Sudan's New Prosecutor

Suprise and Surprise, but how is this not a farce and how do we know Sudan is being genuine?

It is fascinating to note how the justice minister is being appointed only after a massive international circus concerning the indictment of Omar al-Bashir for his war crimes and only after a massive domestic and international pressure reached a critical boling point.

It would be interesting to see how much the mandate extends and for what crimes exactly and what the purview would be?

I am worried that the purview of crimes might be inherently limited to the absolute bare necessary to satiate international pressure and to acquit Omar al-Bashir from any malfeasence in Darfur.

So far it looks cosmetic, I do not want to bet Sudan on the findings, no matter how transparent they may seem, until it can be confirmed by other countries, hopefully non-African countries to show concurrence with the findings.

Of course the findings may be also politically expident and bowdlerized to avoid the highly explosive material needed to create a national or international incidient but rather one that toes the Sudanese line of "yes, crimes were commited, but they were inadvertant", rather the the international line which claims that these crimes were deliberate, premeditated and meticoulously executed and had genocidal intent.

I am currently holding this card in my hand but I don't know when to play it and how to play it, because I can't tell you what Bashir's cards are in this circumstance. I know, it is not motivated by altruism or genuine contrition for the victims, but rather circumstantial.

I would be curious to see how Sudan's notorious censorship and corruption obstructs the work of the justice minister acting as prosecutor, and I expect it to be the line of "We have met victims of rape and torture which occurred with the Janjawid, however, the Janjawid are fully aware of the actions of criminal members and have taken necessary action" rather then the line "this was a premeditated campaign that was meticoulously designed to annihilate all rebel factions, including civilians, in a method of collective punishment, and to punish civilians for being a base of support" which is what it actually was to any international observer outside of Sudanese, Chadian and Central African territory and to the civilians who reside in this vast area.

Burma's insurance underwritters

Hello and welcome to another Burma discussion forum.

This time we are going to discuss the complicity of foreign corporate actors in the regime, and in particular insurance companies which provide credit and protection from prosecution for the government.

Such corporations, such as the infamous Lloyds of London, have given the Burmese government, continuous high credit rankings so that they can buy weapons and artillery which are later used on the country's citizens and particulary ethnic minorities.

This is a a more exhaustive, but still unfortunately limited, list of insurance underwriters of the Burmese regime from the US Campaign for Burma.
http://www.burmacampaign.org.uk/insuranceaction.php

You will find that these corporations are worldwide and not located in one city or one country but rather constitute in the words of Alexander Solzhetnitsyn "an archipelago of secretness" from Singapore to London, in Dubai and in New Delhi.

These corporations have local subsidiaries which process transactions of miltary material using credit rankings and collateral of the regime.

Corporations have historically played a seminal role to maintain a tyrannical and despotical regime from apartheid South Africa to Sudan, and in caudillo ruled- South America during the cold war.

Corporations are the bankrollers of money, which cannot be acquired through international governmental and/or non-governmental organizations.

Primer, Awareness and Call to Action for Burma

Now, it is fascinating to see how quickly picked up the ineffable horrors that the Burmese government has been subjecting it's people for a very long time only after the media pressured Burma to accept foreign aid to alleviate the suffering of the Cyclone Nargis, but this was a very insubstantial symbol indeed.

After all, the human rights abuses have been perpetrated for almost 50 years since Ne Win, a leader of a military junta, illegally stole power from the "democratic" elected government. However, compared to what will follow, the previous government would constitute a democracy, but compared to other democracies, it was very weak indeed.

In the immediate aftermath of the otherthrow of the democracy, Ne Win and his conspirators begin to institute press and media censorships, perfect black holes to acquire immunity and impunity for all subsequent actions, which prove to be the vilest since Hitler and before the Khmer Rouge and certainly comprable to other mass murderers in every continent. Under his leadership the army began to coordinate nefarious machinations against the minority groups of his country, killing his own people due to their dissidence to the government, due to their underrepresentation and marginalization.
http://myamarnews.blogspot.com/2008_03_01_archive.html and click on the Youtube videos on the right.

These videos speak in violet, unforgetable, grisly, heartbreaking and show the full depravity of the Tatmadaw(the Burmese internal military analogous to our US Army) and they show a side of Burma, even those who are aware of the country, know much about, and their images are more expressive, emotional and otherwise, of the full scale emotional and physical devastation of the country and speak on a higher plain then I could possibly even begin to express.

Now, I am not just posting empty words, if you have a conscience, heart and/or awareness of this country and feel enough is enough, join my Burma group on google, burma-watchers@gmail.com and end this !