what happens in Burma, and the background

My friend sent me a very good summary of what happens in Burma now and the background of it.

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Okay…
Basically peaceful Burmese protesters are being
violently crashed under the military regime of Burma -
one of the worst dictatorship, they say - and they
need an international help to survive and to continue
with their protest for democratic and humanitarian
Burma.
What I wrote are my words, based on what I have read
and seen on various sources on Internet.

Last week, the Burmese military junta put the fuel
price up to 500% higher without any warning or
explanations, which would put up the price of
everything. The Burmese people have already been
suffering from the hardship of living under this
regime that had been uncaring and inhumanitarian. This
triggered a protest and it was soon joined by a
hundreds of Buddist monks. In Burma, they hold the
highest respect from people and they are not easily
involved in political movement. The fact they were in
the street calling for Democracy shows the urgency of
the issue. Burma had a long story with military
dictatorship and struggle for democracy and these
monks were joined by civilians that grew up to 100,000
on the streets in just a few days. Under this regime,
this is not an easy event that can happen. It is the
first big demonstration since 1988, when the
protesters were put down by guns, ending up with
killing of 3,000 people.

The regime has been ruthless and inhumanitarian. They
were supposed to restore election. But when it came to
it, with the leader of Democratic party Aung San Suu
Kyi winning 82% of votes, they claimed the election
invalid and put Aung San Suu Kyi under house arrest
for the most of the last 18 years. Aung San Suu Kyi
won a Nobel peace prize in 1991. I personally think
she has the most amazing face, that somehow expresses
her inner strength and clarity - I remember her face
from an exhibition 10 years ago when I didn’t now who
she was. I had thought I would like to age like her.

In the last three days, the military junta has
executed violent crack down on the non-violent
demonstrators with beating, arrest, tear gas, and
killing. They raided many monasteries, have taken away
monks into prisons, and also Aung San Suu Kyi into a
prison. The junta is said to have employed many mobs
to carry out the jobs, not to get international
attentions by moving the military too much. Many have
been injured and 13 are officially declared killed,
but the real figure is expected to be many times
higher. Few days ago, they cut down all the Internet
and mobile phone connections in the country to stop
information going out. You will find many video clips
in Youtube of the first three days of demonstrations,
and much less for the last three days.

Most countries including US and Europe and even other
Southeastern countries have expressed their disgust
and request to stop using violence to peaceful
protesters and to bring more democracy. They are
looking for economic means such as sanctions to give
pressure to the military regime. But what is seen as
the real key to be able to affect the regime
effectively is the neighboring countries, such as
China, India and Russia. China has to the main role
here. China so far only expressed their principle of
not interfering internal affairs of other countries
and did not really say anything to oppose Burmese
junta’s violence on the demonstrators, or the
anti-democratic ruling. They themselves are hardly
democratic in dealing with demonstrators, as you may
still remember the bloodshed in Tien An Mun square in
1990 in Beijing in a very similar situation. The fact
is that they have the biggest economic trade
relationship with Burma. Burmese military government
will have to respond to China's pressure, but China
also will not respond unless it has enough pressure
from the international communities that gives them
enough reasons to do so. All the countries and all the
organizations have come to the same understanding that
we need to move China.
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