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Freedom Writ Large
This is John Pilger's address to
a London meeting, 'Freedom Writ Large', organized by
PEN and the Writers
Network of Burma, on October 25.
By John Pilger
10/27/07 "ICH'
-- -- Thank you PEN for asking me to speak at this very
important meeting tonight. I join you in paying tribute to
Burma's writers, whose struggle is almost beyond our
imagination. They remind us, once again, of the sheer power of
words. I think of the poets Aung Than and Zeya Aung. I think of
U Win Tin, a journalist, who makes ink out of brick powder on
the walls of his prison cell and writes with a pen made from a
bamboo mat – at the age of 77. These are the bravest of the
brave.
And what honor they bring to humanity with their struggle; and
what shame they bring to those whose hypocrisy and silence helps
to feed the monster that rules Burma.
I had planned tonight to read from my last interview with Aung
San Suu Kyi, but I decided not to – because of something Suu Kyi
said to me when I last spoke to her. "Be careful of media
fashion," she said. "The media like this sentimental version of
life that reduces everything down to personality. Too often this
can be a distraction."
I thought about that, and how typically self effacing she was,
and how right she was.
In my view, the greatest distraction is the hypocrisy of those
political figures in the democratic West, who claim to support
the Burmese liberation struggle. Laura Bush and Condoleezza Rice
come to mind.
"The United States," said Rice, "is determined to keep an
international focus on the travesty that is taking place in
Burma."
What she is less keen to keep a focus on is that the huge
American company, Chevron, on whose board of directors she sat,
is part of a consortium with the junta and the French company,
Total, that operates in Burma's offshore oil fields. The gas
from these fields is exported through a pipeline that was built
with forced labor and whose construction involved Halliburton,
of which Vice President Cheney was Chief Executive.
For many years, the Foreign Office in London promoted business
as usual in Burma. When I interviewed Suu Kyi I read her a
Foreign Office press release that said, "Through commercial
contacts with democratic nations such as Britain, the Burmese
people will gain experience of democratic principles."
She smiled sardonically and said, "Not a bit of it."
In Britain, the official public relations line has changed, but
the substance of compliance and collusion has not. British tour
firms – like Orient Express and Asean Explorer – are able to
make a handsome profit on the suffering of the Burmese people.
Aquatic – a sort of mini Halliburton – has its snout in the same
trough, together with Rolls Royce and all those posh companies
that make a nice earner from Burmese teak.
When the last month's uprising broke out, Gordon Brown referred
to the sanctity of what he called "universal principles of human
rights". He has said something similar a letter sent to this
meeting tonight. It is his theme of distraction. I urge you not
be distracted.
When did Brown or Blair ever use their close connections with
business – their platforms at the CBI and in the City London –
to name and shame these companies that make money on the back of
the Burmese people? When did a British prime minister call for
the European Union to plug the loopholes of arms supply to
Burma, stopping, for example, the Italians from supplying
military equipment? The reason no doubt is that the British
government is itself one of the world's leading arms suppliers,
especially to regimes at war. Tonight (October 25) the Brown
government has approved the latest American prelude to its
attack on Iran and the ensuing horror and bloodshed.
When did a British prime minister call on its ally and client,
Israel, to end its long and sinister relationship with the
Burmese junta. Or does Israel's immunity and impunity also cover
its supply of weapons technology to Burma and its reported
training of the junta's most feared internal security thugs? Of
course, that is not unusual. The Australian government – so
vocal lately in its condemnation of the junta – has not stopped
the Australian Federal Police from training Burma's internal
security forces in at the Australian-funded Center for Law
Enforcement Cooperation in Indonesia.
There are many more of these grand, liberal hypocrites; and we
who care for freedom in Burma should not be distracted by the
posturing and weasel pronouncements of our leaders, who
themselves should be called to account as accomplices – unless
and until their fine words are matched by deeds that make a
genuine difference and they themselves stop destroying lives. We
owe that vigilance and that truth to Aung San Suu Kyi, to
Burma's writers and to all the other bravest of the brave.
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