Vol. 71/No. 40      October 29, 2007

Opposition groups in exile report that soldiers have seized between 6,000 and 10,000 Buddhist monks, students, and others. With jails overflowing, a sports center and a technical institute in Yangon, the capital, have been turned into prison camps.

According to press reports, 200 or more people have been killed since the military stepped up its repression following a September 24 protest of 100,000 people in Yangon.

The first protests in mid-August, sparked by the regime’s announcement of a drastic rise in fuel prices, were led by members of the 88 Generation Students group, veterans of a 1988-89 upsurge that was brutally repressed. Despite the arrests of some 120 activists, the movement snowballed.

Seeking to protect their interests in the region, the U.S., British, and other imperialist governments have stepped up their intervention. The United Nations Security Council—prodded by London, Washington, and Paris—criticized the crackdown and called for talks between Myanmar’s government, headed by Gen. Than Shwe, and bourgeois opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi of the National League for Democracy. The aim is “to achieve an inclusive national reconciliation,” the council said in an October 11 statement endorsed by all 15 member governments, including China and Russia.

Beijing, which is competing with the government of India for influence and profit in Myanmar, had previously described the Burmese crisis as an “internal matter.” Myanmar’s military buys most of its arms from China and Russia.

Burmese deposits of oil and gas have attracted investment from many capitalist interests in the region, and from imperialist companies such as Chevron in the United States and Total in France. These investments have spawned lucrative deals for the ruling generals.

The military controls “virtually every institution and most business enterprises,” noted the October 7 New York Times.

Reporters have commented on continued moods of defiance toward the dictatorship. The BBC reported from Yangon October 3 that “[t]hose with the courage to speak out say the Burmese are not just afraid but intensely angry.” One woman told the BBC reporter, “It’s unbelievable what the military has done. We cannot stop our fight now. We just have to think of other ways to go on protesting.”

In the south, the military faces continuing resistance from the Karen National Liberation Army, which demands autonomy for the Karen people, a national minority concentrated near the border with Thailand.

The government’s military campaigns against the Karen and other nationalities have driven half a million people from their homes. Those who flee to Thailand often face harassment and deportation by police and soldiers in that country. Thousands remain in Thai refugee camps.  
 
 
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