[iltos]

sorry for the catchy title ....this isn't about religion

sorry, too, if this has been posted here someplace....i missed it....and while it may not be a topic for CD, it strikes me as bit too provocative and powerful for random....and i just didn't want to bury in one of the science treads

i heard about it driving back from central CA tonight, and dug it up when i got home...there's an overview here http://www.boston.com/news/world/art...burmas_plight/

Satellite images show Burma's plight
Technology aids cause of human rights

The photographs, taken over the course of the past year and not directly related to the bloody anti-government protests that have convulsed the main city of Rangoon and other centers in recent days, seemed to support assertions by refugees and dissident groups of human rights abuses by the country's military dictatorship.

the report itself is here http://www.eurekalert.org/images/rel...2007_press.pdf

This report was produced by the Geospatial Technologies and Human Rights project as part of the Science and Human Rights Program (SHRP; http://shr.aaas.org) of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). SHRP brings scientists and scientific expertise to efforts to achieve human rights around the world. As a program of AAAS - the world's largest multidisciplinary scientific membership organization - SHRP engages scientists and marshals scientific tools, techniques, and technologies to enhance the impact of human rights work, promotes the human right to benefit from scientific progress (Article 15, ICESCR), and brings human rights norms to the conduct of science.

Acknowledgment
Many thanks to the Free Burma Rangers, the Thailand Burma Border Consortium, and the Karen Human Rights Group for information on attack areas in eastern Burma. Special thanks to Sean O'Connor and Susan Wolfinbarger for their hours of invaluable geospatial labor. Primary support for this project was provided by the Open Society Institute. Significant support was also provided by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation through grant number 06-88407-000-GSS.

Lars Bromley, one of the researchers on this project (and the guy interviewed on the radio tonight) says "you really ought to do some research on the Free Burma Rangers, et al"

here's one of the images from the report...most of the images are from areas where ethnic minorities who oppose the government are reportedly being driven into thailand, collected in some sort of detention camps, or killed

[valley]

Originally Posted by iltos

sorry for the catchy title ....this isn't about religion

[TooBad]

It is great that we can use that technology to document the atrocities occurring in Burma. Now what can we do about it? The UN is a feckless wonder doing nothing about anything except empty talk. The US is being lambasted for stopping similar treatment of the Iraqis and for not doing anything about similar treatment in Somalia. Can't win for trying or not trying.

Sorry, but maybe it is time for the US to forget about everyone else and bring all the troops home and all the foreign aid with them. Let the world have at itself and then maybe once the idiots have all killed themselves, we can step in again to support civilized behavior. (sarcasm alert!)