Burma

Evil exists; of that I have no doubt. The horrific cruelty that surfaces in the human race from time to time is unstinting evidence of it.

For a tragic illustration, look to Burma. The military junta have had things all their own way for far too long. Greed and fear seems to rule them. The people of Burma are exploited, maltreated, hungry; the monks, revered by the whole devout nation, are beaten up and tortured. Opposition is ground into the earth; legal elections are annulled and the lawful ruler imprisoned.

But evil brings about its own downfall. It has no limits, and so eventually goes just a millimetre too far. It pushes through that invisible barrier that separates a barely tolerable life from an intolerable one and leaves its victims so little choice that to act becomes a better option than to submit. Fear turns to anger. When a good man stands up against injustice, he wins a moral victory; when a whole people is enraged, dictatorships crumble. The junta's decision to raise petrol prices just may turn out to be that one incautious shove.

The sides in this dispute could not be more different. On one side, an oppressive military that plunders the resources of a once-abundant country for its own use, indoctrinating its soldiers that anyone disagreeing with them is the enemy, to be stopped by force. In opposition, a defiant brotherhood whose gentleness drives the desire for justice. Monks and nuns pray for the soldiers and refuse to fight back; Aung San Suu Kyi, who won the Nobel peace prize for personifying the power of the powerless and has been kept in solitary confinement for most of the last two decades, prays with them.

At this point Burma's future is uncertain. The junta has cut off internet access and is busy restricting the world's view of its atrocities. It has killed one foreign journalist, and at least nine protestors. People on the spot say the regime's claims of nine deaths is a vast understatement, and that monks are rumoured to be among the dead. If its milita can work out of sight, it will arrest and silence all possible opposition, and the people will return to a desperate, poverty-stricken existence, weaker than before and yet more hopeless. If the generals' deeds are open to scrutiny the regime will be more vulnerable to outside pressure.

A huge amount depends on China's and India's influence. If they can be brought to use it, a peaceful democracy may be negotiated into being. But China is unlikely to support a process of democratisation.

Bishop Tutu says this is in essence a 'moral universe'. He says that good will ultimately triumph, and history proves that to be so; but to wait for it without anger requires a superhuman patience and the active acceptance that all things come to an end and that everything happens for good. In Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, as in Mandela, the annealing fire of adversity has brought out these qualities. But she needs to be free, as do her countrymen. To achieve a peaceful revolution is incredibly hard; the courage of the Burmese protestors deserves the highest acclaim and the utmost help any of us can give. The monks believe that prayers for a peaceful resolution help - I, for one, am joining in.