Parce que cette junte au pouvoir ne peut plus durer!!!!!
Vive le Myanmar libre!Une lueur d'espoir en comparaison avec les evenements de 1989???
FRom the Epochtimes Washington DC:
Buddhist monks march down a street in protest in Yangon, September 25, 2007, despite stern warnings from Myanmar's junta against the anti-government protests.
Instead of students as in 1988, the current uprising is being led by monks, whose saffron-colored robes, shaved heads, and pious demeanors have dominated the scenery of the Southeast Asian country whose official name is Myanmar.
Because of this, many are calling the movement the "Saffron Revolution."
"The monks, as clergy, play a central role in the life and culture of Burma," said Simon Billenness, co-chair of the U.S. Campaign for Burma. "They have a legitimacy that the military cannot impugn or diminish. That's why this poses such a serious threat to the military's monopoly of power."
The population of Burma is 89 percent Buddhist, lowering the initial prospect of violence since many of the soldiers themselves are Buddhist and would not want to harm the morally revered monks.
The abundance of communicative devices in the hands of Burmese activists also greatly increases the amount of international concern over the issue. In 1988, the Internet was just in its infancy, as were cellular telephones. Today videos, photos, articles, and phone calls constantly flow out of the volatile nation.
The fact that the United Nations General Assembly meeting in New York has coincided with the demonstrations has also greatly helped.
"They are talking about this every day at the U.N.," said Aung Din, policy director and co-founder of the U.S. Campaign for Burma.
The United States currently has comprehensive economic sanctions against Burma, and U.S. President George Bush announced further sanctions at a recent meeting with the U.N. General Assembly in New York.
"Americans are outraged by the situation in Burma, where a military junta has imposed a 19-year reign of fear. Basic freedoms of speech, assembly, and worship are severely restricted," said President Bush. "The ruling junta remains unyielding, yet the people's desire for freedom is unmistakable."
Aung Din, who spent over four years in Burmese prison from 1989 to 1993, also reported that Aung San Suu Kyi, a 1991 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate and leader of the National League for Democracy who has been under house arrest since 2003, was taken from her home and sent to Insein Prison on Monday at 9 p.m. local time after having briefly met with some of the monks during a march days earlier. Further persecution of the famed leader is also adding to global outcry.
"This is the time for the international community to step in," said Din. "Because we did not have international support [in 1988], the junta was able to kill thousands of people."
On Sept. 8, 1988, the military opened fire on the pro-democracy demonstrators, leaving an estimated 3,000 dead.
Billinness thinks that the upcoming Beijing Olympics could also play a role in preventing a massacre like that of 1988, saying that China is "the primary financier" for the Burmese military junta and that a bloodbath would result in China losing major face.
"This is as much of a problem for China as Darfur is," said Billenness. "There have been constant military offensives against Burma's ethnic minorities. In Kayin state alone, over 3,000 villages have been destroyed, twice the number of villages destroyed in Darfur."
Wade Huntley, the director of the Simons Centre for Disarmament and Non-proliferation Research at the University of British Columbia, is not as optimistic about the role China will come to play in this situation.
He said that although the Chinese regime is trying to improve its legitimacy around the world, "I can see them not wanting to support a mass democratization movement that they are afraid of happening within their own country."
He also likened China's role in Burma to that of its role in North Korea. "But because these countries are sometimes seen as pawns in a balance of power game, that adds a layer of strategic complexity to the role that China could play," adding that China's relations with India and the U.S. will factor in as well as its economic interests regarding Burma's large oil reserves.
Thus he said, "It's very hard to predict."
Impetus for Protest
The recent wave of protests began in late August after the junta dramatically increased the price of fuel in Burma, at least doubling and in some cases quadrupling fuel costs in a country that often struggles to put food on many family tables.
The fuel hike caused large protests, but it was not until military force was used to quell a protest in the region of Pakokku that the situation took on real relevance. There were no serious injuries, but the fact that soldiers were called in to disperse a demonstration that included a number of monks, offended the populace.
According to Billinness the monks then came out in greater numbers asking for an apology. Not receiving an apology, they made a bold move and began to refuse alms from military personnel.
"That is the equivalent of being ex-communicated in the Catholic Church," said Billinness.
"The monks who were involved in the 1988 movement were not arrested like the students, and today they are the most organized civil group in Burma. They also have extremely high stature in society," said Billinness.
Soon the processions of monks marching symbolically through the cities became flanked by thousands of ordinary protestors.
Now, the monks are no longer asking for an apology, they are demanding the release of all political prisoners and that the junta engage in talks with opposition leaders.
Appearing to heed calls from the international community to exercise restraint, the junta on Tuesday imposed a dusk-to-dawn curfew on the former capital city of Yangon and the city of Mandalay.
In addition, loudspeaker announcements said that both cities would be under local military control for 60 days, according to Reuters.
Economic Mismanagement
Although Burma is a large oil producer, they do not have much refining capability and actually must import refined oil. Therefore, the same increases in oil prices affecting the rest of the world hit Burma.
"They could no longer afford the fuel subsidies. That's why they doubled the price. That really was the last straw for the Burmese people," said Billinness.
Wade Huntley likened the situation to that of Iran, which must also import refined oil, causing recent increases in oil prices and subsequent protests around the country. "Both of these point to economic factors as opposed to political factors. It is people who are driven by the deprivation of their basic needs," he said.
Mass protests in the face of dangerous regimes rely on the ripening of many factors, which is why protests gain steam in some regions but not in others. A similar lack of political freedom exists in China, yet the people have not publicly mobilized. Huntley says that this is because of the economic pacification of the populace.
"What the Chinese are doing in China, is making sure that the economic side of the equation is satisfied," stated Huntley. However it is difficult to predict how people will react, citing North Korea where people are starving by the millions and lack any political freedom. Yet the people there have not risen up.
As protests continue, and the chants of "Democracy, Democracy" grow louder, it is clear that the movement is stronger than ever. The impending results of the inevitable confrontation, however, are less clear.
Hop la, 2 soirees en valent mieux qu une!
