dangerous dissidents

Fourteen Burmese activists arrested for organizing anti-government rallies last year had their sentences handed down today: 65 years in prison each. Surely, you might think, some violence took place at these rallies — a stone thrown, at the very least. Sixty-five years in prison for peaceful protest? Unheard of.

As it turns out, the 65 years break down as follows: four counts of illegal use of electronic media, 15 years each; one count of forming an illegal organization, 5 years. The rallies in question were protests against drastic rises in fuel prices last August. The facts speak for themselves.

Burma’s recent history offers a stunning display of black-and-white morality: cruel, mindless, and dictatorial junta versus peaceful protesters (often monks), including Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi, who has spent thirteen of the last nineteen years under house arrest. The protesters who were sentenced today were part of the 88 Generation Students group, named for a 1988 massacre of protesting students in Rangoon. It’s hard to imagine a more clear-cut case of right and wrong, or at least to my sensibilities, and I think to those of most breathing, feeling human beings. However, Burma is of little importance on the global geopolitical map (unlike, say, Iraq), so the chances of the junta feeling serious international pressure to shape up anytime soon? Not so great.