Dictators of Burma will be ousted s

[khin_s_w@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx]

SUU KYI KEEPS HOPE BURNING IN BURMA

If it were not for *  Aung San Suu Kyi, *we would never hear about
Burma. The
suppression of democracy and free speech, the torture of prisoners, the
forced labour could all be happily ignored. It is a small country a long

way away after all.

Suu Kyi forces us, at least once in a while, to pay attention. Her
continued high profile embarrasses democratic governments into imposing
sanctions, or atleast into giving stern lectures to Burma's foreign
affairs
minister.

Suu Kyi is not just another faceless victim of this regime, which ranks
with the worst in the world. She is a Nobel Peace Prize winner, the wife
of
an Oxford University Scholar, the daughter of a national hero of Burma.
A
decade ago, she gave up home, family and security in England to lead the

fight for democracy in Burma.

Since then she has suffered six years of house arrest, years of not
seeing
her husband and sons, daily harassment from the authorities. She has
also
rallied Burmese to the causes of democracy:her National League for
Democracy
party won an estimated 80% of votes in the 1990 general election, a
result
ignored by the generals who run Burma.

In the past week, Suu Kyi has again drawn headlines as she had yet
another
dangerous confrontation with Burma's military junta. For six days she
sat
in a car, with government security forces barring her way to a meeting
with
supporters. Finally, her health failing and her doctors clearly worried,

she was forced to return home.

It is likely no coincidence that this standoff happened while Burma's
foreign affairs minister was meeting his counterparts at the annual
summit
of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations in Manila. What better way
of
shaming the diplomats of the region for their failure to put meaningful
pressure on the Burmese dictators ?

A cynic might question what Suu Kyi has accomplished for her decade of
resistance, since the junta is still in power.

What she has done is kept hope alive, given the Burmese people an
inspiring
leader in the fight for democracy and kept pressure on the junta to make

changes.

No doubt, if they thought they could get away with it, the generals
would
have put a bullet in her head years ago. That they haven't is a measure
of
the potency of the democratic movement in Burma and the junta's fear
that
it could get out of hand.

Aung San Suu Kyi has been told by the junta she can leave Burma at any
time, so long as she promises to stay out of politics. That she hasn't,
that she has chosen to dedicate her life to this non-violent struggle,
is a
measure of her courage and commitment.

Dictators always look unassailable, right up until the day they topple
and
disappear. When they topple in Burma and they will, some day , they will
be
blaming Suu Kyi FOR THEIR FALL.

>From the Editorial
The Edmonton Journal
Tuesday , August 4 , 1998