Hope Wanes Among Myanmar Protestors

U.N. Envoy Arrives In Myanmar As Protestors Plead For International Intervention

(CBS/AP)  Watching soldiers firing their guns and beating die-hard protesters with clubs in the streets of Myanmar, a distraught man decried the bloodbath and pleaded for international intervention.

With the streets eerily quiet in Myanmar, which is also known as Burma, Saturday after the military's brutal crackdown on three days of demonstrations, many protesters were losing hope and falling back on such familiar pleas for help from the outside world.

"The world cannot fail the people of Burma again," said the National Coalition Government of the Union of Burma, an exile group based in Thailand. "Selfless sacrifices deserve more than words and lip-service. They want effective intervention before it is too late."

It's a call made every time the pro-democracy movement has dared stand up against Myanmar's 45 years of harsh military rule, only to be crushed.

Some of those challenging the regime in the most forceful demonstrations in nearly two decades still hope such help - even in the form of U.S. bombing - may arrive. About 300 die-hard protesters marched down a street in the Chinatown section of Myanmar's main city, Yangon, on Saturday, waving the peacock-emblazoned flags of the democracy movement. They dispersed when soldiers arrived.

Monks and civilians called diplomats to report that troops had shown up at three different monasteries late Saturday, but were prevented from entering by people in the neighborhood who massed outside them. The soldiers departed, but with threats of returning in larger numbers.

U.N. envoy Ibrahim Gambari also rushed to Myanmar on Saturday and was taken immediately to Naypyitaw, the remote, bunker-like capital where the country's military leaders are based.

A pro-democracy uprising in 1988 was brutally crushed by Burma's military regime, reports CBS News correspondent Bill Whitaker. Since the junta ignored the condemnation of the outside world then, why would they listen to Gambari now?

"The fact that there is a titular envoy of the U.N., and is inside Burma, got a visa, (makes me) more hopeful," said Maureen Aung Thwin of the Open Society Institute. "And also, things are deteriorating so fast, maybe they will grasp, you know, at whatever he has to offer."

The White House urged the junta to allow Gambari to have access to Aung San Suu Kyi, the Nobel Peace Prize laureate who is under house arrest, and ordinary Myanmar residents.

Many people in Myanmar said despite Gambari's visit, however, they're resigned to a repeat of the 1988 uprising when the international community stood by as thousands were gunned down.

"Gambari is coming, but I don't think it will make much of a difference," said one hotel worker, who like other residents asked not to be named, fearing retaliation. "We have to find a solution ourselves."

The demonstrations began last month by people angry over massive fuel price hikes, then mushroomed to crowds of tens of thousands after the monks joined in.

The junta, which has a long history of snuffing out dissent, started cracking down Wednesday, when the first of at least 10 deaths was reported, and then let loose on Thursday, shooting into a crowd of protesters and clubbing them with batons.

The crackdown has triggered an unprecedented verbal flaying of Myanmar's generals from almost every corner of the world - even some criticism from No. 1 ally China.

But little else that might stay the junta's heavy hand is seen in the foreseeable future.

[pepperwood2]

Apologies

In March 1998, President Clinton visited Kigali, where he apologized to the Rwandan people and the victims of the genocide. "The international community, together with nations in Africa, must bear its share of responsibility for this tragedy," Clinton said. "We did not act quickly enough after the killing began. We should not have allowed the refugee camps to become safe havens for the killers. We did not immediately call these crimes by their rightful name: genocide."

Those sentiments were echoed weeks later by U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan. In an apology to the parliament of Rwanda, Annan said, "We will not deny that, in their greatest hour of need, the world failed the people of Rwanda...."

"Ghosts of Rwanda" concludes by examining the aftermath of the genocide, the lessons learned--and not learned--by the international community, and by questioning whether the phrase "never again" has more meaning today than it did 10 years ago.

"When you are faced with the question [of] whether I think that we can avoid the Rwandas of tomorrow...my answer is I really don''t know," Annan now says. "I wish I can say yes, but I am not convinced that we will see the kind of political will and the action required to stop it."

[robertkjjj]

Indeed, the oppressed people of Myanmar can send a big "Thank You" bouquet of flowers to the liberal pacifists in the US and Europe. A big thank you in return for their pleas for freedom and help being ignored. The last time a US leader tried to stand up to help an oppressed people, he was rewarded with almost 5 straight years of ingratitude, harassment, irrationality, hypocrisy, appeasement, deception, belligerence, and simple pure hatred. Can you blame us if a US leader never dares step again to help anyone, no matter the cause or circumstances? So, poor souls in Myanmar, please know the conservatives in the USA support you in words and in our hearts, but we can''t move a finger to help you, so long as liberal, pacifistic, isolationist, lying Democrats have any power in this country. Go back to another 20 years of suffering and oppresion, and hope that this country has grown a pair of testicles by the next time you choose to strike out for your liberty. But, dont hold your breath.

[dharmavision]

CBS should look into this report from a Burmese Blogger reporting on a phone conversation that they had with an eyewitness that injurned protestors and civilians are being burned alive at a crematorium.

Here is the translated phone conversation (The actual phone recording in Burmese is at the blog: http://ko-htike.blogspot.com :

Today heart breaking message from inside burma

Telephone conversation with a members of public

Er%u2026 they shot%u2026 people got killed. Er%u2026but it seems like it wasn''t as bad as yesterday in terms of number of deaths, however we will know the accurate picture tomorrow. Er%u2026 la another disturbing news is that er%u2026 I would like to know if you would inform BBC and CNN about? (sob!!!) They burned the injured protesters/civilian people in the YaeWay Crematorium la la . Er%u2026 the staff from crematorium told this, crying, to the people who went to the funeral service. Please let this known to CNN and BBC. Thank you!!

http://ko-htike.blogspot.com/2007/09/where-is-gambari-where-is-he-going-how.html

[tnt1954]

ron paul reminds me of robert a. taft a republican
nominee in 1948 and 1952. or maybe even gary
bauer, or pat buchanan. very commendable but
hardly has a chance. these riots in burma? they
remind me of the riots in los angeles, ca. elsewhere in the world they probably called it a ''rebellion''
against the military junta in the united states,
were cheering on the rioters. the military in
burma is being called in to restore law and order.
it''s like the pro-life, pro-choice battles we
never hear about going on everyday in the u.s.a.
and in other places around the world.

[incog-nito]

Here''s another chance for President Bush to spread freedom and democracy, just like in Iraq.

Wait! But there''s no oil in Burma. Never mind.

[getloud1]

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