DICTATOR WATCH
(www.dictatorwatch.org)

Contact: Roland Watson, roland-AT-dictatorwatch.org

ACTIONS SPEAK LOUDER THAN WORDS

October 16, 2006

Please forward.

The Dictator Watch website has now been online for five years. To
commemorate this milestone, we have a new article, Actions Speak Louder
Than Words, www.dictatorwatch.org/articles/dwfiveyear.html, which
analyzes in detail the current situation for the pro-democracy movement in
Burma.

An excerpt is as follows:

“It is essential that this new popular movement in Burma not end with the
signature campaign. If it does, it would be akin to the appeal for freedom and
democracy embodied in the 1990 election, which the junta readily ignored.
The new campaign is only useful to the extent that it triggers other,
widespread activities. This is the only way to properly punish the SPDC for the
arrests. Otherwise, the generals will win again: the arrests will have been a
successful tactic.

Min Ko Naing and his colleagues were heroes for staying in Burma when they
could have fled. Our response should be similarly heroic, not merely impotent
complaints.”

We have a second new article as well, The Role of the Military in a Democracy, www.dictatorwatch.org/articles/militaryindemocracy.html, which is a
follow-up to our statement about the coup in Thailand.