The BurmaNet News: December 23, 199 (r)

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                  The BurmaNet News: December 23, 1996
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Subject: The BurmaNet News: December 23, 1996 



------------------------ BurmaNet ------------------------
"Appropriate Information Technologies, Practical Strategies"
----------------------------------------------------------

The BurmaNet News:  December 21, 1996
Issue # 597

HEADLINES:
==========
ABSDF: CURRENT SITUATION IN BURMA(6)
ABSDF (WB): INSIDE NEWS
ABSDF (WB): RECENT STUDENTS UPRISING IN UPPER BURMA
NATION: SLORC EMISSARY MAKES CONTACT WITH SUU KYI
THAILAND TIMES: EXILED DISSIDENTS APPOINT NEW EXEC COMM
LIBERATION ALLIANCE OF BURMA: POLICE OFFICER SHOT DEAD BY 
NLD CENTRAL EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE: PRESS STATEMENT
ABSDF: SLORC EXTORTS MONEY FROM VILLAGERS IN TOUNGOO
IMPHAL FREE PRESS: AMSU SUPPORTS BURMESE STUDENTS
MAINICHI DAILY NEWS: ASEAN DOES INTERFERE IN BURMA
BANGKOK POST: CAUTION ON BURMA ADVISED
NATION: ANOTHER BOYCOTT OF BURMA
AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL: 5 PRISONERS RELEASED
NYT: LETTER TO THE EDITOR: ISOLATING MYANMAR 
INDEPENDENT REPORT: PEOPLE'S FORUM ON BURMA INAUGURAL
INDEPENDENT REPORT: DEMONSTRATION IN D.C.
-------------------------------------------------------------

ABSDF: CURRENT SITUATION IN BURMA(6)
December 20, 1996
lurie@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

1) SLORC Appropriates State-Own Textile Factory & Arrests
Protesting Workers

On 13/12/96, immediately after the violent crackdown on the
students protesting against police brutality, the military regime
appropriated one of the largest textile factories in Burma.

The Thamine Textile Factory, located in the township of Insein,
was appropriated by the military and its name has been changed to
the 'Tatmadaw Textile Factory'. (Tatmadaw is the Burmese word for
the armed forces.)

The SLORC arrested 34 workers who were among many protesting over
the appropriation and the changing of its name.

2) SLORC Continues Arresting Former Activists

The SLORC has continued to round up former activists for alleged
connection with student protests that ended last week after a
crackdown, followed by an unofficial closure of educational
institutions. 

The arrests are in line with SLORC's accusation that the ABSDF
and Communist Party of Burma were behind the 'unrest' because
some of those arrested were at one time close associates of Moe
Thee Zun, current vice-chairman of the ABSDF. Also, left-wing
activists are always subjected to questioning and are detained
whenever 'unrest' occurs in Burma.    

3) Students Held At Kyaikkasan Race Course

According to an unconfirmed report, a total of 108 students
including 3 female students are being held at Kyaikkasan Race
Course. The old race course has been used by successive military
regimes as a meeting place, and since the crackdown on the NLD
which has seen the arrests of more than 600 people in May, it has
been used as temporary detention and interrogation center by the SLORC.

4) Students Still Receiving Treatment at the RGH

Reliable sources in downtown Rangoon confirmed the news that more
than 100 students are receiving medical treatment in a special
ward in Rangoon General Hospital (RGH). The students are being
treated for wounds sustained during the violent crackdown on
their peaceful protests earlier this month. Sources close to the
RGH told ABSDF that groans can be heard from the special ward.
Hospital visitors, who were previously free to come and go, are
now being strictly checked following the arrival of the students.
No house surgeons (medical students interns) are allowed to go
into this ward - only senior doctors are permitted entry.

4) The SLORC Continues To Investigate Biographies Of the Children
Of Teachers And Civil Servants  

In an effort to prevent the participation in the protest of the
children of teachers and civil servants, who are students at
various educational institutions, the military regime has
continued checking their biographies. It is easier for the
military to curb the activities of these students by putting
pressure on their parents. 

5) SLORC Forms USDA And Yawata (Ward Law And Order Restoration
Council) Into 'Pyit Swan Arr' Vigilante Organization

Reliable sources in Burma informed the ABSDF that the SLORC has
formed an organization called 'Pyit Swan Arr' or 'Strength Of The
Nation' to watch over the activities of the students. It is a
vigilante organization of SLORC comprising members of the Union
Solidarity Development Association (USDA) and Yawata or the Ward
Law And Order Restoration Council. The same sources also reported
that the SLORC is drawing up contingency plans for the
possibility of another student protest.  

*****************************************************************

ABSDF (WB): INSIDE NEWS
December 22, 1996
        
1. A students protest was reported to have taken place at 
No(1.) State high school in Monywa on 11/12/96 and 12/12/96. 
A rumor that the Burmese students from India had arrived in 
Monywa, was also spreading in Monywa. On hearing that rumor,
 SLORC officials were busy conducting house to house search for the 
said students.
 
        2. Schools in Mandalay, Monywa and Kalay have been 
shut down by the authorities without any prior notice. Students 
were said to have been sent back to their respective hometowns
and were made to sign in at every check-point on their way home. 
 
        3. The students who are not residents of Rangoon were 
asked by the officials to leave Rangoon for their respective 
hometowns. Only female students complied with the officials 
order. But most of the male students, in spite of the SLORC 
officials order, decided to remain in Rangoon. The students 
have made a declaration that the day schools and colleges are 
reopened must be the day the students union is formed. 
 
*************************************************************

ABSDF (WB): RECENT STUDENTS UPRISING IN UPPER BURMA
December 22, 1996

There were peaceful student demonstrations in Mandalay capital of 
upper Burma last week. Mandalay university students took place in such 
uprising because they disliked the brutal army crackdown on the peaceful 
demonstrations of Rangoon universities' students against the present 
military regime (SLORC). 

The student demonstrations of Mandalay were also cracked down by 
the army, and forty students were arrested and put in jail, 32 male 
and 8 female students. Among them two student leaders, executive 
members of strike committee, Han Wim Aung and Zaw Lin Tun who are both 
3rd year students of zoology, were severely and cruelly tortured by 
military Intellegence in jail. These student demonstrations were led by 
six student leaders from Rangoon Institute of Technology who came from 
Rangoon. The demands of students are:

        1. To allow the formation of free and independent student
unions.
        2. To release all student prisoners unconditionally and 
        immediately including student leader Min Ko Naing who has been
in 
        jail since 1988.
        3. To implement tripartite dialogue without any delay among Daw 
        Aung San Suu Kyi lead democratic forces, ethnic nationalities 
        leaders and the SLORC.
 
On 20.12.96 Burmese democratic forces staying at Indo-Burma border 
performed a joint activity including poster campaign and distributing 
pamphlets and memorandum that mention the student movement inside 
Burma and ask the people to support the student movement and join
actively 
to become countywide mass uprising like as 1988.
 
On 18.12.96, five leaders from the NLD party Tamu branch were arrested
by 
the military intelligence because of anti-government papers and books
were 
seized from their residents. They are chairman of Tamu branch NLD party
U 
Kyin Swan Khan, secretary U Cho, and executive members U Chan Hla, U Tin 
Aung and U Hla Sein. On 2012.96 they were sent to the army lock up of 
Kalamyo.
 
- ABSDF (WB) News and information Unit

*****************************************************************

NATION: SLORC EMISSARY MAKES CONTACT WITH SUU KYI
December 22, 1996  Reuter

AN EMISSARY of the Burmese military government has been in
contact with opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, but both sides
denied yesterday that this was the start of a dialogue between them.

A government spokesman said that "a channel of information flow"
had been opened between the ruling State Law and Order
Restoration Council (Slorc) and the leader of the National League
for Democracy (NLD) party.

However, he added: "It is  premature to call it the start of a
dialogue. In this way it is direct and we don't have to rely on
hearsay."

Deputy Secretary- General of the NLD, U Tin Oo, confirmed  that a
government r  official had visited Suu Kyi this week, but said
the meeting was to clarify the government request for her not to
leave home without permission.

"There is a linkage between the Slorc and Aung San Suu Kyi.
A liaison officer came to explain to her about her confinement to
the house, he said. "It is not opening of a channel for dialogue."

Suu Kyi, who was released after six years of house arrest in July
1995, has sought dialogue with the Slorc to bring about more
freedom and democracy in Burma.
     
But the Slorc has refused to hold a dialogue with Suu Kyi and her
NLD. It had demanded that talks be held through the
government-appointed national convention which is drawing up a
new national constitution.
               
Suu Kyi and her NLD walked out of the convention in November 1995.

Political sources in Rangoon said they had heard rumours that the
Slorc and NLD had held talks through a mediator recently.

Some believed that the opening of a  channel between the two
sides could be the harbinger of real dialogue but others doubted
it was substantive.

Suu Kyi was told by the Slorc to remain indoors earlier this
month after anti-government student demonstrations in the streets
of Rangoon. She protested against the curb and critics called it
another form of house arrest.

Suu Kyi's aide said she had been at her lakeside residence on
University Avenue since Dec 3 but had been  visited by senior
party members. 
     
Public access to Suu Kyi's residence has been barred for several
weeks and connecting  roads remain blocked. 
     
However, on Friday afternoon the deputy charge d'affaires of the
US embassy in Rangoon, Douglas Rasmussen, was allowed to visit
Suu Kyi. The Nobel peace laureate updated him on her confinement
and the latest political situation, NLD sources said. 
     
On Dec 13, the week after some 2,000 students staged street
protests in  Rangoon, the Slorc prevented the  embassy's charge
d'affaires Kent Widemann from meeting Suu Kyi at her house.

The emissary said Rasmussen's visit to Suu Kyi's house showed
that the opposition leader was not under house arrest.

"It is only a temporary action and when the security situation
improves the restriction can be lifted," he added. 

*****************************************************************

THAILAND TIMES: EXILED DISSIDENTS APPOINT NEW EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE
December 22, 1996
by Assawin Pinitwong 

TAK: An exiled-Burmese government has elected its new central
executive committee in the Thai-Burmese border area in a recent
administrative reshuffle, Burmese dissident sources said.

The National League for Democracy (NLD) - Liberated Area elected
Tin Aung as its new president while Win Khet was appointed the
deputy president. Than Tu, Maung Maung Hla and Aung Saw U will
respectively serve as first, second and third secretaries in the
central executive committee, the NLD sources said.
     
The party also picked up 13 NLD central executive committee members.

The NLD - Liberated Area had set up office in border area of
Manerplaw controlled by ethnic Karen National Union (KNU) in late
1990 after Rangoon's military regime refused to accept election results.

Most of the CEC members were elected as people's representatives
in the military-held multi-party general elections in May that year.

The NLD source said the CEC plans to meet once a month at one of
the NLD offices along the Thai-Burmese border opposite Umphang
district, Tak, to discuss their ongoing struggle against the
State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC).

In another development, SLORC's Secretary 1 and intelligence
chief Lt-Gen Khin Nyunt had sent two government mediators Khun
Mya and Tun Aung Kyi to hold further talks with rebel KNU
President Bo Mya at the KNU headquarters in Tegaplaw opposite
Umphang district. Rangoon had demanded the rebel group be
disarmed before signing a peace agreement. The result of the 
meeting was yet to be known. 

*****************************************************************

LIBERATION ALLIANCE OF BURMA: POLICE OFFICER SHOT DEAD BY 
CEASEFIRE 'WA' OFFICER
December 19, 1996       (posted by the ABSDF)

------------------------------------------------------
The Liberation Alliance of Burma (LAB) is a coalition of youth
and students inside Burma working to achieve democracy and human
rights there.
---------------------------------------------------

"No charges would be brought against the Wa officer in the name
of national interest', says the commander of Mandalay Division
Military Command.

'People in the Mandalay area plan to counter violent acts by Wa
officers through non-violent means'.

Mandalay, 25/11/96, Full Mon Day of Tazaung Mone

A police officer was shot dead by Wa revellers during the
Kathin festival in Mandalay last month. Drunken Wa revellers
belonging to the former communist group, which signed a ceasefire
with the Burmese military regime in 1989, caused problems with
local people on November 25 during the Kathin festival. 

When the Wa revellers started causing problems, employees from
'Lone Khen' Hotel called the police for help. The police at the
nearby No.8 Police Station, located in Yodaya Quarter, sensed
possible trouble and a scuffle involving the Wa and decided not
to send less experienced younger officers to the scene. Instead,
a 40-year Police Lieutenant named U Saw Maung was sent to
defuse the problem. This choice was appropriate because U Saw
Maung was an Arakan and not a Burman.   

The noise and disturbance caused by the Wa was so intense that
U Saw Maung finally had to arrest one of the Wa officers. He
hand-cuffed the officer, at which other Wa officers violently
protested. U Saw Maung understood that the situation was
uncontrollable and fired warning shots into the air. At this
point, one of the Wa officers shot him dead in front of hotel
employees and many other locals. He died instantly on the spot. 

Many eye-witnesses went to the police station out of anger to
recount the incident to the police. While the commander of the
police station was filing the case, the commander of the Mandalay
Divisional Military Command arrived at the station. He snatched
the file from the police commander and said in front of the police 
and eye-witnesses, 'We cannot let our country be disintegrated because 
of the death of a policeman. Wa have been contributing much to the 
country. The police, instead, are destroying the country by taking
bribes'.

Police forces in upper Burma, including the Police Commander of
the Mandalay Division, were extremely unhappy with the action and
words of the military commander, but were unable to do anything.

The people who were at the scene of the crime were also
displeased with the whole episode. An eye-witness also reported
that he and many others overheard a soldier, who was with the
Mandalay Military Commander at the police station, express his
disgust at the actions of his commander. He said, "Being a
Burmese has no value. We (soldiers) have to watch all these Wa
opium bandits have their own way in the towns. I wish our paths
will cross'.