Beneath the shadow of a rickety statute, the amazed gaze of the world, and the calculating eyes of the tyrants, the enslaved staked their claim to liberty. Off the town’s walls, thousands of voices echoed in their native tongue the ideals which fired the souls of our ancestors to fight for freedom. But unlike our revolutionaries, these unarmed freedom-seekers, flush with a euphoria born of novel hope, trusted only in the good faith of humanity, especially the Great Democracies, to protect them from the iron retaliation of a bankrupt regime teetering on the brink of extinction…and bent upon survival. The slaves’ faith perished beneath their masters’ tanks.

But to the swank ranks of the global elite, that was Tiananmen and Burma is now.

As reported by the Congressional Human Rights Caucus, the Burmese regime has choked some one hundred thousand peaceful protestors’ chorus of hope into “the silence of the graveyard.” Over two hundred demonstrators for democracy, including Buddhist monks, have been killed and hundreds of people severely injured. International democracy and human rights organizations estimate over 2,000 people have been arrested, imprisoned, and/or tortured due to the barbarous repression by Burma’s military junta, which bears the Orwellian title of The State Peace and Development Council.

And the Burmese remain enslaved. Like their brethren in Tiananmen, the Burmese trusted in the human family’s good faith to protect them; the human family failed them; and now the world salts their wounds.

Like a thousand points of blight, soulless prose spews forth from diplomatic channels to assure the world the communist Chinese butchers of freedom-seekers in Tiananmen will play a constructive role in stopping the Burmese regime’s butchery of freedom-seekers in Rangoon. History belies such guilt assuaging conceits.

The Burmese regime and communist China call each other “Paukphaw” – a Burmese word for “siblings.” Given the two regimes’ “mutual abomination society,” communist China’s current policy toward its sibling amounts to “He ain’t heavy, He’s my Burma.”

In 1962, General Ne Win led a military coup d’etat and established a police state. By 1988, the government’s economic mismanagement and political oppression sparked widespread pro-democracy demonstrations. The junta responded by ordering its soldiers to fire upon the unarmed civilians, of which over 3,000 were murdered; and tens of thousands of other freedom-seekers were subjected to forced labor, systematic rape, and genocide. The latest tyrant to stage a coup, General Than Shwe, deposed then ruler General Saw Maung from power and formed the State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC); declared marital law in 1989; and finalized plans for People’s Assembly elections. On May 27, 1990, the government held free elections and the National League for Democracy (NLD), the party of Aung San Suu Kyi, won 392 out of a total of 485 seats. Rejected by the voters, the junta reacted by annulling the elections and clinging to power. Outraged citizens filled Rangoon and several other towns, demanding the junta transfer power and release all political prisoners. By mid-September, the SLORC was cracking down on dissident monks; shutting NLD offices; and imprisoning over 20 senior officials of the NLD. The repressive measures worked; and, until this year, all attempts to establish political alternatives to the junta had been suppressed.

Only one year removed from its own massacre of democracy at Tiananmen, at the time communist China was little concerned with the actions of its sibling – except for asking the junta to reach cease-fire agreements with some ethnic guerilla groups, in order to prevent Burmese ethnic communities from destabilizing the two nations’ common border.

Over the ensuing years, Burma has come to rely upon a steady stream of capital and consumer goods coming from communist China’s border. Economic cooperation has been significant between the two countries, as communist China has influenced the development of state-owned enterprises, modern infrastructure, and energy initiatives in Burma. Additionally, communist China consumes vast amounts of heavily discounted Burmese timber, oil, and gas. Burma’s abysmal human rights record and historically dismal economic management make it a very unattractive trading partner in the eyes of other nations. Thus, communist China is intent on preserving its sibling dictatorship in Burma for two reasons: one, it limits international competition for Burma’s resources; and, two, it props up the economies of communist China’s impoverished southwestern provinces of Guizhou, Yunnan, and Sichuan. Per these provinces, in particular, and international strategic aims, in general, communist China has entered into long-term agreements with the Burmese junta to modernize shipyards and ports and exploit transportation networks, including building new roads linking Burma with the aforementioned southwestern communist Chinese provinces. Continued...