Sunday, September 30, 2007
From the heart of ordinary citizens
Recently, I have been on phone calls with friends from Burma. At one time, a group of my friends were stuck in a room in downtown area where the protests were on-going. As they talked to me, they told me emotionally that they could see people being shot down by soldiers, being dragged away, being hit upon by iron-batons. They revealed to me how helpless they felt about seeing all these actions and not being able to help them. They asked me repeatedly: Where are UN forces? Where are international forces?
For many ordinary people in Burma, their only glimpse of hope to stop the military regime's act of atrocities, is the intervention by the international community. They keep praying that UN or international forces will miraculously appear in Yangon where people are being killed and evidence of corpses are being removed by burning them.
As the days go by and more atrocities continue to occur, with their intensity becoming more extreme, my friends in Burma stop asking me the questions about UN forces. I begin to feel their sense of frustration. There they are, innocent group of citizens, who are up against the brutal regime who has far more power than them in terms of arms and capacity. In their (Burmese people) hearts, they know that this is probably their last chance for any form of change in Burma. Afterall, it has been almost 20 years since the last 1988 uprising! In fact, Burma was plunged into many decades of suppression, corruption, and poverty since General Nay Win took over power. For them, it is NOW or NEVER.
Burmese people like me, who are outside of Burma, somewhat feel that sanctions by western countries show a form of support for Burma's freedom and raise international awareness about happenings in Burma. However, for people in Burma, those sanctions do nothing to stop the killings there. I echo their sentiments too.
Why do you think that my fellow Burmese people risked their lives to send out the video footages, pictures to outside world and had phone interviews with foreign media? One simple reason is because they want to convey the information about their situation to international community through the media. We, bloggers, also try to do our part in transferring the information as quickly as possible to the world. Even after knowing and seeing all these happenings (raiding of monastries, torturing of monks, killing of innocent people) in Burma, will the international community still continue to sing the tune of non-intervention and sanctions-policy?
Hence, I sincerely implore to the international community to take some serious action before more damage is done (i.e. more lives are lost).
more........
