Here’s a summary of the what’s going on day-to-day...
Approximately 8 months after the so-called “free” elections held November 7, 2010, the first since 1990, the country continues to sink further into civil strife. The elections served as a calalyst for the current fear, unrest and upsurge in conflict.
Refugees are fleeing Burma in the thousands, streaming across the border into Thailand. All this in the wake of Burma’s first elections in two decades. Armed and hostile conflict continues between government troops and ethnic Karen tribesmen in Karen state.
The ruling military junta in Burma (officially known since the early-60s as Myanmar) allowed the first election since 1990 under extreme pressures from civil unrest. Election results were as expected... the current ruling Union Solidarity and Development Party the foundational parties of the dictaorship, won all offices by a landslide, capturing the vast majority of the seats in a newly created parliament.
Every election observer and international government, including the Unites States have condemned the election as totally fraudulent.
U.S. president Barack Obama called the elections “anything but free and fair...” “For too long the people of Burma have been denied the right to determine their own destiny,” he said.
U.S. Secretary of State Hilary Clinton said the “flawed elections ... once again expose the abuses of the military junta and it’s heartbreaking because the people of Burma deserve so much better...”
Somsri Han-Anuntasuk, director of the Asian Network for Free Elections Foundation, was equally critical. “This election is a joke...” he told “There are many layers of cheating and irregularity...”
In some 3,400 villages across Myanmar, comprising about five percent of the eligible electorate, voting was disallowed, according to ALTSEAN, a human rights and democracy group. The group accuses regime officials of harassing, intimidating and coercing non-junta candidates and their supporters, and also of engaging in “vote buying schemes.”
Election monitors who operated secretly inside the country said that many Burmese were given ballots “pre-marked” with votes for the junta’s party, according to reporting global news agencies.
WHAT WAS THE RESPONSE?
Civil unrest. Myanmar is a ticking time-bomb. The only remaining question... when will it blow up into full scale civil war. Members of Burma’s oppressed ethnic groups have attacked government troops and commandeered government buildings in southern Burma. The rebels seem to be a splinter group of the usually pro-junta Democratic Karen Buddhist Army.
The army that seized control of Burma in 1962, has amassed a record of human rights abuses, aimed at Burma’s ethnic minorities, which make up 40 percent of the population.
Minority ethnic groups feared the election would be nothing more than a tool of the entrenched regime to legitimize the military-backed government, further threatening their existance. Genocide is not new to Myanmar’s regime. They have in the past pursued genocidal extermination of Burma’s ethic peoples.
The ruling parties controlled by the dictators of Mynamar do not desire change, care nothing for their citizens or the deplorable conditions people are forced to live under. They care only for power and control.
Burma’s last elections, held in 1990, gave an overwhelming victory to pro-democracy leader and Nobel Peace Prize recipient Aung San Suu Kyi. The military immediately annulled the elections and imprisoned Suu Kyi in her home, where she has spent a cumulative 16 out of the last 21 years.
Even imprisoned as she is... Suu Kyi continues to be a beacon of hope for Burma’s oppressed peoples and a voice for reform, democracy and opening the country to the outside world.
Many reports, unverified but non-the-less reliable, are regularly received from native Burmerse who are trying to tell the true story of what is going inside Myanmar. Many are native Burmese misisonaries, undercover journalists in the country on tourist visas, and others are reporting the extreme unrest in the country.
Here are just a few brief excerpts from dispatches received...
“There are battles in Kachin State and in Shan State in Myanmar, rebels fighting the government soldiers....”
“Thousands of civilians are fleeing to the nearest shelters. Many of them are without food and medicine. Some are trapped, on the China border, with no where to run....”
There are frequent reports of terrorist like attacks and bombs exploding in heavily populated shopping areas of Yangon ( Rangoon).
In the aftermath of Cyclone Nargis and the horrific loss of life the government did little to nothing for the devasted area or the survivors without shelter, food or fresh water. If not for the efforts of foreign supported native missionaries and foreign mission organizations, many survivors would have perished in the hot humid climate of the delta region.
WHAT CAN BE DONE TO HELP THE PEOPLE OF MYANMAR?
Pray for the daily needs of the innocent people to be met. Remember God lets good things fall on believer and unbelievers alike. The majority population of Burma is Buddhist, and they are often the target of government opression. They also respond positively to hearing the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Through the many trials and hardhsips... God’s Word is being faithfully preached by a dedicated group of Christian evangelists, supported by Western missions and individual Christians.
Don’t give up on our brothers and sisters in Myanmar! CONTIUNE to SUPPORT them in every way you can. PRAY... the God’s will be done in Myanmar and that His Name be preached and glorified through the faithfulness of a few loyal servants of the Most High God!
