BURMA LEADER SAYS MOST REBEL GROUPS

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Subject: BURMA LEADER SAYS MOST REBEL GROUPS GIVE UP FIGHT

REUTERRTw  01/05 0835  BURMA LEADER SAYS MOST REBEL GROUPS GIVE UP FIGHT
    By Kevin Cooney

RANGOON, Jan 5 (Reuter) - The leader of Burma's military junta has said that 
nearly all of the rebel ethnic minority groups that have been fighting for 
autonomy from Rangoon for decades have given up the struggle. "At present 10 
groups of national races have abandoned the lines of armed struggle and are 
actively engaged in construction activities in the legal fold in cooperation 
with the people," senior General Than Shwe said in a messagemarking Burma's 
January 4 Independence Day. If 10 groups have reached peace agreements with 
the military junta, thatleaves the Christian Karen minority group virtually 
isolated in the active struggle against Rangoon. The Karen, who field the 
largest anti-government military force, have long said the peace overtures to 
separate groups were intended to divide and conquerthe autonomy movement. They
insist peace talks should be between the junta and the DemocraticAlliance of 
Burma (DAB). Many Karen leaders also insist that as a show of sincerity, Nobel
PeacePrize-winner Aung San Suu Kyi, daughter of independence hero Aung San, 
must bereleased. She has been under house arrest since July, 1989. Skirmishing
between SLORC and Karen forces was reported near the Thaiborder last month.
General Than, chairman of the State Law and Order Restoration Council(SLORC), 
said "constant efforts in unity and cohesion" were the nation's top priority 
for 1994. More than a dozen ethnic minority groups have fought for autonomy 
from the central government virtually since Burma achieved independence from 
Britain in1948. Since the military put down a national uprising for democracy 
in 1988, the ethnic groups have been united with disaffected students and
dissident politicians in DAB, which now appears to be breaking up. The Kachin 
Independence Organisation (KIO) reached a separate peace pactwith SLORC in 
October. It was considered one of the major rebel armed forces. The Shan 
State People's Party, another major group, also split from DAB ashave the
armies of the Pa-o and the Wa. SLORC became the latest manifestation of the 
military oligarcy that has ruled Burma since 1962 after the 1988 shootings of
democracy demonstrators. It held an election in 1990, but refused to honour 
the results when AungSan Suu Kyi's party swept the polls. Many elected 
legislators fled and some of them formed an alternativegovernment in
the jungle allied with the DAB.