It seems America and our allies are always debating sanctions vs. outright regime change for despot-ruled countries. But as FSM Contributing Editor Sandra Carney discusses, perhaps sanctions are not enough, and even the wrong course, to bring a country back to its original beauty of spirit and soul before the despots took over.
The injustice of impotent governments and dictatorships has lead to a malaise that has caused millions of citizens around the globe to be displaced from the lands of their birth and to seek refuge, employment and a safe and secure haven for their families in other countries.
In the USA, there is a furious debate on a daily basis as to what to do about the illegal crossings into our country from our porous borders. I’ll leave it to others to discuss the pros and cons of this debate. I would like to continue my conversation with you about Burma, a formerly-gorgeous country correctly referred to by President Bush as a terrorist nation.
Burma’s history is thousands of years old. One has only to visit Bagan to be enraptured by the awesome majesty of thousands of pagodas, some dating back 5,000 years. This land, in the politically-correct world known as Myanmar today, was inhabited by wandering tribes and warriors from China, Mongolia and India for a few hundred eons. Today Burma is comprised of approximately eight main ethnic groups, which are made up of over 100 different tribes and dialects. Among these are the Chins and Arakanese. The Burmese who settled in the plains of Burma are the rulers. The other minorities scattered to the mountainous regions of the country. The largest group are the Karens, who live near the Thai border, and have been crossing into Thailand by the hundreds of thousands in the last few years.
Britain conquered Burma in the 19th century and was her master for over a hundred years. Under colonial rule, these very diverse ethnic groups were treated as separate entities, known as the inhabitants of “Frontier Areas”. (The complex rule of divide and conquer that was applied to the mountain people still resonates today.)
As a consequence there was no sense of unity among the tribes and following independence in January, 1948, a struggle for power began between the Burmese and Karens. It culminated in the assassination of General Aung San, the father of famed Nobel laureate Suu Kyi, who remains under house arrest in Rangoon.
Today close to 60 years after independence, the country is no closer to unity than it was a century and a half ago. The hill tribes are all armed and are continually engaged in skirmishes with the ruling Burmese junta, who brutally squash all dissent. The cost to the hill tribes and ordinary Burmese citizens has been devastating, with tens of thousands dead and hundreds of thousands displaced. Burma’s economy is in shambles and the only thriving industry is the narcotic trade, which is being used to fund the conflict on all sides.
Though Burma has been ravaged, it still remains a remarkably rich country in natural resources. One of these resources is gas. There is a project under way referred to as “The Shwe Gas Project”, (shwe meaning gold) on the Arakan shores, with pipe lines to India and China. A South Korean company “Daewoo International” holds a 60% share in this international consortium.
The question now is: will history repeat itself? During the construction of the Yadana gas pipe line in the 1990’s, hundreds of thousands of tribes people were displaced, tortured, raped and murdered by the military junta, as labor was forced on them. It is estimated today by the ILO (International Labor Conference) that over 800,000 people are being imposed upon for involuntary servitude, in Burma today.
There are three confirmed deposits in this prized gas block in the Bay of Bengal, on the Arakan coast. Gold, platinum and silver and a fourth but as-yet-unconfirmed well of sapphires. The consortium has estimated that in just two of several blocks earmarked for exploration, there are gas fields with a reserve the equivalent to about 3.5 billion barrels of oil. It is estimated by Daewoo International, that there is more than 90 trillion cubic feet of natural gas in the three offshore fields and nineteen onshore fields. Burma owns the 10th largest natural gas reserve in the world.
The pipe lines meander through the Arakan into the Chin States to South China and on the western side to India. Both these countries are energy starved and will benefit greatly from this source. However, the Arakanese and Chins will reap little if any benefits. Since most of these tribes live without electricity and use wood for cooking, the sale of their natural resources is criminal on the part of the junta, who will benefit immensely to prop up the dictatorship and allow the continued raping of Burma and its citizens.
Do we, living in the comfort of a western free society, have a moral duty to help these pathetic people by opening wide our doors and welcoming them to the USA? A good question that I, who carry Burmese blood, have struggled with all of my adult days. I don’t really have an answer. But I do know that as an emigrant into this magnanimous society, I do have an obligation to make others aware of the plight of the Burmese people. So far the only recommendation from our legislators has been to ask for sanctions… yet again…..! This will only punish the already downtrodden, and have little or no effect on the despots.
Should the development of the Shwe project be stopped? It’s not for me to say.....but I do know there is a great need for this gas in the region. I believe we should bring force to bear on this brutal dictatorship, to use the profits derived from this exploration, to help the tribes people, whose resources they have been exploiting....and also to monitor the human rights violations.
In the name of humanity, we have opened our doors to endless refugees from this remarkably wealthy land. It is time for the Burmese people to walk under the flag of freedom and use their own resources to bring Burma into the 21st century. There is little wonder as to why it is that the doors of this dictatorship, whose slogan is “Burma’s way to Socialism”, are being knocked down … but with people trying to get out, instead of in … as is the case with the USA.
When I was a child, my father often took me to the coast. I remember the beaches of Sandoway, where the sand shimmered silver under the clear blue skies of the Arakan coast. Palm trees swayed in the warm breezes, beneath the golden sun. Sometimes we would stop for a drink of sweet toddy juice from the fruit of the toddy palms. As dad would drive his jeep onto the beech, I can never forget the sight of the moving bright red carpet that unfolded before our eyes, a carpet that covered the shimmering silver, as crabs by the hundreds disappeared into the warm sand.
Little did I know during those wonderful lazy, happy days of my childhood that, one day, those same beaches would be ravished by a savage brutal dictatorship and leave a demoralized citizenry to look on with helpless desperation.
“Oh, East is East, and West is West, and never the two shall meet. Till Earth and Sky stand presently at God’s great Judgment Seat; But there is neither East nor West, Border, nor Breed, nor Birth, When two strong men stand face to face, tho they come from the ends of the earth.”
FamilySecurityMatters.org Contributing Editor Sandra Carney is an Anglo-Burmese of British birth, born in India. She became an American citizen in 1972, having inherited her interest in politics from a family heavily inculcated in the politics of their times. Because of her mixed heritage, she is keenly interested in world events and fiercely protective of her adopted country, the U.S.A.