H15646
Headlines : Human RightsFive Generals and 400+ Soldiers Jailed for Refusing to Shoot Monks in Burma
See if this becomes “real news.” The original online version of this Jakarta Post story seems to have been replaced by this, but not before it was reprinted by several blogs and pro-Burma sites.
There is a lot happening in Burma right now, even though the network news wants you to believe things are “back to normal.” (repeat mantra hourly)
Keep informed at:
[Posted By Beagle17]
Republished from Jakarta Post
Burma’s ruling junta have detained five generals and more than 400 soldiers for disobeying orders to shoot and beat monks and other activists who took part in recent protests in Rangoon, an official said Monday.
The official, who asked for anonymity out of fear he would be punished by the junta, said it was the first sign of divisions in the country’s secretive establishment.
“The five generals expressed their refusal to deploy their troops against the monks openly. They were then quickly put into detention by the junta.
“Some 400 soldiers of the Saigaing Division near Mandalay also put down their guns in front of the monks, and asked for their forgiveness as they fully realized they had committed the biggest sin,” he told The Jakarta Post.
The official refused to disclose the names of the generals or give further details on where the generals and the soldiers were detained.
Posted by Beagle17
"RSS here": http://feeds.feedburner.com/GnnBeagle17 Grew up in Nova Scotia. Hold BSc. in Biology and Grad. Diploma Journalism. Moved to Korea in 1997, and Taiwan in 1999. Currently teaching, writing, and doing Web design. Concerned about depleted...
RELATED ITEMS
- Burma and the Press
Posted by anthony on Monday, October 1st 2007
Good to hear, not enough…
It does smack, however, of an auspicious beginning worth banking on. This is where and how the Venezuelan Revolution took off. Remember the Caracazo?
From das wikie
The riots — the worst in Venezuelan history — resulted in a death toll of anywhere between 275 and 3000 deaths, mostly at the hands of security forces.
In the context of the economic crisis that Venezuela had been going through since the early 1980s, President Carlos Andrés Pérez proposed to implement free-market reforms in his second presidential term (1989–1993), following the recommendations of the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
As a result of his economic measures, petrol prices [rose] by 100% and costs of public transportation by 30%.
The initial official pronouncements said 275 people had died; however, the subsequent discovery that the government had buried civilians in mass graves and not counted those deaths raised the estimates. Unofficial estimates of the death toll go as high as 3000.
END OF QUOTE again, who recommended the 500% rate hike?
That was in 1989.
OPEN QUOTE
In 1992 there were two attempted coups d‘état, in February and November.
Hugo Chávez, an organiser of one of the coups, was found guilty of sedition and incarcerated. However, he was subsequently pardoned by Pérez’s successor, Rafael Caldera, and went on to be elected president after him.
In 1998.
END OF QUOTE
So it took almost 10 years. But Carlos Andrés Pérez was removed from office in 93 — removed from office and sent to prison.
1989, 1990, 1991, 1992. And we’re moving more efficiently now.
Recommended reading Understanding the Venezuelan Revolution
While they were in the cooler, the coup plotters developed and expanded ideas about emerging a constitutional assembly. When they got out, they negotiated a deal where they would not all be automatically expelled from the army.
OPEN QUOTE
The military leaders of the movement, [Hugo Chavez] included, agreed to request discharges, but on the condition that some of them were allowed to stay.
END OF QUOTE
The one’s that didn’t stay, including Hugo, traveled the country to educate the country about Constitutional Assemblies.
OPEN QUOTE [in Hugo’s words]
In those first years, 1994-95, we hadn’t ruled out the possibility of reverting to the armed struggle, but we wanted to evaluate the possibilities in terms of real force, and we concluded that we didn’t have what it would take.
During the first two years [after we got out of prison] we traveled through the entire country. I don’t think that we skipped a single city, town, encampment, Indian village, or neighborhood. We went from town to town with the flag of the constitutional assembly, building the organization, strengthening it.
From the social perspective, we dedicated ourselves to finding out what the people thought.
END OF QUOTE
And then they took a poll and then The People gave Hugo The Mandate.
Nice find, Beagle. Perfect. Muchas gracias.