originally published in Tehelka

THE STORY of Aung San Suu Kyi’s latest ordeal is a tale shrouded in propaganda and censorship, besieged by one of the most draconian media environments on the planet and set in the battle for the future of a nation.

As her trial enters its second week, recriminations are entering fever pitch even as the true nature of what actually occurred and why is unclear, with little hope of truth reaching the light of day.

It all started in early May when it was reported that an American man was plucked out of the waters of Yangon’s Lake Inya in the early hours of the morning of the 5th of May. The man, 53-yearold John William Yettaw was said to be in possession of an empty water bottle, wire cutters, some US dollars and a camera.

The world came to know of the ‘swimmer’ from the New Light of Myanmar, a state-run Yangon newspaper and junta mouthpiece.

Soon, photos were leaked of the man who had been caught after reportedly swimming back from Aung San Suu Kyi’s lakeside home. He had apparently broken into one of the most heavily guarded houses in Yangon and spent a few nights there. The photos showed an elderly man posing for self-portraits, with one showing him wearing homemade flippers.

The fuse was lit. Myanmar’s most widely known ‘celebrity’ and Nobel laureate was firmly back in the spotlight less than three weeks before her last stint of detention was due to end, on the 27th.

Though under the law against causing public disturbances under which she was incarcerated a person can be detained for 5 years without trial or release, in 2008, her detention was extended extrajudicially by a year. She would now stand trial for violating the terms of her house arrest and the Myanmar law that states that no one can have a foreigner stay overnight at their house without informing the authorities.

Rumours spread rapidly as the world only had the initial article and the leaked photos to go on. The logical jump was made with swift and knowing cynicism: no one expected the junta to release Suu Kyi let alone abide by any legal framework. The ‘swimmer’ provided the perfect storm with which to sink the democracy movement’s guiding star.

The ‘swimmer’ was described by people in his native Missouri as an earnest, intellectual father of many children and a member of the Christian Mormon sect.

Meanwhile, a palpable anger grew amongst many Myanmarese as further eyewitnesses reported that Yettaw was an overly emotional ‘extremist’ supposedly on a ‘spiritual journey’. Whilst his idiotic actions were condemned, the validity of the story was also questioned. Yettaw was said by his ex-wife to suffer from asthma. The swim to and from Suu Kyi’s lakeside residence would have been a 4½ km journey, one that would have supposedly been too much for him to handle.

Suu Kyi leaves court

If that wasn’t enough, as the trial started, an anonymous taxi driver came forward and claimed he had dropped off the American in front of Suu Kyi’s residence and seen him enter through the front gate, showing a red card to the guards at the door. Even if he had swum back, how had he been able to sidestep guards quite so easily?

Such questions sparked accusations that the entire affair had been either concocted or used to further Suu Kyi’s detention. The accusations led to a backlash of counter-claims from the junta as global leaders clamoured against the ‘kangaroo court’ trying Myanmar’s last democratically elected leader.

Harsh words from regional allies bit the hardest as Thailand, holding the alternate presidency of the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) spoke in rare open criticism of the authoritarian regime in Naypyidaw, Burma’s new capital. The EU heralded the ASEAN statement as ‘remarkable’ whilst the junta greeted it as against the body’s ‘conformity’ and an affront to the ‘dignity of Thailand’.

The junta meanwhile concluded that pro democracy exiles, largely based in Thailand had concocted the ploy to ‘embarrass the government’. It is a common theme for a regime that seems in thrall to a theory, fired by Rambo films, that the CIA are about to attack. The narrative is perhaps conjured for propaganda’s sake as much as out of genuine paranoia.

The democracy movement has captured the imagination of the west as is displayed by the apparent actions of Yettaw. Like a crusade, the notion of ‘freeing Burma’ has entered the ‘evangelist’ western imagination. Aung San Suu Kyi, moreover, was married to a Briton and was educated there and in India. Her internationalist credentials are thus portrayed as unpatriotic and untrustworthy by a regime that can be characterised as xenophobic at the best of times, creating a convenient narrative that there are indeed imperialist enemies at the gate.

Meanwhile, the junta’s most ‘colourful’ spokesperson, its consul general in Hong Kong, Ye Myint Aung claimed that Yettaw was Aung San Suu Kyi’s ‘boyfriend’ in a spiteful attempt at a smear. Myint Aung’s last outing on the international press was noted for the open racism he displayed towards the Rohingya minority group, whom he described as ‘ugly as ogres’.

On the 14th of May, Aung San Suu Kyi’s trial began in the notorious Insein jail. A colonial era megalith with as many horror stories as it has rats, Insein’s prisoners are sometimes housed in colonialera kennels. Where one colonial Alsatian would have resided, three tortured political prisoners currently do.

With the eyes of the world straining for news of the trial of the only incarcerated Nobel Laureate, protests erupted around the world and a virtual shutdown of Yangon occurred. The high pressure was felt on all sides and the junta relented by allowing select journalists and diplomats into the courtroom for a single day every week. Little of substance has come out of the trial; Suu Kyi has said she will plead not guilty. Adding colour to the tale, Yettaw has said he visited Suu Kyi because he had visions that she would be assassinated. He claimed he had visited before last year and it emerged that he had left six books in the house, including the Book of Mormon, a burqa as a disguise and several pairs of goggles.

Last week it was announced that Suu Kyi would testify as a witness at very short notice with no time to consult her lawyers. This came after a police official announced a recalculation of how long she has been detained. He further stated that they had considered releasing her before Yettaw showed up. As usual, most statements have to be questioned.

In this atmosphere, a sense of desperation emerges. Most have concluded that the verdict has already been written, with the court proceedings apparently being rushed through. If anything has emerged, it is a game in which the regime’s culpability in foul play is hidden for the sake of its image or turned into a charade by near universal condemnation at a level that is almost unprecedented, with usually silent neighbours such as China making statements condemning the process.

The bizarre sequence of events makes Yettaw a veritable Lee Harvey Oswald of our time; his motives unclear, his methods a mystery, his culpability unknown. In all likelihood he has stumbled into a tragedy, as a naïve catalyst of oppression in the ongoing drama of Myanmar’s search for accountable governance.

Since its original publication Aung San Suu Kyi has had her defense witnesses barred from testifying, with judges rejecting all appeal to have them reinstated. Only one of her witnesses was allowed to give evidence.

A major international petition was launched today, Burma’s human rights day, by Free Burma’s Political Prisoners Now! and the Forum for Democracy in Burma . The petition aims to get 888,888 signatures by the 24th of May, the day of Aung San Suu Kyi’s legal release.

The campaign is asking Ban Ki-moon to make freeing Burma’s political prisoners a personal priority and to raise the profile of the plight of the over 2,100 people behind bars for expressing themselves.

Protesting detention of prsioners of conscience

Amongst those in jail is Min Thein Tun, sentenced this week to 17 years in jail, his ‘crime’ was co ordinating releif for Nargis victims. Perhaps the most vindictive convictions are those who are jailed for helping people in the face of a massive disaster.

The regime panicked that they might lose control of some of their power if they were not involved with every releif effort and so anybody involved in relief, not working for the government was immediately faced with persecution. With such an attitude needless to say there was little in the way of adequate support for Nargis victims from the government. Foreign aid is autmoatically funnelled towards state centred projects preventing equitable distribution and making it liable to the rampant corruption of the regime.

The most solid promise that Barack Obama made, one which apperaed incontrovertible and appealed to most humane individuals globally was the promise to withdraw all troops from Iraq.

The promise on face value means that U.S. forces will not remain in Iraq, but no sadly the U.S. President has had a change of heart or a slap on the wrist and is now only withdrawing combat troops, about 50,000 will remain in situ to among other things guard “American assets”. We obviously didn’t read the small print about the ‘non combat’ contingent of the U.S. armed forces.

If 50,000 doesn’t sound like many bare in mind that in 1880 at the height of British Colonial power Britain had only 66,000 troops in the whole of its Indian territories, a considerably larger  proposition, both in population and geographic area.

This was acheived through proxy forces, essentially mercenaries, professional soldiers who had no allegiance to the nation of the army they fought in and in a similar fashion so will the current occupation of Iraq. The thousands of mercenaries will remain and the U.S. will ultimately have a large amount of sway over the Iraqi Army. They have been asked to leave but have ignored that request and so are far from being on reciprocal, sovereign terms.

Another valid, more contemporary comparison, in the same vein of lowly semantics has been Burma’s response to international pressure to release political prisoners. They last week released over 6,000 prisoners, 20 odd were political, and those who were had largely served their sentnces.

In both situations one sees the weight of opion weighing down on cruel authorities towards their most incongruent crimes and their facetious, childish responses.

‘When one is devoted to money, truth loses meaning, one only sees a booby-trap there.’
Jacques Alan Miller

The recession appears particularly bad in the UK for one prime reason, the ‘post industrial economy’. The excuse that its all right to lose any tangible productivity because that’s ‘not modern’ has been exposed as a horrendous mistake by the latest recession. Britain’s reliance upon the financial sector has exposed her economy as a one dimensional banana republic. The sector, a bit like an oil economy, has become dominant in policy terms. It has allowed the UK economy strength without much planning, action or policy, except for the deregulation for that sector.

It has allowed extreme wealth to flourish and enable a trickle down into other tertiary sectors that similarly disappear when recession bites. The UK it seems, a nation of ’shopkeepers’, has given up on planning or aspiration based on anything other than the accumulation of numbers in a bank account. There exists no drive in the economy to do anything other than make a quick buck, whether through bankers bonuses, houses, get rich quick schemes or outsourcing. That and the desire to consume are the main driving factors of the economy.

The recession has also proved this prima facie addiction to money, that so affects and debilitates the country, punishes through malaise and depression and therefore not being able to think let alone work. Even Gordon Brown mistook the two; recession and depression. Is this the eventual fate of the capitalist society, the final beast of late capitalism; a collective psychological disorder brought on by a made up system to go with our clogged arteries? A system that relies on the impossibility of unending growth in a finite world, a creature almost as far fetched as the world’s only other collective fantasy: God.

The Chairman of the British Government’s Advisory Council for the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD), Dr David Nutt has reminded us that horse riding is as, if not more hazardous than taking illegal ecstasy pills, that have a maximum penalty, like heroin and crack, of life in jail for possession. A sentence matched only by murder.

Whilst activities such as horse riding are positively encouraged regardless of hazards to oneself, the horse or the 100,000 car traffic accidents that occur annually in the UK because of the beasts.

The good doctor told the press that this ‘raises the critical question of why society tolerates – indeed encourages – certain forms of potentially harmful behaviour but not others such as drug use’.

Indeed a theme can be seen to be emerging, with the last post.

One anonymous source, believed to be on ecstasy pipes said that this was ‘probably because they were more fun’.

The ACMD is expected next week to call for the downgrading of the drug to a class B substance. This will not decriminalise the 500,000 people who consume the drug every weekend, but may mean we lock gurning ravers up for a slightly shorter spell in our jails.

Meanwhile the man horse love association threatened to dump a dead, drug horse outside Dr Nutt’s house.

The News of the World this week treated us to the news that one of the most successful Olympians, ever, Michael Phelps is a pot smoker.

The Natural News has pointed out that after much criticism of the athlete for smoking his bong, that it can hardly be seen as virtuous to publicly promote fast food to kids; one of the major causes of the obesity epidemic, let alone heart disease. Whilst Phelps’ pot smoking is a private affair until some rapscallion shares their photos with the gutter press, his pushing of these calorie laden grease traps however actually effects millions of people.

If ever proof was needed of the innocuous nature of the herb, this is it. The sad truth of legislation, however was further highlighted when Obama’s pledge or support for medical marijuana was proved to be fraudulent. As California police seized the beneficial herbs from patients in the state which has been attempting to utilise their benefits for some time.

‘Be the Change’…? How about we change the law so that natural herbs can be used, legally and mechanically processed, dead animal, fat laden products aren’t advertised to kids as virtuous sports enhancing, life style bonanzas….just an idea.

originally published on Znet

Out of the pariah state into the tumult of international rejection, the story of Burma’s desperate minorities and the tyranny they flee from.

The Rohinga journey, taking to the sea, from the depths of ethnic oppression is a story that scars the 21st century and ridicules notions of progress and enlightenment, it is time Asia woke up to the vacuum of morality that lies in its midst.

The faces of desperation, the scarred, emaciated bodies that have washed up on the pristine beaches of the Andaman Sea are a rare glimpse into that darkness, a darkness that is intentionally hidden by the regime. Treated like vermin by the Thai police intercepting them, cajoled like cattle they are manoeuvred away from tourists with savage beatings. Whilst many have shown signs of burns from when they’re vessels were set alight by the Thai police.

It is said that over a thousand Rohinga people from South West Burma have arrived in Thailand and been returned from whence they came; the sea. And this month the world has shared in this tragic reaction to the humanitarian crisis these people have fled in their homeland. It is a collusion in many ways, an abrogation of morals form the perpetrating Thai authorities and an eye opening lesson in the lengths that people will go to fight for their and their families subsistence.

The reaction of the Thai authorities shames an otherwise progressive and accommodating society, but this story is one that only has one root cause, a cause that must be tackled at its root. Regional players must recognise this particularly if their security forces are prepared to knowingly commit innocents to the open waves, sending them off with beatings, little food an no engine, hoping that ‘the wind will carry them to India or somewhere’ as one Thai official noted under anonymity to the press.

The root cause however is the Burmese Junta and its oppression of its subjected people, particularly ethnic minorities. This is not simply a tale of lack of rights, freedom of expression or democracy, surrounding countries must recognise and bare witness to systematic crimes against humanity, often committed against ethic or religious minorities because of their descent. These crimes include forced labour, people trafficking, rape, extra judicial killings and heavy handedness that would make Atilla the Hun look like Ghandi, all committed by government forces with impunity.

These crimes are now also not something that can be hidden away, clouded by gas, teak and gem deals, the crimes that the Burmese people are subject to, will increasingly affect their neighbours whether or not those nations choose to have ‘non interference’ foreign policies as they naturally take the perilous choice to flee across international borders.

The crimes are committed by an organised, authoritarian military able to sustain itself on the fortunes pouring in from her ‘non interfering’ neighbours. The Shwe Gas project is a case in point. It will channel the natural wealth of this impoverished land abroad via pipeline. The gas will be extracted from the seabed by a U.S. company; Trans Ocean Inc., the exclusive purchasing rights will be owned by a Chinese one, CNPC, whilst the bulk of the project is owned by the Daewoo Company of Korea, Korea Gas corporation, Oil and Natural Gas Corporation and Gas Authority of India.

If proof were further needed of the plight of Burmese minority groups, the treatment of ‘the forgotten people’, as Human Rights Watch (HRW) recently described the Chin people, was examined in a report of theirs. Inhabitants of an inaccessible region on the Burma India border, a border region that is racked with unrest on the Mizoram (Indian) side as it stands. The HRW report highlights the brutality and impoverishment that the Chin flee from only to be ‘unrecognised’ by the Indian government and then left to the mercy of the embattled locals or returned to the brutality. This leaves those who avoid deportation in the precarious situation that so many migrant communities do, as ‘unpeople’, pariahs forced into the hands of exploitative labour and abuse. Incidentally the deportation, by the government is a further crime under international law, stating as it does that returning migrants who they know will be mistreated, is a crime.

The Chin are persecuted for their religion, Christianity, just as the Rohingas are reviled for theirs, Islam. Religion is one plank in the systemic control that the military junta wield; violence is the main one however. For the thousands who do flee, whether because they went to the wrong meeting, ran from forced conscription or labour the trauma these memories produce will eternally remind them who is sadly still boss in their homeland.

To have killed your first kid?

Surely a right of passage for any self respecting U.S. president. Not that anybody should have been surprised, given the bucket loads of cash that Obama accrued from defence contractors during his marathon funding adventure prior to election.

Obama’s promised escalation of the Afghanistan theatre lead to ‘unspecified numbers of civilians’ losing their lives in Pakistan this week in the countries tribal region; victims of an unmanned drone.

The lack of action from Obama over Israel’s defiance of international law and the U.N. also raises questions of whether, even given the will to do so, Obama can reign in free flowing Israeli aggression, given his subservience to the ‘military industrial complex’, and its reliance on Israeli consumption of U.S. arms.

Stop the War coalition and Media Workers Against the War are organising a solidarity protest at Grosevnor square to demand the release of the ‘Baghdad Shoe Thrower’ Muntadar al-Zaidi. The journalist has been held for the past few days and has reportedly suffered broken limbs, ribs and internal bleeding according to the BBC.

He has not been held under specific charges, but was evidently not in one of George Bush’s ‘free speech zones’.

Come along and express your grievances and chuck a few shoes around and help deliver a letter demanding his release this friday.