Why Did Britain Train the Burmese Military? Friend, Foe or Fool?

I am feeling moved to research Burma.  I have been to the border myself as a Rotary Peace Scholar meeting with the Association for Political Prisoners in Burma (refer http://aappb.org/) This could do a lot to heal relations between Islam and the rest of the world.  There are some who have made concerted efforts to demonise Muslim people without looking into the roots of violence and the backers of it, who are invested in endless war.  You have to understand some industries flourish in the militarisation of the world. They only think of the profits and are totally transfixed on expanding this industry.  I saw the brutal torture techniques and heard first hand from survivors and the very brave people going into the forests to help the Karen Burmese.  We also looked at the Damming of the Salween River and the major electricity consortia involved in seeking to profit from the Salween through electricity generation (hydro electric power).  The Burmese military are well know for their brutality. Aung San Suu Kyi was under house arrest for nearly 20 years.  I heard her speak at a Rotary Conference in Bangkok and she only turned up there as she believed they may help her people.  I do not believe for one moment she has had the power to throw this Junta out of governance and control. She had no support from Western nations and what we see is the ethical no man’s land that opens up when these atrocities are allowed to happen. The same applies to Iraq, Afghanistan, Sudan, Syria where innocent people are being brutalised and no-one helps. Supposed democratic countries do not reveal humanitarian imperatives above business interests.  There is a lot of money to be made out of Burma in respect of its natural resources. 

I recall a long boat ride up the Salween one side was Thailand the other side was Burma (Myanmar) I saw the wild forests.  I met the people.  I saw how innocent they were, similar to the Afghan people.  These are village people, no education being manipulated by those who have the power and education, the same ‘ol story we see around the world.  I see the imbalance of power.  I feel that with Aung San Suu Kyi the scapegoat who the world blames yet they do so out of ignorance of the faceless faces behind this tragedy in Burma seeking to exploit it.  The problems in Burma have been going on for a long time.

I saw this article about the British in 2013 supporting the Burmese Military Junta.  They put in the article humanitarian law etc etc.  The military no matter their complexion cannot state they are humanitarians when 90% of fatalities in all conflicts these days are civilians. This is not about peace it is about conflict and those that profit from it.  They are in the arms trade.  Australia went to Israel recently under the guise of a commemoration then announced $200 billion funding into arms over a period of time.  Whilst we all do this the violence continues.  Whilst some may profit sitting with their friends in the lap of luxury the price of that success is paid by those who are injured, maimed, disfigured, tortured and killed through these weapons.  Those engaging in war are expanding endless misery without end.  Imagine if they met the people they affected and had to look into their eyes. I recall British soldiers meeting with an Afghan man after his whole family was killed and giving him a wad of money, his eyes were lifeless. I could see the guilt in the soldiers, this is reality on the ground that many profiting are peacefully well away from. 

I travelled to the border of Burma and saw the poor Burmese from a range of ethnic backgrounds under plastic with nothing, in Mai Sot, Thailand. I saw myself in western clothes, I knew I’d stay at a nice clean place, eat tasty food, travel around in air conditioned mini buses, whilst they scavenged for food and tried to eek out a living constantly feeling harassed by police and hearing stories from new arrivals desperately escaping death.  I stand there as if from another planet looking at these people without any concept of what it is like to live their life. I see those like me, white skinned some actually helping in NGO’s, others as government envoys who do not solve this problem but perpetuate it using ‘humanitarian law’ to justify their involvement but not stopping the problem through concerted will, analysis and ethics to make clear what is acceptable and what is not.  We can do it if it is the desire of those in power to stop wars, clearly the will is not there. 

The military Junta have changed laws to intensify oppression and lock people in jails of which conditions are appalling. They are not interested in Justice at all unless it serves them. It is like saying to an abuser ‘be nice’, they are abusing because they themselves have come from great pain, they are feeding off the power of control, they are in the delusion of invincibility as others are complicit in war crimes.  We look to those who state they uphold justice, the rule of law, democracy, human rights to see they too have no idea how to live this rhetoric as  they too lack the moral/values/ethical fortitude to recognise that this is not in anyone’s interests. It is out of love for the tyrant that you stop them. So many are not speaking the truth of matters, why they are involved? what are their true interests?  I see masks.  I feel those masks will be pulled down.

Burma was a British colony and it became a prison camp for the millions that lived there (similar to Pol Pot). I saw the Killing fields, I learned of how life has no value, I met the Khmer Rouge who were brain washed (mind control).  Pol Pot was consumed by total power without checks and balances and entering into states of paranoid delusion as he didn’t trust anyone.  I went to the infamous Tuol Sleng Prison where Khmer Rouge traitors were tortured by methods you don’t want to know. They were taken to the killing fields to finish them off.  I stood in the torture chambers. They had the original wire beds where they were not allowed to scream.  I saw the sign translated into English.  They don’t even have the right to scream in pain.  So the torturer doesn’t get upset.  Those engaged in mind control ensure all obey so they do not have to touch conscience, they pretend it is all fine, they have their stories to justify cruelty and make sure no-one bursts the bubble. That is how this type of brutality is sustained. People are too afraid to say anything.

In Burma the people  were literally slaves on chain gangs, brutalised.  What did the world do? nothing.  Now Aung Sun Suu Kyi who gave up years of her life advocating for nonviolence and democracy was demonised and somehow she was suppressed or vulnerable to these manipulative Generals, there is more to this story then is known.  I would like to know more about that.  I see men in the shadows pulling the strings. I know she is nonviolent, how quick reputable people jump on band wagons to blame her, adding to the negativity rather than solving the problem of what actually happened away from the media gaze.  This violence happened before the Rohingya and where was the outrage then? In my gut I don’t believe she is complicit, there are ethnic hatreds in Burma and anyone who stands up is vulnerable to being attacked. I feel for the manipulation of the media.  My inner feeling presses me to ask who is behind this nightmare for these innocent people.  The words ‘follow the money’ come to me powerfully. Aung Sun Suu Kyi is not doing this for money, she sacrificed our of humanity. I can only imagine how humiliated and powerless she feels.

I have to add in here Afghanistan as inspiration comes to me.  I met an Afghan woman who told me of the pain of her country. Again, other interests involved, other agenda’s to do with power, control and money. Not humility, freedom and abundance. These are the 3 horseman that lead us in a direction where we all win.  The Afghan people were terrorised by the Russians, the Taliban, the Americans and still suffering terribly.  I have met Karen, I have met Cambodians, Syrians, Afghan’s, Sudanese as ordinary people and refugees.  I saw the pain in their eyes. One guy who is memorable was Burmese. Rotary organised for him to come to La Trobe University.  I am a peace fellow so I was there.  This man was incarcerated at around 15 until his 20’s for protesting for democracy.  He was beaten a lot and placed in solitary confinement.  He be-friended a guard who allowed him to study at night quietly. He managed to smuggle a western magazine into the prison (Insein prison I believe), he had a stick and plastic. He used the plastic as paper and would copy the English words from the magazine to the plastic sheet. He taught himself English.  He came to Australia and he enrolled in a Masters of International Relations, with the intention of trying to help his people. This guy came from abuse and look how he overcame so many obstacles, incredible determination, incredible courage.  I saw the great pain in his eyes, I will never forget him. 

Westerners: Australian’s, American’s, British, Canadians etc. have absolutely no idea what life is like in a brutal dictatorship where you are seriously oppressed.  You have no voice. You can be summarily executed.  You cannot gather. Defamation is common.  People are jailed for minor crimes.  I know of a woman in Asia (not sure where in Asia) but she was arrested for not giving bribes to police. She had a child. She was jailed in a tiny cell with 20 other women, she could barely move so cramped. They had to try and cope.  The child grew up behind bars.  In Burma, if you go to jail they have all sorts of bondage positions to cause you maximum pain and agony. Punish you for disobeying.  You are beaten as the guards are sadistic.  Can you imagine what that does to the psyche of people?  Mind control works this way.  You are put down and crushed.

A wonderful artist I know painted Afghanistan like a ruined city in the shape of a man, this was the destruction of the person as the city.  All war/violence does this to people, it breaks down (not build up). I see the metaphor in Burma.  So how can Western militaries bring peace, they haven’t so far.  It is actually not possible.  You can only learn peace through education, only universal values and inner peace open awareness to our shared humanity and tap into the feeling of unconditional love which doesn’t react but embraces diversity.  The problem is that the West is allowing this regime to operate genocide, prison camps, not unlike the holocaust energetically.  We still decide on our own interests rather than a global code of R2P (Responsibility to Protect).  It is a bit like duty of care for those who don’t do it naturally.  How is it we don’t learn from the past?  We keep repeating it.  We justify our support of brutal regimes based on business interests, we talk it down, we avoid uncomfortable truths, we use diplomatic language but we do not say it like it is.  This is not the way of peace, stability or a world that optimises its potential. This is the way of tooth and claw as Thomas Hobbes the Enlightenment philosophy wisely described. It is the backyard bully that others support as he has influence or something they want or they are afraid to be hurt. We see this with the US power and other powers who others feel are threatening. The mentality is survival of the most armed, economically dominant or the most brutal. Is this the type of international disorder we want?  Or do we lead by example and assist countries and their people to find  their voice? Or are we part of the problem?  Are we sympathetic or indifferent to this brutality?  Who are we?   What do we believe in? I listen to the rhetoric of my own government and shake my head as I know they do not know what they do. The only Minister who in my view did anything was Gareth Evans who went to Cambodia to attempt to mediate peace. Mediation was a key, to broker peace in a way where power is shared and peoples concerns are aired and issues resolved. This is maturity not an immature stance that takes by force.  There is no way brutal dictators can survive unless powerful interests are supporting them. We need a media that stops peddling stories that camouflage reality but actually work towards peace journalism where they show all sides and assist in finding a third way to resolve the problem for the sake of peace and a decent global society. This is what civilised societies do. They don’t just watch like voyeurs the agony of another people, or find ways to keep them out of our country.  They could be my family or yours.  Do we just sit there?  Is it too hard? Is it too dangerous? Is it not in our interests?  Maybe it is an opportunity to make a real difference.   What if peace changes everything?

Now you cannot convert people to nonviolence who are insecure, powerless, who only know power, who have supporters encouraging them. That is all they know. The brain is wired for this as they knew it as children.  The Khmer Rouge as children were taught brutality. They would have to want to change or have some sort of epiphany or become affected by their actions.  In the absence of that, they are not changing. What you can do is help the people find ways to empower them, to find their strength, to feel supported, so they are not alone and hope keeps them alive until a solution is found.  There must be global support for the Rohingya in Bangladesh, a fragile country who cannot afford millions of refugees flooding across its borders. We must look for more effective ways to evacuate people with the same gusto as we do in natural emergencies.  They must be taken out of harms way immediately and given basics to live on with dignity. It is not appropriate that the poorest country in the world is housing refugees when it can barely feed its own people, it will build resentment overtime with the locals and it depletes already strained resources. It is for those who have to share it with those who don’t and then work creatively on solving problems and assisting them through trauma.  All countries who are able to must send in planes, ships or other transport and take the refugees and house them.  Australia has plenty of room. I drove around this country and saw a vision of people being housed here, we can absolutely do this but we are so paranoid about refugees and the fact that in our psyche we want immigrants (money) we do not understand our international obligations under the 1951 Refugee Convention of which we are a signatory.  These people are in crises not holiday tourists.   We don’t get the humanitarian issue which was clear when we legally excised Manus Island, Christmas Island and offshore to Nauru out of Australian jurisdiction so we can call them illegal and we can then be legal (even though it is dishonest).  I see the mirror.  Is this moral? Is this fair?  Is this compassionate? Or are elected leaders sitting in remote offices totally disconnected from their responsibility as leaders, influenced by others and not responsible for world security and peace.  Where are we involved in global instability?  Can we honestly look at our part?  Can we lead by example?  Or are we morally bankrupt? Are we complicit as others instruct us? Do we follow the crowd?

This is the reality folks, you go live through it and you will be jumping up not sitting down postulating about other people’s lives like chess pieces on a chess board.  They are people, they cry, they feel, women give birth, children scream, men worry over feeding their families, young people see no future they are so traumatised from the violence. They desperately pray for help each day but none comes in any real way.  They look at us doing nothing and they give up on humanity.  They lose their belief in the goodness of others. Some are even eating grass (see Afghanistan).  We sit and sip latte’s and discuss world affairs.  We know nothing. 

So compassion moves and reaches out to them, it doesn’t send in the military or expect the military to teach humanitarian values or law.  The spirituality of ‘to be my brothers and sisters keeper’ is what will catalyse action as a love based response.  This is not a woolly terminology, it is the power in humanity that risks its life, goes into trouble spots, saves a child, gives hope to mothers and protects fathers and grandparents.  If emotionally you can’t go there try – it could be me! Or my kids? If that circulates some feeling then reach for it. This is the empathy that imagines another’s life as your own.  It is not motherhood statements it is what civilised nations, who are functional, globally responsible and locally active do.  Democracy is not just a nice word it means to share, to care, to reveal and heal.  Send them basic help, send encouragement and support to give them strength to deal with these problems. Help them to feel empowered. As powerlessness is where fear and trauma arises. Teaching the military junta more military training is not a solution it is part of the problem, it is like arming the abuser with more ways to abuse.  Is it wise or complicit?

There has to be an International Criminal Court hearing as these are crimes against humanity, which have been going on for years way before the Rohingya, the Karen were fleeing for their lives in the jungles and other ethnic groups.  I note people are calling the current crisis a crime against humanity, I just marvel at what has to happen first before people speak up.  It is the slowness that worries me.  In 2009 Cambodia had the Extraordinary Chambers in the  Courts  of Cambodia (ECCC) refer https://www.eccc.gov.kh/en to try leaders for war crimes.   I can feel my fingers typing fast as I write this as the flow is coming to me.  What has happened to putting energy into strengthening the International Criminal Court? How do we keep corruption out of these courts?  Justice comes to me in this moment. This is not only moral but universal values and ethics that ‘sees no evil, hears no evil, speaks no evil’ in the shape of a woman who holds these scales.  She is impartial. She is fair. She is the Justice of the Peace.  This is where real change happens when Justice is not just manipulating courts, paying off judges or lawyers but restoring the actual dignity of humanity in upholding justice via just laws to ensure fairness so that social stability is balanced.  You cannot do this at the point of a gun. You cannot do this when you are corrupt or compromised. Injustice, intimidation, violence doesn’t work it only teaches violence to a world that is believing that violent force brings peace. It doesn’t. It never has. Only peace brings peace period.  Peace only arises from virtues that join one to the other, this is the common humanity that sees itself in the other. This is how love reaches across a room, how love never gives up on freedom, how love sends hope, how love learns English at night sleeps all day, feeds people from compassion, hides people fleeing violence and takes a risk to lend a hand. All the greatest teachers taught this to remind humanity of its higher purpose – love each other. I am not religious but I am feeling the love moving my fingers as I feel to add it in.  Love must be the first thought not the last.  It is not just crumbs from the table or tokenism to be seen to be caring, it is to truly care about another as you would want for yourself.  This is a reconnected humanity that feels for others not mouthing words, for this indifference perpetuates attitudes that compromise or says ‘mind your own business’. Real presence is real integrity and that is what peace looks like.  It is not whimsicle marketing slogans that have no clue of reality or truth.  We the people are over the dishonesty and deception. As we are the ones suffering.

The Rohingya crisis could be a way to heal the division between Islam and the rest of the world.  This is an opportunity to rise above religion and help people.  It is no coincidence we are seeing violence with an Islamic face.  Some have labelled this terrorism ignoring their own violence as they label the ‘other’. I am a peacemaker and I know division is fear based, love unifies humanity overcoming and transcending differences to heal hurts and misunderstanding.  You have to be able to see into the humanity of others.  The violence keeps getting fuelled, the fuel is the profit in weapons, that I feel deeply in my heart.  I see them trading behind closed doors, I hear the numbers, I can feel them turn off from the carnage, the pain, the terror in the people as they turn on to power, money, status and influence, global domination become the full focus. They compartmentalise their thoughts so they cannot feel for the other, for this is the only reason suffering can continue. The men involved must feel nothing, they must find reasons to blame them, call them terrorists, find a crime to label them with, find a way to demonise for that is what a disconnected human does.  There are some who have made concerted effort to demonise Muslim people without looking into the roots of violence and the backers of it, who are invested in endless war.  You have to understand some industries flourish in the militarisation of the world. They only think of the profits and are totally transfixed on expanding this industry. This is the problem. The peacemakers, conflict resolvers, the humanitarians are seen as ‘motherhood’, they are not in the real game of money. Yet spiritually those of us who feel moved, we understand the real gold is in connectedness to humanity, the love that is constantly surrounding those of us who deeply feel, the great joy of seeing smiles on people’s faces, the incredible magic of a life that unfolds miracles all the time.  This is where the real bounty rests, but those into money are blinded by their greed, they truly can’t see the real purpose of life.  It is only when they feel pain that they will acknowledge a mistake. I have seen this particularly in men.  I realise they are trained to respond to power not love.  Women on the other hand feel love easily, they give birth, so they look at the men engaged in atrocities with horror as they cannot see what they do. They do not realise the implications of actions.  I know we live on past this life, I know that every person will experience their impact at this point. So there is a natural justice where one realises the futility of violence. Yet they realise when they realise until then we have to keep people safe, we have to inspire others to ensure health and wellbeing across the world. Someone has to be an example of compassion so no-one loses hope, so children see a future.  That is what love does, hold the space for peace to arise.  I bring in this narrative as few will.  I want to open a new way to seeing more holistically a world sinking under its own greed.  I wish to claim my responsibility to show the blind man on the blind horse that he is heading towards the abyss (of his own making).  I do this for him as I love him also.  I see him as impoverished as the child starving in Africa.  I see this very rich person totally empty and needing more. I see his hunger and I can only extend my hand through these words to pull him back to shore.  To ensure he realises his walk and makes a real choice. I care nothing of his crisp suit, wealth or status. I only care about his heart.  It is to his heart I am calling, I am singing, I am inspiring. Awaken.

My advice to all is critically think about these events, propaganda, media spin and the fact that the global community are not stopping genocide is where the focus, in my view, should be.  And then turn to: what does a world without genocide, brutality, violence actually look like?  I will not accept it is not possible because I am one who doesn’t do it.  I wouldn’t step on a ant, so if one feels this way surely there is hope for humanity so lost in its own confusion.  Find your heart, your truth and act on it as I am today.  

So let’s look at the British involvement as conveyed via the media, this is an article by the Guardian. 

 

British to begin training Burmese military

Britain is preparing to teach strategy to the brutal Burmese army

Thein Sein

President of Myanmar, Thein Sein, left, in 10 Downing Street Photo: EPA
 
Ben Farmer

By , Defence Correspondent

6:00AM GMT 25 Dec 2013

British military officials will travel to Burma within days on a controversial mission to begin training the country’s brutal military, as the UK joins an international scramble for influence in the nation.

The Government confirmed a British military delegation will travel to the country in January to deliver a strategy course to high-ranking officers from the former military junta.

Diplomats say they hope to help reform the notoriously abusive Burmese forces as the country makes a fragile transition to democracy and a general election in 2015.

But last night MPs and human rights workers questioned how much Britain should aid a force that remains infamous for murder, rape and recruiting child soldiers.

Generals are also accused of widespread corruption and controlling much of the country’s gold, jade, timber and drug smuggling.

David Mathieson, Burma researcher for Human Rights Watch, said the country’s armed forces, known as the Tatmadaw, were still regularly committing atrocities despite ceding control to a nominally civilian government.

He said the army had been accused of attacking refugee camps in Kachin state within the past few weeks.

He said: “The Burmese Army has got a terrible reputation. It’s got one of the worst reputations in the world.

“It has an abusive modus operandi in its DNA.”

“Our concerns are that the British and the US are going too far and too fast.”

“Burmese commanders and soldiers on the ground just think nothing has changed for them. They say they are dealing with insurgents and they know how to handle them.”

The Ministry of Defence in London said a joint civilian and military team from the UK’s Defence Academy will teach 30 members of the Tatmadaw and Burmese government in the New Year.

The course called “Managing Defence in a Wider Security Context” will be run in collaboration with Cranfield University.

Mark Francois, minister for the Armed Forces, said: “The Tatmadaw remain a key political force in Burma, therefore we seek to encourage them to support democratic reform through our influence and with education.”

Military sources said the two week course was not battlefield military training, but staff college type education including teaching in human rights, humanitarian law and accountability.

One defence source said: “The Burmese military will be key to the process of political reform. To ignore the military puts the entire process of political reform at risk.”

The training has been endorsed by Aung San Suu Kyi, the country’s veteran opposition leader, who visited Sandhurst earlier this year to see what the British military could offer.

Western governments and businesses have scrambled for position in Burma since the country’s military leaders ended years of isolation by promising to usher in democratic reforms. America has also offered legal training to the Burmese military.

Burma has plentiful resources of hydro-carbons, minerals, gems and timber, and a cheap labour force which thanks to years of sanctions is largely untapped by foreign investors.

Yasmin Qureshi, MP for Bolton South East, said recent attacks on Burma’s Muslim Rohingya minority had been carried out with the tacit support of the military and showed the armed forces had not changed however.

She said: “We have opened up things to work in Burma without seeing a real change occurring.”

Mohandas Gandhi

“Each one has to find his peace from within. And peace to be real must be unaffected by outside circumstances.”

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