Mark Farmaner: Fine words - but not nearly enough action

Burmese democracy activists have often asked us: "What will it take to persuade the international community to support us? Do we have to be gunned down in the streets in front of TV cameras before they act?" Soon that question could become a prediction.

For more than 17 years Burmese people have called on the international community for help. The Burma Campaign UK was set up in 1991 in response to that call. At first, our task was to raise awareness of human rights abuses, collecting evidence to present to governments and the United Nations.

In the 1990s we began to campaign for sanctions. Having seen how increased trade and investment was being used by the regime to double the size of the army and secure its grip on power, the democracy movement in Burma called for targeted economic sanctions.

The Burma Campaign UK and our sister organisations around the world began lobbying governments and campaigning against companies investing in Burma. With the exception of the USA, those calls fell on deaf ears.

But while governments failed to act, people around the world did not, forcing hundreds of companies, including British American Tobacco and Texaco, out of Burma through consumer campaigns.

It has been only since 2005 that the international community has started to give Burma the attention it deserves. And while Gordon Brown has talked about the need for action, it is the US that is delivering action, with George Bush promising tough new sanctions. We have seen this all before. Even as fears of a massacre grow, the UK, EU and UN still can't stir themselves into action.

So when our Burmese friends ask if a massacre is what it takes to stir the international community to help, we have to tell them, don't count on it.

Mark Farmaner is the acting director of Burma Campaign UK