New Statesman - <![CDATA[David Scott Mathieson]]> http://www.newstatesman.com/writers/david_scott_mathieson en <![CDATA[The lady's not for turning]]> http://www.newstatesman.com/asia/2009/05/suu-kyi-military-rule-burma http://www.newstatesman.com/asia/2009/05/suu-kyi-military-rule-burma Tue, 19 May 2009 09:52:10 GMT David Scott Mathieson Doubts about Aung San Suu Kyi's political relevance can be dismissed. She remains the symbol of defiance to a rotten system of military rule in Burma

Aung San Suu Kyi rarely receives visitors. Apart from the regular visits by her doctor and Special Branch police officers, there is only the occasional United Nations envoy, and on a rainy day in September 2007, hundreds of Buddhist monks who walked to her house chanting prayers in her honour before leading the biggest uprising in Burma since 1988.

Suu Kyi’s latest visitor came uninvited and, unwittingly, cast her from [...]

]]> <![CDATA[Nasty, brutish and short]]> http://www.newstatesman.com/asia/2007/11/child-soldiers-burma-army http://www.newstatesman.com/asia/2007/11/child-soldiers-burma-army Fri, 02 Nov 2007 16:32:00 GMT David Scott Mathieson The brutality and bluster of Burma's military leaders conceal the reality of an army increasingly reliant on forcibly conscripted child soldiers

Beyond the brutality of the military against protesting monks, and belying the bluster of senior army officers during their grand parades in the new martial capital at their jungle redoubt in Naypyidaw, is a reality that Burma's ruling State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) does its best to conceal: many of its soldiers are mere children.

Human Rights Watch research this summer showed that boys as young as 10 continue [...]

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