The BurmaNet News: September 8, 199 (r)

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Subject: The BurmaNet News: September 8, 1999

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The BurmaNet News: September 8, 1999
Issue #1354

Noted in Passing: "Don't talk about me, talk about the issues, what is
happening." - Rachel Goldwyn (see DBSO: JUNTA ARRESTS ANOTHER BRITISH
NATIONAL) 

HEADLINES:
==========
BBC: BURMA GETS TOUGH OVER "FOUR NINES DAY" 
DBSO: JUNTA ARRESTS ANOTHER BRITISH NATIONAL 
BBC: BURMESE PRO-DEMOCRACY LEADER CALLS FOR SANCTIONS 
SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST: PEOPLE POWER "JOLTS" JUNTA 
MIZZIMA: ALARMING RICE SHORTAGE IN ARAKAN STATE OF BURMA 
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BBC: BURMA GETS TOUGH OVER "FOUR NINES DAY"
7 September, 1999 

The authorities in Burma are reported to have imposed new security measures
to counter a threatened uprising this week.

Anti-government activists have called for action on Thursday. The date -
9/9/99 or Four Nines Day - is considered auspicious in a country where many
people set great store by signs and superstitions.

The military junta which rules Burma - also known as Myanmar - is deploying
extra police and troops at official buildings and temples in the capital,
Rangoon, according to residents.

They also say that restaurants and teashops, where hundreds of people
gather after work, have been asked to close.

Burma's embassy in Thailand has stopped issuing tourist visas to
independent foreign travellers.

A spokesman at the embassy said the ban would stay in force "until further
notice".

'Malicious rumours'

A war of words is developing between the government and the activists.

The All Burma Students' Democratic Front claimed that 500 people had been
arrested in an attempt to thwart an uprising.

The authorities have responded by calling on all opposition groups to
contribute to national development instead of spreading "malicious rumours".

They have also denied reports that curfews had been imposed in some parts
of the country.

However, in August the authorities said that 32 people had been arrested in
connection with a conspiracy to cause unrest.

But while the government appears to be playing down any concerns it has
about a possible uprising, the deputy foreign minister has warned that any
attempt at protest will be in vain.

Khin Maung Win said severe and effective action would be taken against
anyone disturbing peace and law and order in Burma.

Demonstrations crushed

He added that the country did not wish to see a repeat of the "anarchic
situation" of 1988.

In August that year - on 8/8/88 - the military moved to crush pro-democracy
demonstrations. Human rights groups claim as many as 3,000 protesters were
killed.

Elections were held two years later, but despite winning a huge majority,
the National League for Democracy was not allowed to take over.

Its leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, has refused to condemn the calls for unrest,
which have mainly come from dissidents in exile. 

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DEMOCRATIC BURMESE STUDENTS' ORGANISATION (UK): RANGOON JUNTA ARRESTS
ANOTHER BRITISH NATIONAL IN BURMA FOR A CIVIL RIGHTS ACTION
7 September, 1999 from burmese_forum@xxxxxxxxxxx 

London (September 7, 1999) -- ANOTHER British national was arrested today
in Burma for a civil rights action.  The 28-year-old London woman, Rachel
Goldwyn, was arrested by the military police at 5:30 pm Burmese time after
singing an outlawed revolution song and demanding civil rights in a busy
Rangoon market place -- at the corner of Ahnaw-ra-hta Road and Barr Street.

The news comes just days after British activist James Mawdsley was
sentenced to 17 years imprisonment for handing out pro-democracy leaflets.

In front of a crowd of 300 students Miss Goldwyn sang the revolution song,
"We Will Never Forget," demanded the release of all political prisoners,
freedom for James Mawsdley, stop ethnic cleansing and chanted "free Burma."

She tied a poster saying "Free Burma" and publicizing the 9.9.99 uprising
planned by underground student activists for Thursday.

Shackled at the ankles she sang a (Burmese) revolution song and shouted
pro-democracy slogans for 15 minutes before the military police dragged her
into a van and drove off through the shouting crowds.

Roughly translated the song is, "We're writing this down with out blood for
such historic event.  Many people gave their lives during the
demonstrations.  We have respect for these martyrs and we are saluting
these people. There are so many corpses lying out on the streets and people
who have fallen down dead."

Speaking before she left England Rachel Goldwyn said:  "I know that this is
a dangerous thing to do and yes, I am scared, maybe I'll be tortured and
Jesus I am not ready for that, but the issues are more important than me.
I want the British Government to sit up and take notice."

"3,000 people were killed in the streets in peaceful demonstrations in 1988
and the world said nothing.  Thousands of ethnic peoples, the Karenni, the
Karen, the Shan, the Chin and others are being rounded up in relocation
camps -- these are really concentration camps where people are made into
slaves, carrying out forced labor for SPDC -- the military regime.

"I am going to do this to make sure that people know it is happening.

"I want to sing this song in a public place -- it represents an action of
solidarity for the people who have died for their freedom.

"It is important that the people inside Burma know that there are people
willing to take risks on their behalf.

"I want to plead with Tony Blair and the Labour Government to stop
investing in Burma."

She said," Don't talk about me, talk about the issues, what is happening."

During 1997-8 Great Britain invested nearly 50 million in the country,
despite stating its deep concerns about human rights abuses.

The Democratic Burmese Students' Organization (UK) argues that foreign
investment has maintained a corrupt and cruel dictatorship that was on the
verge of bankruptcy.

This economic engagement with the military has allowed it to strengthen its
hold on power.  Without such funds, it is argued, the massive military
machine would not be able to function and could have been brought into
dialogue.

Rachel became aware of the plight of the Karenni people who live on the
eastern mountainous border region with Thailand while working in a refugee
camp.

She taught English to the Karenni refugees who had fled military insurgents
and forced labour to the Mae Hong Song camp for eight months in 1998.  She
helped to build a school along side the Karenni exiles all of whom shared
experiences of persecution and extreme poverty.

And she helped rebuild the camp following each attack by fire and bullets
by the Burmese military.  Daily people would arrive after months of living
like animals in jungle hide-outs.  They would bring with them tales of
ethnic cleansing and torture. 

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BBC: BURMESE PRO-DEMOCRACY LEADER CALLS FOR SANCTIONS 
7 September, 1999 

The Burmese pro-democracy leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, has made another appeal
for international action against the military government.

In a video-recorded statement smuggled out of Burma, Aung San Suu Kyi
describes the country as a huge prison and calls on the European Union, the
United States and the rest of the world to help the cause of democracy by
imposing economic sanctions.

Her statement comes just days before the ninth of September, the date on
which pro-democracy campaigners outside Burma have called for an uprising
against the authorities. 

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SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST: PEOPLE POWER "JOLTS" JUNTA
8 September, 1999 by William Barnes 

The Burmese junta will have been shaken by the number of people willing to
demonstrate against its rule - even if tomorrow's "9-9-99" day of protest
fizzles out, observers in Burma and Thailand said yesterday. The population
is not expected to challenge the police state en masse as it did on August
8, 1988, when thousands were shot.

"It won't come to much because the [junta] is going to make sure it won't,"
said Maureen Aung-Thwin, director of the Burma Project, part of the Soros
Foundation network.

"The detentions and the force they are using to pre-empt any perceived
threat proves that they are truly spooked."

Sporadic protests in the face of fierce repression indicate just how
disillusioned the Burmese are with military rule and its inability to
revive a shattered economy.

"Some people out there are willing to confront the regime - I think that's
surprised them," one diplomat in Rangoon said.

An independent Burma watcher in Bangkok said: "It is remarkable in the
circumstances that any protests have happened.

"There seem to have been little explosions of anger and frustration up and
down the country."

Student protests over police brutality erupted into nationwide protests in
1988, causing a stunned military to temporarily cede power to an ostensibly
civilian cabinet after holding power since a 1962 coup.

But the military reasserted itself via brute force and a dishonoured election.

After planned mass demonstrations for last year's 10th anniversary of
8-8-88 fizzled, the junta probably thought it had the population in its
pocket, the Rangoon diplomat said.

But in recent weeks, protests by the two sections of society that have
traditionally been in the vanguard of anti-authority movements - students
and monks - have been reported.

The actions of some arrested protesters were touted by Rangoon as evidence
of a foreign-inspired conspiracy.

Last week the Government jailed for 17 years a British activist detained in
a border town handing out pro-democracy leaflets.

James Mawdsley's father said yesterday he feared his son was being
tortured, after a British diplomat was denied access to his jail cell in
the remote town of Kengtung.

Police yesterday detained a Western woman who tied her hand to a lamppost
at a road junction in Rangoon and started shouting pro-democracy slogans in
Burmese, witnesses said.

About 100 passersby gathered to watch the protest until police ended it
after 20 minutes.

Observers said the real crackdown was aimed at a much broader section of
the population.

The All Burma Students Democratic Front, an exile group, estimates 500
people have been detained or arrested in recent weeks.

But a Rangoon diplomat could only say more than 100 appeared to have been
detained.

There have been several reports of curfews being imposed in provincial
towns, despite vigorous denials from the military.

Visitors to the town of Myawadi, on the border with Thailand, have heard
loudspeakers warning anyone with "ill intentions" to stay out of Burma for
9-9-99.

Burma's Bangkok Embassy has admitted that individual tourist visas had been
temporarily suspended.

The army, despite its insistence on an almost mystical traditional of
loyalty, has been far from immune.

Seven lieutenants were caught passing around pro-democracy pamphlets in
Papun township in Karen state, the National Council of the Union of Burma,
an opposition exile front, said.

And the military headquarters had banned all military personnel from
visiting Rangoon without specific instructions, it said.

The opposition radio service, the Democratic Voice of Burma, said a group
of captains and lieutenants in central Burma were discovered discussing
what their response to an outbreak of 9-9-99 protest would be.

"Clearly some soldiers are reluctant to participate in another massacre," a
reporter with the station said.

The radio also reported that one recent protest at a college in Shan state
was led by the children of military officers.

Steep increases in the cost of living - particularly for rice - feeble
salaries, closed universities, high school fees and military meddling in
religious affairs were cited by the council as sources of deep irritation
among ordinary Burmese.

One student activist on the Thai-Burmese border said that although protests
might have painful repercussions for people, physical demonstrations were
necessary to show the public's deep dissatisfaction.

But the Burma Project's Ms Aung-Thwin said it was hardly likely that the
shadowy but powerful military intelligence organisation was unaware of its
popularity rating.

"You can bet that they know what the people and the world think of them,
even if they don't admit it publicly," she said.

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MIZZIMA NEWS GROUP: ALARMING RICE SHORTAGE IN ARAKAN STATE OF BURMA 
7 September, 1999 

September 7, Dhaka: Reports coming out from the Arakan State of Burma say
that the people are facing acute shortage and sky-rocketing prices of rice
in Arakan State. The price of a bag of rice (53 Kg.) has gone up from Kyats
3,000 to 5,000 in a single month. While the price for a small basket of
rice is almost equivalent to a day-income of a common person in Burma, the
people face increasing difficulties for day-to-day meal.

In the cities, many people are seen with their young children begging for
rice while many farmers in the villages have to kill their livestock for
exchange with rice. Poor farmers, who do not have cattle to kill, look for
the vegetables and fruits in the jungle to exchange for rice.

The reason behind the present rice shortage is related to the possible
outbreak of a people's uprising on 9th of this month, the date set by
exiled Burma pro-democracy groups to rise up against the rule of military
junta in Burma. The people start buying rice in a large quantity while
traders keep rice in store as the authorities warned them not to increase
the price of the staple food.

Arakan State, which is bordering with Bangladesh, is traditionally one of
the rice-bowls of Burma.

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