According to today’s article in the SPIEGEL, the killing continues in Rangoon — under the cover of the night. Military vehicles containing anti-insurgency police and the so-called “Lome-Ten,” a unit of gangsters and ex-convicts who do the regime’s dirty work, drive around after dark, surrounding monasteries and brutally beating the monks. When the monks lie on the ground, bleeding from serious head injuries, they’re thrown into a truck. They don’t receive any medical attention, and nobody knows whether they’re alive or not.
A local staff member of the UN and three of her family were abducted from their home before dawn on Wednesday, the New York Times reports. Helicopters fly over the city and military trucks drive through the streets all night long. Loudspeakers blare out messages which a United States diplomat translated roughly with “We have your pictures. We’re going to come and get you.”
Please sign the Avaaz.org petition, if you haven’t done so already. About 50,000 more people joined since last night. By threatening the Burmese regime with sanctions, the Chinese government could indeed make a difference and help to end the unbearable situation. Since China is hardly a paragon of virtue when it comes to human rights, they can’t afford additional offenses if they want to present an acceptable face to the world at next year’s Olympic Games.
