(en español al final)
Top News | Reuters.com
Despite gradually easing its iron grip on Myanmar’s main city on Thursday, the junta continued to round up scores of people and grill hundreds more arrested during and after a ruthless crackdown on pro-democracy marches.Although most are too terrified to talk, the monks and civilians slowly being freed from a makeshift interrogation centre in north Yangon are giving a glimpse of the mechanics of the generals’ dreaded internal security apparatus.
A relative of three women released said detainees were being divided into four categories: passers-by, those who watched, those who clapped and those who joined in.
“They’re looking for the people who led the demonstrations. The people clapping will only get a minimal punishment — maybe two to five years,” said Win Min, who fled to Thailand during a crackdown on a student-led uprising in 1988.
Leaders could be looking at up to 20 years behind bars, he said.
The reports of verbal and physical abuse suggest junta chief Than Shwe is paying scant regard to the calls for restraint delivered by U.N. special envoy Ibrahim Gambari, now flying back to New York to brief his boss, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.
“That is one of the top concerns of the international community,” said Ban, due to attend a meeting of the 15-member Security Council on Friday to discuss the crackdown in a country now under military rule for an unbroken 45 years.
More about the crackdown:
After crushing the democracy uprising with guns, Myanmar’s junta stepped up its campaign to intimidate citizens Wednesday, sending troops to drag people from their homes in the middle of the night and letting others know they were marked for retribution.
“We have photographs! We are going to make arrests!” soldiers yelled from loudspeakers on military vehicles that patrolled the streets in Yangon, Myanmar’s biggest city
People living near the Shwedagon Pagoda, Myanmar’s most revered shrine and a flash point of unrest during the protests, reported that security forces swept through several dozen homes about 3 a.m., taking away many men and even some women for questioning.
A U.N. Development Program employee, Myint Nwe Moe, and her husband, brother-in-law and driver were among those detained, the U.N. agency said.
Dozens of Buddhist monks jammed Yangon’s main train station after being ordered to vacate their monasteries — centers of the anti-government demonstrations — and told to go back to their hometowns and villages.
It was not clear who ordered them out. Older abbots in charge of monasteries are seen as tied to the ruling military junta, while younger monks are more sympathetic to the democracy movement.
And UN, as ever, has done nothing, but lamenting about the bad results of the visit:
The UN special envoy’s visit to Myanmar cannot be called a success, the UN secretary-general has said.However, Ban Ki-moon said on Wednesday that Ibrahim Gambari delivered “the strongest possible message” to the country’s military rulers over its bloody crackdown on anti-government protests.
“You cannot call it a success,” he said, while stopping short of calling Gambari’s visit a failure.
Ban said he was “relatively relieved that he [Gambari] was first of all able to meet with leaders of the Myanmar government as well as Madame Aung San Suu Kyi”.
You see this photo, tx to Enzo:
and you get the picture about the strong message the UN delivered to the Military Junta…. Yes, I see them totally frightened about the consequences of this visit. My goodness! Just shut down UN! This is no more than a hypocrisy that’s costing the world millions without any results when it’s needed!!! How on earth you can let yourself be photographed with such HR systematic violators???
The UN’s pressure is so great that they have imprisoned a woman who works in Burma for UN headquarters and all her family!!!
The United Nations on Wednesday sought the release of a woman UNDP employee and her family members, who were arrested by Burmese security forces in Rangoon on October 3.
“I am going to do whatever I can to, first of all, address this issue, the overall human rights situation in Myanmar. That is again one of the top concerns of the international community,” the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told reporters when asked about the arrest.
And what is that? To kneel in front of them asking for their release?? This is getting worse each hour that elapses….
From the same Enzo’s post: Bernard Henry-Lévy writes:
Sanctions do not work if a part of the world is applying them, and another one doesn’t, whether it’s because they profiting from the situation or whether they want to get the place someone left (i.e. Cuba when the great Soviet brother died); they function when the international community (for example, with South Africa) agrees and confronts the tyrants, showing unity in the resistance and the reject. Burma is on the first case.
I wrote -as many other bloggers- some days ago about the shutting of Internet in Burma. Well, NYT has just today written about it. Talking about good, accurate and “it’s happening, we’re informing you” journalism… 
From Irrawady.org:
The territory is held for now by the military forces who won the first engagement by killing their own people and the monks who called for freedom from four decades of oppression. The temporary victors, the “Tatmadaw” (or armed forces) continue to arrest, beat, torture and kill innocent people.
“They regard monks and ordinary people as their enemies, [hmm, yeah, that’s a people’s Government, isn’t it?]” said a Rangoon woman. “They have searched monasteries and houses and arrested those whom they suspect. What are they going to achieve by killing innocent people?” [What about making them feel terrified, crushing not only the bodies but the minds, making them feel the Hell is really on earth, so it’s better for them not to move any more??].
The woman was ordered to leave the Kyaikkasan Pagoda on September 27 as she prayed for the demonstrators and monks facing violent reaction by troops and security forces. The military are hunting one of her young brothers who was involved in the demonstrations.
CNN news coverage shows smiling soldiers beating and kicking the peaceful demonstrators and forcing them into trucks. [Read the entire post by Gateway Pundit… it’s shameful and disgusting to see the Military beating people and laughing at them.. And then see the UN Envoy pose with the Burmese Junta for a photo. This is maddening!!! Here is the video also].
According to the 88 Generation Students group and the National League for Democracy, at least 130 deaths occurred nationwide and about 3,000 monks and their supporters have been arrested since the peaceful demonstrations started in August 19.
Dissident groups, however, put the figures higher, saying at least 200 people have died and about 6,000 people have been arrested.
Monks in monasteries across the country are continuing to refuse alms from members of the military regime and their families, and the authorities have banned the public from providing them with food. Monks in some monasteries in Mandalay are drying their remaining rice in the sun.
So, the ones who are not arrested are going to die out of hunger. Hmm, what a perspective!!! 
CAUTION: VERY GRAPHIC IMAGES. THIS IS HOW THE JUNTA, AGAINST WHICH SOME PEOPLE SAY IT’S TOO EARLY EVEN TO IMPOSE SANCTIONS, ACTS.
Some Burmese Baptist Christians have begun a fast to “pray for a change in the mind of the Burmese leaders”. There are people who are very optimistic. But I bet that we also have to do that. Real faith moves mountains. The problem is: are human brains hardest than mountains to be moved???
And then we come to the day’s revelation. China’s position on the UN Envoy mission is that it was “positive”. What????????????
“It is a beneficial step that Mr Gambari deeply exchanged ideas‘ with Myanmar’s [Burma’s] leaders on the situation,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao said in a statement posted Thursday on the ministry’s Web site. “We give a positive evaluation of the efforts made jointly by Myanmar’s leaders and Mr Gambari.”
Liu said Beijing, a veto-wielding member of the UN Security Council and a close ally of Burma, has “made its own efforts to support the UN secretary-general and his Myanmar special envoy’s negotiations” but did not elaborate.
“We are grateful for the achievements made by Mr Gambari in this trip,” Liu said.
China, Burma’s biggest trading partner, has been in a bind since the conflict began unfolding. The communist government has developed close diplomatic ties with junta leaders and is hungry for the country’s bountiful oil and gas resources.
But with the Beijing Olympics only months away, China is eager to fend off criticism that it shelters unpopular or abusive regimes around the world.
BOYCOTT BEIJING OLYMPICS NOW! DON’T WAIT FOR TOMORROW. THIS PEOPLE DO NOT MERIT THE BENEFITS WHICH ARE DERIVED FROM THE CELEBRATION OF THE WORLD’S OLYMPIC GAMES.
Because hey, you know, “no-more-blood-for-oil” various moonbats around this disgraced world, the priority of China is resources not people. Oops, how can that be?? China is a communist country, where peace, HR and freedom are widely respected. Uagggggggggggggghhhhhhhhhh!!!
And then we say that we are different from animals because we are rational.. that is we have reason. Well, we have a tool and we don’t use is worse than not having it all. At least in the last case, we have a good reason not to use it… 
Related news: this link is from Sept 17th, 2007:
Myanmar, Asia’s largest source of methamphetamine pills, was “very lackluster” in interdiction and fighting corruption, said McCampbell, deputy assistant secretary for counternarcotics. “The country’s declining poppy cultivation has been matched by a sharp increase in methamphetamine production,” she told a news conference.
Conclusion: Narco-state, with support from China, violating once and again HR and against which UN can’t do nothing.
Last hour: Gral Thang Swe wants to have a meeting with Aung San Suu Kyi:
Than Shwe had fixed some conditions to (that meeting): the opposed politician should renounce to her “obstructive practices” and abandon her support to sanctions imposed by the international community against Burma. […] Aung San supports the sanctions even if the experts say that they are menacing the population more than the Military Junta.
Now, we see what is an improvement for China… 
And I understand the expression of Mrs Aung: 
Le Monde.fr adds that the Police has the order to shot anyone handling a camera, whether it’s of video or of photos.
And now another episode of “Politics is politics, economy is economy”:
U.S. and European government sanctions against the military government, coupled with boycotts and other direct pressure on corporations by western supporters of the Burmese democracy movement, have resulted in the withdrawal from Burma of most U.S. and many European companies. However, several Western companies remain due to loopholes in the sanctions. Asian corporations have generally remained willing to continue investing in Burma and to initiate new investments, particularly in natural resource extraction. Burma has close relations with neighboring India and China with several Indian and Chinese companies operating in the country. The French oil company Total S.A. is able to operate the Yadana natural gas pipeline from Burma to Thailand despite the European Union’s sanctions on Burma. Total is currently the subject of a lawsuit in French and Belgian courts for the condoning and use of Burman civilian slavery to construct the named pipeline. Experts say that the human rights abuses along the gas pipeline are the direct responsibility of Total S.A. and its American partner Chevron with aid and implementation by the Tatmadaw. Prior to its acquisition by Chevron, Unocal settled a similar human rights lawsuit for a reported multi-million dollar amount.[59] There remains active debate as to the extent to which the American-led sanctions have had adverse effects on the civilian population or on the military rulers.[60][61]
Hey, Sarko, Bush has already imposed sanctions on Burmese leaders and has spoken very fiercely against the Junta, in the early stages of the movement. But you have said nothing about it. Could it be related to the Total business?
Related posts: Aung San Suu Kyi, the World’s Only Detained Nobel Prize laureate.
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La Junta Militar está empezando a soltar a algunos de los detenidos durante los días pasados, que se encuentran demasiado asustados para hablar. A pesar de ello, algunos lo han hecho para afirmar que están intentando dar con los líderes de la revuelta.
Según estos testigos, han dividido a los detenidos en cuatro grupos: los que pasaban por allí, los que miraron, los que aplaudieron y los que se sumaron a las protestas. Los que aplaudieron pueden esperar una condena de unos 2-5 años; los líderes de la revuelta, 20 años de cárcel.
Así las cosas, los soldados intentan asustar aún más a los ciudadanos y se pasean en sus camiones de día por Rangún diciendo por altavoces “Tenemos fotografías. Vamos a arrestar gente”. Pero sobre todo están usando la noche para irrumpir en las casas y arrestar a la gente.
A muchos monjes los están echando de los monasterios para que vuelvan a sus lugares de origen, y de este modo los dividen y evitan otra protesta o inclusive la pervivencia del movimiento a medio plazo.
en algunos de estos centros religiosos, como el de Magwe, en la población de Pakokku, los mismos monjes hacen turnos nocturnos de vigilancia por temor a que los militares entren por sorpresa.
En otros, como en Moegok, en la división de Mandalay, son los propios habitantes los que se presentan voluntarios para hacer las guardias por las noches. Un residente ha dicho a la emisora de radio la Voz Democrática de Birmania que “jóvenes en muchos barrios vigilan los monasterios para impedir que las autoridades detengan a los monjes. Hay como unos cincuenta jóvenes en cada monasterio por la noche“.
Pero la mayoría de las detenciones se producen por la noche, cuando van por las casas y por los monasterios, buscando a los líderes de la revuelta. Luego por el día se dedican a pegarles y a humillarles por la calle. Como prueba, hay un vídeo de la CNN que muestra cómo les están pegando y muriéndose de risa en su cara. En plan, “qué pasa pringado, ¿querías libertad? pues hale tengo libertad de pegarte lo que me sale de …. porque nos habeis desafiado y estais más solos que la una, jajajajaja“. Huy, no, pero es muy pronto para imponer sanciones, ¿verdad?
Por cierto, que para que veais que los medios de comunicación no siguen eso de “está pasando, nosotros te lo contamos“, el New York Times saca hoy como noticia súper actualzada, que han cortado internet, cuando esa noticia lleva siendo contada por los blogs desde el 28 de septiembre. Periodismo de altura, sí señor. 
La ONU mientras, tocándose todo lo tocable y diciendo cuánnnnnnnnnnto lamenta lo mal que fueron las conversaciones. Ban Ki-Moon, el surcoreano rey del appeasement contra el dictador del tupé repeinado y que actualmente es el Secretario General del tinglado, ha dicho que está contento sin embargo, por el fuerte mensaje que Ghambari, el negociador de la ONU dio a la Junta Militar. Hmm, sí por la foto:
se ve la fortaleza, el gran ímpetu que ha puesto la ONU… en retratarse con los carniceros birmanos.
Esta foto sólo tiene un nombre: hipocresía y de la de verdad. ¿Cómo se puede fotografiar alguien con estos tipos? (Por cierto, de la misma manera que Moratinos con Raúl Castro Uaghhhhh!!!).
La ONU tiene que echar el cierre si lo único que consigue al “dar une fuerte mensaje” es una foto con los tiranos asesinos Y que la encarcelen a una de sus trabajadoras en Rangún ¡¡¡con toda su familia!!! Eso sí, Ban Ki-Moon ha dicho que va a hacer todo lo posible por liberarla. Hija, espera sentada…
“Consideran a los monjes y a la gente ordinaria como sus enemigos” [lo que corresponde a un Gobierno del pueblo, ejem ], dice una mujer. “Están entrando en los conventos y en las casas y arrestando a todo el mundo. ¿Qué van a conseguir arrestando a gente inocente?”
Se lo digo yo: quieren hacerles ver que su vida, incluso su mente y su alma están en su posesión. Que jamás van a poder desembarazarse de ellos y que si lo intentan, sólo van a vivir un infierno a su alrededor. De ese modo, no sólo consiguen dominarles ahora si no también hacia el futuro. Y otros 20 años sin democracia, ni libertad y viviendo bajo asesinos crueles y sin escrúpulos.
Pero con padrinos, que es lo que vale.
Ya se sabe: “quién tiene padrinos se bautiza“. Y a pesar de las horribles imágenes (horribles, horribles, horribles, así que quedais advertidos) que nos siguen llegando desde allí, China se encuentra muy satisfecha de las conversaciones, porque en ellas los líderes de Birmania y la ONU cambiaron impresiones. “Estamos agradecidos por lo que ha conseguido Ghambari en Birmania“. Hmm, ¿qué ha conseguido? ¿el final de la represión? No. ¿que suelten a los detenidos? No. ¿hacerse una foto con los carniceros? Sí. Ya veo…
Pero claro es que China está, como ha dicho un experto en la región, interesada en “en los recursos, no en las personas“. No, no, esos “expertos” son unos imperialistas, de extrema-derecha, losantianos, de César Vidal, de Bush, Aznar, y del trío de las Azores y del demonio del Averno, porque los que realmente tienen la culpa de que ahora haya una dictadura, fueron los colonizadores que se fueron de allí hace casi 50 años. Porque lo digo yo que sé mucho más que todo el resto del Universo. [Y no me lo invento que me lo dijeron el otro día, pero se dice el pecado, nunca el pecador…].
Le Monde.fr ha anunciado que el General Thang Swe ha puesto dos condiciones a Aung San Suu Kyi, el símbolo de la resistencia birmana, para reunirse con ella: que renuncie a sus “prácticas obstruccionistas” y que abandone el apoyo que da a las sanciones que la comunidad internacional impone contra Birmania. Si yo fuera ella, escupía en el comunicado. Pero ¿quién es el criminal asesino este para venir con imposiciones? No me extraña nada la cara que tenía la pobre después de reunirse con Ghambari, que fue quién se lo transmitió. Yo hubiera sido bastante menos educada. Le hubiera puesto de patitas en la calle de inmediato en cuanto hubiera oído este tipo de proposiciones… Prftttttt!!!
En todo caso, sorprende el silencio de Sarkozy sobre la cuestión. ¿O no? Porque la empresa francesa Total es la que gestiona el gasoducto Birmania-Tailandia de Yadana, a pesar de todas las sanciones de la UE contra quienes osen comerciar con la Junta. La otra empresa occidental con intereses en Birmania es Chevron, pero a Bush, al contrario que a Sarko, no le impresionó mucho el dato, y habló en contra de la Junta, imponiendo a 14 de sus más altos dignatarios sanciones diversas… Incluso los birmanos clamaban porque fuera a salvarles.
Por cierto, que según el último estudio de tráfico de drogas hecho por USA, Birmania, aunque ha dejado el primer puesto en producción de opio a Afganistán (lo que ya he comentado aquí), ha aumentado exponencialmente la producción de pastillas de metanfetamina.
La metanfetamina es conocida por su reputación de estimulante adictivo. Como la anfetamina, esta droga incrementa la actividad, reduce el apetito y produce una sensación general de bienestar. Excita receptores neuronales vinculados a las señales de recompensa y gratificación: produce euforia, alivia la fatiga y mejora el rendimiento en tareas simples.
os efectos de la metanfetamina pueden durar hasta 6 u 8 horas. Los adictos a esta sustancia, pueden permanecer despiertos por varios días. Esto genera un creciente agotamiento físico, psicológico y cognitivo. Sin embargo, la droga bloquea las señales somáticas (como fatiga, sueño, hambre) que advierten sobre el deterioro funcional progresivo. En estos casos, una vez que la droga abandona el organismo, estos sujetos pueden experimentar estados de gran agitación psicomotriz, a veces asociados con comportamientos violentos y delirios persecutorios, llegando a cuadros de disociación psíquica apenas diferenciables de los que caracterizan a una esquizofrenia de tipo paranoide. Estas manifestaciones psiquiátricas de toxicidad se producen por sobredosificación o en casos de abuso crónico de altas dosis (especialmente por vía parenteral), y se denominan psicosis anfetamínica en la práctica clínica.
O sea, quien se lo toma, no sólo está dañandose la salud -lo que es una decisión personal-, si no que además está financiando a estos carniceros. El pueblo birmano se lo agradecerá tiernamente.
Como me dijo un lector, es un narco-estado. Que no respeta ningún Derecho Humano, que oprime a su pueblo, pero con padrinos…
Entradas
