Myanmar (Burma) luvs Lanka
I don’t know much about Burma, or Myanmar as it’s now known… but according to today’s Daily Mirror:
The Myanmar (Burmese) government yesterday assured its support to Sri Lanka in the fight against terrorism and reaffirmed it would never allow any group or individual to use its territory to engage in any hostile activities against neighboring countries, including Sri Lanka.
According to various other reports (PBS, BBC, CIA), Burma is a territory that’s run by a military dictatorship which also has many business interests, including illegal logging, trading in drugs, and human trafficking.
There was an election once – back in 1990. But the military didn’t like the way 80% of the people voted, and placed the leader of the winning side, Aung San Suu Kyi, under house arrest. The following year, she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
There are many different peoples who call Burma home, but the majority population dominates over the minorities. The military is accused of torture and murder.
There is a separatist struggle against the military regime going on, but with international indifference, the people are the biggest losers. According to a report in The Independent, “The military junta’s policies have led to more than 600,000 deaths and up to one million people being displaced.”.
So, yesterday, the Sri Lankan government and the Myanmar dictatorship “recognized the need to establish institutional arrangements among security agencies for intelligence sharing, consultation and coordination to prevent terrorist activities and other transnational crimes in the region.”
I am not sure if a beautiful, innocent and pure island like Lanka should not be associating with the likes of Myanmar…
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I think any sane Sri Lankan would wholly agree with Sid’s comments. If the maxim about being judged by the type of company one keeps is true – then it is proof of what we already suspected about the State. It is also hypocrisy of the most venal kind to froth at the mouth about the LTTE, and then behave like the LTTE itself.
Interesting parallels indeed – problem my dear Che, is how many sane Sri Lankans are in the incumbent government, the LTTE and with Karuna? Must you continue this heady, unbridled optimism in the face of contrary facts?
One must. I draw inspiration from one JP of NPC who lives in glorious Days of Hope (or is it Haze of Dope)?!
It’s a good thing for Sri Lanka to be neutral in foreign matters and use opposing parties to its advantage. We don’t have any qualms about associating with both Israel and Iran, and then United States and Cuba, so I don’t see why we should have any ethical concerns about hanging out with the Myanmar-ies(?).