BurmaNet News, September 22, 2007

[Editor]

September 22, 2007 Issue # 3298

INSIDE BURMA
AP: Monk says detained Myanmar opposition leader Suu Kyi looks 'fit and well'
Irrawaddy: Suu Kyi greets monks at her home; 10,000 monks demonstrate in
Mandalay
AFP: Protest monks call for prayer vigils in Myanmar
AP: Monks put Myanmar junta in tight spot- Michael Casey
DVB via BBC: Than Shwe reportedly orders use of violence to break up monks
protests
AFP: Silenced Suu Kyi still the voice of Myanmar opposition
DVB: Entertainment industry leaders voice support for protests
DVB: Monk bashed during September 18 Sittwe protest
Mizzima News: Rangoon inundated by torrential rain

REGIONAL
Mizzima News: Burmese and Indian activists call for greater Indian support

INTERNATIONAL
David Miliband comments on the situation in Burma

OPINION / OTHER
Washington Post: Burma Stirs: Will the rest of the world stand by?
[Editorial]

____________________________________
INSIDE BURMA

September 22, Associated Press
Monk says detained Myanmar opposition leader Suu Kyi looks 'fit and well'

Detained Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi looked "fit and well"
to a group of protesting Buddhist monks who were allowed through a police
roadblock to walk past her home Saturday, one of the monks said.

Suu Kyi came out to her gate to pay respect, the monk in a speech to other
anti-government protesters at a pagoda afterward. Other witnesses, who
asked not to be named due to fear of reprisals, confirmed his account.

Suu Kyi has been under detention continuously since May 2003 at her home
in Myanmar's biggest city, Yangon.

The action came as thousands of monks and citizens carried on
anti-government protest marches in Yangon, where Suu Kyi is under house
arrest, and other cities in Myanmar

The part of University Avenue where Suu Kyi's house is located has been
closed to traffic since Sept. 17.

____________________________________

September 22, Irrawaddy
Suu Kyi greets monks at her home; 10,000 monks demonstrate in Mandalay -
Kywa Zwa Moe

Detained pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, dressed in yellow, came
out of her home, where she is under house arrest, to pay respect to
protesting monks who marched in front of her home on Rangoon’s University
Avenue on Saturday afternoon, witnesses said.

Monks and protesters in front of Suu Kyi’s house on Sept 22, 2007

The monks marched through a barricade on the street in front of Suu Kyi's
home while chanting the "Metta Sutta" (the Buddha’s words on loving
kindness).

Authorities in blue uniforms, wearing helmets, formed a line in front of
Suu Kyi's property. They held grey protective shields in front of their
bodies.

Monks, standing in the street, chanted the sutta. A line of citizens
joined hands and formed a line behind the monks.

When Suu Kyi appeared at the edge of her property, shouts of "Be in good
health" and "Be free very soon" filled the air over and over again, said
an eyewitness. Many women had tears flowing down their cheeks.
Eyewitnesses said Suu Kyi appeared pale.

Suu Kyi had a conversation with a monk, believed to be a leader, before
returning to her home. What they discussed was not known. About two
hundred monks and civilians were gathered in front of her house.

A witness said Suu Kyi probably came out of her home because she heard the
monks chanting the "Metta Sutta" in the street.

A column of protesting monks marching so near Suu Kyi's lakeside home on
Rangoon's University Avenue was seen as a powerful symbol of solidarity.
Suu Kyi, a symbol of democracy, has been under house arrest for 11 of the
past 17 years.

Also in Rangoon on Saturday, a source said about 1,000 monks marched
peacefully from Shwedagon Pagoda to the Chinese Embassy in Dagon Township
where they chanted the "Metta Sutta" (the Buddha’s words on loving
kindness). The monks made no public speeches or statements at the embassy,
but again, the gesture was seen as a powerful symbolic statement.

Burmese citizens see China as the military junta's strongest supporter.
After a short time at the embassy, the monks continued their march through
the city.

In Mandalay on Saturday, an estimated 10,000 monks threaded their way
through the city in the largest anti-junta protest so far.

Mandalay, about 600 km north of Rangoon, is home to the largest number of
monks in the country and has an estimated 200 monasteries.

Unlike in Rangoon, Mandalay citizens didn’t turn out in large numbers to
support the monks, a resident said. He said monks told the people not to
join the protest which ended peacefully around 11 p.m.

Five monks held three Buddhist religious flags and two alms bowls turned
upside down (a symbol of an alms boycott), a witness in Mandalay said by
telephone.

Saturday was the fifth day since the monks started their demonstrations on
September 18, one day after a deadline for the military government to
apologize for the authorities’ brutal crackdown on protesting monks in
Pakokku in central Burma on September 5.

Outside of Rangoon and Mandalay, about 200 monks staged a peaceful
demonstration in Sagaing in upper Burma on Saturday morning.

In Sittwe in Arakan State, officials and monks of the Sangha Maha Nayaka
Committee, a government-organized monks’ organization, summoned about 50
abbots to a meeting without government authorities. One abbot who attended
the meeting said monks of the Sangha Maha Nayaka Committee requested the
abbots not to continue protest demonstrations.

One abbot told The Irrawaddy by telephone that after the abbots rejected
the request, the monks from the Sangha Maha Nayaka organization urged the
abbots to hold peaceful protest demonstrations. The abbot said the
gathered monks formed a committee to organize protests in the coming days.

On Thursday, The Federation of All Burma Young Monks Unions called on
students and civilians to join hands with monks in public demonstrations
against the military regime which has ruled the country for almost 20
years.

The group said in a statement, “It is time for the Burmese people to work
with monks and courageously demonstrate their genuine aspirations.”

In the demonstrations, students should lift their own "fighting peacock
flag," a symbol of struggle against the military regime, the statement
said.

Meanwhile, the military government has increased security forces
throughout the country.

Shah Paung contributed to this story.

____________________________________

September 22, Agence France Presse
Protest monks call for prayer vigils in Myanmar

A Buddhist group claiming to be aiding monks drive an escalating protest
movement in Myanmar called Saturday for nationwide prayer vigils in a bid
to turn up the heat on the military regime.

The monks' peaceful protests, which have drawn thousands of people onto
the streets clapping and smiling in Yangon and other cities, have turned
into the most prolonged show of defiance in nearly 20 years against the
junta.

Deeply respected in the devoutly Buddhist country, the monks have breathed
new life into the anti-junta movement after initial street protests broke
out one month ago following a massive hike in fuel prices.

"We ask every citizen to join our vigils," said a purported spokesman from
The Alliance of All Burmese Buddhist Monks, an underground Buddhist group.

He was speaking by telephone from Myanmar and declined to give his name.

The vigils will start from Sunday for three days, and the group urged the
public to stand outside their houses for 15-minute prayers from eight
o'clock each night, the spokesman said.

"We want peace in Burma," he said, using Myanmar's former name.

Few details are known about the underground group, but analysts say it is
mainly made up of young monks.

The mounting turmoil has raised concern in the international community,
and British Foreign Secretary David Miliband has pledged to raise the
issue at the UN General Assembly in New York next week.

Burma, which was under British conial rule until independence in 1948, has
been run by the military since 1962.

The US and British ambassadors to the United Nations have also urged the
junta to allow a visit by UN special envoy Ibrahim Gambari immediately.

On Friday, at least 3,000 people, led by Buddhist monks, marched along
flooded streets in Yangon. Defying driving rain, the monks chanted
Buddhist prayers calling for peace and security in the impoverished
nation.

The junta normally does not tolerate even the slightest show of public
dissent, and authorities have arrested over 150 people, including
prominent pro-democracy activists, over the past month.

The arrested activists include Min Ko Naing, who is considered Myanmar's
most prominent opposition leader after detained democracy icon and Nobel
peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi.

Aung San Suu Kyi, 62, has spent most of the past 17 years under house
arrest in Yangon.

Police so far have made no effort to stop the monks in Yangon over the
past week, as the junta is worried that a violent crackdown on monks could
trigger public outrage, analysts have said.

But the junta said in a rare admission Wednesday that it used tear gas and
fired warning shots in the air to disperse 1,000 monks Tuesday in the oil
town of Sittwe, 560 kilometers (350 miles) west of Yangon.

Monks have also demanded a government apology after soldiers beat
protesting monks with bamboo sticks in early September in Pakokku, near
central Mandalay, prompting young monks to briefly kidnap officials at a
monastery.

Some monks have refused to accept donations from members of the military,
a gesture seen as a severe rebuke tantamount to excommunication for
Buddhists, who believe that giving alms daily is an important religious
duty.

Monks are important cultural standard-bearers in Myanmar and were credited
with helping rally popular support for a 1988 pro-democracy uprising which
was crushed by the junta with the deaths of hundreds if not thousands of
people.

____________________________________

September 22, Associated Press
Monks put Myanmar junta in tight spot- Michael Casey

Armed only with upturned begging bowls, chanting Buddhist monks in Myanmar
have caught the country's military rulers off guard with their peaceful
protests.

They have emboldened the public to take to the streets by the thousands to
support the most dramatic anti-government protests the isolated Southeast
Asian nation has seen in a decade.

Braving monsoon rains, monks in traditional maroon robes demonstrated for
a fourth straight day Friday in the country's largest city, Yangon.
Followed by clapping onlookers, about 1,500 monks marched after praying at
the Shwedagon Pagoda, the nation's holiest shrine and a gathering place
for anti-government demonstrations including the failed 1988 democratic
uprising.

The monks, who are widely respected in the mostly Buddhist society, bring
moral authority to the movement with their nonviolent practices and sheer
numbers: There are 500,000 in monasteries across the country.

Their assumption of a leadership role in protests poses perhaps the
gravest threat to the junta since the 1988 uprising when the military
fired on peaceful crowds, killing thousands and terrorizing the country.

It has put the regime in a quandary over whether to crack down or take a
chance and allow the protests to run their course.

Josef Silverstein, a Myanmar expert and retired Rutgers University
professor, said the junta may be hesitating to act until it assesses how
many monks support the protests and who is actually leading them. Yet
waiting much longer could be risky.

"The monks are showing that without arms and nothing more than prayers and
marching that they are capable of having greater freedom than people have
had," he said. "This could encourage people to be more resistant. The
longer this stalemate goes on, the weaker the military looks to the
country and outside."

Images of the monks have increased support for the opposition's cause
worldwide. Washington, the United Nations and Hollywood stars have called
on the junta to enact democratic reforms and release the leader of the
pro-democracy opposition, Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi,
along with other political prisoners.

The current demonstrations are the most militant since December 1996, when
students gathered in Yangon to demand improvements in education and the
right to organize in a union.

The military, which has controlled Myanmar since 1962, has withstood waves
of domestic and international protests since 1988 and shows no signs of
yielding now. Even if the people are angry and emboldened, and the junta
is treated as a pariah by the West, there are no signs of disunity in the
army. And the support of neighboring nations, most notably China, as well
as oil and gas revenues, keep the military in a commanding position.

Aung Zaw, a Burmese editor of The Irrawaddy, a Thailand-based magazine
that covers Myanmar, said the military knows that brutalizing the monks
could prompt the wider public — which has largely remained on the
sidelines_ to join the protests.

"Authorities are at odds over how to deal with the monks at the point. As
you know, monks are respected and influential people," Aung Zaw said. "If
you are going to physically attack them, it could really provoke public
anger and invite more troubles."

Aung Zaw said in the history of Burma, as Myanmar is also known, the
military leadership has always resolved such challenges by force.

"Sooner or later, there will be a crackdown," Aung Zaw said. "They will
never compromise or open dialogue."

Myanmar ranks among the 20 poorest countries in the world, according to
the United Nations, with most people living on less than $200 a year. The
United Nations and others have blamed inept military leaders for bungling
Myanmar's economy, spending excessive amounts of money on a new capital
and on maintaining one of the world's largest armies.

The latest protests were triggered when authorities raised fuel prices as
much as 500 percent in August. Strapped for cash, the regime was forced to
slash the subsidies it had used to keep fuel cheap.

The cost of public transport skyrocketed and families suddenly found
themselves having to walk to work and sell household goods to survive.

The government, which has a monopoly on fuel sales, raised prices of fuel
from about $1.40 to $2.80 a gallon, and boosted the price of natural gas
by about 500 percent.

Government opponents began demonstrating over the price hikes Aug. 19, but
the protests were quickly contained by the junta with waves of arrests and
beatings. With activists in jail or hiding, the leadership role fell to
the monks.

The monks launched their protests Tuesday after the junta failed to
apologize for allegedly roughing up Buddhist clergy during a demonstration
in the northern town of Pakokku on Sept. 5.

Monks are demanding the government reduce fuel prices, release all
political prisoners and begin negotiations with Suu Kyi and other
democratic leaders.

What makes this week's protests different than the student-led uprising of
1988 are the monks' non-confrontational tactics — their orderly marches
and religious chanting has yet to provoke the military.

Monks leading the procession have carried upside-down alms bowl — a symbol
of protest. Some monks are refusing alms from the military and their
families — a religious boycott deeply embarrassing to the junta. In the
Myanmar language, the term for "boycott" comes from the words for holding
an alms bowl upside down.

Penny Edwards, a professor of Southeast Asian history at the University of
California at Berkeley, said the monks' protests posed a great challenge
to the government's moral legitimacy and claims of support for Buddhism.

Since similar protests in 1990, Edwards said the junta has invested
massive amounts of money and publicity in their campaign to materially
support Buddhism, partly through temple renovations.

"This is the first sustained challenge by the monkhood to this
Buddhist-centered campaign of the junta, which has at least superficially
been able to claim that it has some legitimacy as a primary material
sponsor of Buddhism," said Edwards.

The junta has tried to blame the trouble on Suu Kyi's political party and
Western powers.

"You can see the government handles the situation peacefully," the
Information Ministry's Ye Htut told The Associated Press on Thursday.
"Anti-government groups want to see the state of emergency because their
objective is to exploit and provoke sangha (monks), students, workers and
innocent people into making another 1988-style riot," Ye Htut said.

Plainclothes police and pro-junta thugs, who in the early days of the
demonstrations rounded up and beat activists, have mostly left the monks
alone.

But if the protests gain traction, Silverstein and other analysts say it's
possible that the military may make concessions, perhaps including
drafting a more democratic constitution.

Associated Press writer Michael Casey has covered Southeast Asia for five
years. Associated Press writer Lily Hindy contributed to this report from
New York.

____________________________________

September 22, Democratic Voice of Burma via BBC Monitoring
Burma: Than Shwe reportedly orders use of violence to break up monks protests

Excerpt from report by Norway-based Burmese Democratic Voice of Burma
website on 20 September

[Report by Moe Aye and Maung Tu: "The Military Regime Prepares Similar
Crackdown Used in Tabayin"]

Sources close to the War Office in Nay Pyi Taw said that today Senior
General Than Shwe once again gave instructions to use violence in
dispersing the monks who have been peacefully marching while reciting
prayers. A similar crackdown was implemented in the Tabayin incident [in
2003].

It has also been learned that yesterday an instruction was given to about
200 troops from some battalions under Division No 77, which is responsible
for security in Rangoon, to pretend to be monks

The SPDC [State Peace and Development Council] chairman [Than Shwe]
reportedly instructed them to engage in a violent confrontation with the
monks after creating a situation in which an conflict would appear to have
occurred among the monks themselves. The sources also said the details
were given to Colonel Thein Hen's security units, which were closely
involved with the Tabayin incident, to beat up genuine monks during the
confrontation. The sources added that the Divisions No 77 and 44 would
back up the security units.

The senior general [Than Shwe] has also ordered cabinet minister Major Gen
Htay Oo and the Rangoon Command commander to start implementing four cuts
[to cut off access to food, finance, information, and civilians] against
the monasteries where the protesting monks reside.

The sources said time will tell as to what extent the lower-levels
[security forces] will listen to the senior general's order. [passage
omitted on an telephone interview with a former military officer saying
that a crackdown similar to the one that took place at Tabayin is not
likely to happen, as the majority of the soldiers are Buddhists]

Source: Democratic Voice of Burma website, Oslo, in Burmese 0000 gmt 20
Sep 07

____________________________________

September 22, Agence France Presse
Silenced Suu Kyi still the voice of Myanmar opposition

Aung San Suu Kyi's soft voice and demeanour belie a steely resolve in the
long and painful struggle to bring democracy to Myanmar after decades of
military dictatorship.

She has spent most of the past 18 years under house arrest in a rambling,
lakeside home after leading her National League for Democracy to a
landslide victory in elections in 1990.

On Saturday however, crying in the rain, she stepped out to greet Buddhist
monks who stopped and prayed outside, after police had unexpectedly lifted
the roadblock that normally bars access.

Monks have emerged in the past week at the forefront of an escalating wave
of protests against the junta that broke out a month ago following a
massive hike in fuel prices.

Aung San Suu Kyi, now 62, is the daughter of General Aung San, a
liberation hero who led the country then known as Burma to freedom from
British colonial rule, but she only took up her political cause in 1988.

A slender woman who often wears flowers in her hair and prefers
traditional longyis to Western clothes, she charmed the nation with
eloquent speeches that called for peaceful change.

Her dedication to non-violence won her the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize, putting
her beside Nelson Mandela among the world's leading voices against
tyranny.

She was first arrested in July 1989, and has spent most of the years since
then under house arrest or in jail.

Aung San Suu Kyi had spent much of her life abroad. She studied at Oxford,
married a Briton, had two sons and seemed settled into a life in Britain.

But when she returned to Yangon in 1988 to tend to her ailing mother, she
found the city gripped by protests against the military.

Later that year she saw the aspirations for democracy evaporate as
soldiers fired on crowds of demonstrators, leaving thousands dead.

Within days she took on a leading role in the movement, petitioning the
government to prepare for elections and delivering speeches to hundreds of
thousands of people at the city's glittering Shwedagon Pagoda.

In September 1988 she helped found the National League for Democracy
(NLD), an alliance of 105 opposition parties, and campaign across Myanmar.

Aung San Suu Kyi mesmerised huge crowds with her intelligence, beauty and
rhetoric and because of her family's legacy in the liberation movement --
her father had been assassinated just months before independence.

Alarmed by her fearlessness and the support she commanded, the generals in
1989 ordered her house arrest.

Despite that, she led the NLD to a landslide in 1990, winning 82 percent
of parliamentary seats in a result the junta refused to accept.

During a brief moment of freedom, she told AFP in a 1999 interview that
the military struggled to accept the very concept of dialogue.

"They don't understand the meaning of dialogue, they think it is some kind
of competition where one side loses and the other wins, and perhaps they
are not so confident they will be able to win," she said.

Aung San Suu Kyi has paid a high price for her fame.

As her husband Michael Aris was in the final stages of a long battle with
cancer, the junta refused him a visa to see his wife. He died in March
1999, not having seen her for four years.

She had refused to travel to see him, knowing she would have been barred
from returning.

Critics see her resolve -- demanding international sanctions and a tourism
boycott, and insisting on having the 1990 vote recognized even 17 years
later -- as intransigence that has contributed to stalemate.

But when her sons Alexander and Kim accepted the Nobel for her, they said
she saw her struggle as part of a greater spiritual battle against
tyranny.

"The quest for democracy in Burma is the struggle of a people to live
whole, meaningful lives as free and equal members of the world community,"
she wrote in "Freedom from Fear and Other Writings".

"It is part of the unceasing human endeavour to prove that the spirit of
Man can transcend the flaws of his nature."

____________________________________

September 21, Democratic Voice of Burma
Entertainment industry leaders voice support for protests

Several high-profile members of Burma’s entertainment industry expressed
their support for the recent wave of protests against the military
government today and called on other artists to follow suit.

Well-known comedian Zaganar said it was time actors and musicians spoke
out against government oppression and showed their support for boycotts of
the ruling military.

“We, the members of the entertainment industry, are feeding ourselves with
money spent on us by the people. Therefore their troubles are our
troubles. When they are poor, we are poor,” Zaganar said, referring to the
recent rise in commodity and fuel prices in Burma.

His calls were echoed by poet Aung Way who said that it was the
responsibility of celebrities and Burmese icons to throw their support
behind the activists and monks who have spearheaded the recent resurgence
of peaceful protests against military rule.

“Monks, after the 88 Generation Students and [National League for
Democracy] youth members have shoed their bravery in the protests in the
recent months . . . Now that they have taken to the streets, it would not
be the right thing for us to sit around and watch them do all the work,”
Aung Way said.

“It’s our responsibility to help with the protests and help the people
achieve their goals,” he said.

____________________________________

September 21, Democratic Voice of Burma
Monk bashed during September 18 Sittwe protest

A monk who took part in the September 18 protest in Sittwe, which was
broken up by teams of soldiers with tear gas, said today that he was
brutally bashed during the incident.

U Warathami told DVB today that after almost 20 canisters of tear gas were
lobbed into the crowds of protestors by Burmese troops, several soldiers
tied his hands behind his back before repeatedly beating him.

“They restrained me and hit me in the face and also on my head which
started to bleed. They also kicked me with their boots. I had cuts on my
head and my ears and several of my teeth were knocked out of place,” U
Warathami said.

He said he was later taken to the office of the chief of Sittwe police
with two other monks where he was tied up with a belt and beaten
repeatedly until he became unconscious.

“When I woke up, I had already been dropped back off at the Dhammathukha
monastery where I live,” he said.

The recent boycott of the Burmese military staged by the country’s monks
was launched in reaction to the bashing of several other monks in Pakokku
on September 5. Since then, widespread protests have swept Burma with more
than 2000 monks taking to the streets in Pakokku, 1000 in Rangoon and a
further 1000 demonstrating against state-sanctioned violence in Amarapura
near Mandalay today.

____________________________________

September 22, Mizzima News
Rangoon inundated by torrential rain

Incessant rain for three days inundated large areas in Rangoon. There is
three feet of water on the roads and cars cannot ply. Many vehicles are
stranded on the roads.

The roads that are flooded include, Strand Road, Phonegyi Road, Dhamazedi
Road (near Windermere market), U Wisara Road (opposite Blazon), Sule
Padoda Road (South), Mahabandula Street (opposite the Secretariat), Tamwe
Plaza Theibyu Street (Kandawlay) Moreover, Wayzayanda Street, South Okkala
Post Office, North Okkala (Thunanda), and Thamaing intersection.

The Meteorology and Hydrology Department had given out storm warnings. The
storm hit Burma today. The storm is heading towards Bangladesh and its
impact resulted in heavy rain in Burma along its southern coast.

It has been drizzling continuously for three days in these areas and
because of torrential rain and storm, the Irrawaddy, Sittang, Salween and
Chindwin rivers are flowing above the danger level since noon of September
21, the Meteorology Department said.

____________________________________
REGIONAL

September 22, Mizzima News
Burmese and Indian activists call for greater Indian support

Burmese activists along with Indian supporters today urged the Indian
government to break its silence and extend its support to the ongoing
protests in Burma as a sign of its commitment towards democracy.

At least nine Burmese democracy activists and more than 20 Indian
supporters on Saturday held a protest rally in New Delhi demanding that
India lend its support to the Burmese democracy movement, as the time is
ripe with continued protests and unrest in Rangoon and parts of the
country .

"If Indian government does not stand by the Burmese people, who are facing
injustice and oppression from the military rulers, then they [Indian
government officials] should be resign from office," Sh.T.D.Singh, an
Indian social worker said.

India, as the largest democracy in the world, has inspired people around
the globe and Indians have a tradition of standing up against injustice
and human rights violations, he added.

Just as India helped Nepal, during a crisis, Indians are ready to help the
Burmese to restore democracy in their country as the Burmese people look
up to them, he said.

Singh added that they, as social workers, would meet Indian leaders to
convey the Burmese democracy movement's hopes on India and the need for
greater support for the restoration of democracy in Burma.

Meanwhile, in Burma, monks continued to take to march on the streets in
protest for the fifth day in Rangoon. Similar protests have spread to
other parts of the country. Monks on September 18 declared
'Pattanikuzana', an excommunicative boycott against the ruling junta, for
failing to apologize regarding their high-handedness while cracking down
on monks in Pakhokku in northern Burma during a peaceful rally by them
earlier this month.

____________________________________
INTERNATIONAL

September 22, Britishembassy.gov.uk
David Miliband comments on the situation in Burma

The Foreign Secretary today called for a robust international response to
the situation in Burma.

'Yesterday's briefing on Burma in the Security Council was an important
step. The UK government has continually pressed the Burmese regime to stop
their oppression and intimidation and called for a robust international
response, including at the UN.

The timely discussion in the Council demonstrates the international
community's concern at a time when the situation in the country is tense.
The Burmese authorities recently resorted to using tear gas in their
attempts to suppress the peaceful demonstrations of the brave monks, whose
protests reflect the will of the majority of their fellow countrymen in
wanting change in Burma.

The Security Council was united in its calls for the Burmese government to
engage constructively with the UN Secretary General's envoy, Professor
Gambari, and encouraged him to visit as soon as possible. We shall
continue to work with our colleagues at the UN and in other multilateral
bodies to keep up the pressure for positive change.

I intend to raise the situation in Burma with colleagues in New York next
week. In the meantime the UK will continue to take the lead in providing
humanitarian assistance to relieve the suffering of the Burmese people.'

http://www.britishembassy.gov.uk/servlet/Front?pagename=OpenMarket/Xcelerate/ShowPage&c=Page&cid=1036414846587&a=KArticle&aid=1188492535978

____________________________________
OPINION / OTHER

September 22, Washington Post
Burma Stirs: Will the rest of the world stand by? [Editorial]

For years, jaded diplomats and academics have rebuffed Burma's democracy
activists with one question: Why don't the people of Burma rise up? For
the past month, they have been doing exactly that, against unimaginable
odds and with unimaginable courage. So now a different question arises: Is
the world -- its leaders, diplomats, academics and others -- going to
stand on the sidelines or offer some help?

Yesterday, more than 1,000 Buddhist monks marched peacefully along the
rain-soaked streets of Burma's largest city, with thousands of spectators
encouraging their protest. At the head of the procession a monk carried an
alms bowl turned upside down, symbolically refusing to accept any more
support from the military regime, one of the world's most repressive. In
an overwhelmingly Buddhist Southeast Asian nation of 50 million people,
this was a withering rebuke. The echoes of the last great uprising, in
1988, must be alarming the country's corrupt ruling generals -- the roots
in economic discontent and the slow stirrings from students to monks to
the general population and from the capital to smaller cities across the
nation.

The regime -- so frightened of its own people that it had already
transplanted its capital in the dead of night, to a desolate inland spot,
on the advice of an astrologer -- has responded in some ways more
desperately than it did in 1988. Though the monks have for the most part
not been blocked, virtually every student leader is in prison, many
tortured. Cousins, siblings and even children of demonstrators have been
swept up, too. Anyone with a camera is suspect, as the regime seeks to
block news of the protests from traveling. Yet brave Burmese with
cellphones continue to relay photographs, and brave unarmed civilians
continue to interpose themselves between protesters and regime vigilantes.

The global response thus far has been lackadaisical. The U.N. Security
Council held a briefing Thursday, but the U.S. representative emerged with
no message of particular urgency. U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's
special envoy has yet to announce a date to visit Burma. Some talk about
the need for more studies of the humanitarian situation inside Burma -- as
if the humanitarian disaster, and even more its cause in political
misrule, were not already well known.

What needs to be done is clear. The regime must release all political
prisoners, starting with Nobel peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, so that a
negotiation toward democracy can begin. President Bush, who has spoken
eloquently of Burma's struggle for freedom, needs to engage in strenuous
diplomacy -- above all with China -- to make clear that this is a U.S.
priority. And China, which has more influence in Burma than any other
country has, needs to decide whether it wants to host the 2008 Olympics as
the enabler of one of the world's nastiest regimes or as a peacemaker.