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Re disarmament



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Date: Wed, 7 Apr 1999 22:10:55 -0400


Sender: owner-burmanet-l@xxxxxxx

Subject: Disarmament=20

To: "burmanet" <<burmanet-l@xxxxxxx>

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Is Armed Resistance the Right Answer?


People from other countries must havebeen full of riddles for the
thingshappening in Burma. As soon as Burmabecame independent or even
beforeindependence, Burma was torn apart bycivil war. Whether it was the
communistor the non-Burman ethnic rebellion noone seems to really ponder
the benefitf armed resistance. Nobody has  given even though rationally
it should be clear that by now after fifty years

these rebellions have not brought the result that they sought but only
misery and hardship to the people.    While neighboring countries of
Burma concentrate their energies to develop their economy and well being
of their people, the power holders in Burma seem to take a course
detrimental to the

peoples of Burma but nothing else. Whether it was the communist or the
Karen, Mon, Arakanese, Shan, or Kachin, or other armed groups their
actions seem to aim at destroying Burma.  The power holders, whether the
civilian or the military seem to have no interest in finding long lasting
political solutions.  The military used the rebellion to breed insurgency
by treating the people cruelly, making the people hate the Burman because
the officers of the Burman Army are Burman. The Burman Army needs an
enemy in order to build the Burman Army to a strong and large army. Thus
they sought military solution rather than political solutions.  The
military runs the country with an aim and object simply to build up their
strength. The problem is that the non-Burman never thought about what the
Burman Army is doing.  The military wants to hold on to power
indefinitely and only a continuous rebellion can keep the military as it
is. With no rebellion there will be no justification to build-up of the
army. The non-Burman never realized that they are helping the military
with their armed resistance movement.  They say we

have to fight for emotional reasons or they believe that only when they
rebel, the Burman think them seriously as a people.  These reasons are
simply pathetic reasons. The Burmese military boasted so often they had
brought 16 armed groups to the legal fold, with whom the military signed
cease-fire arrangements.  The reason why the Burman Army signed the
cease-fire arrangement is not difficult to understand. The general
peaceful mass uprising of the people of Burma in 1988 was so
over-whelming because almost the whole population was involved in the
movement. The non-violent demonstration brought down the Ne Win
government of the Burmese Way to Socialism.  Had the rebel groups, which
number about 50 000 men altogether in 1988 could have taken over Rangoon
if they had the mind to

march to Rangoon and overthrow the military which was 180 000 men strong.
The Burman Army was too small to effectively control the demonstrating
crowd and defend against the rebels. General Ne Win and the generals of
the Burman Army felt lucky that that the rebels did not act in unison.
This was the reason why the newly formed Ne Win's SLORC negotiated the
cease-fire arrangements  with the rebel groups. The military could not
handled a large opposition therefore signed the cease-fire with most of
them but refused to sign cease-fire agreements with some. They have to
have excuses of building up

the Burman Army.  There must be some rebellion in Burma.  The military=20
need an enemy unless they have no reason to rule the country because
their excuse for taking over the power was to rescue the country from
disintegration.


The only thing the SPDC or the SLORC wants now is to sit in the throne
forever.  They are trying very   ard to make the people of Burma and the
international community into believing that they, the Burman  Army is
also interested in democracy.  They do not care what is happening to the
country. They will feed the people opium and heroin, and they rape,
torture, kill, and commit all kinds of atrocities.  We must understand
why the SPDC is doing these things. Without these cruelties and the
abuses of human rights the military have no chance to stay in power.=20
Unless the people hate the military and hate each other that means unless
the non-Burman hate the Burman and rebel, there was no need for the
existence of a military in Burma.  That is the reason and the only reason
they practice these brutalities.  It is important that the people of
Burma do not fall into the psycho of the military.


Thus there are two most crucial undertaking necessary for the opposition
to make.  The first one is to find ways how the armed resistance groups
stop their armed opposition and fight by non-violent means.  So long as
the Karen, Shan, Karenni, or Chin take up arms against the military, they
are indirectly helping the military.  The military need an excuse for
their brutality.  The military  should not be  given the possibility of
excuse.  So long as the Kachin, Mon, Pao, or Wa keep their arms the
military have the excuse of maintaining large and hungry army
contingencies in their areas.  Alone in the Kachin State they stationed
104 000 soldiers, and supposedly they had a cease-fire.  These soldiers
are becoming permanent residents of the Kachin State and soon the Kachin
would be minorities in their own land. The production of opium will
continue so long as these armed groups  give them an excuse for the
military to be able to benefit from the drug.  The NGOs or foreign
agencies heard and saw the abuses of human rights from the refugees who
fled to Burma's neighboring countries.  It is true the Burman military is
brutal and treated the non-Burman population as animals: they kill,
torture, rape, and use as forced porter, and forced labor.  The armed
groups explain that they need to hold on to arms because they must
protect their people.  None of them can protect their people from the
cruel hands of the military.  They left their people wide open to all
kinds of atrocities.  Their 0armed movement only encourage the military
to do whatever they want to do with their people.  The Burman military
enjoyed torturing, raping, and other atrocities.  They always were made
to believe they were a superior race. Their purpose is to inflict pain.=20
When they are in remote places from their own homes and with different
ethnic groups and tired from marching long distance they release their
anger on the people.  This situation has continued for the last forty or
fifty years.  The Karen, Kachin, Karenni, Shan, etc cried for political
solution. But it was them who started to look for military solution
because it was them who took arms to fight the Burman Army.   The Burman
military is afraid of political solution.  There will be no political
solution because political solution means the end of the military. That
means that only when armed opposition ceases, the military will have no
more excuses for their brutality.  It will be like taking away the
pillars where the military is standing so solid for the last forty or
fifty years. The only time that solid pillar was taken away from the
military was possible only when there was a massive non-violent
demonstration staged by the students, monks, and the people in 1988.  The
military always have solid

base in non-Burman areas because the non-Burman armed themselves thereby
inviting the military to station in their areas.  The armed groups never
match the firing power of the military. Thus the army stay solidly
without having to worry about their positions. Even after the military
signed the cease-fire arrangement with some of the armed groups the
military still stand on solid pillars because they can always start all
over again because the Kachin, Mon, Wa, Karenni, Pao, and etc. still
retain their arms.  If there is necessity the Burman military could make
the armed groups on the war-path  with a little provocation   The Burman
Army had always played with the non-Burman and the non-Burman did not
fully aware what is being carried out against them. The military was
having a lot of fun in the last years.  Since 1962 they survived with
aids from Germany and Japan with no strings attached.  They could easily
borrow money from the World Bank and IMF.  The growing of opium in Burma
was done with the tacit approval of the military.  How can a government
of the country be not in control of what is growing in Burma?  They
control effectively the democracy movement. They can sign cease-fire
agreements as they  like. They dictate what is happening in Burma. They
did whatever they want in Burma and outside of Burma.  They close down
schools and universities in Burma because they can not handle peaceful

demonstrations usually started by the students.  For them  staying in
power is more than anything else. They do not care for the people,
whether they lead them to poverty, drug addiction, or illiteracy.   The
neighbors ignore the human rights abuses and exploited what they can from
the people of Burma.  The

regime was admitted to the ASEAN.  The time has come to realistically
reconsider the actions options open for the opposition to the Burman
military. One thing is clearly definite. Armed opposition has failed
terribly.  Armed opposition had supported indirectly the military.  Today
the military and the armed opposition work together as partners, though
indirectly.  They do not coordinate their actions but compliment each
other .  The armed resistance movements give the military the right to
terrorize the people.  The military seldom attack the armed resistance
groups but rather terrorize the inhabitants around the camps of the
resistance movements. Then the armed resistance groups get their excuses
for fighting with arms.  It is time to take away the Burman military
their fun, the fun of terrorizing the people.  If there is no more armed
opposition, there will be no more reason for operations.  They might

try to intimidate the people but then they have no more excuses. With
this at the least forced porter conscription will ceased.  May be to a
certain extent also forced labor because then the military will no more
need to build new military bases. The mean reason why I am suggesting the
suspension of fighting is the hopelessness of armed opposition. Before
the cease-fire arrangements they had a chance to harm the military if
they had fought together as a front.  But they never come close to
fighting together although they formed the National Democratic Front.=20
The Karen and the Mon were fighting against each other at the time of the
uprising in Rangoon.  This shows how they lack the focus they needed to
operate.  They lost the opportunity to fight effectively the military
with the signing of the cease-fire arrangements. Now even the Karen
National Union is diminished to at least by fifty or more percent of its
original strength of some twenty thousand. The Chin, Karenni, Shan,
Arakan, and All Burma Students Democratic Front are each only in the few
hundreds, far from challenging the might of the Burmese military.  These
small outfits give a huge legitimacy to the military their brutal, cruel,
and mean acts or religious persecution, human rights abuses, racial
discrimination, and even genocide.  The armed resistance groups oppose
the military with arms and expect the military to be nice to them.  If
anybody declare war to somebody else will they not harm each other? It is
not clear what the Karen or Chin etc. expected from democratic Burma when
they take the brunt of the pro-democracy movement.  Do they expect to be
given a large share of rights and privileges in democratic Burma? It is
doubtful.  Would it not be better for the Karen to assure that all Karen
areas are administered by the Karens in the future instead of blindly
fighting the Burman military? Similarly  Chin people are mostly in proper
Burma.


Since 1988 the military sees peaceful demonstrations as the biggest
threat to their holding on to power. (Not the armed groups) They acted
very harsh to every signs of peaceful demonstrations. They stop any
demonstrations. Arrested the leaders and gave them long prison sentences.
 The universities were closed very often and closed permanently since
1966 because of a demonstration that attracted many Rangoonians. In the
Chin State, the Chin defied the regimes order to destroyed the monuments
they erected to commemorate the centennial of the arrival of Christian
missionaries.  Instead of confronting

the military, the Chin simply stayed indoors for the whole day to pray.=20
The method spread to other towns such as Haka and was about to spread to
Falam. When nobody came out of the house for one day the Burman Army
contingent did what they had never done before in the last ten years.=20
They came to the village council and offered their advice how to get
permission to erect the monument.=20

For the last fifty years armed resistance movement was used for making a
statement to the power holders. The failure for this movement is evident.
New ideas must be tried out. New ideas how not to kill each other. The
new idea is to stop completely the armed resistance movement.  Without
armed resistance movement and searching for common ground with the
military is the most likely course for solving the problems in Burma.=20
New ideas for disarmament.  Burma has become a very poor country because
of corruption, mismanagement, and maintaining an exceptionally large
military.  All these must stop if the people of Burma have a mind for
development and peace.=20