Pakistan and General Masharraf

While I was disturbed to hear the in Pakistan that General Masharraf had suspended and arrested the judiciary as well as imposing marshal law. While I was concerned that the reason for this, as claimed by the opposition, was that the judiciary were about to rule that it was unconstitutional for the head of the military to also be the head of the country. However, I wanted to look at the reality before making any comment, as General Masharraf was claiming that it has only been done to stop Islamic militants from gaining control of the country.

As when one of the opposition leaders, Benazir Bhutto, returned to Pakistan from exile there was a bombing attempt on her life, it looked as though there could be some truth in the general’s claim.

However, having looked at the situation it looks more as though he has imposed this state of emergency purely to retain power. It was looking as though his attempt to stand for president was going to be declared unlawful, so by imposing a state of emergency, arresting the judges then appointing his own judges, suddenly its declared legal.

The General does have a history of not keeping his word and allowing the electorate to decide who rules their country. Going back to when he first ceased power, when George Bush was seeking election to the presidency, George W rather famously didn’t know the General name. Well George W knows his name well now, perhaps he even learnt from him how to stage a coup, remember Florida and the hanging chads?

Then the General was saying that he would step down as head of the Army and would move to proper democratic elections. That still has not happened and it increasingly looks as though the elections that are due in Pakistan will have an inevitable outcome, the general gets elected.

This all makes the lack of condemnation by the British government and more importantly by the American Bush regime appear odd at least. In the past the UK and the US supported dictators only to rue the day. Iraq and its support is the most obvious example. At that time the US in particular thought that Iraq would destroy or at least seriously damage Iran. This proxy war ended up with the debacle we have now.

The parallels here is stark, the UK and US see Pakistan as an important partner in the “War on Terror”. But unlike the Dictator in Iraq, General Masharraf already has Nuclear weapons. If we don’t ensure that yet another dictator doesn’t take power again, in a few years time we could be looking at an even more serious war.

Burma

It was this issue that spurred me on to creating this on line journal more than any other story in the news. For years I have despaired at the fact that any country could have a craving for freedom yet have their rights so repressed. However it’s the fact that unlike so many other conflicts or disputes around the world, here the protestors have always been peaceful.

The greatest mistake that most groups or organisations make when calling for democracy or freedom is to use violence. No matter how noble the cause is, as soon as violence is used in or for that struggle towards freedom, they loose the support of so many people around the world. Also, it provides governments across the globe the excuse for doing nothing, as they can then argue that the protestors used criminality to provoke a reaction from whatever regime it is. However, here in Burma the protests were and always have been peaceful. The only real violence has been from a military dictatorship that has used its troops to kill its own people.

While the situation in Burma is no longer on the front pages, the repression still continues and the people who lined the streets and just clapped as the Monks walked past are being arrested, beaten and tortured.

We cannot allow yesterdays news to be forgotten, the last time there was a substantial call for freedom in Burma, and it ended with three thousand civilians being shot dead. This was not in one single event, but spread out over an eight-month period as troops went around liquidating opposition.

Even the thought of that makes me shudder, and can you imagine what it must be like to live in a country where just by speaking out against your government, you risk being murdered? That demonstrates the bravery of the monks that took to the streets in Rangoon, we owe them our support.

The Free Burma Campaign can be found at:
http://www.burmacampaign.org.uk