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Press Release of ABSDF



                  All Burma Students' Democratic Front


                              Press Release

                                                 Date: September 9, 1996.


With regard to Slorc's announcement on the air in the evening of
September 8, 1996 that an ABSDF battalion with their family
members had given up their armed resistance and surrendered, the
ABSDF, hereby, puts out this statement.

Beginning from May, 1996, Slorc had begin establishing a coastal
Regional Military Head Quarter in the Tenessariam Division. It
started the oppression of the people by re-inforcing its troops,
launching military operations and imposing four cuts on the
population.

More pressure was exerted on the local people who supported the
ABSDF troops. On may 17, 1996 a Slorc column belonging to
Battalion (101) and led by Captain Thein Yee, set fire to Le Thit
village. The village was in East Mergui Township. About (100)
houses were burnt to the ground and the loss was estimated to
exceed thirty hundred thousand in Kyat.

The Regional Military Command under Brig: General Thiha Thura
Thura Sit Maung stages a major operation between May 25, 1996 and
June 1, 1996 with a view to flushing and stamping out ABSDF and
KNU hard-cores and sympathizers. Three Slorc battalions were
involved in this operation _ Light Infantry Battalion (433),
Infantry Battalion (101) and Infantry Battalion (265). Order were
issued to kill all hard-cores found and to put to the torch any
village in which the hard-cores and sympathizers were found to be
hiding.

Order was issued for all villagers in this area to move Beginning
10 am, May 26, 1996. Villagers who refused to move would have
their villages burnt down.

While trying to provide help and share their limited medicines
and food supply with these relocated villagers, the ABSDF troops
fought several small Skirmishes with Slorc troops. Later, with
Infantry Battalion (17), Battalion (267) and Naval Base (30)
joining the military operation, more pressure was put to bear on
the ABSDF troops. Villagers located in East Mergui and
Tenessariam Township _ Ban Daneh, Myaing Tha, Kyun Tha, Kan Tha,
Than Pyar, Kyaut Tan Nge _ were all put to the torch and the
villages forcibly relocated in Mergui.

To force Bo Win Naing, the commander of the ABSDF Battalion (203)
to surrender, Slorc arrested his wife and his parents.

On August 31, 1996, Bo Win Naing with a section of his troops was
trapped and captured while trying to help the villagers with
their rehabilitation.

For the purpose of building a gas pipe line owned by foreign oil
companies, Slorc has increased its strength in the Tenessariam
coastal area. It is forcing thousands of people to engage in
uncompensated labor. It is putting pressures of all kinds on the
ethnic and democratic forces with a view to annihilating them. It
has been forcibly relocating villagers. Human rights abuses are
rampant and increasing.

Slorc, instead of solving the political issues politically, is
resorting to force. The ABSDF strongly protests and condemns
Slorc for using force to solve the political problems and for
wide spread human rights abuses. The ABSDF also rejects Slorc's
claim that an ABSDF battalion surrendered as announced by Slorc's
in the evening of September 8, 1996.




Central Committee
ABSDF