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Win Htein was became to Htet Aung Kyaw in 1995 when he works as
a field reporter for Oslo-based Democratic Voice of Burma Radio. He
was the first reporter who report from frontline to Oslo by wireless
and fax. He also the first reporter who get interview with Jonny,
commander of Vigorous Burmese Student Warriors during seize of
Burmese Embassy in Bangkok in 1999.
He is a senior journalist for DVB and he still writes some articles for
the Nation and others. He is now living in Oslo, Norway.
Acknowledgement
Part One:
Law of the jungle: Life on the Thai-Burma
border
1- Casualties of hunger....................................................................1
2- Kawmura: My first battlefield experience..................................?
3- At gunpoint on the Thai-Burma border......................................?
4- Role of the educated in the revolution........................................?
Part Two:
‘9999’: Active days of student warriors
Part Three:
Cry Freedom: From bombsite to website
Part Five:
Far from home: 20 years in exile
Part One:
Casualties of hunger
Tha-tin-kyunt, the full moon day that marks the end of lent, is an
important religious festival for Buddhists, but celebrating religion
was not our priority in those days – after four weeks of hunger we
were more concerned about being able to eat a good meal. Every
weekend, on Saturday, we would go to the villages near our camp to
play football in return for dinner. On Sunday morning, we would visit
churches even though we were all Buddhist, looking for the chance
to eat better food. As we were students from the cities, we were not
accustomed to eating low-quality rice with no meat but only naung-
u-hti, or fish-paste, when we arrived at our new camp.
Before the duty commander had given the green light, many students
had already begun following the villager. So we shouted, “Be careful.
Take off your shoes. Hold each other’s hands.” But our warning was
too late. Nyi Nyi Naing, a 22-year-old mathematics student in his
second year at Tavoy College, had been swept away by the strong
part one | Law of the jungle: Life on the Thai-Burma border
3
The full moon day ceremony was changed into a prayer service
for Nyi Nyi Naing. But unfortunately, there was no monk at the
monastery. There were two reasons for this: firstly, no monk wanted
to stay for long in the grey area between the Burmese troops and
the KNU as they could easily be accused of being a spy by either
side, and secondly, it is not easy for a Buddhist monk to live in the
Christian-dominated KNU-controlled area. Luckily, there was a man
in our group who had served as a monk in Tavoy for a long time and
so we asked him to lead the service.
Two days later, we found Nyi Nyi Naing’s body some hundreds
metres down the lower side of river. We tried to inform his parents
in Tavoy of his death but they could not come to the black rebel-
controlled area where we were living at the time. We urged the
Karen villagers to give him a proper burial as were not able to hold
a Buddhist ceremony for him with no monk there.
**********
Htet Aung Kyaw
4
It was a summer day in 1992, just after the ABSDF split into two
factions, or three if you count the Bat-ma-like, or non-aligned group,
which I led. The KNU’s general secretary of Magui-Tavoy district,
Pado Ni Ni, invited me to come to his office in Min-Tha-Mee Khe at
the source of the Minthamee stream. This was about 10 kilometres
from our camp, Min-Tha-Mee Hta, where the Minthamee stream
meets the Tenasserim river. At the time, I was the coordinator for
three ABSDF factions in the area which comprised about 1000 troops
and family members.
The first lesson I learned in the jungle was how to use democratic
principles to resolve differences of opinions. We did not fight each
other with guns as our older brother organisations had done in the
past but with words. After the division into factions, we decided to
live separately and so went from two camps to five.
The reason the KNU wanted to see me now was to discuss the location
of one of the new camps. About 80 troops and family members from
battalion 203 led by Htein Lin were living at Alal-Store at that time,
between Minthamee Khe and Minthamee Hta. They had been driven
out by Thaung Htun’s original base of battalion 203 on the banks of
the Tenasserim river. When I got to Pado Ni Ni’s office, he confronted
me about the way the troops were treating their environment.
part one | Law of the jungle: Life on the Thai-Burma border
5
“Don’t be angry with us Pado. Please provide more food for them
if you are worried about environmental damage,” I said to him. He
became really angry with me when he realised my poor knowledge of
environmental issues. “You must learn about the harmony of nature.
You need to attend our forestry department’s class,” he advised
me. As we were their guests, I decided to stop complaining to him
although I was well aware of the deforestation in the area under their
control as they sold thousands of tons of timber to Thai traders.
**********
One sunny morning in March 1994, I travelled from the ABSDF office
in Bangkok to our new jungle camp opposite the popular Hua Hin
beach with an official from the International Refugee Committee
(IRC). We passed the beautiful beaches and the popular Ban La-
au Water fall and finally reached the last Thai village, Khaung Yai
(The big mountain) before our jungle camp. As we walked along
the stream to our camp, the lady from the IRC, seeing the paper,
plastics and food waste the students had thrown into the water, began
complaining to me that we did not respect the environment.
When we stopped for lunch along the way, we washed our hands and
dishes in the stream as we did every day. But the IRC official complained
again and again that the ABSDF were not respecting environmental
law. As a Burmese rebel, I had never heard of environmental
Htet Aung Kyaw
6
We had no idea why she was so angry. The next morning, some
students shot a monkey in a big tree just beside the camp and others
used the monkey’s hand bone as a tool to make Yazin (cigarettes).
“How can you complain? If you don’t want us to kill monkeys, you
should provide us with proper food, meat and milk – you are the
donor,” I told her.
She was really upset now but we just laughed as we didn’t understand
her feelings. I heard later that she wrote an official letter of complaint
to the ABSDF headquarters saying that battalions 201 and 203 were
destroying the environment and forest wildlife. If we did not stop,
she wrote, the IRC would cut our aid.
no one tried to catch them. I learned that there are many regulations
to protect wild animals, but, more importantly, no one thinks to kill
these animals as no one is hungry here.
Htet Aung Kyaw
8
Just after the 1988 uprising the Burmese regime, then known as the
State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC), had launched an
offensive against the KNU-controlled Mathawall hill. The hill was a
very important strategic point for controlling the road between the
KNU’s headquarters in Manaplaw and Mae Sot. Kaladay camp was
right next to the hill. The KNU led all the armed groups, including
the thousands of students and politicians newly arrived from the
cities, under the umbrella of the Democratic Alliance of Burma, the
first coordinated coalition of Burmans and ethnic nationalities.
A light rain was falling one afternoon in May 1989. I was travelling
from the All Burma Students’ Democratic Front (ABSDF) office in
Mae Sot to the KNU’s Kawmura camp to bring food for my comrades
who had been fighting against Burmese soldiers for weeks. After
30 minutes on a red minibus, I saw heavily armed Thai soldiers
with M-16 rifles and some 105-MM mortar artillery shelling taking
place in the village next to Baan Wang Kaew, opposite Kawmura.
part one | Law of the jungle: Life on the Thai-Burma border
9
All the buses were forced to stop here and were not allowed to go
any further.
In fact, I had been living in Kawmura for a month before the fighting
broke out. There were several hundred troops fighting against the
Burmese army, including my group which was called the ABSDF
(KNU Territory). Our group – led by Kyaw Kyaw, who is now leader
of the Network for Development and Democracy – was overseeing 13
camps and coordinating between the camps and the ABSDF Central
Committee. Heavy fighting broke out while I was in Mae Sot and it
was very hard for me to get back to Kawmura.
There was no telephone to consult with the Mae Sot ABSDF office
whether I should press ahead to Kawmura or return to Mae Sot.
The Karen officials with walkie-talkies had no permission to talk to
ABSDF officials in the camp during the heavy fighting. So I made
the decision to go ahead with my plan to go to Kawmura.
To this day, I am still not sure whether the shooting was just the
Karen rebels’ way of testing me or if it was a real attack as I never
got the chance to ask the people responsible. But a few days later,
my comrades in the Kawmura battle field told me, “That was a lesson
we often faced from our allies in the battle zones.”
I did not have long to talk about this incident with my comrades
as heavy artillery shells continued to fall from the hills that were
occupied by the Burmese army almost every day. The Burmese troops
fired 120-mm mortars, 82-mm mortars, 60-mm mortars, 84-mm
launchers, .5-mm machine guns and G-4 rifles while we returned
fire with 57-mm launchers, 80-mm mortars, 60-mm mortars, RPG
7, AK-47s and M-16 rifles.
shells but by splinters that ricocheted off a large teak tree near our
bunker.
Soldiers from the ABSDF’s battalion 211 and the Karen National
Liberation Army (KNLA) Special Battalion 101 led by colonel Taw
Hla built heavily fortified bunkers along enemy lines while a number
of normal bunkers were built along the river. We built three barbed
wire fences in front of the fortified bunkers and three rows of
bamboo traps. We also had many natural bamboo trees in front of
our bunkers which hid us from the view of enemy binoculars looking
down from the top of the hill. Those bamboo trees also protected
our bunkers from direct shelling as the shells needed to penetrate
the bamboo first.
made it very hard for the Burmese army to capture Kawmura and
it took them almost six years, from May 1989 to February 1995,
to wrest control of the camp from the KNU. I was there only three
months and then backed to Minthamee camp for the ABSDF’s
second conference.
part one | Law of the jungle: Life on the Thai-Burma border
13
Three Thai border guards pointed their M-16 rifles at us and took
us to their base. They asked me many questions in Thai. My Thai
language skills had improved by this time, but I was still not able
to communicate easily so the guards contacted some KNU officials
nearby. “Why is a farang [foreigner] going with you into the jungle?”
the Thai officer asked me.
“This is such a nice place with a good view,” the Austrian video-
journalist said when we arrived at my hut by the river. We had
never thought of our place as nice but for him, a western journalist,
Htet Aung Kyaw
14
Where are the educated people, and why are they not leading the
fight for Burma’s freedom?
There are about 600 students staying in this camp who have
obtained refugee status from the United Nations High Commission
for Refugees (UNHCR) Bangkok office.
The camp, formerly a unit of the Border Patrol Police (BPP), has
the official name of the Burmese Students’ Centre. There are ten
barracks and several huts in the approximately 1,000 square metre
compound.
Some students are sleeping without a fan under a hot zinc roof.
Some are sitting and talking while they smoke in the tea and betel
Htet Aung Kyaw
16
nut shops. A few are in the library and some of their children are
studying in Dawn School.
“We are democratic, so anyone can choose their own way. We should
not control them. But it must be clear, the ABSDF never urges people
to go away from Burma. Our main forces are inland. We hope that
they will continue the struggle in their own way, and go back to
Burma after their studies,” explained Aung Naing Oo, spokesperson
for the ABSDF, about the Front’s policy for the students.
But some exiled students did not agree with his comment. “I think
we have some options. We should choose to stay in Thailand if we
want to continue the struggle because it’s the nearest country. There
are one million Burmese living here, why is it just the students who
cannot stay?” complained an exiled Burmese student who is now an
NGO worker in Bangkok.
Moreover, on the other side of the border, the SPDC controlled area,
what is the situation of educated people?
“There are two points. First, we don’t like the military rulers
and second, we need a higher salary,” said a Burmese lecturer in
Bangkok’s Assumption Business Administration College (ABAC)
University.
At the same time, some young educated rebels are still fighting the
junta by armed struggle in the jungle along the border. They describe
educated people who have gone to foreign countries as “selfish”.
Most analysts have said that the world situation has changed already
from favouring armed struggle to dialogue. The middle classes, or
educated people, are the leaders of the next revolutions.
About 60 percent of Thais are from the educated middle classes. How
large is the middle class in Burma? No one can say with precision.
Even people living outside Burma are afraid of the generals. “The
MIS [Military Intelligence Service] knows everything about us, they
have records for everyone in their embassies. If I give an interview,
first they will cancel my passport and then they will warn my family
in Rangoon,” said an engineer in Bangkok.
This is the case not only for engineers but also for 90 percent of
Burmese, including some journalists who work for foreign-based
news agencies and for radio stations.
Almost all educated Burmese share her opinion. But the question is,
who will bring democracy to Burma for them? They are forgetting
their own role in the democracy movement. Therefore, it seems the
educated people are more afraid of the junta than the grassroots
part one | Law of the jungle: Life on the Thai-Burma border
19
people are!
“You Burmese are not only afraid but also wracked with disunity.
I have met many opposition groups in exile. If you cannot fix these
problems, how you can face a strong army?” a western journalist
said in criticising his Burmese counterparts.
“I see everyone waiting and hoping for Aung San Suu Kyi to reach
for democracy. But they are not listening to her ‘freedom from fear’,
they are still afraid.”
How many people are just waiting for that “one day”? How many
people are really fighting to take that “one day”? Obviously, that
“one day” cannot be reached automatically.
“We [educated people] are not policy makers. We are just policy
instruments. We have spent over ten years in the jungle and we have
no chance here to study further. So, the leaders must think about
how to solve this brain drain,” the former member continued.
“We are the new generation of the 8888 uprising. There must be an
end to the military dictator in our era. This is our 8888 generation’s
historical task,” claimed the ABSDF senior leader.
No one would argue that the educated should not study in developed
countries for the re-establishment of Burma. But this does not
Htet Aung Kyaw
20
Are they just waiting outside the country until democracy is achieved?
Or are they leading people in the struggle for Burma?
part one | Law of the jungle: Life on the Thai-Burma border
21
Htet Aung Kyaw
22
part two | ‘9999’: Active days of student warriors
23
Part Two:
“At the time, they [riot police] shot at us with real bullets when we
asked the soldiers to go back to their barracks. We could not see
anything under the smoke-bomb and we ran like blind men,” recalled
Ko Kyaw Htin in a border shelter camp. He was an RIT student at
the time. Now, he is a leader of the All Burma Students’ Democratic
Front (ABSDF).
“We had never experienced anything like this. I thought they would
shoot plastic bullets and smoke-bombs.” They believed that the
police would not use real bullets or enter the RIT compound.
The evening before, five RIT students had clashed with young
civilians in an RIT tea shop. A general’s son wielding a knife injured
the RIT students. They called on the authorities to take action in
the case.
But the junta’s reply was, “It’s the students’ mistake, they wanted
violence.” This message challenged the students like a spark. If the
junta’s reply had not been so stupid, the 8888 uprising may not
have begun at that point.
General Ne Win and his men from the BSPP were very surprised
at the students’ sudden reaction. In their thinking, no one could
challenge them while they stood watch with guns. Then they ordered
the closure of all universities and the sending home of students.
But their plan was not successful. The students and people
demonstrated again when the universities reopened in June. That
time the demonstrations were more violent and wider, spreading
to other universities and cities.
After his speech, no one could control the angry people. People
demonstrated all over the country- including in border towns and
villages. They cried, “Enough is enough, BSPP”, “Don’t need Ne Win
regime” and “Build a Student Union”.
“People could not tolerate any more by that time. They had been
facing suppression from military rule for 26 years. At the time, our
tea shop case inflamed the people to challenge Ne Win’s dictator
regime,” said another RIT student.
The ABSDF reviewed political progress in the last ten years in their
5th conference on the northern border of Thailand. They analysed
the 8888 uprising and the current political situation in deciding
how to move forward.
Htet Aung Kyaw
26
“In the last 8888 uprising, we could abolish the BSPP with four
presidents and all its administration, but why could we not take
final victory?” asked one in the conference hall.
“It’s a big lesson for us. We were not ready to find a new government
and did not understand that ‘opportunity only knocks once’.”
The ABSDF decided to choose this year’s Human Rights Day to alert
people to begin a campaign for a ‘9999’ (9 September 1999) uprising
in Burma. They said, “The whole political situation is ripe. People
are just waiting for a spark.”
The young political idealists said, “The students and people are ready
to show people power like in the 8888 uprising. They are just waiting
for a clear message from Daw Aung San Suu Kyi.”
Moe The Zun, one of the masterminds of the ABSDF, told the
Democratic Voice of Burma (DVB), “We believe that there is just
one path to achieve democracy. It’s the people power way.”
The ABSDF concluded that it is not enough just to use the legal way
of the people’s parliament advocated by the National League for
Democracy (NLD). People power must be added.
They said, “There are many pressures from the outside world and
inside the country to transfer power from the military to the elected
government. But the junta never responds to outside pressure.”
However, the junta’s reply was to arrest more than 200 MPs and
more than 1,000 members of the NLD. Then the Military Intelligence
Service forced the resignations of MPs and members throughout
part two | ‘9999’: Active days of student warriors
27
the whole country. Now over 50 per cent of NLD members and MPs
have resigned, been jailed or gone into exile.
They added, “The NLD has called for dialogue since the 1990 May
election. And now it has called a people’s parliament. But the junta
never responds. Therefore, we would like to say ‘enough is enough’.
The NLD has no chance to choose any other way. Today, the NLD’s
main task is to lead people into the final battle.”
The source said that the NLD has chosen March to begin preparations
for 9999. Which is the best way for this country? Dialogue or
devastation?
In Rangoon, the army closed all universities after the 8888 uprising.
In the past decade, universities have been open for a total of only
about two years. They were re-opened briefly following elections in
1990, but then shut down again after students demonstrated to show
their support for Aung San Suu Kyi when she won the 1991 Nobel
Peace Prize. The universities have been closed most of the time since
December 1996, when protests were held at the Rangoon Institute
of Technology. Protests by RIT students during the brief reopening
of universities for examinations in August 1998 probably mean that
they will not be opened again soon.
the US, Europe, Japan and other countries. Most left their native
country because there were no jobs for them at Burmese universities,
or because they could not stand working under military supervisors
with no understanding of educational matters.
“In the generals’ minds, the students are their enemies.” A dramatic
example of this mindset at work was general Ne Win’s destruction
of the Students Union Building at Rangoon University on 7 July
1962. The dictator evidently wanted to make his attitude towards
the students abundantly clear.
“Ne Win and his Tatmadaw [military] men have never had a good
view of students. They are psychopaths who are afraid of educated
people. They only want uneducated people who will obey their
commands in Burma,” commented Dr Mya Maung from Boston
College, who worked for many years as a teacher at the Defence
Services Academy in Maymyo. Soon after the State Law and Order
Council (SLORC) took power in 1988, Lt-Gen Khin Nyunt, the
powerful first secretary of the ruling junta, became the chairman
Htet Aung Kyaw
30
These facts alone do a great deal to explain why the education system
in Burma is in such bad shape. Another serious problem that derives
from the military’s attitude towards students is underfunding. While
4 percent of the national budget is spent on education, over 40
percent goes to the military. There are nearly half a million soldiers
in Burma, and roughly the same number of students who are waiting
for the universities to re-open. Before the student demonstrations
in December 1996, the junta planned to shorten the university
curriculum from four years to two years in an effort to deal with the
large number of high school graduates who spent years waiting just
to get into university.
Now it looks as if they will not even get a two-year education. “Most
young students in Rangoon are sitting in teashops waiting for the
universities to re-open. They want to do something but there’s
nothing they can do,” said a Thai NGO worker who recently attended
an education seminar in Rangoon. The sight of jobless young people
sitting in teashops is a common one in Rangoon. Not as visible are
the many would-be students who have turned to drugs to deal with
the hopelessness of their situation.
Nor can you see the many others who have moved to Thailand in
search of work, or those sent to prison for engaging in political
activities. “The world community and NGOs should hurry to Burma
to promote education, even if the universities are closed. There is no
one else here who can help the younger generation. So we should not
wait until the government changes,” said the Thai NGO worker.
Moving forward
adding that their main task right now is to find supporting groups. At
present, the Norway Burma Council is their main donor. A student
at the ABSDF Headquarters School said, “Now I study in the 6th
standard, but I don’t know when we will have to move again.”
Burmese army offensives have forced his school to move five times in
the past seven years. Burmese soldiers killed both his parents in his
village when he was five years old. “They [the ABSDF and the Karen
National Union] are pushing for better education but their camps
are not stable,” said an Australian volunteer teacher at the ABSDF
Headquarters School. “I believe that the Burmese are much more
interested in education than people in my country,” he added.
With the Yadana gas pipeline, oil industry giants have added to
tensions along the Thai-Burmese border.
“Since the Burmese army ordered the pass closed, the merchants and
traders have vanished,” lamented U Pha Su, a Tavoyan who has spent
half of his 60 years in the once bustling village of Ban I-Taung.
Ban I-Taung, a Thai border check point in Thong Pha Phum township,
is in Kanchanaburi province where the 700-kilometre Yadana gas
pipeline crosses the border. The pipeline stretches from the Gulf of
Martaban in Burma to Ratchaburi province in Thailand.
The pipeline project began in the summer of 1995 after the then
ruling State Law and Order Restoration Council, now the State Peace
and Development Council, granted gas exploration rights in Burmese
waters in 1992 to Total of France and Unocal (Union Oil of California)
of the United States. The Petroleum Authority of Thailand signed a
contract to buy the gas from these two Western oil giants.
The project has since drawn protests from human rights groups,
environmentalists and Burmese villagers affected from the laying
of the pipeline.
U Pha Suu and other shop owners say the project damaged their
business after the Burmese army shut the border pass. Before the
project was launched, Ban-I-Taung, like any other border village,
was a bustling trading outpost where thousands of dollars changed
Htet Aung Kyaw
36
hands on the black market. Goods from Burma - jade, lead, tin,
wolfram, seafood, cattle and other resources were transacted in
return for electrical components, auto spares, garments, canned
food, soft-drinks and gold from Thailand.
Accommodation for the troops along the pipeline route was allegedly
built by forced labour, with villagers not only put to work from dawn
to dusk but providing construction materials like wood, bamboo
and thatch. In addition, land was allegedly confiscated without any
compensation.
“In the summer of 1996, we had to work for the soldiers using our
own building tools [knives, hammers, saws, mattocks, etc.] and
material [wood, bamboo, thatch],” said a refugee from Ohn-pyin-
gwin; near Kanbauk village,in Tavoy district.
The $1-billion Yadana project was completed last year and has
already began pumping gas to Thailand.
An official from Total has denied the allegations, saying the region
“has shown speedy progress” since the company arrived. The
company has also published a pictorial depicting how it had aided
development in 12 villages in the Kanbauk area by building schools,
dispensaries, markets, monasteries, churches and by promoting
livestock farming.
The suit was filed in Los Angeles, where Unocal has its main office
by the National Coalition Government of the Union of Burma (the
parallel government-in-exile) and the Federation of Trade Unions
of Burma. It was filed on behalf on the Burmese who had been
displaced, killed or forced to work without pay on a railway in
preparation for the pipeline construction.
Since then, multinational giants such as Texaco, Arco and Pepsi have
withdrawn from Burma.
AFP, the French news agency, recently quoted official reports from
Burma that the Yetagun pipeline will be completed by the end of this
year, after which it will pump natural gas to Thailand. Construction
began in November last year.
The Yetagun field, in the Andaman Sea west of Burma, lies south of
the massive Yadana field and is estimated to hold 1,100 billion cubic
feet (33 billion cubic metres) of gas reserves.
Together with the glut of this energy resource, the rot has set in. The
economic downturn in the region has played a cruel trick on both
the buyer and the seller. PTT now cannot afford to meet the $400-
million-a-year contract committed with the Burmese military regime
and faces a huge fine if its contractual agreements are not met. And
SPDC’s hopes of realising this huge income have been dashed.
The Yadana project has also drawn protests from human rights and
environmental groups in Thailand.
Social critic Sulak Sivaraksa recently told DVB: “We have never
agreed with this project, it’s a wrong decision by the Thai government.
Why do they want to give money to the Burmese butchers? I will
continue to protest to the end.”
Sulak and 40 other activists were arrested in March last year for
allegedly blocking construction of the pipeline in Kanchanaburi
where he had been staging a solo protest in Huay Khayaeng
forest.
part two | ‘9999’: Active days of student warriors
39
They claim the pipeline runs through the region’s most pristine
forests, home to rare flora and fauna. Human rights advocates have
also refused to support the project on the grounds revenue from
the investment will be used to buy arms to suppress the democratic
groups in Burma.
But general Bo Mya, the KNU president, insisted that his forces have
no plans to attack the pipeline as they are not terrorists. Instead the
KNU wants to solve the problem by holding talks with the SPDC, Thai
officials and the oil companies. However, there have been frequent
clashes between government troops and the multiple armed rebel
groups deployed along the pipeline.
“It is almost impossible for the SPDC to have complete control over
the area,” said a former Karen major who is a demolition expert.
“There are many armed factions and they can go wherever they want
to and whenever they wish to.”
Last month, a Unocal official denied a Bangkok Post report that its
firm and Total had provided financial backing for Burmese military
activities to protect the Yadana pipeline and to suppress Burmese
minorities near the border.
It was alleged that last July, Total contributed five million kyat to
the army’s fund for each of the 12 battalions guarding the pipeline
and the battalion commanders given 4-wheel drive vehicles and
petrol. In addition, a fund of 400 kyat a day for each porter was
provided by the firm as requested by IB 373 and 282 commanders.
And at times Total’s helicopters and trucks are used to transport
food and ammunition for the same two battalions from Kanbauk
to Nat I-Taung.
Padoe Thaw Thi, a spokesman for the KNU 4th Brigade Area said:
“This Bangkok Post report must be true because we have similar
information.”
Total, it seems, is not very excited with the idea as it could jeopardise
the safety of the pipeline. People like U Pha Su, however, are hoping
all the troubles and unrest would soon go away so they can resume
trading.
part two | ‘9999’: Active days of student warriors
41
But the Thai media and academics are more aware of the issues
surrounding the case. “I understand why they came here. I don’t like
to just say that those people are bad. They have suffered life-long
repression from the Burmese military. They have no way out, and
came here to do something,” commented Pornpimol Trichot, a well-
known researcher from the Asian Studies Institute at Chulalongkorn
University.
The bus driver whose bus was hijacked from Ban Tagolan recalled,
“They commanded me to drive to Bangkok. But when they saw the
hospital, they said to stop. I thought that they had no plan.”
In fact, the Thai army was heavily shelling the God’s Army base at
Kamaplaw while the SPDC troops were trying to occupy it. “They
shelled Kamaplaw after four [Thai] soldiers were killed by a God’s
Army landmine on 18 January,” confirmed a leader of the volunteer
guard in Ban Phar Pok, the closest village to Kamaplaw. “[The rebels’]
only choice was which way to die—sitting under the shelling or doing
something before they died. They chose the second way.”
Nearly four months later, they came again to Thai soil to do something
to attract the attention of the world community to their country’s
political crisis. But this time, the Thai response was very severe. All
ten gunmen in the Ratchaburi hospital siege lost their lives.
But while official policy and Thai pressure may prevent rebel leaders
from aligning themselves with radical elements, some rank-and-file
members of border-based groups have expressed more sympathy
with those who have sacrificed their lives for the cause.
“Why does the junta say now that ‘Revolution Day’ is Tatmadaw
Day? It’s a lie about history,’’ the professor continued in his radio
articles broadcast on the Democratic Voice of Burma.
In fact, the Tatmadaw’s role was not important in the revolution era
because it had so few members. The AFO and the Communist Party
of Burma (CPB) were more important than the Tatmadaw because
Htet Aung Kyaw
46
they could organise the people to rebel against the fascists. It was
really a ‘people’s revolution’, not just the Tatmadaw’s offensive.
Later on, several of the 30 comrades joined the CPB and began a
civil war. After half a century, the Tatmadaw said: “We have rescued
the country from falling into the hell-holes of fascism, colonialism,
communism and federalism’’. Then they hammered into the people’s
mind that the Tatmadaw is not composed of just normal civil servants
but is above the state. Everyone must obey its commands without
any complaint.
But the All Burma Students’ Democratic Front claims nearly 100,000
soldiers have ‘deserted during the past 12 years. They are facing a
shortage of food and medicine. And there are many problems among
the officers, soldiers and the Military Intelligence Service (MIS).
A few months ago, the National Council for the Union of Burma
founded a rehabilitation centre in Karen state to welcome the ex-
soldiers. “Monthly, about 50 soldiers join us in the Karen National
Union (KNU) controlled area” said U Maung Maung Tate, a member
of the centre. This is just in Karen state. Many other deserters have
gone to Thailand as illegal workers and some have joined other rebel
groups along the border.
Last year, the Rangoon War Office ordered all frontline battalions
to grow vegetables and raise livestock, as rations would be reduced.
From then on, frontline troops took whatever they wanted from
the villagers. Many villagers were forced to work on the army’s new
projects. Some soldiers were disappointed about the order and its
consequences for villagers. There were more desertions.
“Another important point is their budgets. The Thai army has full
facilities while the Tatmadaw men are very poor. The lowest Thai
private’s salary is 4,000 baht while his Burmese counterpart receives
850 kyat (85 baht). That’s why the Burmese Tatmadaw rob villagers
to support their families. There is no civil war in Thailand, so the
army budget is enough for them.”
past 10 years.
The MIS’s next negotiation will be with Aung San Suu Kyi’s National
League for Democracy. But Maung Aye’s group does not agree with
such negotiations. His group wants to fully control the country
forever.
part two | ‘9999’: Active days of student warriors
49
However, there has been no reply from the SPDC or the NLD.
But a source from the ceasefire groups said: “Khin Nyunt warned
them to stay silent. It is too early to join in the current dialogue.”
On 9 April, Khin Nyunt and his OSS officials visited Kachin State,
along the China-Burma border where most ceasefire groups are
based. U La Mo Tu Jai, the new chairman of the Kachin Independence
Organisation (KIO), and officers from several other groups which
mutinied against the Communist Party of Burma during the last
decade shook hands with the delegation. At the ceremony for the
tenth anniversary of the ceasefire deal, Khin Nyunt gave a speech
along similar lines - it was still “too early to join in the current
dialogue”.
“We absolutely support the current dialogue. We also hope that both
sides are honest,” the KIO official said. “At the same time, we have
the same idea as all other ethnic organisations, that is to be involved
in future dialogues.”
Obviously, all political and ethnic groups are facing a crisis on how to
comment on the secret talks. They welcome the talks, but they worry
about what is happening during them. Some analysts suspect the
SPDC is using the secret talks to escape from international pressure,
particularly International Labour Organisation sanctions.
Since United Nations (UN) special envoy for Burma Razali Ismail
announced the news, the ILO and all pressure groups have delaying
their procedures against Burma. Moreover, the Japanese government
decided to give Overseas Development Aid to the SPDC, which has
been on hold since the 1988 massacre.
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51
Part Three:
As the witching hour approaches, the cries of the cicadas are not the
only sounds that shatter the silence of the forest on the northern
Thai-Burmese border. There is also the crackling of shortwave radio
traffic as Burmese dissidents tune in to foreign broadcasts.
“On an important day like this, the airwaves are never clear,” says
one with disappointment.
While the BBC and VOA are considered veterans of informing the
people of developments in the country, especially after the 1988
popular uprising, the newcomers in the war of the airwaves are said
to be most popular with listeners in Burma.
are enormous and the penalties heavy for both the courier and the
recipients.
This being the case, short-wave radios are now among the most
sought-after commodities in Burma.
The State Peace and Development Council now has its own website,
and has opened a University of Computer Studies for Upper
Myanmar (Burma). And coming to its aid is the government of
Singapore, Burma’s largest trading partner, not to mention the
Japanese, who recently held a meeting called the Myanmar-Japan
Bilateral Conference on Information Technology.
This has created a new scenario in the fight for restoration of freedom
in Burma – from the sword to the pen. A war of words has begun
and it has the regime shaking in its boots. It only understands the
language of brute force and intimidation in running a country of 45
million people.
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59
During the height of the Kosovo War, US-led NATO aircraft bombed
a Serb television station in Belgrade, resulting in the deaths of 12
media workers. Many journalists condemned this as outrageous act.
In Bangkok, for example, a group of Thai journalists sent a protest
letter to the US Embassy. But their counterparts in the Burmese
dissident movement who work for the opposition radio, Democratic
Voice of Burma (DVB) in Oslo, Norway, supported NATO’s targeting
of the Serbian media.
“We agreed with NATO because they were not real journalists.
They are just working as propagandists for the Serb military, just
as journalists in Burma do. Burmese journalists were trained by
the psychological warfare department of the Military Intelligence
Service (MIS),” complained an editor at DVB.
But who qualify as real journalists? Maung Tha Ya, 69, the best-
selling Burmese writer who recently fled to Thai-Burma border,
recently made this comment on DVB: “Real journalists only focus
on real facts, not just what is on paper. Realism involves writing the
truth, and not following the propaganda of the authorities.”
Maung Tha Ya fled from his Rangoon home to Mae Sot - a difficult
800-kilometre journey - despite his age and a history of heart attacks.
This is because he was ordered not to write any more articles.
“Last month, the MIS officer on the censorship board gave me the
final warning. The permission for my own Tha-ya magazine had
already been withdrawn since 1989. As a professional writer, how
can I live without writing? If I delayed leaving home, I would have
been arrested like Win Tin,” he added.
Win Tin is a prominent Burmese editor who has been in Insein prison
since 1989 for joining Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi’s party. There
are seven journalists in the country’s jails, and Burma is one of the
Htet Aung Kyaw
60
Another Burmese radio journalist from the BBC explained that the
Burmese on both sides do not understand the role of the media. He
part three | Cry Freedom: From bombsite to website
61
said, “The SPDC did not issue a visa to me because I have interviewed
general Bo Mya in Manaplaw. On the other hand, the border groups
are suspicious of me because I have interviewed general Khin Nyunt
in Rangoon.”
There are more than a dozen publications in the border area and they
have to be smuggled into central Burma. It is clearly a risky business.
Anyone arrested with these papers in their possession will receive
seven years in jail. Radio journalists, however, are having a relatively
easy time. And their audiences in Burma are growing.
During the 8888 movement 11 years ago, BBC gave wide coverage
of the uprising. Today, there are two more broadcasting stations
which support the democracy movement – the Oslo-based DVB,
which went on air in 1992, and the Washington-based Radio Free
Asia, which began its broadcast in 1997. Meanwhile, Khin Nyunt,
the chief of the MIS and a powerful leader in the ruling junta,
lambasted the “neo-colonialists” and “axe-holders” who work for
foreign-based radio. They are not inciting people to protest on 9
September, he said.
I was very proud that I got a chance to speak to the junta’s foreign
minister face to face, but I was disappointed that I didn’t get a
soundbite I could use in a radio report. However, this was my first
lesson in how to catch up with officials and get them to speak to
the media.
My second meeting was with Colonel Kyaw Thein, who was the senior
intelligence official for ethnic and drug affairs. He is also now in
jail, having shared the karma of Win Aung. I met him at the United
Nations’ annual drugs seminar in Bangkok. He was very professional
when speaking to the media, and a very different type of person from
U Win Aung and other ministers who run away from the media.
university and returned home by car, train or boat. But about 200
of us from Tavoy, Mergui and Kawthaung had to wait until the
aeroplanes or coastal ships were available as there was no other way
for us to get home. During these three or four days with nothing to
do, we shouted anti-government slogans, loudly sang popular songs
and threw stones at our dormitories. As a result, four other students
and I, who were believed to be leading the unrest, were summoned
to his room.
“You students must respect the school rules. Otherwise you will be
expelled,” he warned us. As is usual in Burmese culture, we never
made a formal complaint to him but mutinied behind his back.
After the show, many Burmese in the audience, including the BBC
reporter, paid their respects to Tekatho Phone Naing by prostrating
themselves before him, as a sign of respect to him, not only as a writer
but also as an elderly man. I was in a dilemma. If I paid respects
to him I felt it would be like admitting that what I had done in my
university days was wrong. If I did not pay respects to him it would
make me seem very discourteous in the eyes of the other Burmese
at the event.
So I decided to leave the room while the other Burmese were paying
respects to him. But the dilemma was of my own making because
he did not recognise me as his former student.
Yes, now I believe that I should have set politics aside and paid
respect to him as a former student. Unfortunately, it is too late to
take back my decision because he passed away in 2006.
Although this would be the first time I met the twins in person, I
had been hearing about their strange activities in the jungle since
early 1997. When SPDC troops attacked our Minthamee camp,
many ABSDF and KNU members and their families went to Htam
Hin refugee camp. There we heard stories about the mysterious 12-
year-old cheroot-smoking twin boys who led the God’s Army against
Burmese forces in Maw Hta camp, just below Minthamee.
He did not accept my excuse and asked for my office address and
phone number. As I was living illegally in Thailand, I could not give
the number or address of my office in Bangkok. “My office isn’t
in Bangkok, it’s in Oslo,” I told the commander. “Please ring this
number if you don’t believe me.” He rang the Oslo office but it was
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67
When I saw the twins at the press conference it was clear they were
no more than children and it was very hard to believe that they were
the commanders of hundreds of armed troops. Johnny Htoo was
holding a football while Luther was talking to a friend. During the
press conference the prime minister told us, “They are not terrorists.
They are just kids and they should stay with their mom and they
should be going to school.”
The Thai authorities would later allow them to stay at Ban Tonyam
refugee camp near Sangkhlaburi. In 2006, Johnny Htoo returned
to Burma with some former KNU soldiers and is now living in Mitta
village, Tavoy. Luther Htoo and his family are still in the camp
waiting for resettlement to a third country.
As I headed back to the taxi after the press conference, I saw the
commander who had arrested me before the press conference waiting
for me. “Sorry for mistreating you,” he said with a mysterious smile.
“Please don’t use a meter taxi next time, take your company car or
van. Good luck,” he said, and walked away.
I was still confused and as we made our way back from Suan Plung
to Bangkok I asked the driver what the commander had meant. He
laughed loudly at the question. “Did you see any other meter taxis
Htet Aung Kyaw
68
The driver explained to us that the soldiers had asked him who had
hired his taxi to the restricted military area. Ever talkative, he had
told the soldier all the things he had learned from us, including that
we were Burmese dissidents with good connections to the Vigorous
Burmese Student Warriors, God’s Amy and the KNU. That was why
the army had arrested us and I had not been able to reach God’s
Army twins. They were worried that I would cause problems with
the twins.
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69
However, Irrawaddy editor Aung Zaw does not agree. “Before, I was
confused and under pressure,” he said. “But now I’m very clear that
people in the struggle must practise real democracy. Media criticism
is the best way for it to be practised. We don’t need to wait until the
regime change to do that.”
But many activists and politicians in exile are still angry with him.
“The guy and his Irrawaddy were born from our 8888 movement.
Why did he criticise us? How independent is he, as a professional
journalist? He received money from funding agencies like us. I never
read his magazine, throw it away,” shouted an exiled politician in
Bangkok.
But Aung Zaw retorts: “We received funding from agencies, yes,
because we cannot sell the Irrawaddy. But you must be clear that
we are not under the control of funding agencies or anyone else. Our
journalistic ethics are very independent. We are working for people,
not for funding agencies, not for political organisations.”
Some Burma-watchers agree with Aung Zaw. “The role of the media
is very, very clear, that it should report what it sees,” says Yindee
Lertcharoenchok, a journalist and Burma specialist. “The opposition
media must also report what it sees. It should not be a tool of
propaganda for the NCG to try to hide mistakes. If it does that, [the
opposition] media is no different from the junta’s media.”
“Most of the writers are in conflict with each other,” says a Bangkok-
based exiled journalist. “This is because they have never lived with a
free media. They have lived for nearly 30 years in a military-controlled
country, and so they do not know how to respond to a free media.
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71
Although Burmese exiles have access to free media, inside the country
people cannot even use the Internet. “We know a bit through foreign-
based radio,” said the editor of a monthly magazine in Rangoon. “But
we have no free Internet, and we cannot go to Burmanet or any other
political net. The foreign-based radio stations are the only path for
us to see the outside world.”
Recently two monthly magazines were closed for using the name of
general Aung San, the country’s independence hero and father of
Aung San Suu Kyi. Military intelligence also ordered them not to
use the names of writers who are members or MPs of the National
League for Democracy. According to the Paris-based press freedom
organisation Reporters Sans Frontieres, Burma is the most media-
suppressed country in the world.
“While we have our ears, eyes, mouths and pens closed, we welcome
the fact that you [the exiles] can freely criticise your elected
government,” said the Rangoon-based editor.
“We even face pressure from funding agencies not to criticise the
democracy movement. But we are independent journalists, so we
must do our duty. If they stop funding, we will tell the public why,”
Aung Zaw vowed.
The India-based Mizzima news group’s editor Soe Myint said: “Why
do you deter those who fight? Because you are worried that your
enemy will know your weaknesses? This is not an adequate answer.
So what if they know? Are you worried about dishonesty? We need
freedom of expression to support and strengthen democracy. Free
media and democracy cannot be separated. Without democracy, a
free media cannot exist, and without a free media, democracy cannot
be maintained.”
Htet Aung Kyaw
72
The ruling State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) did open up
the country’s first “intranet” cafe earlier this year, where a selected
number of entertainment and non-political sites are available. But
they remain a long way away from allowing the Burmese populace
to use something that most of the world takes for granted.
“Even in my country, you can read every [web] page if you have
enough money,” said broadcast journalist Arnoldo Diaz from
Cuba.
The only outlet Burmese residents have to news that is not controlled
by the junta comes from four short wave radio programs that
broadcast daily in Burmese—including the London-based BBC
(Burmese Service), the Washington DC-based Radio Free Asia (RFA)
and Voice of America (VOA) as well as the Oslo-based Democratic
Voice of Burma (DVB). The programs are beamed into Burma from
relay towers based in third countries.
However, some have paid a hefty price for tuning into these illegal
broadcasts. Daw San San, an elected Member of Parliament from the
opposition National League for Democracy, was sentenced to seven
years in prison in 1998 for giving an interview to the BBC.
Leo Nichols, the former de facto consul for Norway and other
Scandinavian countries as well as the godfather of Aung San Suu
Kyi, died in detention under mysterious conditions after he was
sentenced in 1996 to three years in prison for using a fax machine
without permission.
Part Four:
After the 30 May crackdown on Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San
Suu Kyi and her National League for Democracy (NLD) in Upper
Burma, the whole world asked the ruling generals to release Aung
San Suu Kyi and resume dialogue.
“Lets see whether the Burmese react or not, and we’ll determine after
their reaction not just for the release of Aung San Suu Kyi but also
what will they allow her to do or what will they allow her party to do,
and that will determine what our policy will be,” said US secretary
of state Colin Powell.
Thus far, there is no sign that Rangoon plans to heed the demands
of the international community. “We have listened very carefully to
the concerns raised...and we will take them into consideration, of
course, when the time comes,” claimed Win Aung, Burma’s foreign
minister. He added that those from the international community
should not “make noise” about his country.
Activists worry that “it would be difficult for us to keep on doing our
activities” if people started staging mass protests, she said. But, the
MP does warn that the situation in Burma may become too much for
the people to swallow. “There are lumps of feelings in everyone,” she
said. “Nobody is satisfied or happy. We are carrying these undigested
grievances with us and I think one day they will explode.”
While the US, the European Union and Japan have expressed their
opposition, Burma’s most powerful neighbors, China and India, have
offered no comment. China and India have said they want to stay
out of Burma’s “internal affairs”. It certainly illustrates how divisive
the issue has been for the international community.
Some 17 armed ethnic groups who have signed ceasefires have agreed
to send representatives to the National Convention, but many have
stipulated conditions. Nine ethnic political parties who won the
election in 1990 under the United Nationalities Alliance (UNA) have
rejected the junta’s invitation.
Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD), which
won 82 percent of the votes in 1990, has had no real opportunity
to respond to the road map. All of the party’s leaders are in jail or
under house arrest. And some observers anticipate that many of the
NLD leaders will be kept in custody for the duration of the National
Convention. However, 20 members of parliament (MPs) who were
dismissed from the NLD, and some individual MPs, will be joining
the assembly to draft a new constitution.
extra nine people from the country’s seven states and seven divisions
have also been ordered to attend. Other representatives will be
drawn from junta-friendly groups like the military’s political arm,
the Union Solidarity and Development Association; the women’s
organisation chaired by prime minister Khin Nyunt’s wife; and a
farmers’ association led by a retired army general.
Hkun Htun Oo, a UNA spokesman, said Aung San Suu Kyi warned
the junta to talk immediately with the NLD and the UNA when she
met with UN human rights envoy Paulo Sergio Pinheiro last week.
“The National Convention cannot materialise without the NLD and
the national races,” Hkun Htun Oo said. There are still no signs that
the military will release Aung San Suu Kyi or talk to senior NLD
leaders about the National Convention.
This is the first time the junta has confirmed that it would put an
end to the marathon convention. Moreover, just before a state visit
to China, National Convention chairman lieutenant-general Thein
Sein promised to review previous chapters and make amendments
as necessary to correct their flaws and weaknesses during this
session.
Many parties, including Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for
Democracy (NLD), are now looking for a chance to participate in
the final discussions. “We are very interested in that. This is because
we have the desire to cooperate within the National Convention,”
said U Thein Nyunt, a spokesperson for NLD National Convention
affairs.
“We have stated that the six basic principles, which the National
Convention had set as its objectives, should be considered as issues
for deliberation when drafting the constitution and we said the same
thing for the 104 detailed basic principles also,” he added.
But observers say the KIA and many ceasefire groups along the
China-Burma border have hidden agendas. “My understanding is
that the KIA, the UWSA [United Wa Sate Army], the SSAN [Shan
State Army-North] and the Kokant army are now training recruits.
Military strong-minded leaders took back top posts in recent
meetings,” says Aung Kyaw Zaw, a defence analyst and a former
top official of Burma’s Communist Party, which once controlled the
four ethnic armies.
Neither colonel Tu Jar nor any other official from the four armies
mentioned would comment on this information. Many observers,
however, believe that China has been playing a key role in Burmese
politics since the country used its veto to stop a United Nations
Security Council resolution on Burma last year. Meanwhile, rumours
in Rangoon have begun to circulate that China has asked the Burmese
generals to talk with the NLD before the National Convention kicks
off.
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85
Today is the 19th anniversary of the coup that ousted the socialist
regime of U Ne Win and brought the State Peace and Development
Council (SPDC) to power following the junta’s crackdown on the
‘Four Eights’ uprising.
But this year, junta members have no cause for celebration as they
are facing nationwide protests calling on them to hand over power
to a civilian government. How much has the country changed after
two decades of struggle?
Following the coup by the State Law and Order Restoration Council
(SLORC) on 18 September 1998, junta leader general Saw Maung
promised to hold fresh elections and then hand over power to the
winning party as soon as possible. More than 100 political parties,
including detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi’s National
League for Democracy (NLD) participated in the election held on
27 May 1990, the first election in 26 years.
When the NLD won 392 of 485 seats in parliament, the SLORC broke
its promise and issued order No 1/90, which meant that elected MPs
would not have the chance to take power directly but that a National
Convention would be held to draft a new constitution. “How can
we hand over power to them without a constitution?” Saw Maung
asked at the time.
The SLORC then went on to arrest dozens of MPs who did not follow
the No 1/90 order, while some MPs escaped to found a government
in exile. In 1992, the SLORC dismissed general Saw Maung and
replaced him with general Than Shwe, then said the promise had
been made by Saw Maung, not Than Shwe.
In May 2004, the National Convention resumed but the NLD and the
ethnic MPs did not join for the same reason as in 1995. But nearly
100 representatives from ethnic groups that had declared a ceasefire
and 1,000 government-selected people attended. Finally, the 14-
year-long National Convention came to an end on 3 September, but
no one knows how much further it will be to a new constitution.
Dozens of ethnic rebel groups that had been operating for decades
signed ceasefire agreements with the government in the 1990s.
Most of them attended the National Convention. A few groups,
however, including the Shan, Karen and Karenni, are still ready to
fight back.
The junta’s recent decision to increase fuel prices by 100 to 600 per
cent might be the worst move it has made in its 19-year term. Since
19 August, the 88 Generation Students group has led demonstrations
that have now spread nationwide against the fuel price hike.
Moreover, the country’s highly respected union of Buddhist monks
has joined hands with the group and called on the SPDC to hand
over power to a democratically elected government, as they promised
to do 19 years ago.
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89
“It is very hard to understand their [the military junta’s] mindset and
we were all shocked when we heard the news,” said Khin Maung Nyo,
an economist in Rangoon. Fuel prices should have been increased
step by step rather than in this sudden drastic move, he suggested.
“Anyway, I wish the authorities would make an adjustment to it as
soon as possible”.
His wish has not been realised. “This is challenging us,” shouted
Htin Kyaw, leader of the Myanmar Development Committee. He has
been detained often in recent months for protesting over the high
price of commodities. He has demanded that authorities cancel the
fuel price increases within seven days - “otherwise they must face
Htet Aung Kyaw
90
Five days later, more than 500 people led by the 88 Generation
Students group staged a rare protest in Rangoon, marching against
the fuel price hike. “We are staging this demonstration to reflect the
hardships our people are facing due to the government’s fuel-price
hike,” Min Ko Naing, leader of the 88 Generation Students group,
told DVB.
From then until now, the fearless youths have led demonstrations
in Rangoon, and these have spread to other parts of the country
even though authorities arrested Min Ko Naing and a dozen of his
followers.
While activists have been brave enough to protest, neither MPs nor
high-profile officials have joined the current demonstrations.
However, the NLD’s aged leading figures have not been in much
of a rush to act in the current situation, though they did issue
statements.
The UN leader’s statement followed similar calls from the US, UK,
Norway and human rights groups earlier this week. The US State
Department’s director of press relations, Gonzalo Gallegos, told
reporters in Washington on Wednesday: “We call on the regime
to engage in a meaningful dialogue with the leaders of Burma’s
democracy movement and ethnic minority groups and to make
tangible steps toward a transition to civilian democratic rule.”
There are three ways in which the current unrest could end:
3) A sufficient number of people join the protests and MPs from the
NLD use these demonstrations as pressure to push the State Peace
and Development Council (SPDC) to the negotiating table, as all
Htet Aung Kyaw
92
are requesting.
The time is now running out for the correct choice to be made. This
is not only in the demonstrators’ hands but also in those of leading
politicians from the NLD and ethnic parties. But even more, the
crisis is in the hands of the SPDC. Either side may, in addition,
need suggestions or intervention from the UN-led international
community.
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93
“There are some different points between the 1988 uprising and
now. For example, we have clear leadership roles, a clear goal and
lots of international interest which we did not have in 1988,” said
Htay Kywe of the 88 Generation Students group, who is leading the
current demonstrations, from his hideout office in Rangoon.
These were not actions taken by an angry mob, but they were
systemically planned. After a month of small-scale demonstrations,
their movement reached a turning point on 17 September when the
All Burmese Monks’ Alliance demanded that the junta apologise for
the monks who were beaten in Pakokku.
From then until now, tens of thousands of monks have led peaceful
demonstrations, which have spread out, from Rangoon to the
whole country. Even though riot police have killed at least 30
demonstrators, including a Japanese video-journalist, thousands of
young men are still on the streets everyday. From his hideout, Htay
Kywe said he appreciated the reports filed by Burmese journalists
in exile, who have been working for over a decade in foreign-based
short-wave radio and satellite television and on the internet. He said
that his colleagues living overseas were struggling together with him
against the military junta.
However, this is not the first time Gambari has been to Burma, but
the third. No progress was made during his last two trips, but this
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95
time many are expecting a breakthrough. But the question is: can
Gambari change the die-hard attitude of the regime, which has
refused to comply with the UN’s suggestions for the past 19 years?
“This time, the military might be divided with some of them joining
our side if we can hold on for more weeks on the streets,” said Htay
Kywe. Rumours are also flying of disagreements between general
Than Shwe and his deputy general Maung Aye.
Therefore, to reach their goal of regime change, Htay Kywe and his
colleagues, including this correspondent, need to speed up their
activities. The UN-led international community needs to do more
as well, at least determine what action it plans to take if the regime
does not follow their suggestions this time.
Part Five:
As I work for a daily news service, I was not surprised when they
announced 351 deaths on Saturday. This is because I was informed by
an official from Burma’s meteorological department, in an interview
aired by the Democratic Voice of Burma (DVB) on 30 April, that the
cyclone would hit the Irrawaddy delta, coastal regions and Rangoon
on Friday.
If the wind speed had been just 64 kilometres per hour as the
authorities forecast, there would not have been much damage. But we
are hearing reports today of over 22,000 deaths and 40,000 people
missing. So what went wrong? Was the meteorology department
playing down the risk, or was it a lack of modern equipment that
would have enabled it to give warning of the real ferocity of the
cyclone?
I have been working in the media for over a decade and I know very
well the junta’s notorious censorship policy, especially on political
news. But I did not think they would hide the facts of a looming
disaster after the devastating 20004 tsunami. But I found my
optimism to be totally misplaced when I read an AFP news report.
The allegation came not only from the US but also from survivors
in the delta region.
“The winds were over 240 kilometres per hour and the waves higher
than my home,” he told this correspondent in a telephone interview
on Tuesday.
“Victims have nothing and are just lying in the grounds of the
monastery and they urgently need food, water, shelter, medicines,”
he said. The UN should give aid directly to victims, not through the
government, he said.
Why has the US-led Western bloc chosen to respect the heartless
generals’ so-called sovereignty over the lives of cyclone survivors?
Many world leaders are well aware of how Than Shwe’s regime has
suppressed its own people over the past 20 years. Cyclone Nargis is
the latest and most powerful evidence of this, showing the ruthless
generals in their true colours.
will face jail sentences. The latest example of this is the well-known
comedian and social activist Zarganar, who was arrested last night
after leading a 400-strong team of film stars, artists, journalists,
monks and relief workers to help cyclone survivors.
The call for intervention has come not only from opposition groups
but also from a former military officer and diplomat under former
spy chief and prime minister Khin Nyunt.
Aung Lin Htut pointed to the killing of 49 wood cutters and 22 Thai
fishermen on a southern island near the Thai port of Ranong in 1998
as an example, and Than Shwe’s order to kill Aung San Suu Kyi in
Depayin in 2003, which he gave details of to the US-funded Voice
of America and Democratic Voice of Burma.
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“Ba Ba Gyi [old man] has never listened to the demands of the UN
and ASEAN, who give them carrots. But they take very seriously
the stick approach from US-led alliances and NATO, who are better
armed than them,” he said. “There will be no real change in the
Tatmadaw without the help of the US or NATO.”
According to the 2008 referendum law, people who have left the
country and are living abroad illegally do not have the right to vote.
But Aung Htoo, a senior legal officer in exile and secretary of the
Bangkok-based Burma Lawyers’ Council, claimed that migrants do
have a legal right to vote.
as ‘Yes’ or absentee votes rather than delete their names from the
electoral roll on time,’’ Aung Htoo added.
Khao Lak beach is near Phuket city where the 54 Burmese workers
who suffocated in transit were heading. The GHRE was set up there
after the 2004 tsunami and opened some primary schools for the
children of thousands of Burmese migrants living along the coast.
Nobody can answer his question yet. But some observers urged the
new Thai prime minister Samak Sundaravej to help in this case,
particularly as he has suggested the Burmese generals study the
Thai referendum.
Even he didn’t give details of this suggestion during his one-day trip
to Naypyidaw in March, the Burmese opposition wants him to urge
the junta to allow free debate and international observers which
were clearly seen in the Thai referendum.
Two weeks ahead of the vote, there are clear differences between
the pre-referendum conditions in Thailand and Burma. Dozens of
activists from Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy
(NLD) have been arrested, beaten and threatened for calling for a
“No” vote and free debate while senior ministers and senior officials
from the USDA are travelling freely around the country to campaign
for a “Yes” vote.
no access to the media. “That why we are calling again and again
for international observers,” says Thein Nyunt, spokesperson for
legal affairs for the NLD. “Teams from Thailand, ASEAN, China,
India, Bangladesh or the United Nations are all welcome,” he said,
although the junta rejected the UN special envoy’s proposal for
election observers.
Otherwise, he will fall into the same role as Thabo Mbeki, the
president of South Africa who refused to recognize the result of
Zimbabwe’s election which was lost by his counterpart Robert
Mugabe.
Although the National League for Democracy (NLD) and main ethnic
parties didn’t recognise the results of the constitutional referendum
in May, the ruling junta is now gearing up to drag the opposition
into a new election.
In fact, this is not first time in the last 18 years that the junta’s
propaganda machine has told them to forget the 1990 result. But it
is the first direct challenge to the NLD since the junta adopted its
new constitution last month.
The NDA-K and dozens of former rebel armies who signed ceasefire
agreements with the junta in the 1990s attended the government-
backed National Convention in 2004 to draw up the guidelines for
the constitution which the junta adopted last month.
Apart from the opposition and ethnic groups, the notorious pro-junta
Union Solidarity Development Association (USDA) is systematically
preparing for the election. “Their latest move was to select two
candidates to stand as MPs in each township who are well-educated,
rich and respected in their communities,” said Htay Aung, author
of a book on the USDA called “Whiteshirts” which compares the
organisation to Hitler’s Nazi “Brownshirts”.
Founded in 1993 and the darling of general Than Shwe, the USDA
civilian wing is now 27 million strong in a country of 55 million
people. The USDA has played key roles in attacking Aung San Suu
Kyi’s motorcade in 2003, organising the mass rallies in support of
the National Convention in 2006 and forcing people to vote “Yes”
in the constitutional referendum in May.
Major Aung Lin Htut, a key member of former prime minister Gen
Khin Nyunt’s spy network, said that most of the USDA’s leading
members were opportunists who were trying to win the favour of
general Than Shwe. “But they not yet getting any support from
army chief general Maung Aye and front line troops.” the former
spy says.
Another challenge for the USDA and Than Shwe will be to gain
support from former rebel armies, he pointed out. “Many know
well how general Than Shwe broke his promise on the 1990 election
result but very few know how he ignored his promises to ceasefire
groups,” major Aung Lin Htut said.
This view is shared by the New Mon State Party, one of 17 former
ethnic rebel groups. “We walked out of the National Convention
when they rejected our proposals. That was broken promise which
they agreed in 1995 ceasefire agreement” said Nai Aung Ma-nge, a
spokesperson for the Thai-Burma border-based Mon rebel group.
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United Nations chief Ban Ki-moon and other world leaders well knew
how badly the SPDC had dealt with the aid operation to support
millions of survivors after Cyclone Nargis struck on 2-3 May leaving
135,000 people dead and missing.
But Ban did not say a word about politics when he meet Than Shwe
in Naypyidaw and focused only on humanitarian mission. However,
Than Shwe didn’t listen to the UN chief’s warnings but went ahead
with all his political plans; the constitutional referendum in May,
the adoption of the constitution in June and now the preparations
for an election.
“I don’t think the people of Myanmar should lose hope in the UN. The
UN is doing the best it can,” he went on. “When I was working there,
I was doing the best I could, but finally it is up to the government
and the people of Myanmar to make all the necessary changes.”
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While the whole world is busy watching the Beijing Olympics, many
Burmese are preparing for the 20th anniversary of the 8 August 1988
uprising, or ‘8888’. But the question now is how many Burmese
can seriously review this journey of 20 years and the goals of the
democracy movement? There is no sign of any big ceremony inside
the country as all key members of the 88 Generation Students group,
including Min Ko Naing, are in jail.
“They blame the Tatmadaw [the Burmese military] all the time but
never try to entice the Tatmadaw to their side. That is why they
have not reached their goals or achieved power in 20 years,” the
controversial government-backed figure said.
After the junta refused to recognise the result of the 1990 election,
some politicians and activists went to rebel-controlled areas where
thousands of students from the 1988 uprising had founded a self-
styled student army. But there on the Thai border, they similarly
faced a lack of unity among the leaders. The student army divided
into two factions in 1992, while their allies the Kachin and Mon
armed rebels signed ceasefire agreements with the junta in 1994
and 1995. The powerful Karen rebel group split in late 1995 with
the Buddhist Karen siding with the junta. The lack of unity among
the leaders made for a growing distrust of other factions. Many
students and activists, including some Karen rebels, left their guns
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However, there is still an opening to deal with the junta in the wake
of Cyclone Nargis, which hit Burma leaving 135,000 people dead and
missing and millions homeless. The junta needs millions of dollars in
urgent help from the outside world, although it continues to berate
the West in its state-controlled media.
But the world body needs to remember that international aid is not
the first priority for the junta, but power. UN secretary-general Ban
Ki-moon and other world leaders well know how badly the SPDC
has dealt with the aid operation to for millions of cyclone survivors.
But Ban did not say a word about politics when he met Than Shwe in
Naypyidaw; instead he focused only on the humanitarian mission.
However, Than Shwe didn’t listen to the UN’s warnings but went
ahead with all his political plans: the constitutional referendum
in May, the adoption of the constitution in June and now the
preparations for an election in 2010.
“We need action now. Not more words,” young activists will shout
on Rangoon’s streets on the anniversary of 8888.
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But the question now is how much has changed in the 20 years since
the 8888 uprising? Does Burma need a new approach?
“All the changes are based on the 8888 uprising. A change in ideas
is a very important step towards real change,” said Dr Aung Khin, a
London-based historian and prominent commentator on foreign-
based Burmese language radio stations. He pointed out that the
willingness of many Burmese inside the country to speak out to
foreign radio stations is a significant change compared with the 26
years of Ne Win’s socialist era.
action against local authorities who abuse their power and human
rights,” one of Sein Win’s fellow journalists in Mandalay told this
correspondent. “I have seen a lot of evidence of action being taken
after you aired news stories about their abuses. This is a good sign,”
he said.
“But at the same time, if you look at bloggers, the internet, websites
and Irrawaddy publications, we have been looking at the weaknesses
of the opposition almost constantly.”
Obviously, many Burmese are now asking themselves why they have
still not achieved victory after 20 years, and why they were doomed
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But one thing that is now clear is that many activists have lost
confidence in the United Nations’ negotiating role after special envoy
Gambari’s last mission. They are also beginning to lose confidence
in the 20-year-long push for dialogue led by Aung San Suu Kyi.
“We know the soldiers’ mindset well – they never consider dialogue,
only firepower,” a former army official suggested. “Unless you have
a strong, well-armed force, the SPDC will not care about you.”
“But I not sure who the donor would be for this project,” he joked,
alluding to the dependence of many organisations, including armed
groups, on the donors’ pocketbooks. “However, it would only be
about five percent of the budget of the whole exile movement,” he
estimated.
But now, we are far from home – 20 years, not 20 days. My life
has totally changed, from 24-year-old university student to rebel
leader and now to exile. Dozens of my comrades were killed on the
battlefields while Tin Lay and others fell victim to jungle intrigue.
ABSDF members now, aside from those 992 martyrs? You can still
see a few hundred in the Thai-Burma border area while thousands of
others have resettled in the West; North America, Europe, Australia
and New Zealand.
What are they doing now? Are they still fighting for democracy, the
main reason they left their county in 1988, or are they just enjoying
the full scale of human rights on offer to them in their new democratic
homelands?
Although many exiles were students during the 8888 uprising, very
few have completed further education. Not more than a dozen of
exiles have gained a PhD, about three dozen have Masters degrees
and about 100 have Bachelor degrees, while more than 10,000 other
exiles have been wrapped up in their daily lives and have lacked the
will or the means to pursue further education.
But the question remains: is this a good enough way for an exile
to bring democracy to their country? Is this what they dreamed of
20 years ago? Do they believe that these small-scale activities can
press the military regime in Naypyidaw to change the situation in
Burma?
No, no one believes that this is the way to change in Burma but they
do not have much choice. If you look back further than 20 years, you
will see another two generations of exiles in hiding.
“You guys in exile just criticise each other, criticise us, criticise
everyone rather than do your job. If you are brave enough to fight
the military government, please come here, don’t just criticise from
thousand of miles away. Then you will understand the real political
situation that we face here every day.”
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