Here are links to several articles about the continuing drama unfolding in Burma, some from Irrawaddy Online and some from the BBC.

  Titled "Cornered but not defeated -- the true leader"

The US has already toughened its sanctions against Burma, and the EU is set to follow suit.

But far away from the world's debating chambers and boardrooms where their future is being discussed, the people of Burma have slightly different priorities.

"We would like to have democracy, but the most important thing for us is to have peace, and enough food on our plates," one woman said.

Sanction drawbacks

Burma is a country that is desperately poor. According to recent international estimates, 32% of the population live below the poverty line and, excluding a small rich elite, the rest are only just above it.

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Comparisons are being drawn between Burma’s 1988 popular uprising and the current crisis, but there is one important difference. The enormous advances in high technology over the past 19 years mean that the appalling events in the streets of Rangoon, unlike those in 1988, can be witnessed by a horrified world almost at the time they are happening.

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Monks, sons of Buddha, are being tortured and cracked down upon in interrogation centers, in concentration camps, in prisons and in forced labor camps. There are many questions, such as: “Why are these things happening?” “Who is responsible for this?” “Who is guilty?” and so on.

I can’t believe or understand why a group of so-called Buddhists in a majority Buddhist country dare to commit these ultimate sins.

I don’t understand where they get these evil minds to commit such atrocious religious violations. Time after time, I realize these disastrous events occur because the behavior of the military dictators and the conditions of the country are the same, like mirror images of each other.

When I realize this, I see that being a Buddhist is beside the point. Whether or not the oppressors are privileged in the power structure, the capital sharing system or the social system also does not matter. The key point is that people’s behavior of bullying and discrimination—above all, human rights violations—have become habitual in Burmese society. This is aside from the idea that people who hold power or receive rich rewards in money violate human rights to stay to receive those benefits.

Military despotism molds the people’s behavior to accept human rights violations and bullying as part of a tradition.

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Zaw Aung is not alone in his decision to seek a better life abroad. In recent years, the flow of people out of Burma has become one of South East Asia's largest migration movements.

EXODUS FROM BURMA Thailand: 141,000 refugees in camps, about 500,000 registered migrants, up to 1,350,000 unregistered Bangladesh: 27,000 refugees in camps, 200,000 unregistered Malaysia: 30,000 refugees, several thousand unregistered India and China: Tens of thousands of unregistered workers in border states of Mizoram and Yunnan respectively Sources: UNHCR, NGOs

Exact figures are hard to pin down.

Thousands are thought to have gone south to Malaysia. Others have gone north to India and China, while more than 200,000 of the Rohingya minority group live in Bangladesh to the west.

But by far the biggest group - two million people, by most estimates - have headed east, to Thailand.

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