I noticed the Burmese UN Mission was not flying its flag while we protested...out of shame for the killing of monks, one can hope. More likely just to keep a low profile, hoping no one will notice them until people forget about the most recent of many massacres by the military junta of Burma. It is quite likely that they can succeed in brutally suppressing the uprising of the monks and simply ride out the international outrage until the world loses interest and Burma can go back to shamelessly flying its flag in Manhattan.

But I hope not.

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Contact Chevron, one of the companies that provides the most economic support for Burma's military regime, and so is in the best position to tell them enough is enough. Every time you fill up with Chevron gas, you are donating a bit to Burma's dictatorship.

Chevron:
6001 Bollinger Canyon Road
San Ramon, CA 94583, USA
Tel. +1 925-842-1000
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Write your Congress Critters urging them to take stronger action against Burma.