241 Pizza

Economically and politically, however, Burmese are worse off today than ever. According to foreign diplomats in Rangoon inflation runs at about 40 per cent and one third of the population lives below the poverty line — and not only the survivors of Cyclone Nargis, which killed 140,000 people and jeopardised the livelihoods of two million more in May. Revenues from the extensive gasfields and rich gem mines in the country appear to have been mostly spent on the construction of Naypyidaw, the isolated capital city that the junta built in the jungles of central Burma. And as Burmese find themselves growing poorer and poorer, they are becoming less and less free.

On Tuesday the Government released seven prisoners of conscience as part of an amnesty of 9,002 prisoners — but, according to Amnesty International, the number of political prisoners has almost doubled in the past year from 1,150 to 2,100. Since the Saffron Revolution the leadership of the so-called ’88 Generation of activists has been either arrested or forced into hiding.

The almost comically subservient state press trumpets the junta’s “road map to democracy”, which is due to culminate in a general election in 2010. Few independent observers doubt that this will be a crude fix — much like the constitutional “referendum” held the week after the cyclone, in which 92 per cent of voters purportedly said yes to the Government plans for a new constitution.

Ironically, it is the savageness of the economic suffering in Burma, and the cartoon-like crudity and brutality of its rulers, which give some in the democratic movement hope. “The demonstrations last year happened for a reason, because of underlying social and economic problems,” Maung Maung, an opposition journalist, said. “They have put people in prison and killed some, but those economic problems are still there.”

In the meantime the organising continues discreetly. Various opposition groups put out bulletins and statements but they are less like formal membership organisations than loosely linked networks of friends. The Venerable Min Tun explained that his group, the All Burma Monks Association, had a cell system whereby one monk remained in touch with four laymen so that when the momentum towards demonstrations reached a sufficient level they could be mobilised quickly.

“Maybe it won’t be monks next time — maybe it’ll be farmers or students, or even soldiers,” Mr Maung said. “But it’s just inevitably going to happen again.”

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