Burma
Aung San Suu Kyi, winner of a Nobel Peace Prize, is still missing, kidnapped by Burma government thugs a week ago.
Burma is headed by a nasty dictatorship, known to use slave labor, torture and kill opponents. Plus, they produce half the heroin on the planet – why you’d think the neocons would be howling about how Burma needs some good ole U.S.A. style Democracy and Freedom.
But a google news search show no statements from the White House about the kidnapping. Not a peep.
Burma does business with oil companies like Unocal. Could this have some bearing on the White House silence about a Nobel Peace Prize winner being absconded by government goons?
Background:
“A group of Burmese refugees won a landmark victory Tuesday when a Los Angeles judge ruled that Unocal Corp. could be tried for human rights violations, including forced labor, that allegedly occurred during construction of a $1.2-billion natural gas pipeline in Myanmar.”
From the Free Burma coalition
“The military regime in Burma is the world’s worst abuser of forced labor, which is used most commonly for both infrastructure development and to support military operations. Allegations that forced labor has been used to build support facilities for the Yadana natural gas pipeline, a project of US based UNOCAL oil corporation and France based Total, include both forms of forced labor. Amnesty International has states that during the last seven years the scale of forced labor has increased dramatically in Burma, involving hundreds of thousands of civilians, including political prisoners.”
And, as always Amnesty International
More –
U.S. business coalition opposes Burma sanctions
“New sanctions against Myanmar, where pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi has been detained for a week, would do nothing to force the government to relinquish power, a U.S. business coalition said Friday.
“The proposed new sanctions will bring … neither freedom nor democracy to the Burmese people,” said Bill Reinsch, president of the National Foreign Trade Council.
“Existing U.S. sanctions have accomplished exactly nothing — other than to hurt a population that is in desperate need of economic aid,” Reinsch said in a statement.
Noble indeed – except then why didn’t they oppose sanctions in Iraq? Maybe because they had no business interests there, like they do in Burma?