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Published on October 6, 2007

The true picture is far worse. For instance, the monastery in a neighbourhood of Rangoon called Ngwe Kyar Yan was raided early this morning [Friday]. A troop of riot police - read: paid thugs - protected by military trucks, raided the monastery, where 200 monks were studying. They ordered all the monks to line up and banged and crushed each one's head against a brick wall. One by one, the peaceful, non-resisting monks fell to the ground, screaming in pain. Then, they tore off the red robes and threw them all in the trucks like rice bags and took them away.

The abbot was tied up in the middle of the monastery, tortured, bludgeoned, and died later. Thousands of people gathered outside the monastery, warded off by troops with bayoneted rifles, unable to help the monks being beaten inside. Eventually, only 10 out of 200 remained alive. There are bloodstains everywhere on the walls and floors of the monastery

Please tell the full truth of the fate of the monks - please. Arresting them wasn't enough; they have been bludgeoned to death." After reading this, I cried. I wonder if the leaders of China, India, Russia and Asean would react in the same way.

John Shepherd

Bangkok

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Sham democracy resembles  dictatorship

Edmund Burke, the English philosopher, said all that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing - and there has been much of that in the current Burma crisis. There has been finger-pointing in your columns, attributing blame in many quarters for inaction, yet no one has raised the very salient point that Singapore currently holds the position of Asean chair and has demonstrated lamentably pathetic leadership by doing nothing.

There is a well-worn saying: cometh the time, cometh the man. But in this case Singapore has been found very wanting. Not surprising really, as Singapore is similar in many ways to Burma. It has similar prohibitions on public assembly all the time, as Burma does in its current crisis. It has been run for a long time by the same clique, and dissent is not tolerated. The only difference being that Singapore is a sham democracy that manages to present an acceptable face to the world, and as such is lauded. I find very repellent the fact that if people are affluent but oppressed, that this is in some way acceptable.

The Lee dynasty has been very successful at bringing home the bacon; so what does true democracy matter? They, like their protege Thaksin, effortlessly use the tools of capitalism to suppress dissent within a civilised framework; money, the law and the courts do their work for them. They do not need tear gas and baton charges. Their repression is just as brutal but more sophisticated than the none-too-bright generals in Burma can manage. The hypocrites in the West are quite happy to do business with the Lees, as they are leaders of a democracy - yes a democracy - that rates 146th for press freedom in the world rankings of 168, which puts it beneath Zimbabwe at 140th place.

It is often said that in a crisis we are seen in our true colours. It would seem in Singapore's case to be a truism.

Andrew Hamilton

Bangkok

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Burmese opposition needs help from outside

Re: "Dictatorship signs its own death sentence", Letters, September 27.

Myint Thein's lament for the Burmese people having to fight their cause alone was somewhat arrogant in a time of need.

Any help in any form, and from anyone, is essential to the Burmese "uprising", and historically the world has not left the Burmese to their own fate. Spiritually, we all abhor the junta for being insufferable bullies, and have expressed so in many media outlets, especially the opinion/editorial pages of this press. The unfortunate part is that those who have clout over the junta have their interest in their resources and therefore have no wish to rock the boat that has been good to them. But fortunately there are more selfless people who are now saying enough is enough. I have a secret wish that President George W Bush's whisper to Hu Jin Tao might matter now because of their huge partnership in trade.

So, any thoughts of the Burmese opposition fighting its own battle without the help of outsiders is doomed from the start - and that is what those bullies would want.

Songdej Praditsmanont

Bangkok

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Send a direct message: ban flights from Burma

I am curious as to why Thailand is allowing Air Bagan to keep operating out of Rangoon into Bangkok. Air Bagan is owned by a close ally of Than Swe.

Suspending Air Bagan flights until serious reforms are implemented, and Aung San Suu Kyi is released from confinement, would be a good message to send: that it cannot be business as usual anymore.

Michael Berbae

Bangkok

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Words can speak as loudly as pictures

Because that old saying is so often true, illustrators are usually and rightly reluctant to use too many words in their work. So please allow me to send heartfelt congratulations to Stephff (and your good selves for printing it) on yesterday's magnificent page 8 cartoon, which highlights French oil company Total and their ongoing and total disregard of humanity in the face of profits in Burma.

Stephff, I used to call brilliant creativity like yours "cartoons". And, as a child, cartoons used to make me laugh. But since you have begun to use your pen to be, internationally, mightier than the guns of the despicable, illegal Burmese regime, they make me cry. So may I call them "illustrations"?

Hope you don't mind - and please keep up the good work.

David Hardcastle

Chiang Mai

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Hypocritical colonialists: shut up and stay away

Re: "No Land of smiles for Hmong detainees held captive in Thailand", Letters, October 5.

"Land of Sneers" eh? I certainly like that better than the Land of Smiles. Nor do I want any patronising colonialist to smile along with us, giving pats on the head.

Believe you me, it was not our Tourism Authority's own PR campaign that made us Thais seem like a nation of simpering idiots. We smile only to hide our surprise while being chastised and moralised at by those whom we find to be maintaining double standards and hypocrisies.

Offers from kind and humanitarian countries almost always end with the governments of these countries coming to vet the refugees our country had always given shelter to, and accepting only the best and educated of the litter, so to speak - as witnessed since the end of the Vietnam, Lao and Cambodian conflicts.

And Thailand, not much better off than these refugees, is left to feed, clothe and educate the children of those left behind.

Talk about humanitarian treatment as much as you like, but the British cheerfully deported the Vietnamese refugees in Hong Kong just before they gave the place back to China, cleaning the slate.

Do not bore us with your humanitarian chants of "heinous acts" and "brutal suppression". It would be "deeply regrettable", but we are fast becoming, willingly, the "Land of Sneers".

Sunida

Bangkok

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