Article: Help Stop A Potential Massacre in Myanmar

Burma's military dictatorship is about to show why it is one of the most brutal regimes in the world. The military junta has threatened to crack down on protesting Buddhist monks and civilians. Crack downs in Burma are murder. Last night security forces raided Buddhist monasteries and arrested around 700 monks and civilians. At one monastery soldiers allegedly "used bamboo sticks to beat everyone in the monastery, including monks, laymen, women and children." "Many spots of blood could still be seen in the morning in the monastery compound and nearby," claimed one witness. Today the Democratic Voice of Burma reported that security forces fired on unarmed demonstrators in Rangoon with a university student killed and a monk being shot in the back. At another location security forces shot and killed at least one woman and wounded others at a Buddhist pagoda. Also today, security forces returned to arrest the abbot at that monastery they had brutally raided last night. This time hundreds of thousands of local residents have surrounded the security force. A witness said that "The military is surrounding the monastery and firing warning shots to disperse the crowds, but people are standing firm." Now is your chance to stand firm against the brutal military dictatorship of Senior General Than Shwe, whose official title is Chairman of the State Peace and Development Council of Myanmar. (Has there ever been a more fitting title for a dictator?) The human rights group Avaaz is

"calling for UN powers--above all China, which holds the economic strings of the Burmese regime--to apply decisive pressure now to stop the violence, and to broker a peaceful transition. If they fail to do this, the massacres will be sudden."

Sign their petition for the UN to take immediate action to prevent a brutal and bloody crackdown in Burma. Send an email at The Burma Campaign to dictator Shwe to free Aung San Suu Kyi, the Noble Peace Award laureate who is the rightful ruler of Burma. You can personalize the message to demand an end to the violence and the ruling junta. You can go to the Burma Freedom Campaign and sign a petition to send to Chinese leaders telling them to support the Burmese people and not the military dictatorship. Then you can send a petition to the UN directly to the UN. And don't forget sending one to Bush from Amnesty Internation USA to President Bush. Remember: "All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing."