May 2008 - Issue 411

Burma should be celebrating 60 years of independence, but instead the country is colonized from within. The military dictatorship that’s got its jackboot on the nation’s neck now goes by the name of the State Peace and Development Council. But peace and development are just two things among many it has not managed to deliver – large sections of the country are riven by civil war as armed groups fight military rule and, often, each other. The *NI* speaks with Burmese people, both inside and outside the country. With great fear and courage they are trying to keep the flame of freedom alight.