"Myanmar's" missing monks

More disturbing details about the Burmese crackdown, where the military junta has pretty much declared victory:

A new estimate by a well-connected dissident group has concluded that 138 people were killed and about 6,000 detained, including about 2,400 Buddhist monks, when the regime smashed the anti-government protests last week.

Those numbers were issued by the Democratic Voice of Burma, a dissident news group based in Norway with close ties to pro-democracy activists.

Another report said many of the arrested monks are being held at a former race course, where they were forced to give up their robes and change into civilian clothes.

Several monasteries, brutally raided by police and soldiers last week, are nearly empty now.

[...]

Monks in northern Burma who spoke to the Associated Press confirmed that many of their colleagues were killed or beaten and taken away by the military. But they predicted the monks would not give up

“I want our demands to be fulfilled. I want peace,” said one. “The best thing is to have balance and equality and peace.”

The monks' strategy seems to be based on a faith that the world will take action against the regime that showed its brutality in the crackdown last week. But early signs suggest that the junta will escape any serious consequences from key neighbouring states.

Myanmar's top generals appear confident that they can dodge the international pressure. Monday they snubbed a United Nations envoy, forcing him to cool his heels for a third consecutive day as he waited for a meeting with regime leader Senior General Than Shwe.

The envoy, Ibrahim Gambari, arrived in Myanmar on Saturday to express the UN's outrage at the violent military crackdown that killed at least 10 people and perhaps many more. Monday he made his second trip to the country's remote new capital, Naypyidaw, in a failed effort to obtain a meeting with Gen. Shwe. The government, bizarrely, took the envoy instead to another remote town to attend a workshop on relations between Asia and the European Union.

The envoy was finally promised a meeting today with the junta leader. But the delays suggest that the regime is quite willing to defy the international community.

"SeeDubya" at Junkyard Blog is more pessimistic about chances for democratic change in Iran, after seeing what happened in Burma. (Via Hot Air)

Damian P.

Posted by damian at October 2, 2007 08:39 AM