Aung San Suu Kyi

Aung San Suu Kyi, the Burmese democracy leader who was put under house arrest for many years by the military government, has secretly recorded two lectures for the BBC. In them she speaks movingly about the price she and her fellow activists have paid for freedom, with many being jailed or even killed by the authorities.

"They pretend to be unafraid as they go about their duties and pretend not to see that their comrades are also pretending," she says. "This is courage that has to be renewed consciously from day to day and moment to moment. This is how the battle for freedom has to be fought until such time as we have the right to be free from the fear imposed by brutality and injustice." This insight into her struggle should certainly make us grateful for the freedoms we take for granted in our own country.

You can read more about her here at the Burma campaign's UK website and in this BBC profile. The lectures will be broadcast on 28 June and 5 July on Radio 4.

Aung San Suu Kyi

A rather belated post about Nobel prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi's release by the military junta last Saturday. Under house arrest for seven years, Suu Kyi is the leader of the pro-democracy party in Burma, the National League for Democracy. The party overwhelmingly won elections in 1990 but was prevented from taking power by the junta who continued its military dictatorship. Following the recent elections in Burma, widely criticised for not being free or fair, the NLD leader is now free but for how much longer and will her release really change Burma? Here is her interview with John Simpson and here some more information about the elections and the situation in Burma.
For some more discussion on Burma's history, see Laurence Rees's blog.

Elephant Rescue

An amazing story has emerged today of how a British tea planter rescued hundreds of refugees fleeing the Japanese in Burma in World War 2 using a team of elephants. Gyles Mackrell learned in summer 1942 that British soldiers and civilians were trapped the other side of a swollen river, surviving on rations dropped by the RAF. He believed his team of elephants could be used to rescue them so he trekked 100 miles through the jungle in a week. The river crossing was incredibly dangerous and the elephants and their handlers "took terrible risks being washed away and broken to pieces". Over 200 people were saved and he was given the George medal for his courage. You can read more about the story here and watch archive footage here.