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Wired News on Feb. 5 & 6, '95



Attn: Burma Newsreaders
Re: Wired News on February 5 & 6, 1995
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Burma's Karen rebels set up new headquarters   

    BANGKOK, Feb 5 (Reuter) - Burma's Karen National Union (KNU) guerrilla
group has set up a new headquarters inside Burma after the capture by Burmese
government forces of its former headquarters at Manerplaw late last month, a
KNU official said on Sunday. 

    ``Most of our leaders are already there,'' guerrilla official Arthur Shwe
said of the new base though he declined to reveal its location for security
reasons. 

    ``Maybe it will be only a temporary headquarters, a mobile headquarters.
It might move,'' he told a small group of reporters. 

    Manerplaw, on the Thai-Burmese border 200 km (120 miles) northeast of
Rangoon, was seized by Burmese government forces on January 27. 

    Karen leaders including guerilla commander General Bo Mya, as well as
some 6,000 civilian supporters, were forced to take refuge in Thailand after
the base fell. 

    Manerplaw was also the headquarters of pro-democracy dissidents and
student guerrillas who fled to the Karen zone following a 1988 crackdown on
democracy demonstrations in Rangoon and other cities and towns. 

    Shwe said he expected the Karen's partners in the opposition alliance to
join them at their new headquarters soon. 

     Shwe reiterated that the KNU was always ready to talk peace with the
ruling military body in Rangoon. 

    ``The door is always open to talks,'' He said. 

    A senior Burmese military intelligence official hinted to reporters in
Rangoon on Friday that the government might be reluctant to open peace talks
with the KNU after a mutiny in the group late last year. 

    ``We may have to consider whether the KNU is representing the majority of
the Karen armed group members or not,'' Colonel Kyaw Win told a news
conference. 

    About 500 Karen guerrillas mutinied against their leaders in December and
later assisted Burmese forces in their offensive on Manerplaw. 

    The KNU has been fighting for greater autonomy since 1949.


Transmitted: 95-02-05 06:05:56 EST
****************

Thailand sends back more than 800 Karen guerrillas   

    BANGKOK, Feb 6 (Reuter) - Thai authorities have sent back to Burma more
than 800 ethnic minority Karen guerrillas who fled an attack by Burmese
government forces on their headquarters 10 days ago, a Thai army source said
on Monday. 

    The guerrillas had refused to lay down their weapons and vowed to
continue their war for autonomy against Burma's ruling military body, the
officer said. 

    They were ordered back from a forest area on the Thai side of the border
in the area of their fallen headquarters at Manerplaw, the officer said. 

    Manerplaw was overrun by Burmese government forces on January 27,
prompting some 6,000 civilians and guerrillas and their leaders to flee into
Thailand. 

    The Thai authorities have said civilians and unarmed guerrilla leaders
would be allowed temporary refuge in Thailand for humanitarian reasons. 

    Meanwhile General Charan Kullawanich, the secretary of Thailand's main
security body, the National Security Council, said he had turned down a
Burmese army request for permission to cross into Thailand to fight the Karen
guerrillas from the Thai side of the border. 

    ``The request was made at the local level not the government level and we
have already rejected it,'' Charan told reporters during an inspection trip
to the border on Monday. 

    The last major Karen border camp of Kawmoora is located in a Burmese loop
of the Moei river which forms the border with Thailand. 

    In the past, Burmese forces have tried to attack the well-fortified base
by crossing into Thai territory and hitting it from its more vulnerable
eastern flank. 

    Thai army officers reinforcing the border near Kawmoora said last week
they would allow neither Karen rebels nor Burmese troops to cross into Thai
territory. 

 REUTER


Transmitted: 95-02-06 00:03:05 EST
***********

Release of 23 in Burma has ``no affect on Suu Kyi''   

    BANGKOK, Feb 6 (Reuter) - Burma's release of 23 people including two
members of the opposition National League for Democracy is unlikely to have
any bearing on the status of its detained co-founder Aung San Suu Kyi,
diplomats said on Monday. 

    ``The SLORC has released people before, what will be significant is when
they stop arresting people,'' one envoy said, referring to Burma's ruling
military body the State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC). 

    ``It would be a mistake to read too much into this (the release of the
23),'' said another. 

    Burma's state-media reported at the weekend that those released on
Saturday included the celebrated poet Tin Moe and Aung Khin Sint, leading
members of the National League for Democracy (NLD), which won a landslide
victory in a general election in 1990. 

    The SLORC, which took power after the violent suppression of a
pro-democracy uprising in 1988, ignored the election outcome. 

    Altogether more than 1,000 political prisoners have been released in
groups since the introduction of a decree in April, 1992 ruling that
prisoners deemed no longer a threat to the state would be gradually freed. 

    The diplomats suggested the timing of the latest releases was
significant, given international criticism of a current Burmese army
offensive against ethnic minority Karen guerrillas and the arrival of United
Nations representatives in Rangoon at the weekend. 

    ``Everthing the SLORC does in terms of releasing people is done for PR
(public relations) reasons,'' said one of the diplomats. 

    Aung Khin Sint was imprisoned for 20 years in 1993 for allegedly sending
threatening letters to fellow delegates at a convention drawing up the
guidelines of a new charter. 

    Rangoon-based diplomats said the ``threatening letters'' were leaflets
urging delegates not to forget their democratic responsibilities to the
people. 

    Many of those released since April 1992 were Karen villagers, among
hundreds rounded up in the Irrawaddy river delta area southwest of Rangoon
after a unit of Karen guerrillas infiltrated the region in 1991 and fighting
with government forces erupted, diplomats said. 

    Suu Kyi, the daughter of independence hero General Aung San and herself
winner of the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize, has been held under house arrest at her
home in Rangoon since July, 1989. 

    Speculation that she might be freed mounted late last year after she met
senior SLORC generals for talks in September and then had a second meeting in
October. 

    But SLORC leaders told a visiting Thai government minister last month
that the 49-year-old dissident leader would not be freed until the
constitution now being drafted was complete. 

    SLORC leaders later told a visiting Buddhist monk that Suu Kyi was being
detained for reasons of national security as well as for her own security. 

    Most of the NLD's original top leadership, including party chairman Tin
Oo and the party spokesman who led the NLD during the 1990 polls, Kyi Maung,
remain in prison. 

    Suu Kyi's husband, British academic Michael Aris, said last month that
the SLORC had rejected a recent request from his wife to meet with her
detained NLD colleagues. 

    Five dissidents including a well-known writer and a former United Nations
worker were last Ocotber sentenced to between seven and 15 years in prison on
charges including spreading information damaging to the state and contacting
anti-government groups. 

 REUTER


Transmitted: 95-02-06 03:08:53 EST
***************

Burma releases 23 prisoners, no word on Suu Kyi   

    RANGOON, Feb 5 (Reuter) - Burma has released 23 people including two
prominent members of the opposition National League for Democracy, but
official media made no mention on Sunday of its detained co-founder Aung San
Suu Kyi. 

    Those released on Saturday included celebrated poet Tin Moe and Dr Aung
Khin Hsint, leading members of the League for Democracy which won a landslide
victory in a general election in 1990. 

    The State Law and Order Restoration Council, which took power after the
suppression of a pro-democracy uprising in 1988, ignored the election
outcome. 

    State-run newspapers said on Sunday that 12 of the 23 were freed from
Insein Jail in Rangoon, one from Mawlamyine and nine from Pokokku. 

    More than 1,000 political prisoners have been released in groups since
April, 1992. They had been jailed under existing laws but their sentences
were reduced under a section of the criminal code, press reports said. 

    Suu Kyi, winner of the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize and daughter of
independence hero General Aung San, has been held under house arrest at her
home in Rangoon since July, 1989. 

    Witnesses said the security situation around her compound in Rangoon on
Sunday was normal. 

 REUTER


Transmitted: 95-02-05 12:03:01 EST
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