One big topic being discussed in my Intro to International Polotics class is the demonstrations from tens of thousands of monks in Myanmar. They are protesting against a military junta that has the country’s leader under house arrest.

 Since the military crushed a peaceful nationwide uprising in 1988, killing an estimated 3,000 civilians, the country, formerly known as Burma, has sunk further into poverty and repression and become a symbol for the outside world of the harsh military subjugation of a people.Mrs. Aung San Suu Kyi, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991, has been locked inside her home for 12 of the last 18 years, and the government has arrested thousands of political prisoners.The United States and Europe have led a tightening economic boycott that has been undermined by trade and assistance from Myanmar’s neighbors, mainly China but also India and some Southeast Asian nations. The United States has diplomatic relations with Myanmar but no ambassador. President Bush, his wife, Laura, and a roster of Hollywood celebrities have spoken out recently about Myanmar, and the abuses of human and political rights by the military junta are expected to take a high profile at the United Nations session starting this week. 

As I was riding my bike to class I noticed a small table and a guy stopped me and told me all about what was happening. I told him I already knew and I signed a petition they were going to send to the Chinese diplomat. (China is the reason we can’t do anything about it, they veto everything in the UN) They also has little boxes where you check if you would fast or pray for the monks… I though that was pretty cool. I think its ridiculous that we still have things like this going on in the world… way to go monks!!

This entry was posted on Friday, September 28th, 2007 at 2:42 pm and is filed under politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.