Icould tell you stories.

I could tell you stories of what I saw in Burma; stories of women holding their emaciated dying babies in their arms; stories of armed soldiers standing guard over teenage slave laborers building a highway under the broiling sun in 100-degree weather; stories of entire villages ordered to pack their bags and immediately move from their ancestral homes to desolated pieces of land.

I could tell you about a military regime running the country it renamed Myanmar, and destroying a once-prosperous economy, humiliating a proud people and spending almost nothing of the country's riches on health and education, instead enriching the generals and building one of the world's largest armies while the people were plunged into poverty.

But if I told you about that, you might look only at Burma and not at the rest of the world, which has stood by and allowed all this to happen for decade after decade, making empty gestures while thousands die year after year. I could tell you stories.

When I heard the entirely unsurprising news that the leader of Burma's pro-democracy movement, Aung San Suu Kyi, has just been sentenced once again to house arrest, I took a deep breath and counted the minutes until international condemnation started rising across the planet.

Yes, everyone is outraged.

Living in isolation

I wondered if the amazing Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace Prize winner, got to hear all those statements in her support from world leaders after a Burmese court found her guilty of allowing a man to enter her house -- where she has lived in isolation under house arrest -- after he illegally swam across a lake adjacent to the property to talk to her. If she has heard the chorus of condemnation, I wonder how she reacted.

Yes, yes, everyone denounces the illegitimate regime, from the president of the United States to the secretary general of the United Nations.

Everyone says that denying her freedom is unacceptable, that the trial was a sham.

Everyone knows the person elected to govern Burma is none other than Su Kyi herself, whose National League for Democracy swept elections in 1990 and, as a result, saw most of its leaders thrown into prison.

That's a peculiar twist on democracy. But Burma under the generals is one peculiar place. I could tell you stories!

I wondered if Suu Kyi feels bitter, I wondered if she feels mocked by the rest of the world when she hears international condemnation again, and knows nothing will happen as a result. But figuring out Aung San Suu Kyi is impossible. She is unlike anyone I have have ever met.

I won't tell you the story of her life, but you should look it up. It defies belief. Suu Kyi, the daughter of Burma's independence hero, could have lived a life of comfort and privilege. Instead, she has spent a decade and a half as a prisoner. At almost any time she could have given up her nonviolent fight to end ruthless oppression in Burma and returned to her family in England. But her mere presence in the country gives sustenance to her despondent people. I could tell you stories of mentioning her name to people in Burma and seeing their faces light up.

Burma ignored

Until recently, the rest of the world didn't have much of a reason to care about Burma, except for its concern for an entire nation in chains. There was not much of a ``national interest'' beyond our common humanity. Now, however, there is growing evidence that the generals are making common cause with North Korea, developing their own nuclear weapons program.

There are few regimes on Earth as amoral as Burma's. The thought of nuclear weapons in the hands of a junta that, to name one instance, thinks nothing of letting its own people die without help after a hurricane, should shake world leaders out of their worn-out routine of expressing indignation at Burma's outrages and following up with no action beyond the stale economic sanctions that have accomplished nothing.

Much more could be done. More muscular and better coordinated sanctions, more diplomatic pressure, charges against the generals for crimes against humanity, and yes, the threat of military action. The generals came to power 47 years ago. How long does it take? How bad does it have to get?

It's more than bad enough already. I could tell you stories.

Frida Ghitis writes about international affairs.

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