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GUEST: Jeremy Woodrum, Director of the US Campaign for Burma

A report issued today by the UN’s Human Rights Council on recent violence in Burma estimates 31 people were killed and 74 forcibly disappeared, with up to 4,000 arrested and 1,000 still detained. Earlier this year in September, images of soldiers in Burma clubbing barefoot monks in saffron robes attracted international attention to the on-going brutality of the military dictatorship. The repression was in response to Burma’s largest uprising since 1988. According to the UN Special rapporteur, since the government crackdown, there have been credible reports of deaths in custody as well as beatings, ill-treatment, lack of food, water or medical treatment in overcrowded unsanitary detention facilities across the country. Nobel peace laureate and democratically elected leader of Burma, Aung San Suu Kyi, remains under house arrest, although the military generals have now begun talks with her. Opposition groups inside and outside Burma, fearing the momentum of their protests is slipping away, are pleading with foreign nations to stiffen economic sanctions against the regime. They are joined in their call by the New York based group, Human Rights Watch which released a report on the Burma repression this month.

For more information, visit www.uscampaignforburma.org.