International Herald Tribune, 1999

[kyawkyaw@xxxxxxx]

Subject: International Herald Tribune, 1999 Oct 5

International Herald Tribune, 1999 Oct 5, 
(Asia Edition) Editorials/ opinions. 

WARSAW - It was an agitated weekend in Bangkok. Now it is all over. The
kindest and smoothers embassy occupation in recent history ended
peacefully. All hostages wee freed, and the Thai authorities gave safe
passage out of the country to the five armed hostage-takers. 
The Thai interior minister, Sanan Kajornprasart , had this to say
afterward: ''We do not consider them to be terrorists. They are student
activists struggling for democracy.''
But growling came from Rangoon: ''The peace-loving people of the world
community will not tolerate the criminal and terrorist activities the
(hostage-takers) have committed,''said a statement from the Burmese junta.
Washington took a similar approach using the 'terrorist '' label , it
''sharply condemned'' the 'hostage- taking. Two years ago a U. S . State
Department envoy branded as ''terrorist'' an armed group in Kosovo. Last
month the political leader of that group - the Kosovo Liberation Army - was
received by the secretary of state. 
The parallel is worth examining. 
The internal Burmese opposition, led since 1988 by Daw Aung San Suu Kyi,
chose the non-violent forms of struggle . The Nobel Committee in Oslo
recognised the value of her efforts and awarded her the Peace Prize in 1991. 
The Rangoon authorities also admit the importance of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi,
by making her the main target of their propaganda attacks.
Outside Burma, mostly in Thailand, the struggle is led by the All Burma
Students Democratic Front, a group that is also non-violent but is more
active than Daw Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy simply
because it can be more active. 
Sometimes foreign activists come to stage civil disobedience as acts inside
Burma and get quickly jailed or expelled. Journalists also often get into
trouble, I was myself detained and deported less than a year ago.
But non-violent acts and even sympathetic press article bring little
attention from the powerful people in the international community on whose
support the fighters for democracy count. Even a long report is not
comparable to the 26-hour publicity stunt by the hitherto unknown
''Vigorous Burmese Student Warriors'' who wielded Kalashnikovs and grenades
around the Burmese Embassy in Bangkok. 
This is not proof of the superiority of violence. This is a sad comment on
the attention span of today's media and politicians. Non -violent
activities are rendered less effective because it is easier to turn away
from them than from the violent acts. 
Back to Kosovo , where in 1989, at about the same time as Daw Aung San Suu
Kyi, the ethnic Albanian leader Ibrahim Rugova was choosing the non-violent
form of struggle for his people's independence 
Personally, Mr, Rugova does not stand comparison with Daw Aung San Suu Kyi,
but the two peoples were pursuing their struggles simultaneously. The
patience of the Kosovo Albanians gave our earlier. (Perhaps Balkan
character plus Islam is a more volatile mix than Asian character plus
Buddhism?) A year ago, young people across Kosovo more or less dumped Mr.
Rugovq and turned to guns.
Thus the violent, provocative actions of the Kosovo Liberation Army-
followed by the predictably barbarous response from the Serbian security
forces- brought the group and the cause for Kosovo independence to the
world's attention.
One may agree or disagree with the ethnic Albanians' methods and goals. The
Western powers, led by the United States. Are confused on the at score. But
there is no denying that by grabbing the Kalashnikovs, the fighters from
Kosovo got the whole world to pay attention to them and their struggle.
Otherwise, the NATO intervention would have never happened.
When I spoke with Daw Aung San Su Kyi last December. I brought up th Kosovo
example and asked her about the the danger that young Burmese night grow
impatient and switch to violent forms of action, She pooh-poohed this
prospect.
At that time, the only place on Burmese soil where the fighting peacock
flag of the pro-democracy movement could be flown was inside her party's
headquarters. This past week , that flag was raised in the Burmese Embassy
in Bangkok.
It was stuff like this that made young followers of pacifism in Kosovo don
uniforms and become combatants. They now fly their double-headed eagle flag
every five meters along the streets of Pristina.
The Burmese Embassy incident is a warning to international community to
apply pressure to the junta in Rangoon and give support to the
pro-democracy efforts of the opposition before all the pacifists in Burma
learnt how to handle Kalashnikovs.
(The writer, an associate researcher at he Centre d'e'tudes et de
Recherches Internationales in Paris , contributed this comment to the IHT>)