Comments on: Aung San Suu Kyi Charged

By: Brian

Brian — Mon, 18 May 2009 17:47:41 +0000

For what it's worth, amnesty international have a page up asking for a letter to be sent to ASEAN to ask for her release. http://www.amnesty.org.nz/action_centre/call_for_the_release_of_aung_san_suu_kyi

By: Mule Taker

Mule Taker — Sun, 17 May 2009 09:30:30 +0000

Aung San Suu Kyi's lawyer has now been stripped of his license and barred from the "proceedings.A crowd of complete bastards indeed.

By: thesystemworks

thesystemworks — Sat, 16 May 2009 21:26:40 +0000

Korea? I hope you mean Burma?

By: unstranger

unstranger — Sat, 16 May 2009 21:18:16 +0000

The Generals that prevented her taking up her legitimate seat in Government all those years ago did so in order to keep their grubby hands on the wealth of the Korean Nation and they do now possess incredible wealth. So much in fact that they can and do pay out bribes to stifle any foreign political interference in their criminal affairs.

Their casinos are just a little part of their wealth resource and they make millions from that as it is. I wouldn't be one bit be surprised to hear that that is where FÃanna FÃ¡il are moving their Galway-Tent.

By: thesystemworks

thesystemworks — Sat, 16 May 2009 16:34:07 +0000

I didn't intend to turn this into a debate on that subject, believe me. I wanted to highlight the attention received by the like of Gitmo detainees compared to, say, the inordinate number of prisoners in North Korean gulags. In fact, North Korea has gulags purely for relatives and friends of people accused of crimes. One of which, known as 'Camp 22' has between 30-40,000 prisoners. Some are slave labourers in a nearby mine, but most are just there to starve. I just wanted to say how despotism is a cottage industry perfected by smaller more isolated countries (with the exception of perhaps of China, where the Tibetan and Falun Gong issues seems to have been all but forgotten also) who are far more likely to get away with it without any controversy. And then you have countries like Libya sitting on the Human Rights Council at the UN, a body whose official condemnations are directed at Israel 50% of the time.

By: Bock

Bock — Sat, 16 May 2009 16:20:35 +0000

I'm not going to turn this into a debate on Israel, but since you brought up the subject, I'll say only this much: many Israelis don't believe Palestine has a right to exist either.

By: thesystemworks

thesystemworks — Sat, 16 May 2009 16:06:50 +0000

Israel is a member of the European Broadcasting Union, so entitled to enter the contest as much as Russia, Azerbaijan and the like, who may not be in the EU nor even the European continent, really.

Many Europeans are very hostile to Israel's very existence – while nobody says Burma or Myanmar itself has no right to exist.

However, I want to make it clear that we need to criticise mistakes made by Israel and the US in the hope of improving the general situation in those areas, but we should never ignore where the serious violations are happening further away from media attention.

By: Bock

Bock — Sat, 16 May 2009 15:57:12 +0000

Is Burma in the Eurovision song contest?

Europeans are hostile to Iraeli policies and actions, but perhaps you're right: we should get tougher on Burma, not easier on Israel.

By: thesystemworks

thesystemworks — Sat, 16 May 2009 15:47:16 +0000

Europeans are overwhelmingly hostile to Israel, unlike Americans. The difference between the two mindsets is astonishing. I take your point about America, but not for Europe.

By: Bock

Bock — Sat, 16 May 2009 15:32:53 +0000

You overlook one thing: the support Israel receives from Europe and the USA.

If we were supporting SLORC as much as we support Israel, there would be an outcry at the actions of our client.