From Taiwan News Online:
President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) yesterday condemned the repression of peacefully demonstrating monks, students and Myanmar citizens by the Myanmar military junta and sharply criticized China for continuing to prop up the military government in Yangon.
Speaking a day after at least nine people, including a Japanese photojournalist, were killed by Burmese troops, Chen issued the condemnation during an address at a reception for foreign ambassadors and representatives marking the 21st anniversary of the founding of the governing Democratic Progressive Party in Taipei yesterday.
The crackdown by the Myanmar military regime against the greatest mass movement for democracy to arise since it took power in 1988 continued yesterday as soldiers clubbed activists in the streets and fired warning shots into the air, moving decisively to break up rallies in the capital of Yangon and other major Myanmar cities.
…… In her address at the reception, Presidential Secretary-General Yeh Chu-lan (ËëâËèäËò≠) also slammed the Myanmar military regime and pointed to China as the military junta’s prime foreign supporter.
“China is a rising power, but stamps on human rights domestically and threatens peace externally,” stated Yeh, who cited the examples of the racial genocide in Darfur under the authoritarian Sudan regime backed by Beijing, which delayed the dispatch of U.N. peacekeeping forces for three years, which resulted in tens of thousands of deaths.
“Recently, the people of Myanmar bravely launched a struggle for democracy and freedom, but the long-term support by China for the Myanmar dictatorship has rendered ineffective all kinds of attempts by international society to exert pressure or sanction the military regime in Yangon,” Yeh related. [Full Text]
[Image source: Filipino protesters hit a poster of Myanmar’s military junta leader General Than Shwe during a rally in Manila, Philippines yesterday. Associated Press]
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