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BurmaNet News: 15 March 1995



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Due to a technical glitch, BurmaNet News #125 was sent out but
got lost in cyberspace.  Here it is again and sorry for the
delay.  #126 will be distributed tomorrow and will cover the
usual sources from March 16 through March 20.  --Strider


**************************BurmaNet***************************
"Appropriate Information Technologies, Practical Strategies"
*************************************************************
The BurmaNet News:15 March 1995
Issue #125: 
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++


NOTED IN PASSING:

               All in all, we want to tell you please do not
               help the SLORC and join your hands with theirs
               by making a pipeline.  We are worried about
               you, because your hands are clean at the moment
               but if you shake hands with hands that are
               dirty with blood then your hands will also be
               dirty.

                    Naw Dorcus Moo, a Karen girl.  From her
                    letter to Fred Hartley, Chairman of Unocal
                    <See BURMANET: LETTERS FROM THE KAREN>


Contents:                                                    

********************KAREN STATE/KAWTHOOLEI********************
BURMANET: DKBA ATTACKS ON REFUGEES
BF: RIGHTS GROUPS DEMAND STATEMENT FROM UNOCAL ON BURMA
    VIOLENCE 
BURMANET: NO FRENCH FATALITIES AMONG TOTAL WORKERS
BURMANET: LETTERS FROM THE KAREN

*************************ARAKAN STATE************************
USCR: "THE ROHINGYA RETURN TO BURMA"

***********************INTERNATIONAL*************************
DAGBLADET: EXCERPT FROM INTERVIEW WITH KIM YOUNG SAM
LA TIMES: EXITING THE BURMA ROAD
WASHINGTON POST: U NU OBITUARY
BRC-JAPAN: KAW MOO RAW


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**************************************************************
*************THE BURMANET NEWS--MARCH 15, 1995***************
**************************************************************

********************KAREN STATE/KAWTHOOLEI********************
BURMANET: DKBA/SLORC ATTACKS ON REFUGEES
15 March 1995

Since February 10, the Democratic Kayin Buddhist Army, which
is made up of Karen defectors and SLORC troops, has been
responsible for eight armed incursions into Thailand which
resulted in loss of life, kidnapping or destruction of
property.  The body count so far stands at seven Karen
refugees killed, sixteen wounded, two individuals and five
families kidnapped as well as some minor vandalism, theft and
arson.

The first incursion occurred on February 10 at Ka Htee Hta
camp:

10 February:   Ka Htee Hta camp SLORC/DKBA crossed the
Salween, entered the camp and persuaded 15 families to go back
with them.

10th-12th Feb: Ka Htee Hta camp, 500 bags of rice stolen and
the camp looted by DKBA/SLORC troops.

11th Feb: Armed DKBA enter Mae La camp, abducting Mahn Yin
Sein and followers, (MYS is a junior KNU official, advisory
member of the Karen Refugee Committee and Buddhist chairman of
Paan district).

12th Feb: DKBA enters Ka Htee Hta and forces five families at
gunpoint to return to Burma.  Two men (Buddhists) who had gone
back with DKBA on the 10th are killed.

15th Feb: DKBA kills three more Buddhist returnees from the
10th.

18th Feb: Message sent to Ka Htee Hta refugees that everyone
must return to Burma, otherwise they would be killed.

21st Feb: KNU withdraws from Kawmoora (3:00am)

23rd Feb: Attack on Thai truck on a road between Mae Sam Laeb
and Huai Heng camp.  A Thai driver and two Karen refugees are
killed and 11 others wounded.

28th Feb: DKBA enters Mae La camp in an arson attack.  One
house burned.

1st March: DKBA enters Mae Ta Wa camp, abducting San Tun (a
key Buddhist leader) and wounding two Thai/Karen (1:00am)

2nd March: Armed DKBA entere Mae Ta Wa section 2, beating up
and then kidnapping Kyaw Lay.  Kyaw Lay, aged 65, was the camp
commander.  DKBA soldiers then loot Section 2.

7th March: DKBA soldiers attack a Thai truck on the main road
between Mae Ta Wa and Mae Sariang.  Two Thais wounded.

At the last count (February), there were 88,907 refugees along
the Thai/Burma border in 32 camps.  The largest numbers are in
the 21 Karen camps, which hold 73,228 refugees.  The four Mon
camps hold 9,845 refugees while the 6 Karenni camps house
5,174.  There is also one Burmese/Tavoyan camp holding 660
people.


********************KAREN STATE/KAWTHOOLEI********************
BF: RIGHTS GROUPS DEMAND STATEMENT FROM UNOCAL ON BURMA
    VIOLENCE 

The Burma Forum
2118 Wilshire Blvd., #383
Santa Monica, CA 90403

March 11, 1995

Rights Groups Demand Statement from Unocal on Burma Violence 
Los Angeles -- The Burma Forum and the Democratic Burmese
Students Association, Los Angeles based activist groups
working for democracy and human rights in Burma, have asked
for a statement from Unocal after five employees of French oil
giant Total were reportedly killed in Burma.  The five were
surveyors on a project to build a natural gas pipeline from
southern Burma into Thailand. Los Angeles based Unocal and the
military rulers of Burma are also partners in the project.

Unocal has come under heavy criticism for its business
dealings with the Burmese military, which is accused by the
U.S. State Department of "flagrant and systematic abuses of
basic human rights" including killings, rape, and forced
labor.

"Activists know, and Unocal knows, that the normal Burmese
Army response to something like this attack is to take their
anger out on the innocent civilians in the area.  Rape,
torture, and murder are the result.  We call on Unocal to
demand publicly that this not happen.  They ought to do
everything they can to stop the violence" says Dr. Carol
Richards, coordinator for the Burma Forum.

In January, Unocal president John Imle warned that there would
be violent retaliation against anyone who tried to stop the
project.  "If you threaten the pipeline there's gonna be more
military.  If forced labor goes hand and glove with the
military, yes, there will be more forced labor.  For every
threat to the pipeline, there will be a reaction" said Imle,
quoted in the February 13 Bangkok Post.

"The ethnic groups and pro-democracy activists have been
searching for a peaceful path to national reconciliation, but
to date the SLORC's response has been to use force to bring
the pipeline project to fruition" said Khin Maung Shwe of the
DBSA.  "We remain committed to the principles of non-violence
put forth by Aung San Suu Kyi and her party, the National
League for Democracy, who won the 1990 elections
overwhelmingly, but the results were never recognized by the
military.  Aung San Suu Kyi is in her sixth year of house
arrest, while other NLD leaders have been jailed or driven
into exile.

In related news, Reuter reports the U.S. State Department, in
an official statement on March 8, threatened to downgrade
relations with Burma due to a lack of progress on
democratization, human rights, and narcotics suppression.

Contact:
Dr. Kyaw Win (714) 831-2000
Dr. Carol Richards (310) 451 - 4493



********************KAREN STATE/KAWTHOOLEI********************
BURMANET: NATIONALITY OF TOTAL WORKERS STILL IN QUESTION
15 March 1995

According to reliable reports coming from France, no French
nationals were among the dead in the KNU attack which killed
five Total employees.  The KNU troops who carried out the
attack believe that at least one Caucasian was among the dead,
but it is possible that they are mistaken, or that the
Caucasion was from a third country.


********************KAREN STATE/KAWTHOOLEI********************
BURMANET: LETTERS FROM THE KAREN

1 Letter to Total, by Saw Nay Kaw
2 Letter to Unocal, by Naw Dorcus Moo


What follows are two letters are from 10th Form school
children in a refugee camp in Thailand.  The letters are
written to the Chairmen of Total's and Unocal's Boards of
Directors.

*******



***************
21 February 1995

Mr St Tchunuk                           Saw Nay Kaw
Total Oil Holdings                      PO Box 85
24 Cours Michelet                       Mae Sot
92800 Puteaux                           Tak 63110
France                                  Thailand

Dear Mr St Tchunuk

May we be allowed to introduce our group.  We are English
students of Kaw Moo Rah High School, in a Karen refugee camp
close to the Thai border.  We heard that your company is
working together with the Burmese government, the SLORC, to
make a pipeline to send gas to Thailand, and therefore the
SLORC is getting a lot of money with your help.  This is
unfortunate for the ethnic groups who live in Burma.

Why does your oil company do business with SLORC?  Your work
will not really develop the country, and if we look around
Burma the small ethnic groups will have to face a lot of
trouble because of it.  Why?

As you can see now, many people from Burma have come out to
Thailand and are refugees.  We don't want to stay in Thailand
and be refugees any more, but right now the Burmese Army
attack us everywhere along the border.  They move us from
place to place, burn our villages, make us work doing hard
labour, kill us and rape women.  Obviously, if we didn't come
to Thailand we would be killed by the SLORC.  To come to
Thailand is not enjoyable, and not a way of making money.  If
the situation was good in Burma we would go back now, but
because of all the problems we cannot.

Additionally, to make your pipeline the SLORC will first have
to fight hard with the ethnic groups who live in that area. 
The people in that area are only we Karen, Mon and some other
small groups.  They are only small groups, with little money
and ot enough weapons to fight the bug Burmese Army and they
don't have any support or help from other counties, like you
give the Burmese.  Buty they will fight.  We hope that you
will know about that and will think about it.

Therefore, we can say that it is because of your company and
other companies that we have these problems.

On February 2, we heard that the Thai and Burmese governments,
and yourselves, made the agreement to make the pipeline
between Burma and Thailand.  This is unfortunate for us,
because this money will go to helping the SLORC to destroy all
the ethnic groups in Burma.  For sure, it is like you are
killing us, when you are making your pipeline.  So fi you
don't want to kill our people in the future, please stop this.

Therefore, we humbly request you to stop your work in Burma. 
By working in Burma it is easy to see that the SLORC use the
money and the opportunity they get to kill our people. 
Definitely, if you don't stop your work, thi sis what will
happen, and surely your energy from Burma will become deadly
energy for us.

We hope you will agree with us, about how your work will cause
is trouble in Burma, an we hope you will be ready to do
something about it.  We look dorward to your reply to our
letter, because we want to hear your opinion about our
situation.

Yours sincerely,

 Saw Nay Kaw   Naw Dorcus Moo
 Saw Blut Soe  Naw Ellen Min
 Saw Kaw Htoo  Naw Lah Lah Htoo
 Saw Mae Sot   Naw Moo Moo Htoo
 Saw Min Lwin  Naw Wah Wah Htoo


***************
21 February 1995

Fred L. Hartley                         Naw Dorcus Moo
Chairman                                PO Box 5
Unocal Crop.                            Mae Sot
Unocal Centre                           Tak 63110
PO Box 7600                             Thailand
121 West 5th Street
Los Angeles California 90051
USA


Dear Mr Hartley

Please allow us to introduce ourselves.  We are students in
Kaw Moo Rah High School, that is located in a Karen refugee
camp near Mae Sot, Thailand.  Now we are writing to you
because we have heard that your company is cooperating with
the SLORC to build a pipeline in Burma.

According to the Bangkok Post newspaper, on February 2 you
signed an agreement with the Thais and Burmese to build this
pipeline.

We want to suggest to you that the way you have followed may
be a good way for you, but it causes a lot of trouble for
other people.  Why do we talk like this?  Because, what will
happen to our ethnic groups of Burma, if you join hands with
SLORC by building a pipeline?  You may not believe this, but
because of your help they can oppress our ethnic groups by
fighting and forcing our people to do hard labour and besides
this, the Burma Army soldiers make our women stay with them as
if they are their wives.

You are staying in America, far away from Burma,so you and
your  people do not have to bear the oppression of the SLORC,
but we  do.

Apart from this oppression of our people, they have destroyed
a lot of places and forests.  By destroying forests and things
like roads being made, they also get money from when they sell
the trees.  So our places get destroyed by logging and most of
our places have lost their forests and become desteritied. 
So, it hurts our natural environment, it doe not hurt your
natural environment.  Are you happy to help the SLORC do like
this?

We have read your report to stockholders, "Unocal in Myanmar"
[given to them by their teacher], and we were very surprised
and mixed with sadness.  Why is this?  Because you said that
as a result of your pipeline it will lead to a better standard
of living in Burma.  But now our ethnic groups in Burma do not
even receive their basic rights, and whats more their
situation is becoming worse and worse, and your pipeline will
not make it better.

You say in your report that you have visited Burma and you saw
that the situation is fine and there will be no problem with
human rights and logging if you build a pipeline.  For sure
you don't know the situation better than us.  You tell things
to the poeple in American who don't know the situation here. 
But we know the real situation and we know what you say is not
true.   People who are living where you will make your
pipeline,  and everywhere in Burma, have to do hard labour
without getting any money.  We are the people who had been
living in Burma for all our lives, and because of the SLORC's
oppression we had to escape to the Thai border.  We did not do
it becuase we wanted to come here.  It was real that we could
not bear the SLORC's oppression any longer.

In addition, you said that if you give your western values and
culture to the people in Burma then it will be interesting and
good from them.  But personally, we thing that our ethnic
groups in Burma are not interested in your culture.  They want
to keep and develop their own culture and live in freedom and
peace.  Your culture is a very but culture, and so we are
afraid for our small culture.  Our small culture could be lost
easily, because of your big culture.

So, although you say you think you have found the way to save
our people in Burma from oppression it is actually the way to
encourage the SLORC to push us down.

Although the SLORC's mouths are full of peace talk, their
hands are trying to kill the innocent people of Burma.  At the
moment they are attacking our Karen people everywhere,
especially in our old place of Kaw Moo Rah, where our friends
and families stay to fight.  They use big bombs, which we can
hear everyday, and cause lots of trouble for our people.

Furthermore, looking at the situation of Aung San Suu Kyi and
other Burmese people who are against the SLORC, although they
have the smae race and culture they have kept her in house
arrest for five years and jailed or killed thousands of their
own people.  So, if that is what they do to their own people,
what do you think they do to the other different races in
Burma.  You will know that easily if you are thinking clearly.

All in all, we want to tell you please do not help the SLORC
and join your hands with theirs by making a pipeline.  We are
worried about you, because your hands are clean at the moment
but if you shake hands with hands that are dirty with blood
then your hands will also be dirty.

Now we are expressing our opinion to you about yoru building
of a pipeline in Burma, and we want to hear back from you
also.  So please allow us to know your opinion about our ideas
and reply to our letter once you have received it.  We also
want you to think about our people in Burma who are bearing
the SLORC's oppression, and not only how to improve your own
situation.

Yours sincerely,


          
Saw Nay Kaw    Naw Dorcus Moo
 Saw Blut Soe  Naw Ellen Min
 Saw Kaw Htoo  Naw Lah Lah Htoo
 Saw Mae Sot   Naw Moo Moo Htoo
 Saw Min Lwin  Naw Wah Wah Htoo


*************************ARAKAN STATE************************


USCR: "THE ROHINGYA RETURN TO BURMA"
14 March 1995


          The U.S. Committee for Refugees (USCR) has released
a report entitled "The Rohingya Return to Burma: Voluntary
Repatriation or Refoulement?".  Copies may be obtained at:

        USCR
        1717 Massachusetts Ave NW
        Suite 701
        Washington DC 2036
        Phone 202 347-3507
        Fax   202 797 2363


        I am continuing work on the Rohingya, and I would
appreciate any information of any sort on the Rohingya or
UNHCR's operation in Arakan State.  Please reply at
Lambrcht@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx







***********************INTERNATIONAL*************************
LA TIMES: EXITING THE BURMA ROAD
 HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH
14 February 1995

Exiting the Burma Road

        For five years now the will of the people of Burma,
now known as Myanmar, has been thwarted by the country's
despotic military.  Even before the democratic opposition
scored a landslide victory in the 1990 election-- the first
multi-party elections in 30 years--its leader, Aung San Sui
Kyi, was slapped with house arrest by the junta.

        But her plight and that of Burma--whose government has
driven hundreds of thousands of Burmese, including many
minority group members, into neighboring Bangladesh and
Thailand--caught the world's eye when she was awarded the 1991
Nobel Peace Prize.

        Even so, the Burmese military still thrives,
prospering thanks to rake-offs from drug trafficking,
international sales of natural resources and playing host to
many international companies.  Included among these companies,
alas, are American firms.  However, at least three U.S. firms
have had enough and have called it quits in Burma.

        The latest is Eddie Bauer Inc.  The well-known Seattle
retailer of outdoor clothing said it will stop using Burmese
factories to make its clothes because of the political
climate--and growing world opinion against trade with Burma. 
Two years ago, Levi Strauss & Co., commendably, left Burma,
disgusted with the repressive atmosphere.  So did Liz
Clairborne Inc. 
        But other U.S. firms still do, or are currently
negotiating to, conduct business there.  They should reflect
on the example of Eddie Bauer, Levi Strauss and Liz
Clairborne.  There are better places in which to improve the
bottom line.



>From the Los Angeles Times, Letter to the Editor column,
Friday, 24 February 1995:


*Re "Exiting the Burma Road," editorial, Feb. 14:

        You failed to mention the two American giants, Unocal
and Texaco, which, with Total of France, recently signed a
$400-million deal with the military thugs in Rangoon to build
a pipeline through the Mon tribal homeland to transport
natural gas from Burma to Thailand.

        What is so repulsive is the use of slaves to build
roads, railroads and other backbreaking projects to catch up
with the 20th Century in haste. 
        The State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC),
Burma's ruling junta, has defied the U.N. and the
international community by going full- steam ahead, violating
each and every article of the Universal Declaration of Human
Rights with impunity.

        Earlier this month, the SLORC spurned a U.N. deputy
secretary general's request to see imprisoned Nobel Peace
Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi when he was sent to Burma by a
United Nations resolution.

        Appearing on the day former Burmese Prime Minister U
Nu died in Rangoon, I hope your piece arouses the conscience
of freedom-loving Americans.  The President and the Congress
should take the moral high ground by insisting that the
international community deny the benefits of trade with Burma,
as was done so successfully in South Africa.


                    U Kyaw Win
                    Laguna Hills 

[Contributer-Letter Writer's comment:  I erred with the $400
million figure. That is the annual output of natural gas to be
piped to Thailand.  The project's estimated cost is US$1
billion. ukw]



***********************INTERNATIONAL*************************
WASHINGTON POST: U NU OBITUARY

February 15, 1995 
Final Edition, Metro      Section P. B5


     U Nu, 87, who was prime minister of Burma from 1948, when
it gained      independence from Britain, until 1962, when
Gen. Ne Win took power in      a military coup, died Feb. 14
at his home in Rangoon.  The cause of      death was not
reported.

     Detained by the military from 1962 to 1966, he went into
exile in      1969.  he returned to Burma in 1980 under a
general amnesty and      promised to stay out of politics.  He
wrote plays, poems, novels and      political works and
translated into Burmese the works of Karl Marx and      Dale
Carnegie's "How to Win Friends and Influence People." 
     When pro democracy demonstrations toppled Ne Win's regime
in 1988,      Mr.. U Nu declared himself prime minister of a
parallel government.      but his movement failed to capture
much popular support and was      violently crushed when a
military junta seized power on September 18,      1988.  He
was under house arrest from December 1989 to April 1992. 




***********************INTERNATIONAL*************************
DAGBLADET: INTERVIEW WITH KIM YOUNG SAM

Translation of excerpt from an interview with Kim Young Sam,
President of South Korea by the Foreign Editor of Dagbladet,
Oslo, Norway published 14.3.95:

--I was imprisoned, stripped of my parliamentary imunity and
expelled from the National Assembly. This happened for the
first time in South Korea's political history. For three years
my home was surrounded by hundred of soldiers and police, and
I could not leave. The military regime searched my house at
irregular intervals. In many ways, imprisonment would have
been preferrable, since a prisoner has, after all, some
rights. You can meet your lawyer and your family members. This
was denied to me......

--Against this background, you can therefore well appreciate
the
situation in Burma and the elected leader of the people and
Nobel Prize Winner,  Aung San Suu Kyi, who is now under house
arrest on the sixth year?

--I am well aquainted with her situation and the criticism of
those countries which support the military regime through
active trade relations. Our country's [trade] relations are
not as extensive as that of some other countries. We have sent
a clear message to the military regime and urged them to
reintroduce democracy in the country. We are now set to
increase the pressure, both to have Suu Kyi released and to
reintroduce democracy.

--Can violations of human rights, under any circumstances, be
considered as the internal affairs of a country ?

--No. Every country may have certain conditions they need to
consider, but human rights are universal rights, and one
cannot make exceptions by claiming special exceptions based on
national or regional circumstances.





***********************INTERNATIONAL*************************
BRC-J: KAW MOO RAW

Burmese Relief Center--Japan
DATE:March 14, 1995
TIME:10:43PMJST
by Myint Shwe


"Behave like deadly fire upon the enemy.  Behave
like a sweet flower toward the people"
          An old Burma Army song

In the old days, the Psychological Warfare Unit of
the Burma Army composed this song and it was
aired frequently by the Burma Broadcasting Service.
While it is still is sometimes heard on Radio
Myanmar, it is now cruelly ironic, because the forty-five
million living, brea thing souls in Burma, except
for those of the military, are no more classed as
"people" but are treated as enemies or under-cover-agents by
the junta that st yles itself the "State Law
and Order Restoration Council" (SLORC).

One of the most effective ways to maintain law and
order inside the country (said by many to be an
internal affair of Myanmar) is to poison the very air
the enemy breathes if he is so stubborn as to refuse
to submit to the army's reign.  The SLORC fought
to control even a tiny patch of land held by the
opposition side as its last visible territory inside
Burma and willingly paid the price of more than a
thousand of its soldiers' lives.  When that didn't
suffice, the Burmese Army stands suspected of
resorting to its last weapons, nerve gas, in the battle
for Kaw Moo Raw.

While biological and chemical weapons in Iraq have
been destroyed, SLORC again stirs our memories of
Nazi gas chambers.  As a variation on the neo-Nazis
theme at the bend of Moei River on the Thai Burma
border, unlike the old Nazis of the Rhine valley,  the
SLORC Army used gas and germs on the rebels to
speed up their so-called national reconciliation
process. To the outside world, this "Final Solution"
remains the same for all Nazis old and new.  In the
nearly half century old Burmese civil war even the
powerful yet conventional weapons such as G-3 and
G-4 Assault Rifles designed by German Fritz Werner
Co., and Howitzers seemed useless in subduing the
Karens, Rakhines and Burmese student fighters at
Kaw Moo Rah.

As early as late 1993, reports about the use of
bacteria germs parachuted by Burma Air Force
planes over the sparsely inhabited areas deep inside
Karen State appeared in some NGO newsletters in
Thailand, but no proof beyond circumstantial
evidence was offered.  After the fall of Kaw Moo
Rah, however, the Karen Human Rights Committee
(KHRC), led by an active Canadian, accused
Rangoon of apparent biological warfare.  In August
last year, in the Donthami-Yunzalin watershed area
in the Southeastern part of Burma, SLORC planes
dropped dozens of strange devices consisting of
two-meter long parachutes with white boxes and
balloons attached underneath.  Shortly thereafter,
inhabitants of the area began suffering severe
symptoms of cholera-like diarrhoea and shigella.

Most of the people living in these areas are Karen.
The Government has ordered these indigenous
people to evacuate their villages and move their
homes to new locations which are well under its
control in order to alienate the Karen National
Union (KNU).  At the same time SLORC has been
pushing the KNU and its allies (the Democratic
Alliance of Burma or DAB) forces towards the Thai
border.  All the while, Burma watchers have been
kept off guard by the talk of cease-fire talks and
deals.  During that time skirmishes and small scale
engagements took the place of major fighting and
thus escaping outside attention.

By September, just a month after the air drop, a
mysterious malady spread as far as Bilin in the east
on the Sittaung River and Ka Ma Maung in the
north on the Salween River.   The KNU received
reports of an inordinate number of deaths in the
area, with 185 local villagers having died from the
an unknown disease with symptoms similar to
dysentery, including nausea, vomiting, dizziness, and
dehydration, ending in death in some cases after only
two or three trips to the toilet.

The government's apparent intention in using the
germs against the local Karens seems to be to
intimidate them by a pestilential epidemic after it has
failed its forced relocation of them by other means.
The epidemic is in the same area where SLORC sent
fresh combat troops, particularly the notorious 99th
Light Infantry Division, in its attempt to drive all
villagers out of the area so that KNU troops cannot
operate.  Most of the region had been declared by
the SLORC Army as a Free Fire Zone (i.e. anybody
found there must be shot dead without further
questioning) yet the native villagers stayed on there
by hiding in the forests or staying in camouflaged
villages.  SLORC's last  resort was to clear out the
whole area by decimating the population and driving
out the survivors by spreading fears of a genocidal
epidemic.  All this was well underway before KNU
was weakened by its own troubles, a mutiny in the
Buddhist ranks.

KHRG has even suggested that this could be an
experimental operation for the more widespread use
of bacteriological agents possibly in the area further
south in the Tenneserim Peninsula where KNU still
maintains a territory and where the offshore
Andaman Pipe Line is planned to carry gas to
Thailand.  But what has increased the danger and
urgency is the possibility of the disease spreading far
beyond its initial areas.  While it could spread deeper
into the Burmese heartland, it has also shown signs
of spreading towards Thai Burma border and even
into Thailand with the latest influx of Karen
refugees.  Such a disease will respect neither
Thailand's border line nor its border patrol police.

KNU has been able to gather some of the devices
dropped by SLORC planes. The manufacturer's
logo revealed that they originated in Philadelphia,
Penn. USA.  This shows how adept the SLORC
army is at turning anything into military apparatus.
In the 1970s the army adapted the helicopters given
by the United States which were intended to be used
in anti-drug campaigns into helicopter gun ships and
used them in Burma's civil war.  Now they have also
transformed weather balloons into deadly germ
carriers.

KHRG is offering blood, urine and fabric samples of
the Kaw Moo Rah gas victims to any international
scientists interested in making their own independent
experiments.  It accuses the Burmese Army of using
four types of chemical weapons, at least one of
which violates the Law of Land Warfare as codified
by the Geneva Convention.  The charges of chemical
weapons use date from 1992, even before SLORC's
unilateral cease-fire began.  In the 1992 offensive
against Manerplaw, the Karen H.Q. that fell into
Rangoon's hands last December, several Karen
soldiers in front line positions were injured from
suspected chemical weapons in SLORC air attacks.
The same year in Kachin State the Kachin
Independence Organization (KIA) claimed that
chemical shells were being used against them as
well.

These statements are supported by events which
happened in 1988 in Rangoon.  During the 1988
August national uprisings, ordinary civilians were
ruthlessly shot and killed on the streets.  Dozens of
girl students were gang raped in prisons and police
lock ups by the paramilitary Lone Htein.  Despite
the brutal use of force, the uprising grew.  Finally
the military used its "final solution"  It freed
convicted criminals from jails, selected and trained
them.  Injecting these operatives with stimulant
drugs, the army set them to their tasks of sabotage.
They were to poison the public drinking water tanks
in Rangoon, to set fires in proletarian
neighborhoods, and to shoot activists with guns
equipped with silencers.  The army injected poison
into boiled eggs and mixed it into other snacks
which were then offered freely to demonstrators,
causing symptoms of food poisoning and spreading
confusion and fear.  Some of the criminals were
caught red handed and executed by angry mobs.

KHRC mentioned the fact that West Germany alone
trained at least fifteen Burmese Army officers for
chemical and biological warfare from 1978 to 1989
despite the international condemnation of the junta
for its gross human rights violations in 1988.  The
Fritz Werner Co. initially famous for its arms and
ammunitions industry has now also built a
"fertilizer" and a "bottling" factor for SLORC inside
Burma in secret locations.  What kind of fertilizer it
has been producing and what it has been bottling are
unknown.  Those matters also remain Burma's
internal affair.

Once established, dictatorships always use
intimidation and terror to cling to power.  They use
plain old methods such as street massacres, night
arrests, torture and long prison terms as well as
poisoning the public mind with racial hatred,
xenophobia and the lies of false promises ranging
from "National Socialism" as in Germany and
"Burmese Way to Socialism" as in Burma.  But
usually, the subjugated masses become disillusioned
before long and rise up.  When conventional
methods prove to be inadequate, the tyrants have to
resort to new techniques.

The new methods include rape on a large scale of
women from the opposing social or ethnic minority
groups plus forced relocation or forcing the
troublesome population out of the country as
refugees.  When everything else fails, the
dictatorship resorts to the "final solution" to kill
with gas or germs.  What has been seen in Burma is
typical of a fully grown dictatorship.

It must be obvious even to those who have
embraced the new mind set of underrating it by
flimsy excuses, claiming  that Burma has changed a
lot for the better, that SLORC will never show
restraint.  The junta will do whatever it deems
necessary to retain the power it illegally holds.
Moreover it may dare to extend its brutal practices
without limit, taking advantage of others' timidity
and indecision.

It must be admitted that the ethnic opposition has
had shortcomings and made mistakes.  Nevertheless,
they stood for democracy and federalism for a future
Burma and they fought for these goals until the last
minute at Kaw Moo Rah.  They deserve great honor
because they were defeated by the far larger and
stronger enemy who had no compunction about
using any tactic to win.  Glory is theirs, not the
victors.

On the other hand, it is feared that the memory of
Kaw Moo Rah may remain a scar forever in the
history of the struggle for a real reconciliation in the
Burma Union.



**************************************************************
NEWS SOURCES REGULARLY COVERED/ABBREVIATIONS USED BY BURMANET:
 ABSDF: ALL BURMA STUDENT'S DEMOCRATIC FRONT
 AP: ASSOCIATED PRESS
 AFP: AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
 AW: ASIAWEEK
 Bt.: THAI BAHT; 25 Bt. EQUALS US$1 (APPROX),
 BBC: BRITISH BROADCASTING CORPORATION
 BF: BURMA FORUM
 BKK POST: BANGKOK POST (DAILY NEWSPAPER, BANGKOK)
 BRC-CM: BURMESE RELIEF CENTER-CHIANG MAI
 BRC-J: BURMESE RELIEF CENTER-JAPAN
 CPPSM:C'TEE FOR PUBLICITY OF THE PEOPLE'S STRUGGLE IN MONLAND
 FEER: FAR EAST ECONOMIC REVIEW
 GOA: GOVERNMENT OF AUSTRALIA
 IRRAWADDY: NEWSLETTER PUBLISHED BY BURMA INFORMATION GROUP
 KHRG: KAREN HUMAN RIGHTS GROUP
 KNU: KAREN NATIONAL UNION
 Kt. BURMESE KYAT; UP TO 150 KYAT-US$1 BLACK MARKET
                   106 KYAT US$1-SEMI-OFFICIAL
                   6 KYAT-US$1 OFFICIAL
 MOA: MIRROR OF ARAKAN
 MNA: MYANMAR NEWS AGENCY (SLORC)
 THE NATION: A DAILY NEWSPAPER IN BANGKOK
 NCGUB: NATIONAL COALITION GOVERNMENT OF THE UNION OF BURMA
 NLM: NEW LIGHT OF MYANMAR (DAILY STATE-RUN NEWSPAPER,RANGOON)
 NMSP: NEW MON STATE PARTY
 RTA:REC.TRAVEL.ASIA NEWSGROUP
 RTG: ROYAL THAI GOVERNMENT
 SCB:SOC.CULTURE.BURMA NEWSGROUP
 SCT:SOC.CULTURE.THAI NEWSGROUP
 SEASIA-L: S.E.ASIA BITNET MAILING LIST
 SLORC: STATE LAW AND ORDER RESTORATION COUNCIL
 TAWSJ: THE ASIAN WALL STREET JOURNAL
 UPI: UNITED PRESS INTERNATIONAL
 USG: UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT
 XNA: XINHUA NEWS AGENCY
**************************************************************