My own personal musings, wonderings, thoughts, and results of personal studies. Also, occasional comments on world events.

 

Burma is still holding political dissident Aung San Suu Kyi in "protective custody". In this case, they're protecting themselves from anything she might have to say. They arrested her and, according to Amnesty International, about 100 other people back in May. The U.S. embassy says they've received information that she's on a hunger strike, but that's difficult to confirm.

There are a couple of things that really concern me. The first is that while news organizations were all over this the first few days after she disappeared, this is the first story I've seen on the issue in the last 6 weeks or so. Sure, I've been out of commission during part of that time, but you'd think this would rate higher. Why has the news media not been playing this up more?

The other really bizarre part of this story comes from this quote:

Rangoon's foreign ministry issued a statement calling the hunger strike claim "groundless," a denial repeated by an official at the Burmese Embassy in Canberra, Australia Thursday.

Rangoon's ambassador to Britain has also reportedly denied the report, according to the Thailand-based Burma newspaper, Irrawaddy.

"How could anybody know that she's on hunger strike when you don't even know where she is?" ambassador Kyaw Win was quoted as telling the BBC.

The government is holding a political prisoner without charges for several months, they haven't allowed any international organization to see her in weeks, and now there are rumors that she's on a hunger strike. Yet, somehow, the government thinks it will make them look better to also point out that she's being held at a secret location. ??????????????

This is a bad situation. Someone needs to do something and that's only likely to happen if the press makes a big enough stink. Given that, why has the press been relatively silent on the issue? Is it just that no one can find a way to blame this on Bush? Does no one care becaause Burma isn'ta "sexy" enough part of the world? Is it because her people aren't being "persecuted by the EVIL JEWS^TM. I don't have a clue, but regardless, the lack of journalistic interest doesn't sit well with me.

Update-For full disclosure, I've got to admit that I'm pretty upset with myself for letting this one slide as of late.
posted by jeffrey at Thursday, September 04, 2003