Land mine use in Burma

According to spokespeople from the international campaign to ban landmines, land mine use has been decreasing rapidly, with more and more countries signing the mine-ban treaty. Except in Burma, however.

It is not only the military using land mines however, non state rebel groups, such as the KNLA (Karen national liberation army) also regularly use land mines, giving no warning to civiliians, except, supposadly a verbal warning.

The international campaign to ban landmines is hopeful that they will be able to rid Burma, and the rest of the world, of landmines in their lifetime, and hopefully, if the Burmese government and the rebel groups cooperate, they will acheive this goal.

'fair' elections

A Facebook revolution.

Contrary to my beliefs, it appears as though the Burmese are following in the footsteps of Egypt, and protesting against their oppressive leader, as Burmese activists have tried to start their own 'Facebook revolution'.

The 'Just do it against military dictatorship' page was started only two days after Egyptian president Mubarak resigned, and is calling for military general Than Shwe to leave the country, and for the army to leave the side of the government and join the protest. Approximately 400,000 people in Burma are on facebook, and it is the second most popular website, after gmail. Twitter however, is banned.

The activists have also been handin out pamphlets in some of Burma's major cities, and training people in rural areas to use the internet, so they could join the protest.

Recently, security in Rangoon has also been tightened significantly, although there is no link between the facebook group and the added security.

I think that this facebook group shows that the Burmese are willing to try anything if it will gain there freedom, especially as they have been going out of their way to get information on the recent protests, due to the censorship laws, and i will most definately be 'liking' this page.