Gas prices were doubled in Burma. A few hundred brave souls protested on the streets of Yangoon. The army did nothing. Emboldened buddhist monks spoke out against the decrepit regime. Some dared to march in the street. Soon it was thousands. SLORC couldn’t tolerate open manifestation of defiance and gave orders to the soldiers to shoot with deadly force against the followers of ‘we the people’.
Blood ran in the street. Monks were arrested in the temples. Communications with the world disappeared, yet Total Gas paid royalties to the military, Thailand didn’t shut off the gas pipelines and China declared the disturbances as an internal affair. The US moaned and the UN sent an African envoy.
No change.
I’ve only been to the frontiers of Burma.
Mae Sot, Mai Sai, and several unnamed villages of the Shan State for opium runs. The friendly people don’t deserve this repression, but what is to be done?
No one has the answer.
Not even big-mouth me.
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