It’s not Rangoon but democracy loving Canberra. The Sydney Morning Herald (the source of this photo) reports:
A protest of about 60 Burmese pro-democracy activists were met with heavy police presence at a protest outside the Burmese embassy in Canberra this afternoon. Chanting “we want democracy” and “free Burma”, the group of mainly older Burmese-Australian men first sat in an area across a closed road from the Burmese embassy, then sat down on the closed road. About 30 federal police officers and two police dogs tried to disperse the group. One protester was thrown to the ground and taken away. Protester Thomas Soe said police had been heavy handed. “All we wanted to do was a peaceful demonstration, all we wanted to do was stand in front of the embassy,” he said. Police denied they had been heavy-handed. The protest then marched to the Chinese embassy, where protesters yelled: “Chinese government, shame on you”.
1 response so far ↓
1 Blogger Jotman // Sep 28, 2007 at 9:58 pm
What’s with it with it with Australia? I blogged about the police reaction during APEC; I linked to shocking videos of police brutality there. The images have stuck in my mind. What you saw at APEC was systematic and gratuitous thuggery. Yet as far as I know, there were no investigations.
When are Australian going to start holding their goverment accountable? Aussie cops are good, decent men and women. They the among the best police in the world. It’s absolutely the goverment that is out of control. It’s the instructions it gives them.
At my blog, if you scoll way down past the Burma posts, you’ll see Jotman’s perspective on Australia. It ain’t pretty.
Leave a Comment
Please note: New Mandala encourages vigorous debate. However, for the moment we will only be publishing high-quality comments that make original contributions to discussion. There will, of course, still be space for pithy, humorous, eccentric and cheeky input. Short and sweet will usually trump long and involved. Repetitive ranting, unimaginative point-scoring and idle abuse will not be entertained. Comments which carry a real name are also more likely to be approved. Thank you for your ongoing interest and contributions.