The Burmese government is once again living up to its reputation as one of the world's most unsavoury regimes.
Since last November, the regime has been conducting one of its biggest military offensives in recent years against the ethnic Karen minority on the Burmese border with Thailand.
According to US-based Human Rights Watch, the Burmese military has uprooted some 10,000 people. A report on the monitoring group's website accuses Burmese troops of looting and burning homes and planting anti-personnel mines to terrorise the local population.
In some cases, villagers have reportedly been ordered by battalion commanders to leave their homes or face summary execution. Fleeing villagers have reported witnessing soldiers commit extrajudicial killings and torture.
The military government blames the latest outbreak of violence on a power struggle within the Karen rebel group that has led to "torture, bullying and killings".
It is difficult to verify the truth of these assertions, but Burma is hardly a shining beacon for human rights. The ruling junta simply brushed aside a 1990 landslide victory by the opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, jailed students and dissidents. Ms Suu Kyi has been under house arrest for three years.
During this time, the regime has toyed with the international community - hinting at her release only to continue her confinement.
UN officials have called on both sides in the current hostilities to protect civilians but have directed their harshest criticism at the Burmese government.
Tomorrow, Ibrahim Gambari, the UN undersecretary-general for political affairs, begins a three-day visit to the country, the first by a UN official in more than two years.
It is difficult to see what he can do. Burma's critics, which include the US and the UK, are having trouble putting Burma on the formal agenda of the UN security council, because of Chinese and Russian opposition, according to Human Rights Watch.
But the road to political reform in Burma probably runs through Beijing. There are signs that China - perhaps Burma's only friend - is becoming impatient with its increasingly unpredictable rulers.
China needs gas and timber from Burma, and will not want to see an unstable country on its border. So while Burma's military men can afford to thumb their noses at the UN and the west, China is another matter altogether.
