While nations around the world voice revulsion at the violence unleashed by Than Shwe, China deems it unnecessary to support UNSC sanctions and merely supports the call for ‘restraint’ and for sending the UN Special Envoy back to Rangoon. China may be concerned that the current violence is reminiscent not just of 1988 in Burma, but of its own massacre of unarmed civilians in 1989 at Tiananmen Square. With increasing calls for a boycott of the ‘Genocide Olympics’, their chances of coming out of this betrayal of the people of Burma with any respect are dwindling.

While millions of people around the world watch the TV News reports of carnage on the streets of Rangoon, MRTV viewers are offered the news that several policemen have been injured while dealing with ‘some monks and laymen who had forced citizens to donate cash and take part in unrest’. Earlier in the week, the New Light of Myanmar had taken a considerable amount of space to describe how monks would be breaking their vows if they even broke windows – and showed a window broken by some monks. The article also stated that rude language was being used, and that this was probably by NLD supporters.

In most developed countries there is a propensity for disaffected youths to throw stones and break windows as well as using rude language. In the old days, they would have got a clip around the ear, nowadays they might just get told off. In Burma, the sentence seems to be a bullet through the head.But in Burma, the anger is not from urban decay, but from years of rage and frustration at an incompetent regime that has brought poverty, persecution and brutality to the people of Burma and denied them any outlet for political self-determination.

I’m not sure what ‘restraint’ translates to in Tatmadaw-Burmese, but I suspect it does not mean whack someone so hard they need hospital treatment. Perhaps they are interpreting the rules and punishments set out by the ‘Yangon Division Supervisory Committee for Ensuring Secure and Smooth Transport’, whose 45 members are pictured recently in NLM – I think they where taking note of the rules and regulations set down by the 33 member ‘NayPyiDaw Traffic Rules Enforcement Supervisory Committee’.

When 100,000 people march through the street demanding democracy, there is no doubt that they cause a major disruption to the smooth flow of traffic and the security forces consider it their duty to act ‘correctly’ to restore the smooth flow of traffic.

As the atrocities continue, the regime calmly produces newspaper articles about the inaccurate reporting by a Norwegian radio station which they claim has grossly exaggerated the scale of the protest and encouraging the protests.With a regime trying to convince (who?) that the news from outside Burma is not accurate, is so far from reality that I cannot imagine how diplomatic pressure is going to be fruitful. When SPDC officials tell the UK ambassador that the protests have been agitated by outside countries and that the protest will be dealt with ‘correctly’, he is masking the fact that the people of Burma have such a hatred for the regime that they are willing to risk their lives to call for ‘democracy’, and to call to the international community to do more than send the Special Envoy on a another ‘talking’ mission.

The SPDC will have to face the fact that they need the world just as much as the world needs Burma. They will also have to face the fact that these mass protests show just how little they have actually changed since 1962 or since 1988 – the people will still not vote for them, will not accept the National Convention, the people of Burma want change from military to civilian government, they want democracy and freedom, and they will vote for the NLD and DASSK (or any party of their own free choice) despite the gargantuan efforts of the SPDC to denigrate and destroy the popularly elected party.

Burma’s state-run media has continued to pour out their stupid, childishly patronising distortion of events over the last weeks, although I can’t imagine who would believe any of it. The tone and simplistic arguments that they give must have been prepared under due ‘instructions’ from the regime as it will appeal to their simple child-like minds – they don’t understand intelligent argument or compassion, let alone terms like ‘restraint’ and ‘democracy’.

What the regime do understand is action. If the regime is ostracized by the international community, diplomatically and especially economically they will begin to realise that they can’t go on the way they are doing now.

It is time to give Than Shwe and his gang of delinquents a sharp old-fashioned clip around the ear – it is the only language they understand.