Fear reigns in Burma’s city under siege
The Sunday Times, October 14, 2007

Every night the curfew falls like a cloak across Mandalay, Burma’s second city and the heartland of its monkhood, hiding a reign of terror unseen by the outside world.

The trishaws vanish from the streets. The lamps of temples and mosques dim. People lurk in pools of light on their doorsteps, some brazenly cradling radios to their ears, but soon retreat indoors. Then come the sounds of dread.

Sitting on the roof of a deserted $15-a-night hotel, you can hear the growl of engines carried by an easterly breeze that sighs out of the Shan hills. Doors slam in the distance. There are shouts as motors rev up and recede. A hush descends.

Thousands of people are incarcerated in four detention centres around Mandalay controlled by the 33rd division of the Burmese army. Its commanders have broken the political power of the 200 monasteries here and shattered the Buddhist clergy as an organised force. [complete article]

More than just a fighting force, Myanmar’s military is the nation’s driving force
By Seth Mydans, New York Times, October 7, 2007

“Crushing all enemies, on land, underground and at sea, all enemies, we will crush them totally, until they are uprooted, decimated.”

This, poetically put on Armed Forces Day in March 2006, is the Burmese Army’s view of itself: the backbone and protector of a nation besieged by enemies from within and outside its borders.

At 400,000 strong, it is one of the largest and most battle-tested armies in Southeast Asia, still fighting a half-century war with ethnic insurgencies.

But it is much more than a fighting force. A large part of its energies go into a bigger task: running Myanmar. [complete article]

Burma sources: Between 200-300 monks killed in crackdown
Haaretz, October 4, 2007

Sources in Burma’s opposition party NDL said Wednesday that, to date, between 200 and 300 monks have been killed in protests in a deadly crackdown on monks and civilians protesting steep price hikes and 45 years of brutal military rule.

The sources said some of the monks were buried alive, while the bodies of others were burned in an open area some 25 kilometers from the capital Rangun.

According to the party sources, over 160 of its senior leaders have been arrested throughout the country. [complete article]

Burmese troops carry out nighttime arrests; monks put to flight
AP, October 4, 2007

After crushing the democracy uprising with guns, Burma’s military junta switched to an intimidation campaign Wednesday, sending troops to drag people from their homes in the middle of the night and letting others know they were marked for arrest.

People living near the Shwedagon Pagoda, Burma’s most revered shrine and a flash point of unrest during the protests, reported that police swept through several dozen homes about 3 a.m., dragging away many men for questioning. [complete article]

India cuts to the chase with Myanmar
By Siddharth Srivastava, Asia Times, October 5, 2007

There is international pressure on India not to engage with the military junta in Myanmar that severely cracked down on pro-democracy protestors recently. But it seems New Delhi has other ideas.

Betraying its soft approach towards Myanmar, New Delhi has advised the United Nations Security Council against imposing sanctions, which should only be used as a “last resort”, on Myanmar. Instead, India has told the military regime to consider launching a probe into the protests. [complete article]

Burmese junta opens door to talks with Suu Kyi
By Peter Popham, The Independent, October 3, 2007

The UN envoy to Burma, Ibrahim Gambari, finally got to see the regime’s two top generals yesterday, after days of delays and diversions.

He had flown to the country on Saturday as the army threatened overwhelming force to stifle weeks of peaceful protest against the junta and its catastrophic economic policies. He met Senior General Than Shwe and Deputy Senior General Maung Aye together at their hideaway capital of Nay Pyi Daw, 350km (217miles) north of Rangoon.

Nothing leaked out about the content of the meeting. It was expected that the generals would have sought to justify their crackdown on the protesters, which left many dead and thousands in detention, in the name of state security and stability.

But in a surprise coda to the visit, one which raised a flicker of hope, Mr Gambari then flew back to Rangoon for a second, brief meeting with the democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, whom he had met for more than an hour on Sunday. The most optimistic supposition was that he was bringing a message of some sort from the generals to the woman who, as leader of the opposition which won a landslide election victory in 1990, one that was never honoured, has been the principal thorn in their side ever since. [complete article]

Myanmar troops stage nighttime arrests
AP, October 3, 2007

After crushing the democracy uprising with guns, Myanmar’s junta switched tactics Wednesday, sending troops to drag people from their homes in the middle of the night and letting others know they were marked for arrest.

People living near the Shwedagon Pagoda, Myanmar’s most revered shrine and a flash point of unrest during the protests, reported that police swept through several dozen homes about 3 a.m., dragging away many men for questioning. [complete article]

Myanmar’s resources provide leverage in region
By Thomas Fuller, New York Times, October 1, 2007

For two decades, Myanmar’s neighbors have grappled with the question of how to respond to the unrelenting repression by the country’s ruling generals of its people. In Thailand, the answer comes each time Thais pay their electricity bill.

Natural gas from Myanmar, which generates 20 percent of all electricity in Thailand, keeps the lights on in Bangkok. The gas, which this year will cost about $2.8 billion, is the largest single export for Myanmar’s otherwise impoverished and cash-strapped economy.

Thailand’s gas imports highlight the dilemma facing China, India, Singapore and Malaysia, among other countries, as they vie for Myanmar’s hardwoods, minerals, gems — and access to its market of 47 million people. [complete article]

Myanmar’s junta stalls UN envoy another day
AP, October 1, 2007

Myanmar’s junta leader stalled a U.N. envoy for yet another day today, delaying his chance to present international demands for an end to the crackdown on the largest protests in two decades.

A Norway-based dissident news organization estimated that 138 people were killed — more than 10 times the government figure — and 6,000 detained. [complete article]

UN envoy meets Myanmar’s Aung San Suu Kyi
AFP, September 30, 2007

A UN envoy met Myanmar’s detained democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi and leaders of the ruling junta Sunday, as he tried to broker an end to a bloody crackdown on anti-government protests.

Ibrahim Gambari met with Aung San Suu Kyi for more than an hour, the UN said in a statement. The rare encounter, seen as a sign of intense pressure on the regime, took place at a government guest house in the main city of Yangon. [complete article]

What makes a monk mad
By Seth Mydans, New York Times, September 30, 2007

As they marched through the streets of Myanmar’s cities last week leading the biggest antigovernment protests in two decades, some barefoot monks held their begging bowls before them. But instead of asking for their daily donations of food, they held the bowls upside down, the black lacquer surfaces reflecting the light.

It was a shocking image in the devoutly Buddhist nation. The monks were refusing to receive alms from the military rulers and their families — effectively excommunicating them from the religion that is at the core of Burmese culture.

That gesture is a key to understanding the power of the rebellion that shook Myanmar last week. [complete article]

How Junta stemmed a saffron tide
By Justin McCurry, Jonathan Watts, Alex Duval Smith, The Observer, September 30, 2007

The military crackdown on Burma’s monk-led opposition has emptied the streets and removed hope of regime change… for now. But dissent continues to seep out via the internet and from the army rank and file [complete article]

The people need the world to speak as one in its support
By Khin Maung Win, The Observer, September 30, 2007

The UN’s special envoy, Ibrahim Gambari, has arrived in Burma. It is not his first visit, but it needs to be more successful than the previous ones. It must result in a dialogue involving the junta, the opposition democracy movement led by Aung San Suu Kyi, and other ethnic leaders. Such talks are the key.

If parts of the international community feel powerless, they shouldn’t. All that the people of Burma are asking of them is to speak with one voice. If this junta has survived for the past 19 years maltreating its people, it is partly because it has exploited international divisions. [complete article]

Myanmar monks’ protest contained by junta’s forces
By Seth Mydans, New York Times, September 28, 2007

Myanmar’s armed forces appeared to have succeeded today in sealing tens of thousands of protesting monks inside their monasteries, but they continued to attack bands of civilian demonstrators who challenged them in the streets of the main city, Yangon.

Witnesses and diplomats reached by telephone inside Myanmar said troops were now confronting and attacking smaller groups of civilians around the city, sometimes running after them through narrow streets, sometimes firing at protesting groups. [complete article]

See also, UK fears Burma toll ‘far higher’ (BBC), Myanmar: Internet blocked (Global Voices), and The Burma road to ruin (The Guardian).

On the brink
The Economist, September 27, 2007

There are reckoned to be 400,000 monks in Myanmar (formerly known as Burma), about the same as the number of soldiers under the ruling junta’s command. The soldiers have the guns. The monks have the public’s support and, judging from the past fortnight’s protests, the courage and determination to defy the regime. But Myanmar’s tragic recent history suggests that when an immovable junta meets unstoppable protests, much blood is spilled. In the last pro-democracy protests on this scale, in 1988, it took several rounds of massacres before the demonstrations finally subsided, leaving the regime as strong as ever. By September 27th, with a crackdown under way, and the first deaths from clashes with security forces, it seemed hard to imagine that things would be very different this time.

One genuine difference is that, in the age of the internet and digital cameras, images of the spectacular protests in Yangon, the main city, have spread at lightning speed across Myanmar itself, encouraging people in other towns to stage demonstrations of their own; and around the world, bringing the crisis to the attention of leaders as they gathered in New York for the United Nations General Assembly. The remarkable images from Myanmar have meant that, for a while at least, a country that has been brutalised and pauperised by a callous and incompetent regime for 45 years has the attention it deserves. [complete article]

Myanmar monks’ three demands
Al Jazeera, September 27, 2007

There are three steps that we want.

“The first step is to reduce all commodity prices, fuel prices, rice and cooking oil prices immediately.

“The second step – release all political prisoners, including Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, and all detainees arrested during ongoing demonstrations over the fuel price hike.

“The third step – enter a dialogue with pro-democracy forces for national reconciliation immediately, to resolve the crisis and difficulties facing and suffered by the people.” [complete article]

See also, Nine killed in Burmese crackdown (BBC), Economics at the root of Myanmar protests (PINR), Monks in the vanguard for regime change (Brian McCartan), General Than Shwe – the man behind the Myanmar madness (Richard Ehrlich and Shawn W Crispin), Timeline – 45 years of resistance and repression in Myanmar (Reuters), and Rule of lords (blog on human rights in Burma and Thailand).