July 2005 Archives
I met U Khin Nyunt once in 1999. I was visiting one of the most revered pagodas in Burma - Shwedagon pagoda. I was with my family. We were praying, everyone was peaceful. Couples in love, holding hands, families sitting around, basking in the glory of the wonder of the pagoda.
Then I heard a commotion, coming from the right of me. I saw a sea of Army green. Army Green makes me shudder. We were not allowed to make fun of the color or say that we didn't like the color ever since the riots where Army green caused the bloodshed of thousands of innocent people.
And then there were whispers.
I've heard those whispers before. Fear in the whispers.
I had been offering water at one of the altars at the front of the pagoda. so as I made my way back to where my family was sitting, I saw the whole group:
about 50 strong group of soldiers, with their guns (how dare they bring guns onto the Pagoda - where it is such a peaceful place?) and U Khin Nyunt was there - in the middle - he looked different from the rest of the soldier, well, he looked different from the rest of the Burmese people. He was well fed, his skin was light, like he's never had to work outside, he didn't look tired, like he had no worries, he was smiling.
Anger shot up all over my body. Here I was, in one of the most peaceful places on earth and I had a sudden urge to rush to him and shake him and ask :why, why do you look so happy, how can you look so happy, when you look all around, there's poverty, there's unhappiness, there's repression, your soldiers rape and kill at will, you grow heroin that spreads its evil all around the world, it spreads HIV, and here you are pretending to be a great Buddhist, and you look so happy.
i wanted to ask, do you know how I have to live in another country, do you know how much I miss my family, do you know how much it hurts that i can't see them as frequently as I want to? do you know how they see us, outside of this country, do you know how I have to always feel like an outsider because you, you won't let me live to the fullest of my capabilities here? Because you won't let me have an education, because you won't let me live justly, you won't let me have any human rights.....
Enough about me, I want to say - my father - he can't sleep at night because nobody believes that he is capable of bigger things outside this country. And my mother - she works so hard I never see her. And she's so angry all the time. And my grandfather - was ruined by your failed health care system because there was no ambulances to come get him because there was no electricity running in the city that night. Because all the electricity is routed to your families - not to the rest of the countries- just to the houses where the sea of Army green occupies.
I was so angry, I was glaring at him, unable to move. My aunt was pulling me away, asking me to look down, to look away, not to make eye contact. I was not supposed to make eye contact with this man. Even though, when I was little, I had heard that he had a hand in letting me and my little family have passports as we apparently knew his cousin and had bribed him well. Bribed him well with our hard earned money, our sweat and blood.
Since I didn't move, they shoved me aside. The soldier must have been barely eighteen, barely older than me. He had a swagger that you only get when you get a taste of power. The shove woke me up. I got a close look at U Khin Nyunt. But I also saw that he too, was just a pawn. I knew that one day soon, he would be ousted from his powers.
I was right. You can't trust anyone in the military government. They are all backstabbers who only care about their well- being. Now that the have Khin Nyunt under House Arrest, there's another pot bellied soldier deciding who should be killed, raped, etc...
And I, I continue to look on, always the outsider, looking on.
great, isn't it?
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AFX News Limited
Former Myanmar prime minister gets 44-year suspended sentence - legal source
07.22.2005, 08:48 AM
YANGON (AFX) - Former Myanmar prime minister Khin Nyunt received a 44-year suspended sentence after being convicted today on eight charges including bribery and corruption, a legal source told Agence France-Presse.
'Former prime minister Khin Nyunt was sentenced today,' said the source who was closely following the trial. 'The total punishment was 44 years on eight charges.'
It is believed Khin Nyunt, ousted in an October purge, will be kept under house arrest, the legal source and a source close to the ex-premier's family said.
Obtained via Forbes.com
July 19th marks the day Bo Aung San - the father of Nobel Peace Prize winner Daw AUng San Suu Kyi, and the Freedom fighter for Burma - was killed 58 years ago. Daw Suu was not at the ceremony that the Burmese government held.
I know it must have killed her not to be there. I imagine her, holding her arms across her chest, staring stoically out of her window, isolated in her house, not being able to pay respects at her father's grave, the day he was gunned down by fellow Burmese who were paid off by the British government. (I'm sure there's more to it, I'm putting it in too little words)
Suu Kyi's father was fighting for the freedom of Burma. Suu Kyi continues to fight for the freedom that still eludes Burma to this day.
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Suu Kyi absent from Myanmar ceremonies
Unidentified military officers saluting the slain independence heroes at the Mausoleum in Yangon Tuesday July 19 .2005 in a ceremony to commemorate the 58th anniversary Martyr' day . Martyr's day is held annually on July 19 to mark the day when Gen. Aung San who was gunned down along with seven cabinet ministers and two officials on July 19, 1947, six months before Myanmar gained independence from Britain. Absent from the ceremony today was his daughter _ pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who's under house arrest by the military government since 2003. Unidentified military officers saluting the slain independence heroes at the Mausoleum in Yangon Tuesday July 19 .2005 in a ceremony to commemorate the 58th anniversary Martyr' day . Martyr's day is held annually on July 19 to mark the day when Gen. Aung San who was gunned down along with seven cabinet ministers and two officials on July 19, 1947, six months before Myanmar gained independence from Britain. Absent from the ceremony today was his daughter _ pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who's under house arrest by the military government since 2003. (AP Photo)
July 19, 2005
YANGON, Myanmar --Myanmar on Tuesday marked the 58th anniversary of the assassination of independence hero Gen. Aung San, but his daughter, pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who is under house arrest, didn't attend the ceremonies.
Gen. Aung San was gunned down along with six Cabinet ministers and two officials on July 19, 1947, six months before Myanmar gained independence from Britain.
The anniversary of his death is marked each year as Martyrs' Day at a mausoleum near the capital Yangon's famous Shwedagon pagoda.
But commemorations have been gradually downgraded since Suu Kyi rose to prominence as head of the country's pro-democracy movement following a bloody crackdown by the military against 1988 street protests.
On Tuesday, Culture Minister Maj. Gen. Kyi Aung led the official ceremony, placing flowers at Gen. Aung San's tomb as military buglers played the "Last Post." The national flag was flown at half-staff.
It was the third consecutive year that Suu Kyi has missed laying flowers during the ceremony -- the only official event the country's military rulers had once allowed her to attend during her years of house arrest. Previous occasions were the only time her picture appeared in state media.
The government late Tuesday said that Suu Kyi had been "invited as customary by the authorities to lay a wreath at the tomb."
"She told the authorities that she did not want to attend the ceremony and refused to attend the ceremony," said the announcement on state radio and television, the first time in three years the government has explained Suu Kyi's absence.
Suu Kyi's estranged elder brother, U.S. citizen Aung San Oo, sent a representative on behalf of the family to lay a wreath.
The 1991 Nobel Peace Prize winner has spent almost 10 of the past 16 years under confinement. Suu Kyi was last detained by the government in May 2003 after her convoy was attacked by a pro-junta mob as she toured northern Myanmar, also known as Burma.
Suu Kyi was also absent from her National League for Democracy party's own ceremony at its Yangon headquarters. The party called for the junta to free the detained leader and other political prisoners.
At its ceremony -- attended by 300 people, including diplomats and student activists -- the NLD also called for the reopening of party offices closed down by the military.
The military government called elections in 1990, but refused to hand power to Suu Kyi's party, which won in a landslide. Instead, it stepped up harassment of NLD members, hundreds of whom have been detained.
Some NLD members who visited the Martyrs' Mausoleum to pay respects to the slain leaders were prohibited from wearing badges bearing images of Gen. Aung San and had to remove their peach-colored jackets, which are the NLD party uniform.
Article obtained Via - Boston.com
