It was only a matter of time before the pleas of the Karen people were heard around the world and now the *US Congress is getting an ear full. Former Karen Internally Displaced Person (IDP) Myra Dahgaypaw told a compelling story of how her and her family survived genocide, disease and starvation. In horrific detail she exposed the dark secrets of Burma’s military junta and their rain of terror on innocent farmers under the watchful eye of dictator General Than Shwe.
The emotionally charged oratory given by Myra told of how she and her family lived on nothing but bamboo shoots, survived malaria and other diseases. With nothing but the cloths on their backs they faced the elements with nothing more than a tarp as they watched others die from starvation, the elements and injuries sustained from government forces. The heart wrenching testimony exposed the absolute cruelty and total disregard for human life the criminal regime had for the ethnic populations of Burma. Gen. Than Shwe’s ruthless pursuit and murder of the Karen people was only the tip of the ice berg. Myra told congress her case was not an isolated one and that many other people of Burma faced certain death from government forces.
Crimes against humanity was a polite description for the sadistic and barbaric conduct perpetrated by the regime. This behavior has become standard operating procedures under the stewardship of Gen.Than Shwe. The rape, torture and butchery of human beings has reached epidemic proportions. Porters were drafted as slaves or faced death by a number of ghoulish ways to make an example for others who dared to disobey. Women were summarily raped by large groups of soldiers and in many cases they were raped to death. Others were dissected as they lay dying. One accounting last year told of how a little girl had her face carved off and her body riddled with bayonet holes while she still was breathing and pleading for her life. A soldier’s bullet stopped her horrific suffering. One seven year old girl was kidnapped, raped then sacrificed by Burmese soldiers in a story I covered last year and all with the blessings of Gen. Than Shwe. Burmanization has become the catch all phrase for eugenics, the contemporary holocaust and the signature of this criminal regime.
For anyone or any corporation to condone this kind of conduct shows the lack of morality. Regardless of what national leaders from around the world do, we the population of the globe can make a difference. Seek out the names of these vial corporate leaders, the companies they represent and boycott their goods in every store they are sold in. Since economics seems to out weigh humanity, fight fire with fire and strike them in the pocket book. Then and only then will they pull out of Burma or loose their material empires. Public opinion and the shopper’s dollar is the common mans “weapon of mass destruction”. If we don’t buy, they will die. They need our dollar or they will not survive. Only if we stop buying their blood soaked goods will any sanction succeed.
When the Human Rights Tribunals begin not only Gen. Than Shwe and his criminal regime should stand trial but corporate heads from Daiwoo, Toyota and Tata Motors, just to name a few. Their products should be striped from the shelves, their companies cast in shame. The list keeps getting longer as corporations take full advantage of plentiful slaves and natural resources. They are partners in Burma’s holocaust and their goods are covered in blood and human suffering. They are financing murder and it is time to revel the names of all the people involved. Let the world know who these people are and it will surprise you that some of them live in your community. It is time for them to face their shameful disregard for human life, all for the corporate bottom line. Let them hang in the gallows of public opinion for money is not everything.
With millions of witnesses to Gen. Than Shwe’s holocaust his conviction as well as the conviction of his generals will mark the end of an era filled with death and selective genocide. Like rats abandoning a sinking ship corporate heads and constituents will break the silence and tell the true nature of the beast called Gen. Than Shwe. They will betray him and his generals to escape the gallows or face life in prison. Appropriately they should spend the rest of their lives in the jungle prisons Gen. Than Shwe sent the political prisoners. What’s good for the goose is good for the gander. Hopefully Gen. Than Shwe will stand trial before cancer takes him. That would be too easy.
democracy for burma 