One year after Myanmar protests, Suu Kyi faces junta alone

BANGKOK (AFP) — One year after Myanmar's brutal crackdown on protests led by Buddhist monks, the world remains divided on how to handle the regime, leaving democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi alone against the generals.

With the United Nations powerless to extract reforms from the military regime, the 63-year-old Nobel Peace Prize winner has used sometimes desperate measures to make her own silent protests heard.

Aung San Suu Kyi, confined to house arrest for most of the last 19 years, refused to meet UN envoy Ibrahim Gambari last month and began turning away her daily food deliveries until her thin body was so weakened that her doctor had to place her on a drip.


Just one year ago on September 22, Aung San Suu Kyi stepped out of her house, tearfully greeting Buddhist monks protesting against the military, which has ruled this poor nation since 1962.

In the days that followed, more than 100,000 people took to the streets until security forces launched a crackdown on September 26. The UN estimates 31 people were killed, 74 were missing, and thousands arrested.

Under global pressure, particularly from neighbouring China, the regime made a few concessions, notably appointing a liaison officer in October to coordinate contacts with Aung San Suu Kyi.

Just one month later, she made known her desire for higher-level talks, which never materialised.

UN efforts to launch a dialogue with her National League for Democracy (NLD) as well as ethnic leaders are now at a stalemate, while Myanmar currently holds more political prisoners -- over 2,000, according to Amnesty International -- than it did before the "Saffron Revolution."

"I don't think the military is prepared to work with Aung San Suu Kyi -- they see her as a threat, so they'd rather not cooperate with her," said Myanmar analyst Aung Naing Oo, an exile living in Thailand.

The international community remains divided on Myanmar, with Western nations tightening sanctions and issuing statements to express their outrage.

But China, Russia, India and other Asian countries refuse to confront the regime, in the name of "non-interference."

"You have to wonder if the events in Tibet didn't force China to reconsider," one Western diplomat said, noting that Beijing is "much less inclined to exert pressure today on Myanmar."

India has taken a "pragmatic" approach, the diplomat said, since it has "everything to gain from good cooperation" -- not just access to Myanmar's increasingly important natural gas fields, but also help in combating insurgents on their common border.

And Russia's return to the global stage has allowed it to make clear that regarding Myanmar, "it's no longer the West that makes the law."

In May, junta leader Than Shwe, 75, didn't hesitate to push through a new constitution favorable to the military -- even as the nation was reeling from a cyclone that left more than 138,000 dead or missing and 2.4 million in need of aid.

Two long weeks passed before the junta agreed to a minimal level of cooperation with the UN and other aid agencies. Gambari's efforts to extend this humanitarian cooperation into the political arena have yielded no tangible results.

One year after the protests, the anger felt by much of the population has been replaced by resignation.

"The military is firmly in charge (and) the NLD doesn't have many cards to play," said John Virgoe, of the International Crisis Group.