Aung san suu Kyi and Burma

When I first heard that a man had swam across the lake to the house of Aung san suu Kyi, I googled his name and found a picture of him with some of the generals in Burma. Therefore I was absolutely sure that the lady had been set up. The picture however was removed and the web page gone when I tried to return latter. While I had bookmarked the page, on my old computer, I really wish now that I had printed the page, something I just do not do normally.

Having stolen the government of the country when the democratic process failed to give the generals the result they wanted, the country has been under a dictatorship for many years. Yet sanctions are not working as countries like India and Nepal still trade with Burma, particularly rubies. Therefore, condemning the people to more and longer oppression.

In governments across the world there is a phrase that well known and understood, that a Government is only six meals away from a riot.

Now if countries enforced sanctions properly, régimes like Burma just would not survive. As if you stop the elite from profiting from selling the nations resources, it just would not be able to keep the infer-structure of repression, like the army, on their side. In Zimbabwe it was only because Mugabe stole food aid and used it to feed his supporters has he been able to survive as long.

In Burma the army would rapidly turn against the leadership if they knew that their families were going hungry too. When the army has been used in Burma to repress the people the generals have had to move troops from different regions as most of the troops will not fire upon their own people.

While in general I am in favour of talking over any form of violence, I also believe that where sanctions are agreed they must be total. There will be people that say rightly sanctions harm the people, but twenty years of oppression by the Burmese government has harmed the people more.

Only by isolating oppressive regimes like Burma can real change be instituted. By allowing tourism and trade to continue we aid the generals to repress the people of Burma.

The traditional way of dealing with problem countries or dictatorships is to arm people, ferment war and create divisions, but this only creates new problems down the line. Afghanistan and Iraq are two perfect examples. Where the very people we in the west have armed, we then have gone to war to deal with latter.

I realise that dealing with any irrational government will never be easy, but in the long term stopping the tacit support of repressive governments will make the world a much safer place.

Aung san suu Kyi is an important symbol for the people of Burma, and the generals fear this woman of peace and democracy. And to me she shows the power of peace.