_ by Yebaw Day

Fritzl’s daugther Elisabeth	Su Su Nway, imprisoned for speaking the truth

Austria 1977: a man called Josef Fritzl secretly began to abuse his 11 year-old daughter Elisabeth. Then, in 1984 when she was 18, he imprisoned her in the basement of his home and continued to rape her for 24 more years until April 2008. During that time, 6 vaginal deliveries occurred in that basement without any medical professional present. One delivery was a pair of twins of which one died. Fritzl secretly burned its body in an incinerator like trash. Three of the babies he brought upstairs and raised them as adopted children. The remaining three stayed with Elisabeth, never seeing the light of day until recently. Incredibly, Frau Fritzl and the neighbors never realized the truth until then.

In 2006, 44 year-old man called Priklopil jumped in front of a train in an act of suicide after an 18 year-old girl, Natascha Kampusch, escaped. He had kidnapped her off the street, and like Fritzl, imprisoned her in the basement of his home for 8 years as his personal sex slave. Since 2006, Austrians and other Europeans have agonized over how such horrors could happen and then, in April 2008 came the case of Fritzl.

People shudder and shake their heads as to what to do about such monsters in their midst.

Here now is a practical suggestion on how to compensate for the painful past –take action against similar crimes.

73 year-old Austrian Monster Joseph Fritzl	75 year-old Burmese MONSTER Than Shwe

In Burma, as many now know, there is a group of Generals in power. The Supreme General is Than Shwe born in 1933, only 2 years older than

Joseph Fritzl which makes the two men contemporaries. Fritzl graduated from a technical college with a skill in electronics whereas Than Shwe never even graduated from high school. Fritzl served 18 months in prison for a rape conviction 1967 and was involved in another case of attempted rape. A third case of rape and murder remains unsolved. He is also notorious for indecent exposure. Fritzl thus has an extensive history of criminal behavior with a penchant for aggressive violence over his victims. Upon questioning by police, he admitted imprisoning his daughter “because she would no longer listen to him,” that he only wanted to discipline her and protect her from the outside world. The reporter commented that perhaps this was because Fritzl was brought up during the Nazi era where discipline was harsh.

Compare Fritzl to Than Shwe who served in the Burma Army (which was originally trained by the Japanese fascists during WW2) since the time he was a young man for over half-a-century during which he never served any jail time for having committed countless war crimes against the Karens and other ethnic members including his own Burmese ethnic group. Instead, the Burma Army promoted him steadily until he became The Dictator in in 1992. He, like typical Burma Army officers, has been involved in torture, rape, murder, terrorist bombings, intimidation, extortion, robbery, pillage, arson, as well as unfair imprisonment and slavery of thousands of Karen and other ethnic civilians, not just rebels. Like Fritzl, he too was a control freak, only worse. He has supreme authority over the entire nation. He and his wife, Kyaing Kyaing, demand being addressed as a King and Queen as in olden days. Despite such royal pretensions, he professes belief his warped notions of a “disciplined democracy.” The people call him the Burmese Hitler. His other epithet is Khway Biloo, meaning Ogre Dog or The Bulldog.

(Google satellite map of Insein Prison)

Out of the many prisons in Burma, the worst one is Insein (pronounced like ‘insane’) Penitentiary north of Rangoon, derisively called Burma’s Moscow Prison by the common people and government officials alike. Many have been unjustly imprisoned within its walls and continue to

languish to this day. Inside Moscow and other prisons, unspeakable horrors are committed daily. Su Su Nway was an ordinary woman who was jailed simply because she dared to charge her local authorities of practicing forced labor. She won her court case, but instead of those guilty officials going to prison, she was the one who ended up behind bars under false charges. Aung San Suu Kyi, the well-known Nobel Peace Prize winner of 1991, was placed under house arrest for being the Opposition Leader, and has been in-and-out of her home which has been her prison for a total of 12 out of the past 18 years. This latest incarceration began in May 2003 after she and her people were ambushed in Depeyin by Than Shwe’s thugs. She escaped a violent death when over a hundred of her followers sacrificed their lives to protect her, only to be captured and imprisoned once again in her own home. As of last month, she completed the five-year mark and was due to be released. However, Than Shwe whimsically extended her prison term by yet another year without without any reason.

Aung San Suu Kyi

Aung San Suu Kyi in front of her prison-home

Elizabeth Fritzl and 3 of her children were imprisoned in the basement of their own home for 24 years. Her children born in that hell-hole had never known the light of day. Their father exercised his authority over them, “disciplining and protecting them from outside harm,” or so he claims. This is similar to Than Shwe who claims to guide his people in a “disciplined version of democracy” but in reality it is just The Mockery,” having just gone through the motions of a sham referendum to legitimize his power.

Fritzl, in the end, allowed his 18 year-old daughter-cum-granddaughter to be taken outside for hospitalization when she developed kidney failure or else she would have died. He at least relented and allowed emergency medical treatment and had remnants of decency. Of course, the whole story came out in the hospital and he was arrested.

Than Shwe, on the other hand, has no such decency. When millions of his “national children” faced hunger, dehydration, displacement, disease, and death in the aftermath of Cyclone Nargis, he treated them as prisoners in vast concentration camps throughout the Irrawaddy Delta, placing his soldiers and thugs as guards, preventing foreign aid workers and doctors from reaching them. He acts as though his criminal history will be discovered and arrested like Fritzl if he were to allow outside help for his beleaguered people.

At least Fritzl was man enough to take the risk of being found out, but Than Shwe is not that manly but just an evil coward.

If we feel mortified with Fritzl’s crimes, how then shall we quantify our mortification for evils of Than Shwe? He is called Bagyi (pron. bah jee, j as in jeans) or Great Father by his soldiers, just as Fritzl’s children had to call him Vater or Papa. Father’s Day is next week as this article is being written, but these two monsters have made a horrible parody out of fatherhood.

But why continue to commiserate over Fritzl? He is waiting for trial and justice will be served. Elisabeth and the surviving children are gradually recuperating. We cannot undo the pain of their past sufferings, but at least their ordeals are over. The oppression of the People of Burma, however, continues and only worsens day by day.

Austria’s Chancellor on a campaign to restore the nation’s reputation

To Austrians and other Europeans, why fret over Fritzl ? It is of no use whatsoever to waste time on him. His story is over and he is finished,

kaput. But there is a much bigger saga on the other side of the world in Burma.

But perhaps you still want to do something about Fritzl. In that case, consider all the people in Burma being mistreated by this Burmese Fritzl. There are not only the Burmese people, but also the ethnic Karens, Karennis, Kachins,Chins, Shans, Mons, Arakans and many more subgroups. The Austrian Fritzl abused his children but in the end allowed them to go to hospital for much needed help. The Burmese Fritzl, in contrast, abuses 54 million national children and refuses to permit any outside help for fear he will be arrested like Fritzl.

If Elisabeth and her three children were still down there in their basement dungeon and Fritzl was making a stand-off against the Polizei,

what would your reaction be? Would you not demand a special commando unit to storm the basement and rescue the prisoners? Well, here now are 54 million Burmese Elisabeths and Fritzl children imprisoned in the basement hellhole of Burma. The Burmese Fritzl is much more powerful. He has an army of thugs to protect him and he also has these Indian and ASEAN neighbors as well as his Chinese landlord who insist that you cannot violate the privacy of his home. It is quite ironic that at least Frau Fritzl and her neighbors could rightfully claim they knew nothing

of the past 24 years. To Frau Fritzl and her neighors, do not blame yourselves. You did not take part in the rape of the Fritzl children nor did you exploit them like pimps, hiring them to others. Think of the case of Burma where the neighboring countries DO know what is going on and yet for the past 20 years since the Nationwide Uprisings of 8-8-88, they have been aiding and abetting the Burmese Fritzl in return for economic gain. Thus, these neighors deserve to be called sons of A BITCH (ASEAN, Bengla, India, Thai, CHina)

So what are we to do? To the Honorable Chancellor Gusenbauer I would like to suggest that one excellent way to restore Austria’s national reputation is to demand justice in Burma. To our Honorable Readers, I ask that you keep up with current news in Burma, e.g. through <freeburmarangers.org>, <burmadigest.info> and other websites. Perhaps later you would like to take part in a demonstration. Perhaps you would write to your national leaders or take part in some form of activism. If you had any anguish when you first read about Joseph Fritzl, here now is a chance to do something about it. Forget about Joe. He’s kaput. Just concentrate on the Burmese Fritzl, please, for the sake of your own burning conscience.

- Yebaw Day