NS on Burma

Well done to the New Statesman, in amongst its usual diet of predictable anti-Blair/US/Israel me-tooism, for drawing attention to the human rights disaster that is the Burmese "State Peace and Development Council" (surely the most misnamed organisation in the world?) military regime. They've done a special issue on the subject - most of which is online - http://www.newstatesman.com/nsspecialissue.htm

and includes the following stats:

"Burma by numbers:

• 500,000 number of soldiers out of a population of 50 million
• 19 the annual sum, in pence, spent per person on health
• 30,900 hectares of opium poppies cultivated in 2003
• 15 years in jail: penalty for unlicensed possession of a fax machine or modem
• 540,000 estimated number of internally displaced people
• 17 percentage of schools with safe drinking water"

The UK Burma Campaign is based in Hackney at Charles Square in Hoxton: http://www.burmacampaign.org.uk/ and deserves support.

Co-located with them is the Free Tibet Campaign, http://www.freetibet.org/ - maybe the NS should run something on the situation there as well.