Not only have monks been shot, and writers held in detention, but communications have also been cut off in Myanmar.
Dinah Lee Küng, member of PEN Swiss Romand, in a letter of today addressed to the Chinese Ambassador in Geneva, notes that “while Beijing has shielded Myanmar’s government from its international critics — for instance, by blocking a United Nations Security Council resolution earlier this year condemning its human rights record — the Chinese government has also urged those holding power to avoid a repeat of the violent crackdown on demonstrations in 1988 that led to extended periods of house arrest for the opposition” and so urges China, along with the other members of the Human Rights Council “to make it clear that a country cannot be governed successfully in darkness or silence.”
