At last, liberty for the Lady as Aung San Suu Kyi goes free

[John Sayers]

Finally.

[UstadKhanAli]

It's window dressing, of course, but it's still a really great thing.

 

Just in case anyone's missed it, I met Aung San Suu Kyi in 2000. She is as articulate and elegant as you would think, and to me (and much of the world), she is a modern-day Ghandi.

 

This is the story of us going to Burma and, among other things, meeting Aung San Suu Kyi:

 

http://www.elevenshadows.com/travels/burma-india2000/01burma.htm

 

[John Sayers]

I posted this for you Ken , I was interested to see what your opinion was on this matter. Thank you.

[UstadKhanAli]

You probably know all this, John, but...

 

I'm extremely happy that she's been released. She gets to be with her family, friends, supporters, give speeches (at least, for the moment) and address the National League for Democracy, and move around a bit (again, at least for the moment).

 

The military junta has locked her up before, though, so this isn't one of those situations where one can consider, "Gee...maybe the one of the world's worst dictatorships has turned a corner!" Nope. This is just window dressings following the "elections" (rigged and miscounted, obviously) to placate other countries.

 

If countries of the world were really truly concerned about helping people in need and spread democracy, this would be one of the top countries on the list. The general populace is still among the ten poorest in the world. They have no rights. They have very little contact with the outside world. It's a brutal dictatorial regime that moves whole villages, uses slave labor, wages an ongoing war with Shan State (within Burmese borders), uses torture, savagely beats or kills anybody who opposes them, mines uranium and sells it to other countries for nukes, are completely incapable of helping their populace during tsunamis (and turn away help from neighboring countries), and on and on. They're right up there with Saudi Arabia and North Korea for being complete sacks of {censored}, the worst of the worst.

 

One of the most beautiful countries I've ever been to...but the government are complete sacks of {censored}.

[John Sayers]

pretty grim, yet they are the only country capable of offering direct access to China from the Indian ocean for oil routes.

 

That's why the Regime stays in power.

[UstadKhanAli]

Yes, that and trade with Pakistan....and apparently, uranium to Iran. But hey, they can get Unocal to support slave labor. When we were in Burma, we saw people in chain gangs working on the road for the military. I was a little surprised that we saw this, as the government allows you to go only to certain areas of the country and stay in government-sanctioned hotels, etc.

 

Where's the "thumbs down" icon?

[LeonardScaper]

I have followed her also......she had best mind what she does. Her freedom is most probably conditional.