The media spotlight has turned elsewhere, but Amnesty International reminds us that human rights abuses continue in Burma. According to new research by AI, there have been 96 arrests since November 1st last year.
“Four months on from the violent crackdown on peaceful demonstrators, rather than stop its unlawful arrests the Myanmar government has actually accelerated them,” said Catherine Baber, director of Amnesty International Asia-Pacific programme. “The new arrests in December and January target people who have attempted to send evidence of the crackdown to the international community, clearly showing that the government’s chief priority is to silence its citizens who would hold them to account.”
Read the full report from Amnesty here (or here, in Swedish).
A couple of months ago, everyone seemed to care about Burma. I, like so many others, joined the Facebook group “Support the monk’s protest in Burma” (link, requires login) and on September 30th 2007, we were urged to wear a red shirt to show our support. Which I did (well, it was a scarf, since I don’t own a red shirt, but whatever), and many with me.
(I am really quite skeptical of this kind of activism, as shown on Facebook. It’s easy to put on a red shirt and to feel good about supporting a good cause, but does it really achieve anything? I don’t know. I think I will need to elaborate on the issue in another post.) Now people are leaving the Facebook group by the thousands. I really don’t know why I’m still in it either - I mean I don’t really do anything, but anyways. I was glad to see, however, when I checked in today, that there still seems to be events and activism taking place in support of Burma around the world.
Resources to check out:
Svenska Burmakommittén (The Swedish Burma Committee)
The Burma Campaign UK
TBCC: Thailand Burma Border Consortium This is a charity consortium consisting of NGOs from nine different countries. TBCC provides food, shelter and non food items to refugees and displaced people from Burma.
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