Aung San Suu Kyi's house arrest extention and China influence behind the door
(Dec. 02, 2005)November 27,2005,much to everyone's disappointment,Myanmar's military rulers extended the pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi's house arrest for another six months.The democracy icon of Myanmar (of our Asia) has now spent more than 10 years in prison or under house arrest.
Myanmar,or Burma,dubbed an 'outpost of tyranny' by the US,has one of South East Asia's most severe HIV/AIDS epidemics and refugees.In Malaysia,I had chance getting touch with some Myanmar refugees who worked in Chinese restaurants.Burmese girls were surprisingly beautiful and seemed to be readily willing to have sex with you for just small sum of money. (boxun.com)
The refugees all passionately supported Aung San Suu Kyi,some of them even believed that she would soon run the country and they would have new currency which has the same value as US dollars,when this happened,they would all go back to Myanmar and would not suffer any more.
They were probably naïve.But this showed Burma people had strong desire for better life,they yearned for a national hero who could help them fulfil this dream.
But there is a shadow in their dream that they probably cannot see,that's big China,who is Myanmar military ruler's biggest supporter and best friend.
Since 1988,Myanmar has become China's closest ally in South East Asia,a major recipient of Chinese hardware.
Yangoon massacre of 1988 and violent suppression of the Tiananmen Square Chinese students demonstation in 1989,both of which were widely condemned internationally,helped to draw them closer like never before.
Some believe China is the key to Suu Kyi's freedom,but it has shown no any inclination to put pressure on the junta,who is their reliable ally and who praised the Chinese leadership in 1989 for the crackdown on the students at Tiananmen Square.
Chinese officials have said that Ms Aung San Suu Kyi's detention is a domestic matter for the Burmese to sort out,the same excuse they always use to ward off criticism when they crack down on protests and openly detain democrats.
In China,any mention of democracy would probably land you into prison,as the same situation in Myanmar,hence Chinese officials feel quite comfortable and secure with Myanmar's dictatorship regime,making millions and millions of loan to the Myanmar junta to buy Chinese goods,including military equipments.
On the other hand,Yangoon's Chinese political advisers have been advising the military ruler to adopt the approach of Musharraf of Pakistan and ban the existing parties from taking part in election.
Musharraf is generally viewed as 'a military dictator of the old school'.
In conclusion,Chinese government has significant influence and support on Myanmar militarily,politically,ideologically and economically in order to secure its communist bulwark,enhance its position and expand regional power.It's not an exaggeration to say that Chinese regime directly or indirectly hampers Myanmar's process towards democracy and freedom although it pours millions and millions money to Myanmar to build modern infrastructures.With the back of uprising China,junta in Myanmar now probably has unprecedented psycological and physical strength to do whatever they want,for example,they extended Suu Kyi's house arrest,defying the protests from world's various organizationa and nations,including UN and the US.
Myanmar has become a de facto Chinese client state,as some observers say.
Back in China soil,there're still many their own 'domestic matters' for the Chinese dictator to sort out.
The detention and trial of democrats or activists,including democracy pioneer Wei Jingsheng,unquestionably speaks the truth that the Chinese communist systematically infringes political freedoms,individual liberties and human rights.
Reports of police using torture to extract confessions and pro-communist thugs beating protesters are still common in China.One witness told me Chinese prisons are among the darkest in the world,it's quite common and normal that police guards abuse and torture prisoners.They use all sorts of 'smart' methods to treat them in such a way that you cannot see the detained is tortured but actually their internal organ can be badly hurted.Reporters are given some money on the spot by officials,who instruct them not to report the events in which police or thugs they hired use force to crack down protests.
There is also allegation of torture of individual political prisoners in Tibet,and over 40 death in custody.
People are being suffercated by Chinese dictatorship,beauraucracy and corruption,so much so that some entrepreneurs in Fuzhou City of Fujian Province told me that they felt there was little air for them to breathe,and they had some psycological problem as a result.
With the wide availabiltiy of internet,Chinese people found new channel to express their opinions and desires.But no different political opinions please,Chinese government says,cyber space is good platform to ficilitate trades domestically and internationally.Surely,improvement of masses' economy power would be the best proof that communism is the way to make grassroots happy and weathy.Unlike their 'super-smart' Cuba counterpart,who banned internet altogether,Chinese government actively promotes internet.
On the other hand,they set up so-called Great Fire Wall to block websites that contains different political opinions,they use advanced hardware and software to monitor the internet.People who publish political articals against government would be relentlessly tracked down and arrested.
Recently,Reporters Without Borders call for the immediate release of pro-democracy activist Zhang Lin,who was due to have been freed on 13 Feburary at the end of 15 days of 'administrative detention' because of his publishing of articals on the internet,but it's now being held in what the Chinese authorities call ' criminal detention' on a charge of threatening state security.
It's reported that over 60 cyber-dissidents are currently detained in China.
We call for immediate and unconditioned release of Aung San Suu Kyi and all other pro-democracy detainees held in Myanmar or Chinese prisons.
We uphold that freedom and democracy is the future of our humanity,and spreading freedom and democracy is the only way to guarantee security for anyone.
Jackson Jo
jacksonjo@gmail.com
1st December,2005,Bangkok
_(博讯自由发稿区发稿) (boxun.com)
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