The streets of Burma are quiet at the moment. Only a few days ago SLORC’s soldiers were firing into the crowd, and hundreds of people were killed. The army surrounded monastaries, preventing monks joining the protests. Four thousand monks have been arrested and 15 monastaries in Rangoon “cleared”, their inhabitants trucked north after being held at a disused racetrack and technical college overnight. The UN special envoy Ibrahim Gambari met Aung San Suu Kyi – the detained opposition leader – for a second time after speaking to junta leader General Than Shwe. He has now left the country, but no one seriously expects the UN to be able to effect change within Burma.
The UN Human Rights council heard a call from the EU for the condemnation of the junta. Human Rights Commissioner Louise Arbour said that Myanmar’s leaders should not be allowed to escape international scrutiny.
“The shocking response … is only the most recent manifestation of the repression of fundamental rights and freedoms that has taken place for nearly 20 years in Myanmar,” she said.
George Orwell lived in the country in the 1920s, and it is said to be an influence on his work 1984. In 2007 it seems the very embodiment of his distopia. Alan Clements, a western Burmese monk, says doublespeak and spies are everywhere. The BBC’s reporter in Rangoon describes the mood yesterday:
When I walked down some of the little streets in the downtown area, a series of eyes followed my every movement, quickly averting their gaze the second I looked in their direction.
The people of Rangoon – and no doubt throughout the country – are frightened.
“I’m really scared,” said one woman when she was sure no-one else could hear.
“I don’t want to be the next one to get a knock on the door from the soldiers in the middle of the night,” another man said.