They went to the polls yesterday in Burma. Or at least those that support the government-backed parties in the pathetic excuse for a ‘free and fair’ general election, went to the polls for a vote that has rightly been boycotted by the main opposition party led by the incarcerated Nobel prize-winning dissident Aung Sang Suu Kyi. 

The Burmese people have been under military rule since the late 1950’s, a brutal regime that has murdered not hundreds, not thousands, but allegedly hundreds of thousands of its own people with barely a word of dissent offered from the democratic nations of the world. The indigenous people of northern Burma have borne the brunt of the state-sponsored violence. Whole tribal peoples have disappeared. The situation in this beautiful Buddhist land is intolerable, yet few if any major governments form the western world and beyond show any real interest in what is going on there. 

The Burmese situation, (like that of so many other despicable regimes in the world that go unpunished and overlooked), begs the question of why Israel is vilified on a daily basis for its actions in a country where human rights are observed to a far greater degree than any other in the Middle East and most others in Asia and the Far East? Many suggest that the agenda is one based on anti-Semitism, financial and economic considerations, or a combination of both. 

Israel often points out the anomaly in the treatment of its politicians against those of Burma and other similar dictatorships whose record on human rights is many, many times worse than the Jewish state, yet it should not be overlooked, (and in my opinion is a distinct black mark on Israeli foreign policy), that Israeli armaments are regularly sold to the Burmese authorities surely in the knowledge that they will be used to suppress and murder Burmese citizens. The Israeli government needs to take a stand on this issue and cease its supply of weaponry to the former British colony. 

I have a particular interest in Burma in that I visited the country more than a decade ago and found it to be without doubt the most enchanting place I have ever seen. Burma’s (or as the military government like it now to be known Myanmar’s), self-imposed isolation makes it a difficult place to enter and leave safely. It is not the least bit unusual to find yourself being followed by plain clothes policemen. In a country virtually untouched by commercialism and western influences, travelling is difficult and local guides are essential. The people are poor but inspiringly good spirited, gentle and kind. Their Buddhist temples are breathtaking, and the company of the monks, (many of whom were infamously massacred a few years ago when they supported public demonstrations against the government), was for me a truly unforgettable experience. 

Something needs to be done immediately to relieve the suffering of these wonderful people. I had a chance to help and fluffed it, and it is one of my deepest regrets. I wish I had taken the opportunity when it came along and been brave enough to assist the opposition, but circumstances conspired against me. 

It was spring 1999 and I had been travelling with Paz, (then my fiancée) across Burma, when we got to a beautiful former British colonial town up in the hills. I shalln’t give names of the locations or the people involved for fear that someone, somewhere in the regime, might happen upon this blog and act accordingly. 

Having given our guide the night off, we walked down into the town to a local tea house and enjoyed a lovely few hours. In brief, halfway back to our hotel a man (who it later transpired was a drug addict), appeared out of the twilight armed with a machete and attempted to kill us. Paz was stabbed, and after fighting desperately with the man, he fled with some money and a camera. The rarity of such a violent incident and the fact that the victims were foreigners ensured that high ranking police and other officials quickly came to the scene. Paz was rushed to hospital and had emergency surgery to save her hand and afterwards I was asked to give a statement. 

A distinguished Burmese man came to talk to me, a highly educated gent who it transpired was a senior figure in the underground opposition movement. He translated my statement from English to Burmese and then asked me to go for a stroll to see a viewpoint – I like a mug said I wasn’t in the mood for photo opportunities, and it had to be explained to me that there were spies for the regime everywhere and it was only safe to talk outdoors – and it was then that he asked me (having been made aware that I was involved in the British media), if I would take some documents out of the country to deliver to a third party who would expose human rights abuses occurring on a daily basis. 

My heart told me I should do whatever I could to help, but my head said that after such a violent incident it wasn’t wise to get wrapped up in anything that could get very messy if I was caught with the papers. I said I couldn’t help. He implored me to think again, “take 24 hours to think it over” he said, and I agreed to think about it. But 24 hours later, with a manhunt going on for our attacker and Paz and I both in a state of shock, I apologized and told him that much as I wholly sympathized with the cause and would in other circumstances have been proud to help, now just wasn’t the right time. He told me he quite understood and added his apologies to the dozens of apologies already received from the local people for our unsavoury experience. 

A couple of days later our attacker was caught, we indentified him at a police station, and he was later sentenced to a very long period in jail with hard labour. 

Despite that unfortunate experience, everything else in Burma was spectacular, (except the food, that was bloody awful), and the warmth of the people, the stunning sights such as the pyramids of Bagan, the Red Fort in Mandalay, the mystical Inle Lake, and the Golden Temple of the Shwedagon Paya in Rangoon, will never leave my memory. 

The Burmese people deserve freedom and a chance to rejoin the international community. If Israel seriously wants the world media to turn its attention to the awful situation in so many countries, (like that in Burma), and to tone down its anti-Israeli and in some cases anti-Semitic rhetoric, then the Israeli government should take the lead, adopt the moral high ground and stop selling weapons to the Burmese junta and any other regime that so flagrantly suppresses freedom of expression and human rights. 

Believe me, whatever the outcome of the general election in Burma, as long as the horrendous Orwellian dictatorship continues to receive weapons from Israel, China, India and doubtless many others, the Burmese people will never be free.

 

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