Canberra Times Report on SLORC

[MandF@xxxxxxx]

The Canberra Times, Monday August 18

Getting on the wrong side

IAN McPHEDRAN reports that despite its entry to the ASEAN, Burma continues to 
stifle its people by a network of secret intelligence services supported by 
China, Singapore, Russia and Israel. 

LATER this year one of Australia's most accomplished senior diplomats, John 
Dauth, will travel to Burma as the special envoy of Foreign Minister Alexander 
Downer. Dauth's brief will be to report on the reality of claims made by the 
Burmese Foreign Minister, Ohn Gyaw, that real progress towards democratic 
reform is being made by the military junta in Burma. 

After their meeting in Kuala Lumpur during the Association of South East Asian 
Nations Regional Forum, Ohn Gyaw attempted to mislead the media by saying 
human rights was not even discussed, when in fact, the meeting was dominated 
by human-rights issues. Downer was furious and he wants Dauth to provide him 
with advice on a possible change in policy to take account of a regime that is 
even prepared to break the code of honour between foreign ministers. 

Dauth's biggest problem will be that from the moment he sets foot in the 
country until he leaves, he will be under constant surveillance, his 
conversations will be bugged and he will get nowhere near any of the grim 
realities of the place such as the appalling border refugee camps or the 
torture cells at places such as the notorious Insein prison. 

In May this year one of the military strong men running Burma's military 
government, known as the State Law and Order Restoration Council, 
Lieutenant-General Khin Nyunt, said, ''It has become especially necessary to 
contain the undisciplined import of foreign beliefs under the pretext of 
democracy and human rights, unfettered freedom, the Western style behaviour, 
such as individualism, which undermines the family or union spirit which the 
Myanmar [Burma] people cherish.'' He went on to say that it was necessary to 
contain efforts to promote the spread of Western behaviour and culture in the 
country. 

In a comprehensive working paper on Burma's intelligence apparatus published 
by the Australian National University's Strategic and Defence Studies Centre, 
strategic analyst and former SDSC visiting fellow Andrew Selth paints a 
detailed picture of just how Khin Nyunt and his ilk keep destructive notions 
such as freedom, democracy and human rights at bay. 

Khin Nyunt is one of the most feared and reviled leaders of the Burmese junta. 
He runs the peak intelligence body, the Directorate of Defence Services 
Intelligence, which controls the Military Intelligence Service (the acronym 
MIS sends a shiver down the spine of most Burmese) and all other intelligence 
agencies. 

It is no exaggeration to say that the DDSI, MIS or one of the other agencies 
has spies on virtually every street corner in Burma as well as in many 
overseas diplomatic missions and within Burmese expatriate communities in key 
countries such as Australia. 

The SLORC has not been acting alone in its quest for oppression through 
observation and fear. According to Selth's paper China, Singapore, Russia and 
Israel have all played a role in providing Khin Nyunt and his shadowy agencies 
with technical equipment and training. China is the leading provider of 
equipment (and arms) to the SLORC. 

''Singapore has developed a close relationship with the SLORC in recent years 
and is thought to be training large numbers of Burmese secret police at an 
institution in central Singapore. There have also been persistent rumours that 
Israel's Central Institute for Intelligence and Security (Mossad) has provided 
training for Burma's intelligence agencies,'' Selth says. According to the 
paper, it is also believed that Israel trained Burma's anti-terrorist unit and 
the SLORC's personal bodyguards. 

Both Singapore and Israel are suspected of providing signals interception and 
encryption equipment to the DDSI along with training packages. There is also 
good reason to believe that the SLORC has acquired equipment, possibly from 
Singapore's Defence Technology Group, to protect domestic communications from 
hostile interception. 

China, India and Thailand reportedly monitor Burmese radio traffic on a 
regular basis. The DDSI is focused on gathering information about the 
structure, membership, policies and methods of numerous organisations. 
According to Selth, enormous amounts of the country's scarce resources have 
been put into building up personal dossiers on known and suspected dissidents 
in Burma, members of the diplomatic community and even foreign critics of the 
regime who live abroad. 

Intelligence agencies have a considerable capacity to monitor organisations 
and individuals believed to constitute a threat to the regime. They are also 
able to collect large amounts of information, both within Burma and abroad. As 
well as employing a vast network of spies they utilise the full range of 
listening techniques, including secret listening devices, phone taps, mail 
interception and unauthorised access to local bank accounts. According to 
Selth, it is even possible that the DDSI interferes with diplomatic bags. 

In fact, diplomatic personnel posted to the capital, Rangoon, complain of 
being watched and assume as a matter of course that their phones are tapped. 
They must obtain permission to travel more than 25km from the General Post 
Office and their domestic servants are subject to interrogation about the 
activities and personal beliefs of particular diplomats. 

THE INTELLIGENCE services pay particular attention to the activities of 
influential opposition political figures, such as Nobel laureate and 
pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi. Her house is under constant and obvious 
surveillance and visitors and people gathering outside to hear her speak are 
photographed. Anyone calling on her is required to log in at an office 
maintained by the DDSI outside her compound. Her telephone conversations are 
monitored and if the conservation is not to the SLORC's liking, it can be cut 
off. This happened in May 1996 during a phone interview with the BBC World 
Service. 

Selth argues that since 1989 resources devoted to Burma's intelligence 
services have increased immensely. ''This effort seems aimed at stamping out 
any challenge to continued military rule, through an overwhelming monopoly of 
information about military, political, economic and social developments in the 
country. 

'The cost to Burma of this massive intelligence effort are impossible to 
calculate, but they must be considerable. The SLORC's allocation of scarce 
resources (including precious foreign exchange) to the blanket surveillance of 
the entire population means that other critical areas of Burmese society, such 
as education and health services, suffer the consequences. 

'Human-rights issues aside, serious questions must also be raised about the 
stability and ultimate survival of a system which depends to such an extent on 
its security ser-vices.''