Myanmar police fire on protesters in ancient former capital

Sanctions destroy ordinary people’s lives.

Why are all the Governments of the World so slow to do anything about this? Amazing. What has Japan done so far? We know that America has already stopped 1B USD from getting in the hands of the cowardly military.

Sanctions do not work. Gorilla tactics do. Learn from Vietnam

Michael MachidaToday  01:17 pm JST

Why are all the Governments of the World so slow to do anything about this? Amazing. What has Japan done so far? We know that America has already stopped 1B USD from getting in the hands of the cowardly military.

And remember - Myanmar has been waging ethnic internal wars against people with the 'wrong' language like the Shan, Karin, etc. That's been happening since the early 60s. And Myanmar right now is committing genocide against Rohignya people too. Whatever regime by whatever name, it's the same old crap.

GoodlucktoyouToday  01:10 pm JST

Sanctions destroy ordinary people’s lives.

Sanctions can be effective. They were essential on ending apartheid in South Africa in a peaceful way. Sanctions were imposed on Ex-Yugoslavia during the violent breakup but Serbian dictator Slobodan Milosevic had to get his ass beat by NATO interventional military force, eventually.

UN the peacekeepers. What a joke. They haven't done anything useful for the last decade. So many countries are suffering from oppression and all they do is threaten them with sanctions.

Sanctions do not work. Gorilla tactics do. Learn from Vietnam

Sanctions usually do work. I support them, and also Myanmar citizens rising up and mounting a guerrilla campaign targeting military, police, government and public servants. It may take a couple of years, but people power will win in the end. Myanmar needs a fresh start, without the Military or elderly Suu Kyi in power.

Sanctions do not work.

Sanctions do work. They helped, most notably, with bringing an end to apartheid in South Africa.

Gorilla tactics do. Learn from Vietnam

I don't recall primates helping bring an end to the carnage that left over 2 million Vietnamese dead, but the resolve of the people in that country managed to drag them out of the mire that colonialism, occupation and imperialism had them trapped in.

After the military is deposes, ASSK must step down, esp in light of her turning a blind eye to genocide.

I just don't get it, the military usually are an arm of the government not the other way around, the police the military are indigenous so their mums dads family are protesting and they authorities feel it's ok to shoot? That's a really bad ***** situation. Why are these generals so bent on doing the exact opposite of the populations wishes? Someone should tell them they will die naturally and their goals with them. It serves no purpose except to pad their own lack of self esteem.

Left-leaning diplomat types are ultimately responsible for this mess.

When Aung San Suu Kyi went back to her government 'to help', she was fresh off the shoulders of all the feel-good Western liberals, where she'd been paraded all over the place for being a 'woman of color' who won a Nobel Peace Prize and was going to go back and get gay marriage going, stop climate change, and what happened? She helped commit more atrocities.

Well, all the white liberals had egg on their face when that started happening a number of years back, so they all collectively decided to sit this one out.

@Cricky.

Myanmar can be difficult to understand for outsiders. The military has had a firm grip on power for more than half a century, and even during the last decade with experimenting with democracy, the military still mainly kept a huge part of the power.

And the way the military leaders make decisions are very superstitious. When the military in the 00s decided to move the capital to a newly developed area, it was after consulting with a fortune teller. Probably they did the same this time around.

Myanmar can be difficult to understand for outsiders

This is true. It is dangerous indeed for western governments and their citizens to try to see Myanmar and also China btw, through a western lens. They are very different societies from anything the west knows.

For those who think Myanmar is close to China, think again. The Burmese pretty much hate the Chinese. Their relationship is more like a forced marriage. Some in the Myanmar military are now saying part of the reason they staged the coup was that Suu Kyi was too close to the Chinese while the Tatmadaw prefers to be aligned with the west. I don't know how true this is. Superficially it seems like nonsense, we are going to stage a coup and shoot people in the street to get closer to the west, but I have been aware of Burmese hatred of China for a long time.

morriconeloverMar. 7  10:04 pm JST

@Cricky.

Myanmar can be difficult to understand for outsiders. The military has had a firm grip on power for more than half a century, and even during the last decade with experimenting with democracy, the military still mainly kept a huge part of the power.

And the way the military leaders make decisions are very superstitious. When the military in the 00s decided to move the capital to a newly developed area, it was after consulting with a fortune teller. Probably they did the same this time around.

Almost every government function is based on superstition there. The 'Burmese Way to Socialism' economy was based on the number '9' and it eventually led to massive bankruptcies. There was the '8888' uprising but an internal military coup (SLORC) imposed even greater totalitarian oppression to Burma. The next year (1989) 'Burma' became 'Myanmar' due to superstition in alphabetology, but nothing really changed. And it's the crap now no matter what they say. And to keep as much out of sight as they can, foreigners are only allowed to be in Myanmar for less than 24 hours.