“The Marriage of Evil to Evil” - Burma’s Ruling Junta join forces with North Korea

chronwatch.com ^ | September 08, 2006 | Sandra Carney

[Tailgunner Joe]

September 11, 2000, is a day that is burnt into the memories of every American here and abroad. As we patriots in the USA prepare to remember that tragic day on its fifth anniversary, there is to be a summit hosted by one who no doubt was delighted as the events of that infamous day unfolded.

Fidel Castro is to host the 14th Summit of the Non-alignment Movement (NAM) in Havana, Cuba, on 9/11/2006. Among those participating are none other that North Korea and Burma, who are now seeking to re-establish diplomatic ties.

In 1983, a bomb went off on the tomb of the late Burmese Prime Minister Aung San, father of Nobel Prize laureate Aung San Su Kyi. That day there was also a failed attempt to assassinate South Korean President Chun Doo-Hwan, who was visiting Rangoon. Several of Chun Doo-Hwan’s entourage were killed, but President Chun escaped unharmed.

The bombs were planted by North Korean terrorists. Burma then severed ties with North Korea.

It appears that the official restoration of this unholy union is just a formality, as unofficially agreements have already been reached. The spoke in the wheel, has been the last survivor of that North Korean terrorist plot in 1983, and now he is to return home.

In the meantime, thousands of patriotic Burmese languish in prison. Su Kyi, the democratically elected leader of Burma, remains under house arrest. Over a thousand political prisoners remain incarcerated and the raping of Burma under the monstrous left wing dictatorship continues.

Over 100,000 Karen, Shan, Chin, and other Burmese tribal refugees live in camps on the Thai and South China borders. Some of them have been there for over 20 years, with no hope of repatriation. Bangkok brothels buy and sell Burmese children on a daily basis, as the desire for young girls and boys whet the appetite of passing businessmen and tourists--or the children become indentured slaves to wealthy households.

Starving Burmese parents sell their little girls and sometimes boys, to anyone who can give them a few kyats (Burmese currency) to support their families for a few weeks or months. These children are laid to waste after a few short years, during which their families are supported by meager earnings that they send home. The children are not welcomed home when their time comes, and often starve to death or meet worse ends at the hands of merciless thugs.

I recently met an Indian man, who had been a merchant in Rangoon. He told me of a day long ago, when he left his home early in the morning to go to his shop in down town Rangoon to start business for the day. As he traveled from his home to the city, he noticed armed soldiers posted in front of the stores. As he approached his own shop, the armed soldier asked for his keys, and told him that his property had been confiscated and that he was no longer the owner. Along side the entrance stood a poor Burmese family. The keys to the shop were given to them, and they became the new owners of the Indian man’s store.

He immediately went to his bank to check his account. All his assets had been frozen and he was told he no longer had any business there. He returned home to his wife and children, to find his family in tears, each carrying a bundle of possessions, sitting on their doorstep. Their home had been confiscated, too. With what little cash they had between them, this family made its way to India, never to return to Burma.

At some point they immigrated to Canada, and then immigrated to the United States, where this gentleman established a successful business for himself. He is now retired.

The poor young Burmese family who took over the store must have been very pleased. Historically, Burmans never had a fondness for the Indians who had been brought over by the Colonial British during the period of the Raj. The Indians were hard working and became prosperous all over Burma. This was generally resented by the average Burman, who now felt that Burma was finally theirs, as thousands and thousands of Indians were expelled from the land of tinkling bells and golden pagodas.

What those poor souls, the young Burmese couple, and thousands more, did not know was that their delight was to be short lived. The junta tightened its strangling grip on the whole country, and it treated the newly prosperous Burmese as it had treated the Indians, now expelled from the Burmese shores.

Needless to say by this time, anyone who was deemed a threat to the dictatorship had been imprisoned, tortured. or killed. A great proportion of the Burmese population fell under this umbrella. The rest sat in a collective silence of terror, never knowing when it would be their turn next.

These are stories that have repeated themselves hundreds of thousands of times over, since 1962, when the dictatorship with General Ne Win at the helm took control of Burma.

Human rights violations of a mammoth proportion exist in Burma today. This was not a depraved country living in the dark ages, with a pathetic ignorant malnourished, sick populace. It was a rich vibrant beautiful land, wealthy in resources of mega proportions. It was the only country in South-East Asia whose population was 100% educated--something that the Burmese people boasted about openly and its leaders had prided themselves in, since before the British took over the country in 1885.

When I was a little girl, my parents briefly lived in a town called Myingyan. Our large colonial home was on the banks of the Irrawaddy River. There was a tiny village between our front drive and the river. I was home only briefly, as I was a boarder in a convent in the Shan Hills. But once when I was home, I walked down to the village to play with the children. I listened carefully along with them as the elders made us all recite poems, and regaled us with tales of old folklore. We sang and danced in Burmese tradition, remembering all that had gone before us.

The tragedy that has befallen Burma is out of control, but who is there to extend a helping hand to this land where my ancestors are buried and my aching heart lies?

A glimmer of hope looms on the far horizon. On September 1, 2006, Ambassador John Bolton, addressed the IAEA, (International Atomic Energy Agency) with a briefing on Burma:

“….I wanted to announce that we have--today--written a letter to the incoming president of the Security Council, Ambassador Vassilakis of Greece, asking that the subject of Burma--known here as Myanmar, know to us as Burma, be added to the agenda of the Security Council because of the threat to international peace and security that the policies and actions of the Burmese regime have caused. As you know, we've had two briefings of the Council in December of last year and June of this year by Under Secretary General Gambari. We ask for another briefing, but this time we want the subject of Burma added formally as an agenda item . So this is a, we think, an important step because of the consequences of what the Burmese regime has been doing and we will be seeking to have that formal addition to the agenda be made in the next few weeks….” USUN Press Release #223. September 1, 2006.

Burma as she stands today has become a threat to its neighbors. Her population has become major HIV/AIDS and TB carriers, not to mention the rapid spread of malaria, since basic medical needs are non-existent in the jungles and border camps in neighboring South China and Thailand.

Burma is also the one of the leading producers of heroin. Who can blame the poor souls who traffic in this; after all the Tatmadaw (military police) have taken away their very livelihood. There is nothing left for them, but to produce a desirable commodity that the drug addicted world hungers for.

Another threat looms along the Arakan coast, where the search for gas by “Daewoo International” a consortium of which South Korea is a major share holder, continues to progress at an aggressive pace.

The Arakanese people have been enslaved by the Junta and its associates the South Koreans. Those who have tried to escape to the middle of Burma have been turned back by the thousands, and these homeless Arakanese are mainly Muslim, an issue that we in the USA need to take a closer look at under the present climate that has engulfed us.

North Korea’s tentacles are but a few days away from taking hold with a strangling grip, all of Burma. Should we in the USA really ignore this vital region of the world?

“I dream the same dream that is a thousand years old; I think of my people with a longing to be free; I speak to the birds and the beasts in the wild; Who is there among you who have known the heartache that I feel; Only those who have been consumed by the ashes of death, know how my oppressed tortured soul suffers” --Burmese Poet.