Madam, – I refer to Magan’s World (Go, March 5th). Mr Magan wonders how the 50 million Burmese people “can allow themselves be kidnapped by a tiny military elite for half a century”. The answer is that the “tiny military elite” commands an army of oppression which, along with police and militia, totals close to half a million tightly-controlled and heavily armed “terrorists”, who ruthlessly carry out the generals’ policies. Their modus operandi is well documented and includes imprisonment, torture, killing, rape and ethnic cleansing. At present there are more than 2,000 political prisoners in Burma.
And yes, in light of the above and the recent sham elections, rightly condemned by worldwide democratic bodies including the UN and the EU, Mr Magan is being “naive to hope that Aung San Suu Kyi’s release from house arrest on November 13th, 2010 may have marked a new beginning”. Would that it were not so, but the overwhelming evidence does not support his hope. – Yours, etc,