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Mizzima: Junta, the Burmese Taliban

Subject: Mizzima: Junta, the Burmese Taliban
From: mizzima@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Date: Tue, 10 Apr 2001 00:14:00

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Junta, the Burmese Taliban

By: Ko Gay, April 10, 2001
Mizzima News Group (www.mizzima.com)

The Taliban has demolished the huge images of Lord Buddha in central
Afghanistan?s Hindu Kush mountains that were carved in sandstone cliffs
near the central city of Bamiyan in spite of the world?s entreaties not
to destroy them. The UN Secretary General Kofi Annan flew to Islamabad
to make a last minute appeal. He met with Wakil Ahmed Muttawakil, the
Foreign Minister of Afghanistan who admitted that this destruction will
not help the Taliban image abroad. He said they are bent on showing off
what they can do within their own country giving a clear signal that
they have no sentiment to other people?s feeling or respect for other
religion?s edifice. A carbon copy of typical Burmese Generals?
mentality.

Mr Annan said, ?This will be the most lamentable decision that will do
a great of disservice not only to them but to Islam itself in whose name
they claim to be doing it?.

But to no avail. Truck-loads of dynamite were brought in as the local
militia drilled holes, planted dynamite in them and shaved off layer
after layer of rocks with a series of explosions. It took only 48 hours
to destroy the two Buddha images 36.5 metres and 53 metres tall after
Mullah Mohammed Omar issued an edict on Feb.26th of what had been
standing for more than 2,000 years. The Taliban boast of turning history
into rubble.

The Taliban did not even give a consideration, to the request of the
Islamic scholars from the 53- nations Organization of Islamic
Conference, not to mention the entreaties of several Buddhist nations
including Thailand, Sri Lanka, Cambodia and Japan.

But Burma, whose population is more than 80% Buddhists belonging to the
Theravada school of thought, did not even lift a finger of protest or
any other sort. Why? The reason is simple: because they themselves had
destroyed several Buddhist images and pagodas without anybody?s
knowledge. They were able to achieve this in a much subtler way.

The Generals just hewed out the entombments of the holy sites at night,
took their treasures and closed them without anybody seeing them. In
1997, the junta (SPDC) member General Ye Myint hewed the jewels from the
entombment of the famous Mahamyatmuni Pagoda in Mandalay. Also in the
70s General Ne Win at the insistence of his wife Daw Khin May Than,
ordered that the vane (hti) of Shwedagon Pagoda, the holiest of the
Buddhist shrines be taken down with the intention of taking its jewels.
Only an earthquake that shook his State house stopped him. Since then he
has been living at his residence beside the Inya lake, another building
that was forcibly taken from the BOC (Burma Oil Company, a British
subsidiary). It is believed that Daw Khin May Than in her next existence
is running around the Shwedagon Pagoda.

Not satisfied with this, the Junta has killed thousands of Buddhist
monks in Mandalay. A great many were carted off to jail and tortured
just for preaching their gospel of truth. In this sense they are worse
than the Taliban, but the world knows very little of these heinous acts.

Their hypocrisy is also superb. Often than not they usually displayed
themselves at the Pagodas and Buddhist shrines in the Burmese media to
make the people believe that they are pious themselves and the defenders
of the Buddhist faith. Thus they would go to great lengths to ask China
to let Lord Buddha?s tooth come to Burma for the people to worship and
pay respect to with much pomp and ceremony, while they took credit. But
at the same time they secretly persecuted hundreds of the young Monks of
Burma for opposing their tyrannical rule.

These two pariah governments have several things in common. Between them
they monopolize the production of narcotic drugs, especially heroin No 4
producing more than 90% of the global supplies as according to the World
Drug Report. The UN has estimated that over 180 million people are
addicted to narcotic drugs. Both the Burmese Junta and the Taliban have
made no secret of this.

They reduced the historical sites to rubble with the intention of
removing the people or the religion so completely as to erase the
evidence that the people of another religion or ethnicity had once lived
in a particular place. Thus the Junta deliberately destroyed the
Saopha?s Haw (the Shan Chief?s palace) of Kengtung to completely
obliterate the Shan?s heritage and subjugate the people into submission
as they had done earlier to Taing Ta Yar Kyaung (A big Karen Baptist
Church in Bassein known as Taing Ta Yar because it had a hundred huge
teak pillars). These pernicious act goes to the very marrow of the
ethnic people who can neither forgive nor forget them. In the same way
General Ne Win?s destroying of the Rangoon University Student?s Union
was beyond redemption and generations of students have taken up the
cudgels. General Ne Win, who has just celebrated his 91st birthday, is
still fearful of the young students who could even be called his great
grand children.

These destruction of monuments can be interpreted as symptomatic of a
form of barbarity that does not balk at massacring human beings. In fact
the Junta has come to power massacre about 10,000 to 20,000 people in
the whole of Burma in 1988 alone. The Talibans are also in the same boat
when they massacre their opponents. That fate of the Buddha images both
in Burma and Afghanistan can be seen as a symbol of the tragedy endured
by the entire people of their respective countries who have been robbed
of their rights, and children who have no schools or hospitals to go
implemented by these ignorant and bloodthirsty military brutes.
Afghanistan?s Pathan normads or the Burmese military have never been a
very peaceful nor tolerant people and as such these kind of unreasonable
act is to be expected.

The Taliban and the Burmese Junta will go down in the annals of history
of the new millennium as the most uncivilized regimes that the world
have ever witnessed in this century. In fact the world sympathized with
Afghanistan when they were fighting against the Russians as they had
with Ne Win?s Caretaker Government of 1958-59, but once they are in
power they just show their real mentality. Perhaps what Daw Aung San Suu
Kyi in her Freedom From Fear says, ?Power corrupts? is universally true.

The common denominator between the Burmese Junta and the Taliban is that
they seem to express that they have no interest at all in what the
civilized world think of them or what other societies cared about. ?I am
the monarch of all I survey and there?s no one to dispute? seems to be
their attitude.

On the other hand, we understand that there is an inevitable attrition
going on in, a finite number of sites, at a time when demographic,
economic and environmental pressures are increasing which suggests
mathematically that there will come a turn when much less of the old
will be left. Certainly in the case of Afghanistan there is no threat to
Islam from a religion that has not existed in that part of the world for
many years. So also the Kengtung Saopha?s Haw, a beautiful historical
monument, which the Burmese Junta demolished to construct a new hotel,
is without justification whatsoever.

The willful destruction of old things demonstrates the animal-like
mentality. They cannot stand the sight of simple beauty, grace and
history. The Burmese Junta and the Taliban represent the most aggressive
belief system that promotes conquering states, expanding empires, and
colonizing minds as well as places. Another classic example is the
Burmese forces beheading of the Buddha images of Ayuthia, which the Thai
can never forgive nor forget. As homo sapiens we expect people to die;
we count on our own lives to end. But the destruction of a monument is
something else...an attempt to grasp eternity.

(The author, Ko Gay, contributed this article to Mizzima News Group.)

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<!doctype html public "-//w3c//dtd html 4.0 transitional//en">
<html>

<center>&nbsp;&nbsp; Junta, the
Burmese Taliban</center>

By: Ko
Gay, April 10, 2001
 Mizzima News Group (<a href="http://www.mizzima.com";>www.mizzima.com</a>)
The Taliban has demolished the huge images of Lord Buddha
in central Afghanistan?s Hindu Kush mountains that were carved in sandstone
cliffs near the central city of Bamiyan in spite of the world?s entreaties
not to destroy them. The UN Secretary General Kofi Annan flew to Islamabad
to make a last minute appeal. He met with Wakil Ahmed Muttawakil, the Foreign
Minister of Afghanistan who admitted that this destruction will not help
the Taliban image abroad. He said they are bent on showing off what they
can do within their own country giving a clear signal that they have no
sentiment to other people?s feeling or respect for other religion?s edifice.
A carbon copy of typical Burmese Generals? mentality.
Mr Annan said,&nbsp; ?This will be the most lamentable
decision that will do a great of disservice not only to them but to Islam
itself in whose name they claim to be doing it?.
But to no avail. Truck-loads of dynamite were brought
in as the local militia drilled holes, planted dynamite in them and shaved
off layer after layer of rocks with a series of explosions. It took only
48 hours to destroy the two Buddha images 36.5 metres and 53 metres tall
after Mullah Mohammed Omar issued an edict on Feb.26th of what had been
standing for more than 2,000 years. The Taliban boast of turning history
into rubble.
The Taliban did not even give a consideration, to the
request of the Islamic scholars from the 53- nations Organization of Islamic
Conference, not to mention the entreaties of several Buddhist nations including
Thailand, Sri Lanka, Cambodia and Japan.
But Burma, whose population is more than 80% Buddhists
belonging to the Theravada school of thought, did not even lift a finger
of protest or any other sort. Why? The reason is simple: because they themselves
had destroyed several Buddhist images and pagodas without anybody?s knowledge.
They were able to achieve this in a much subtler way.
The Generals just hewed out the entombments of the holy
sites at night, took their treasures and closed them without anybody seeing
them. In 1997, the junta (SPDC) member General Ye Myint hewed the jewels
from the entombment of the famous Mahamyatmuni Pagoda in Mandalay. Also
in the 70s General Ne Win at the insistence of his wife Daw Khin May Than,
ordered that the vane (hti) of Shwedagon Pagoda, the holiest of the Buddhist
shrines be taken down with the intention of taking its jewels. Only an
earthquake that shook his State house stopped him. Since then he has been
living at his residence beside the Inya lake, another building that was
forcibly taken from the BOC (Burma Oil Company, a British subsidiary).
It is believed that Daw Khin May Than in her next existence is running
around the Shwedagon Pagoda.
Not satisfied with this, the Junta has killed thousands
of Buddhist monks in Mandalay. A great many were carted off to jail and
tortured just for preaching their gospel of truth. In this sense they are
worse than the Taliban, but the world knows very little of these heinous
acts.
Their hypocrisy is also superb. Often than not they usually
displayed themselves at the Pagodas and Buddhist shrines in the Burmese
media to make the people believe that they are pious themselves and the
defenders of the Buddhist faith. Thus they would go to great lengths to
ask China to let Lord Buddha?s tooth come to Burma for the people to worship
and pay respect to with much pomp and ceremony, while they took credit.
But at the same time they secretly persecuted hundreds of the young Monks
of Burma for opposing their tyrannical rule.
These two pariah governments have several things in common.
Between them they monopolize the production of narcotic drugs, especially
heroin No 4 producing more than 90% of the global supplies as according
to the World Drug Report. The UN has estimated that over 180 million people
are addicted to narcotic drugs. Both the Burmese Junta and the Taliban
have made no secret of this.
They reduced the historical sites to rubble with the intention
of removing the people or the religion so completely as to erase the evidence
that the people of another religion or ethnicity had once lived in a particular
place. Thus the Junta deliberately destroyed the Saopha?s Haw (the Shan
Chief?s palace) of Kengtung to completely obliterate the Shan?s heritage
and subjugate the people into submission as they had done earlier to Taing
Ta Yar Kyaung (A big Karen Baptist Church in Bassein known as Taing
Ta Yar because it had a hundred huge teak pillars). These pernicious
act goes to the very marrow of the ethnic people who can neither forgive
nor forget them. In the same way General Ne Win?s destroying of the Rangoon
University Student?s Union was beyond redemption and generations of students
have taken up the cudgels. General Ne Win, who has just celebrated his
91st birthday, is still fearful of the young students who could even be
called his great grand children.
These destruction of monuments can be interpreted as symptomatic
of a form of barbarity that does not balk at massacring human beings. In
fact the Junta has come to power massacre about 10,000 to 20,000 people
in the whole of Burma in 1988 alone. The Talibans are also in the same
boat when they massacre their opponents. That fate of the Buddha images
both in Burma and Afghanistan can be seen as a symbol of the tragedy endured
by the entire people of their respective countries who have been robbed
of their rights, and children who have no schools or hospitals to go implemented
by these ignorant and bloodthirsty military brutes. Afghanistan?s Pathan
normads or the Burmese military have never been a very peaceful nor tolerant
people and as such these kind of unreasonable act is to be expected.
The Taliban and the Burmese Junta will go down in the
annals of history of the new millennium as the most uncivilized regimes
that the world have ever witnessed in this century. In fact the world sympathized
with Afghanistan when they were fighting against the Russians as they had
with Ne Win?s Caretaker Government of 1958-59, but once they are in power
they just show their real mentality. Perhaps what Daw Aung San Suu Kyi
in her Freedom From Fear says, ?Power corrupts? is universally true.
The common denominator between the Burmese Junta and the
Taliban is that they seem to express that they have no interest at all
in what the civilized world think of them or what other societies cared
about. ?I am the monarch of all I survey and there?s no one to dispute?
seems to be their attitude.
On the other hand, we understand that there is an inevitable
attrition going on in, a finite number of sites, at a time when demographic,
economic and environmental pressures are increasing which suggests mathematically
that there will come a turn when much less of the old will be left. Certainly
in the case of Afghanistan there is no threat to Islam from a religion
that has not existed in that part of the world for many years. So also
the Kengtung Saopha?s Haw, a beautiful historical monument, which the Burmese
Junta demolished to construct a new hotel, is without justification whatsoever.
The willful destruction of old things demonstrates the
animal-like mentality. They cannot stand the sight of simple beauty, grace
and history. The Burmese Junta and the Taliban represent the most aggressive
belief system that promotes conquering states, expanding empires, and colonizing
minds as well as places. Another classic example is the Burmese forces
beheading of the Buddha images of Ayuthia, which the Thai can never forgive
nor forget. As homo sapiens we expect people to die; we count on our own
lives to end. But the destruction of a monument is something else...an
attempt to grasp eternity.
(The author, Ko Gay, contributed this article to Mizzima
News Group.)
&nbsp;</html>

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