Sanctions Needed Against Anti-Democracy Myanmar
And Anti-Democracy Apartheid Israel
By Dr Gideon Polya
04 April, 2012
Countercurrents.org
Decent people were very happy to see the huge victory of Aung San Suu Kyi and her National League for Democracy (NLD) party in the recent Myanmar ( Burma ) by-elections. However there is concern that there will be a lifting of sanctions against Myanmar before a genuine democracy has been emplaced. Continuing gross human rights abuses in Myanmar merit continuing sanctions and so do those of race-based, genocidal Apartheid Israel which is not subject to such international sanctions and yet should be for continuing war crimes, Apartheid and genocide. The gross human rights abuses of both anti-democracy Myanmar and anti-democracy Apartheid Israel are compared below.
According to Al Jazeera the leaders of the 10-nation Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) have called for the lifting of all sanctions against Myanmar (see “ASEAN wants Myanmar sanction to end”, Al Jazeera, 3 April 2012: http://www.aljazeera.com/news/asia-pacific/2012/04/20124391129266.html ). The UK BBC has similarly reported that ASEAN leaders want sanctions to be lifted (“ASEAN calls for Burmese sanctions to be lifted”, BBC News, 3 April 2012: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-17599929 ). The Foreign Minister of US lackey Australia , Senator Bob Carr, has already announced that the Australian Government will ease sanctions (see “ Australia to further ease sanctions on Burma ”, ABC Network News, 4 April 2012: http://australianetworknews.com/stories/201204/3470653.htm?desktop ) and the US has suggested such action in the near future.
One suspects that the US-Burma thaw has got a lot to do with oil and geopolitical strategy in relation to China but is being dressed up by the ever-lying neocon Americans with the baby-steps towards democracy in Burma - Aung San Suu Kyi and her National League for Democracy (NLD) party won 40 of the 45 seats at stake in the recent by-election but this represents only 9% of the seats in the undemocratic, military-dominated, 440 seat lower House of Representatives of the national parliament (see: http://www.thestar.com/news/world/article/1154905--nobel-laureate-aung-san-suu-kyi-elected-to-myanmar-s-parliament-party-says and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyidaungsu_Hluttaw ).
Indeed the pending departure of the US from Afghanistan and the return of the Indigenous Taliban to power will mean a repeat of the Taliban destruction of the Afghan opium industry in 2000-2001 and the consequent need for Neocon America to boost opium production in SE Asia for profit and continued, evil, opiate-based destabilization of Iran, Russia, Central Asia, African America, Latin America and China . It is estimated that the US Alliance (including US lackey Australia) restoration of the Taliban-destroyed Afghan opium industry to a current 90% of world market share has been associated with 1 million opiate drug-related deaths world wide since 2001, this including 3,700 Australians, 200,000 Americans and 18,000 British (see "Afghan Holocaust, Afghan Genocide": https://sites.google.com/site/afghanholocaustafghangenocide/ ) .
Fair-minded people would agree that continuing gross human rights abuses in Myanmar merit continuing sanctions and that it is outrageous that similar sanctions have not been applied to racist, genocidal Apartheid Israel for its horrendous human rights abuses. The double standard of the Neocon American and Zionist Imperialist (NAZI)-beholden Western governments in relation to Burma and Apartheid Israel is exposed by the following comparisons.
1. Democracy.
Myanmar . Aung San Suu Kyi's NDL has 9% of the seats in parliament despite overwhelming popular support confirmed in the recent by-elections in which Aung San Suu Kyi and her National League for Democracy (NLD) party won 40 of the 45 seats contested.
Apartheid Israel . Arab Israelis have 14 out if 120 seats in the Knesset (12%), despite being 21% of the population and Jewish Israelis being 75% of the ethnically cleansed Israeli population. Apartheid Israel is only a democracy by genocide and Apartheid - only the adults of 12% of the 12 million Palestinians who are Israeli Palestinians can vote for the government ruling all of Palestine . Hamas won 76 out of 132 seats in the 2006 Occupied Palestinian elections held under racist Zionist guns - the only democratic parliamentary elections ever held in Palestine - but these MPs have either been killed, imprisoned or confined to the Gaza Concentration Camp and are listed as "terrorists” by Apartheid Israel, the UK, US and NAZI-subverted Apartheid Australia.
2. Political prisoners.
Myanmar . According to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners ( Burma ), “between 493 and 852 political prisoners remain behind bars in Burma for expressing their support for democracy" (see Dr Myint Cho, “Why oits too soon to lift Burma sanctions”, New Matilda, 30 March 2012: http://newmatilda.com/2012/03/30/too-soon-lift-burma-sanctions ).
Apartheid Israel . According to Wikipedia "On October 18, 2011, 477 of an agreed 1,027 Palestinian prisoners were released as part of an exchange for a captive Israeli soldier. In December 2011, 4,772 security prisoners were serving terms in Israeli jails. Of these, 552 were sentenced to life terms" (see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palestinian_prisoners_in_Israel ). 4.3 million Occupied Palestinians (50% children) live under racist Zionist military rule without human rights, 2.7 million in ever-dwindling West Bank mini-Bantustans and 1.6 million in the Israeli surrounded, guarded, shelled, bombed and blockaded Gaza Concentration Camp. Similarly, Palestinians refugees in Middle East refugee camps outside Palestine have effectively no human rights.
3. Refugees.
Myanmar . There are about 1,360,000 Burmese refugees , these including 860,000 within Myanmar (62,000 Internally Displaced Person (IDPs) and 797,000 stateless persons) and 500,000 originating from Myanmar (416,000 refugees, 22,000 asylum seekers and 62,000 IDPs) (see "UNHCR-Myanmar": http://www.unhcr.org/pages/49e4877d6.html ).
Apartheid Israel . There are about 7 million Palestinian refugees of whom 4.6 million are registered with the UNRWA (see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palestinian_refugee ).
4. Deaths.
Myanmar . Avoidable deaths from militarism-imposed deprivation in the military rule period 1962-2011 total 17.6 million, noting that the current Myanmar population 48 million (see Gideon Polya "Body Count. Global avoidable mortality since 1950", Chapter 6. North Africa , Asia & Pacific – the impact of colonialism, neo-colonialism and war": http://globalbodycount.blogspot.com.au/2012/01/chapter-6-north-africa-asia-pacific.html ).
Apartheid Israel . According to the Israeli Foreign Ministry 3,700 Jewish people have been killed by Palestinians since 1920. In contrast, 100,000 Indigenous Palestinians have been killed by racist Zionist colonizers since 1936 and since that time an estimated 1.9 million Palestinians have died from Zionist terrorism-, war-, expulsion- and occupation-imposed deprivation. Israel has a population of 7.8 million, 1.6 million of whom are Arab Palestinians. There are 4.3 million Occupied Palestinians and about 6 million Palestinians living outside Palestine and forbidden to return by Apartheid Israel 's racist and genocidal policies (see "Palestinian Genocide": https://sites.google.com/site/palestiniangenocide/ ). 1950-2005 avoidable deaths in countries occupied by Apartheid Israel have totalled 24 million (see "Gideon Polya, "Body Count. Global avoidable mortality since 1950", Chapter 3, "Correlates and causes of post-1950 avoidable global mass mortality": http://globalbodycount.blogspot.com.au/2012/01/chapter-3-correlates-and-causes-of-post.html ).
Conclusions.
The Western Murdochracies and Lobbyocracies apply a racist double standard to Burma and Apartheid Israel . Thus, for example, notwithstanding the above, anti-Asian, US lackey Apartheid Australia has sanctions against Myanmar but not against Apartheid Israel, is notorious internationally for its racist support for Apartheid Israel, and indeed supports Apartheid Israel even when this rogue state is subverting Australia, violating Australians and violating Australian sovereignty. Indeed donations toward the racist Zionist Palestinian Genocide are tax deductible in Australia yet those donating money to a Gaza orphanage could face up to life imprisonment under anti-Arab anti-Semitic, Islamophobic Australian anti-Terrorism Laws (see “Anti-Terrorism Act 2005”: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-Terrorism_Act_2005 ).
Major sanctions should continue to be in place until Burma properly democratizes. Boycotts, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) must be applied by all decent people against racist, genocidal Apartheid Israel and its supporters as were successfully applied against Apartheid Israel-backed Apartheid South Africa (see :"Boycott Apartheid Israel": https://sites.google.com/site/boycottapartheidisrael/ ). Indeed the traitorous, racist Zionists need to be sidelined in public life as have been like racists such as the Nazis, neo-Nazis, Apartheiders and KKK.
Unfortunately the Neocon American and Zionist Imperialist (NAZI)-beholden Coalition and Labor Party members of the Australian Senate recently unanimously voted to condemn Boycotts, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against the State of Israel and threatened BDS supporters with legal action (the senators of the anti-racist Greens party dissented). The pro-war, pro-Zionist and slavishly US-beholden Australian Gillard Labor Government will no doubt progressively lift sanctions against Burma in accord with neocon US spin and instructions.
Dr Gideon Polya has been teaching science students at a major Australian university for 4 decades. He published some 130 works in a 5 decade scientific career, most recently a huge pharmacological reference text "Biochemical Targets of Plant Bioactive Compounds" (CRC Press/Taylor & Francis, New York & London , 2003). He has published “Body Count. Global avoidable mortality since 1950” (G.M. Polya, Melbourne, 2007: http://globalbodycount.blogspot.com/ ); see also his contributions “Australian complicity in Iraq mass mortality” in “Lies, Deep Fries & Statistics” (edited by Robyn Williams, ABC Books, Sydney, 2007: http://www.abc.net.au/rn/science/ockham/stories/s1445960.htm ) and “Ongoing Palestinian Genocide” in “The Plight of the Palestinians (edited by William Cook, Palgrave Macmillan, London, 2010: http://mwcnews.net/focus/analysis/4047-the-plight-of-the-palestinians.html ). He has published a revised and updated 2008 version of his 1998 book “Jane Austen and the Black Hole of British History” (see: http://janeaustenand.blogspot.com/ ) as biofuel-, globalization- and climate-driven global food price increases threaten a greater famine catastrophe than the man-made famine in British-ruled India that killed 6-7 million Indians in the “forgotten” World War 2 Bengal Famine (see recent BBC broadcast involving Dr Polya, Economics Nobel Laureate Professor Amartya Sen and others: http://www.open2.net/thingsweforgot/ bengalfamine_programme.html ). When words fail one can say it in pictures - for images of Gideon Polya's huge paintings for the Planet, Peace, Mother and Child see: http://sites.google.com/site/artforpeaceplanetmotherchild/ and http://www.flickr.com/photos/gideonpolya/ .
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