Burma's Bluff

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Burma's state media reported 9,002 prisoners were released this week as part of the junta's plan for a "peaceful modern discipline-flourishing democratic nation." Seven were political prisoners; most of the other 8,995 were petty criminals. That's a good indication of what the junta's plan for a "democratic nation" looks like.

It is, of course, still worth celebrating the freedom of the seven who were released -- especially today, which marks the one-year anniversary of the brutal crackdown on the Saffron Revolution. More than 2,100 political prisoners remain incarcerated, and 37 of those were arrested this month alone, according to Bo Kyi, co-founder of the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners in Burma.

Burma's ruling junta probably timed its prisoner bluff to coincide with the debates of the United Nations General Assembly, which began the same day the "amnesty" was announced. The generals want to deflect criticism from the country's brutal human-rights record. And U.N. officials are ready to grasp at any proof that U.N. Special Envoy Ibrahim Gambari's efforts to coax Burma toward democracy have been a success.

One of the dissidents released this week was Win Tin, a poet and activist imprisoned for more than 19 years. He told an Indian-based newspaper how he sees Burma today: "The democracy we [have] is not genuine democracy, just the democracy in uniform, democracy given by the military. We don't want this sort of democracy, democracy with an ogre's face." It's time for the U.N., and the world, to call the generals on their bluff.