2007/10/04

Myanmar: Move immediately to isolate regime

By : DR A. SOORIAN, Seremban
http://www.nst.com.my/Current_News/NST/Thursday/Letters/20071004083736/Article/index_html

A PICTURE is worth a thousand words, it is said. Your front page report “Myanmar Silenced” (NST, Oct 2), says it all.

In recent days, humanity worldwide has been outraged by images of armed soldiers savagely attacking unarmed and peaceful demonstrators in the streets of Yangon.

The exact death toll of the Buddhist monks must be at least twice the officially declared figure. And still mounting.

It is the extreme of human rights violations for which the United States, famous for its regime change stance, only can eke out a “further sanctions” policy against Myanmar.

As US economist Alan Greenspan aptly pointed out, the US invasion in Iraq was solely for oil.

Rogue nations can circumvent the sanctions and even if that is difficult, sanctions would only hurt the already impoverished ordinary man in the street.

The ruling junta would not be disturbed at all in its comfort zone. Every approach to engage Myanmar seems to have come to nought. So what do we do next?

Immediate and cogent steps must be taken to isolate the regime. Asean cannot and must not accommodate this embarrassment anymore and should move to expel Myanmar from its ranks.

As can be seen by past history, the United Nations had been a toothless paper tiger in the face of despots like Idi Amin and Pol Pot who had exterminated millions of people with impunity.

Ultimately, it is the Myanmar people who should free themselves, but facing down the barrel of the gun is a daunting task. They need the international community to support them.

China has considerable influence over Myanmar but would not do much as it has the Tiananmen Square debacle in its shadow.

The UN with its current weak charter is powerless to act.

The UN must have cast iron dentures fitted into its mouth for sufficient bite to declare this junta as a gang of international outlaws and organise a concerted effort to help the citizens in all ways possible to oust the regime and reinstate Aung San Suu Kyi as the head of the government.