The BurmaNet News: April 17, 1998

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------------------------ BurmaNet ------------------------  
"Appropriate Information Technologies, Practical Strategies"   
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The BurmaNet News: April 17, 1998
Issue #985

HEADLINES:
===========
CSM: THE LADY AND THE GENERALS: GLOVES OFF IN BURMA
BKK POST: TOURISM PLAN WITH BURMA ON THE CARDS
REUTERS: MYANMAR SAYS AMNESTY REPORT FABRICATION
NLM:  MYANMAR DELEGATION LEAVES FOR BANGLADESH
MAINICHI DAILY NEWS: A FORGOTTEN WAR
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CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR: THE LADY AND THE GENERALS: GLOVES OFF IN BURMA
15 April, 1998
By Warren Richey
  	  				 
Arrest of a senior opponent worries some that National League for Democracy
leader Suu Kyi will be next.  This often-overlooked Southeast Asian nation,
known as much for its teak and rubies as for its despots disposing of
democracy, rarely plays out its political dramas in public.

That's why little notice was taken recently when a leading member of
Burma's pro-democracy movement, Oo Sooe Myint, was arrested and interrogated.

Yet to those trying to protect the leading democracy fighter, Aung San Suu
Kyi, and the remnants of her popular National League for Democracy (NLD),
this action by Burma's military regime reveals a new tactic to turn up the
heat on the pro-democracy movement's upper echelon.

The move against such a senior NLD party leader has some observers
concerned that the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize laureate may herself soon be
targeted for the same treatment that in the past decade has sent as many as
2,000 pro-democracy activists to prison on trumped-up charges.

That may explain why American journalists trying to reach Ms. Suu Kyi's
home recently were blocked by a dozen government security agents (see story
at right).

``It is becoming much worse,'' says a senior NLD member. The NLD serves as
a coalition of those opposed to the junta that has ruled the country (also
known as Myanmar) since 1988 and continued the authoritarian rule of former
Gen. Ne Win.

The senior NLD member asked that he not be identified by name out of
concern that the regime's secret police might retaliate and throw him in
prison for talking to an American journalist. 

Knock on the door

``I have to keep my clothes and medicine ready [in a suitcase],'' he says,
``because any night they may knock at the door.''

Some analysts say they are hopeful that a shakeup among the ruling generals
last November is fostering a more constructive approach to the
pro-democracy movement in Burma.

But others say there is no change in the military government's apparent
strategy of attempting to marginalize the NLD.

``As far as I can see there has been no improvement at all,'' says party
leader Suu Kyi in a videotape recently smuggled out of Burma and presented
to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights in Geneva. ``In fact I
could say that I am inclined to think that things have even gotten worse.''

The military government has been under international pressure to reach a
peaceful accommodation with Ms. Suu Kyi and other democratic leaders.

In a 1990 election, Suu Kyi's NLD won more than 80 percent of the seats in
what would have been the newly created parliament. But the ruling generals
declared the vote invalid and blocked the party from forming a government.

``The government will do whatever it feels it needs to do to remain in
power,'' says a Western diplomat in Rangoon.

Suu Kyi not fit to rule? 

Analysts say the military's actions are rooted in a fundamental fear within
the military that Suu Kyi - who is often referred to simply as ``the lady''
- is not a skilled and powerful enough leader to prevent the nation from
sliding back into a state of widespread civil war.

>From the military's perspective, the Burmese people should be grateful for
the sacrifice made by the country's soldiers in fighting ethnic militias.
And they should recognize the military's significant achievement in
negotiating cease-fire agreements with most of those militias.

But the bottom line, the military says, is that Burma is not ready yet for
democratic rule.

``The lady needs to understand our mentality. She doesn't,'' says Lt. Col.
U Hla Thann, an official at the Ministry of Defense and director of a
company organized to attract foreign investment despite existing
international economic sanctions.

``[The ruling generals] believe they have saved this country from
implosion,'' says Bernard Pe-Win, a Burmese-born British businessman with
investments in the local economy. 

But Mr. Pe-Win says government efforts to present its side of the story to
the international media have failed badly. ``Government PR is inept,'' he
says. ``They come from a military background and to them PR is a sham.''

Regime seeks rifts in NLD

Analysts say the only possibility of dialogue between the NLD and the
ruling generals is if the junta calculates that such discussions might
foster rifts within the pro-democracy movement. 

They have attempted in the past to reach out to democratic leaders other
than Suu Kyi in the hope that doing so might undermine her status.

In addition to leading the democratic movement, Suu Kyi is the daughter of
Gen. Aung San, the assassinated national hero who negotiated Burma's
independence from Britain.

There is, at present, no desire on the part of the ruling generals to
achieve a national reconciliation with democratic activists. 

Every day the regime publishes the same list of political, economic, and
social objectives on the front page of the government-controlled newspaper,
The New Light of Myanmar. The list includes a call for ``national
reconsolidation'' rather than national reconciliation.

Regime goes for higher echelon

In the past, the military government has attempted to disrupt pro-democracy
efforts by arresting and harassing activists at the lower and middle
echelons of the NLD. Some received prison terms of seven to 10 years after
being convicted in secret trials. 

Today, analysts say, the government appears prepared to strike, if
necessary, directly at the NLD's leadership. The arrest of Oo Sooe Myint, 1
of 10 members of the NLD's central executive committee, is a leading
example of that possible strategy.

Analysts say the government now appears poised to take similar action
against other party leaders, including Suu Kyi. ``They will be faced with a
real tough decision: 'Do we arrest her too?' `` says another Rangoon-based
Western diplomat who is closely monitoring political developments.

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BANGKOK POST: TOURISM PLAN WITH BURMA ON THE CARDS
18 April, 1998
By Supamart Kasem

JURIN, SAW LWIN TO MEET IN CHIANG RAI

A joint tourism development plan will be high on the agenda during next
week's meeting between Thai and Burmese authorities.

PM's Office Minister Jurin Laksanavisit is scheduled to meet Burma's
Minister of Hotels and Tourism, Maj Gen Saw Lwin, in Chiang Rai's Mae Sai
district on April 25-26.

Mr Jurin, who oversees the Tourism Authority of Thailand, has planned to
raise the joint tourism development plan at the two-day meeting, said a
source, adding that the minister has recently instructed the provincial
chamber of commerce and local tourism operators to give their views on
tourism and economic links with Burma.

Under the joint development proposal, Mae Sot district will be made a
gateway to Burma and other border towns in Tak and Burma will be developed
into tourism attractions.

The TAT has set aside a 10-million baht budget for Tak provincial
authorities to develop hot springs in Mae Sot, Nong Kran waterfall in Prop
Phra and other tourism spots.

During last week's inspection trip to Tak, Mr Jurin had surveyed new
rafting routes along the Mae Lamao river. 
     
He also ordered local TAT officials to make guidebooks about historical
sites in this northern province.

"Tak has the potential to be developed into a tourism hub in this northern
region and Mae Sot will be made a gateway to Burma. I will bring the
tourism development plan into discussion with my Burmese counterpart,
Maj-Gen Saw Lwin," said Mr Jurin.

He has called on local people in Mae Lamao village to help conserve the Mae
Lamao forest watershed by stopping slash-and-burn cultivation in the forest
area.

Julapong Saranak, president of the Tak Chamber of Commerce, said his agency
and the TAT have encouraged local people to take part in the tourism
development plan which includes the promotion of eco-tourism.

If Burma agrees with the joint tourism development plan, the number of
tourists visiting the two countries would rise sharply and more income will
be generated for local people, added Mr Julapong.

Meanwhile, more than 1,000 Thai tourists hoping to visit Burma were stuck
in Mae Sot when Rangoon closed the Myawaddy border post on Tuesday.

Authorities in Myawaddy closed all crossing points with Mae Sot from 6 a.m.
without notice and erected barricades on the Thai-Burmese Friendship Bridge.

Burmese officials later said they were trying to stop citizens leaving the
country but did not say when the ban would be lifted.

A Thai official said the local border agreement required either side to
give three months' notice of the closure of a permanent crossing point.

Thawatchai Fak-angkul, the district chief, suspected Burma was stepping up
security after Karen National Union guerrillas torched Myawaddy and
Tinganyinaung last Sunday.

During the attack, Thai soldiers fired three warning shots after two
artillery rounds fired from Myawaddy landed in Mae Sot.

Lt-Col Saing Phone, Burma's representative on the local joint border panel,
later sent a letter accusing Thailand of allowing KNU troops to launch
attacks on Rangoon forces.
     
Col Chatchapat Yamngarmriab his Thai counterpart, denied the accusation,
saying troops had found no trace of Karen  guerrillas in Thailand.

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REUTERS: MYANMAR SAYS AMNESTY REPORT ON ABUSES FABRICATION
16 April, 1998

BANGKOK - Myanmar's military rulers on Thursday dismissed as fabrication an
Amnesty International report detailing human rights abuses against ethnic
Shan civilians. 

``Unfortunately, Amnesty International has become a platform for the
Myanmar dissident groups and left-over insurgents to churn out fabrications
and exaggerations to discredit the Myanmar government,'' the ruling State
Peace and Development Council (SPDC) said in a statement. 

``Some of the allegations may be partially true but definitely not in the
way Amnesty International is portraying. Especially the killings and
torturing of ethnic races are totally nonsense,'' it added. 

On Wednesday, the London-based human rights watchdog issued a report saying
Myanmar government troops had tortured and killed hundreds of ethnic Shan
civilians as well as forcing at least 300,000 to flee their homes over the
past two years. 

Amnesty said its researchers traveled to Thailand early this year to
interview Shan refugees who had fled widespread human rights violations in
Myanmar. 

``They (Amnesty) are deliberately trying to tarnish the image of the
government which has put its heart and soul in the process of establishing
national unity and being able to do so for the first time in her modern
history,'' the SPDC said in its statement. 

Amnesty said Myanmar troops had killed at least 300 people in a series of
massacres in June and July last year. The report also described evidence of
beatings and rape of Shan civilians as well as forcible relocations. 

Amnesty said the relocations and resulting human rights abuses forced about
80,000 Shan to flee across the border and seek refuge in neighbouring
Thailand. 

The Shan have been fighting Yangon -- first the SLORC and then the State
Peace and Development Council (SPDC) -- for more autonomy for decades. 

``During counter-insurgency activities against (the Shan), Burmese troops
have subjected Shan villagers to a variety of human rights violations,
including forcible relocation and extrajudicial executions,'' the report
said. 

``The long-standing practice of forced labour and portering by the Burmese
forces in many parts of the country is also prevalent in the Shan State,''
it said. 

Amnesty called on the United Nations to press the SPDC to give better
access to the Special Rapporteur on Myanmar and to pressure the Myanmar
government to improve its human rights record.

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NEW LIGHT OF MYANMAR:  MYANMAR DELEGATION LEAVES FOR BANGLADESH
16 April, 1998
 
YANGON - At the invitation of Minister for Foreign Affairs of the People's
Republic  of Bangladesh Mr Abdus Samad Azad, a Myanmar goodwill delegation
led by Minister for Foreign  Affairs U Ohn Gyaw left here by air for the
People's Republic of Bangladesh this morning.

 The delegation was seen off at Yangon International Airport by Minister
for Home Affairs Col Tin  Hlaing, Minister for Social Welfare, Relief and
Resettlement Brig-Gen Pyi Sone, Deputy Minister  for Foreign Affairs U
Nyunt Swe Ambassador of the peoples Republic of Bangladesh Mr Jahangir
Saadat, Director-General Thura U Aung Htet of Protocol Department and
officials.

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MAINICHI DAILY NEWS: A FORGOTTEN WAR
16 April, 1998
By Richard Humphries

Attacks on Karen refugee camps in Thailand have recently focused a rare
spotlight on the Karen's rebellion against the Burmese government.

In the early post-World War II years, Burma's Karen leaders were alarmed.
Burmese nationalism was about to lead that country toward independence. The
British colonial rulers, having used a convenient divide-and-rule strategy,
had played off the country's ethnic groups against each other. Political
ideologies about nationalism and the nation-state, many of them Western
imports, increasingly gained favor with the myriad competing factions and
ethnic groups in the country and seemed to cancel out any previous good
relationships between them.

The Karen minority, for instance, had been loyal to the Crown. Armed by the
British, they had fought the Imperial Japanese Occupation Forces and its-
until 1945-Burmese allies, the Burmese Independence Army. Now the Karen,
fearing marginalization and perhaps a settling of scores in an independent
Burma, wanted a homeland of their own. Their people had also suffered
greatly during the war. If their demands for an autonomous region couldn't
be met, they were more than willing to fight. The Karen National Union
(KNU) was formed in February 1947 to press Karen demands.

The man who would lead Burma to independence, Aung San, had promoted a
political program of "Unity and Diversity" and was sympathetic towards
minority concerns. Attempts were made to devise a national structure that
would allay minority fears of domination. Some ethnic groups showed an
interest. The Karen were not satisfied though and, citing their past
loyalty, petitioned the British Colonial Office to act on their behalf.
They were ignored. Then, Aung San's assassination on July 14, 1947,
hardened the political dialogue and set the stage for the tragedy that was
to follow-the world's longest-running civil war.

The British left on Jan. 4, 1948, washing their hands of a situation they
had certainly helped create. Tensions mounted between the newly independent
Burmese government, led by U Nu, and the KNU, then led by Saw Ba U Gyi,
which by then had an armed wing under its control. In January 1949 war
broke out. It continues today.

In 1949, Karen military units were at Insein, in the Irrawaddy River delta
and 14.5 kilometers from Rangoon. They seemed poised to make their demands
a reality. "Kawthoolei" (Flowerland) was the name the KNU had decided to
call its putative state. Rangoon, however, wasn't captured. It was to be
the high-water mark of the Karen's military struggle. Factionalism among
the Karen and difficulties in organized a unified approach by all groups
opposed to Rangoon hurt, but the key element was the fierce Burmese Army
offensives that gradually whittled away Karen territory.

The late 1960s saw a Burmese counterinsurgency strategy known as the Four
Cuts (targeting the rebels' sources of food, funds, intelligence, and
recruits) Program being implemented. Most Karen insist that the fourth cut
was to be their heads.

The war now entered deep into the Karen State. Human rights abuses by the
Burmese military against Karen villagers were, and certainly still are,
pervasive. Over 100,000 Karen have now fled to Thailand. This is the real
tragedy and many Karen in their hearts wish that the fighting would just stop.

In January l995, the Karen rebel movement faced a severe reversal when its
permanent headquarters at Manerplaw, along the Moei River, fell to the
Burmese army. Thought impregnable, it fell because of a split in Karen
ranks that may have been engineered, and was certainly encouraged, by the
Burmese military. It was based on a perceived favoritism towards Christians
within the KNU leadership. Other Karen bases were soon overrun and the few
that remain are referred to as "mobile bases" in news reports. A dissident
Karen faction allied with the Burmese Army, the Democratic Karen Buddhist
Army (DKBA) now operates in the same region, attacking Karen refugee camps
located within Thailand. On March 11, 1998, one such camp, Huay Kalok, with
9,000 inhabitants, was attacked and burned to the ground.

The Karen future seems bleak. The Burmese government, now known as the
State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) refuses to negotiate with the
minorities collectively, but only on a one-by-one basis and from a position
of overwhelming military strength. It now has over 400,000 armed soldiers.
The KNU, with at the very most a few thousand soldiers, is among the last
opposition groups still fighting. It is a war it cannot win militarily. The
KNU forces were referred to as the "world's most pleasant and civilized
guerrilla army" in the Far Eastern Economic Review of March 2, 1979.
Blowing up passenger planes and seizing foreign hostages are not on the
menu. Opium is not grown and there is a strict anti-drugs policy. Still, as
the war has continued unabated, the KNU has come under very strong
criticism recently with regard to organization, tactics, and policy. Their
voice, however, is not often heard in the media.

The idea that true democracy will come to Burma and that a way will be
found to integrate the country's ethnic groups into a sincere political
dialogue capable of achieving lasting results is as far away as it was in
the 1940s. Over the years, meetings have been held between the KNU and
Burmese authorities about possible settlements but with no results and no
lasting cease-fire. A recent attempt at an unofficial cease-fire in 1994
ended when the Burmese resumed large-scale fighting in order to seize
Manerplaw. The KNU fights on while the Karen population in Burma suffers
and refugees in Thailand continue to live in fear of attack and of
occasional threats by the Thais to forcibly repatriate them. An entire
culture is facing the threat of disappearance and what distresses the Karen
most is their perception than the world simply doesn't seem to care.

All the armed groups in this conflict bear a responsibility for the endless
violence. Surely the greatest blame must lie with the Burmese Army and the
junta that controls it. They are ultimately responsible for Burma's failure
to deal equitably with minority concerns and to establish a civil society
guaranteeing freedom of expression for all of Burma's peoples. Forced labor
is employed throughout the country, even in areas like Pagan where tourists
visit. Village burnings, rapes, murders, and extortion by the powerful
military are frequent and go unpunished. Real political dialogue is a
dialogue of the deaf. The junta isn't listening. The country's most
respected political figure, Aung San Suu Kyi, daughter of Aung San, is
denied any real role in effecting change. The jails are full of political
dissidents and health care is deteriorating.

Watching Myanmar (Burma) Television broadcasts in Thailand, I reflected
that even the most numb observer couldn't help but take notice of the
totalitarian face of the regime. What you see on the screen are uniformed
soldiers everywhere in charge, and a lot of Burmese people who rarely
smile. This is how the regime wants to be seen, as well.

Something will have to change. General Bo Mya, the KNU leader,
acknowledged as much when he said that, "The civil war which is basically a
political problem, cannot be solved by military means."

It is imperative that all those with guns put them down and that real
political dialogue begins and needed change occurs. For the Karen, time is
running out.

(Richard Humphries is a free-lance journalist and frequent traveler in Asia.
He is also a regular Asia Focus contributor. All photos by Richard Humphries.)

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