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Editorial

The pro-SPDC elements calling themselves as pro-democracy activists, have
reared again their ugly heads of late, trying to present the SPDC
propaganda in what they probably assume was in a form palatable to the
International Community. Their method is to mix a great deal of distortion
with some truth. They accuse the NLD of being confrontational and
hard-lined, blaming it for driving the SPDC to the other extreme with its
"unpopular and extremist" policies.  
Among the many assumptions they make are that the NLD is bent on crushing
the armed forces, it is determined to exclude the military from national
administration and that the armed forces are necessary to keep the Union
intact. On the western powers, they heap the blame for forcing the SPDC to
surrender immediately to the NLD, supporting the NLD's confrontational
policy and pressuring the military to step aside entirely.
	The little truth they pretend to worry about is the facts, such as the
protection given by the SPDC generals to the drug lords, undemocratic
concessions offered to former armed ethnic insurgents, the use of drug
money to fund the state economy and infrastructure works, and the abuse of
power.
	Attempt by these pro-SPDC opportunists to mislead the world with such
crass propaganda shows that they neither have any sense of shame nor
conscience. The foremost of them all is former General Aung Gyi, who was
dismissed for his opportunism from the first military junta set up in 1962,
because his opportunism rivaled that of General Ne Win, the junta chief. In
1989, he broke away from the NLD and set up the Union National Democratic
Party to compete in the 1990 general election, in which his party failed to
win even a single seat.
	From the very beginning, the NLD has declared to follow the line of
non-violence. The NLD has always asked for dialogue with the ruling
generals for solution of the problems facing the country. Implicit in the
demand of the NLD for dialogue is to find a compromise solution. It has
even urged the people not to stage mass demonstrations, knowing that the
power-mad generals are ready to order their troops to shoot down the
innocent civilians in mass killing, at any time. 	
The military has tried its way for more than 27 years. It is clear for
every one to see, except the power-mad generals, that in all these years,
Burma has been moving closer than ever to the stone age economically,
socially and culturally. At worst, the NLD would work through education of
the generals and ease the military out of absolute power, rather than
crushing the armed forces or sending their leaders to the gallows. The
ruling generals know this, but their addiction power has not allowed them
to accept any compromise solution.  
	In the absence of any progress, the NLD called for suspension of foreign
assistance and economic investment. When the Asian economic bubble was
expanding, no one heeded. The western countries were and still are at the
top of the list of investors. When the bubble burst, foreign investors left
one after another, without the urging from the NLD.  
	On the other hand, it has always been the SPDC military dictatorship,
which has always been hard-lined and followed the policy of confrontation.
First, they broke their promise to hand over power to the wining party in
the 1990 general election. Then, under various pretexts, they started to
crack down on the NLD, for being the wining party. Political activists
jailed are being treated many times worse than the common criminals. 
The ruling generals have used most of the national income to line their
pockets and build up its armed forces reportedly from 100,000 to more than
400,000 men, solely for the purpose of repressing the people and
maintaining themselves in power. Their troops have been perpetrating human
rights violations and atrocities increasingly in the non-Burman ethnic
areas, which can be seen only as ethnic cleansing. 
Since 1962, the time when General Ne Win set up the first military junta,
the generals have been giving protection to the drug lords, in return for
the black money. It has ever since been a state sponsored business, though
discreetly enough to mislead some countries. 
Ne Win purposely released Khun Sa, one of the well known drug lords, from
prison to return to drug business. In the guise of a Shan freedom fighter,
he successfully worked for General Ne Win and the Burmese military. When
the U.S. put $ 2 million on Khun Sa's head, the Burmese military recalled
him for closer protection and started to use the Was. 
No state in the world would support for a political change in another
country purely for ideological reason and on altruistic ground. Most of the
narcotic drugs produced in Burma go to the rich countries of the West. The
over production allowed by the SPDC military regime has become a scourge
also in the East, as it is being witnessed at the present. The problem has
become a regional security problem. No country is prepared to see its
economic gain being whittled away by the spread of drug culture. It is in
the interest of the West to assist for a positive change, but so far there
is no insistence that the military step aside immediately.
The idea that armed forces are needed to keep the Union intact, is nothing
but the ideology of utter chauvinism. Apparently, they took a leaf from the
U.S. history and mouthing the idea of keeping the Union intact like a
religious tenet. They failed to realize that the Union North invaded the
Confederate South to abolish slavery, not to enslave the southern
population.  Armed forces are kept to defend the country from external
threats and not to oppress and enslave the population. Viable unions, or
federations are kept together by voluntary agreement of the constituents,
based on common interests. Only empires are kept together by armed might.
Since the day of independence, the Burman chauvinists have used the armed
forces to conquer and enslave the non-Burman ethnic nationalities. Since
the military has installed itself in power, it has inordinately increased
the violations of human rights of the ethnic peoples, in addition to the
violation of their sovereignty.  
One reason given by the military dictatorship for invading the non-Burman
ethnic territories is that there are 130 different ethnic groups. This is
also a distortion of facts or a lame excuse for clinging to power. There
are no more than 9 major ethnic groups, including the Burman. The rest are
dialect groups of the 9 and they do not number more than 30-35.
The UN Charter provides for self-determination of all the peoples of the
world, but in practice it has barely time and money even for the
assemblages recognized as nations, especially during the cold war period.
The different ethnic groups in Burma are qualified as peoples, and as such
they are entitled to enjoy the right to self-determination, under the UN
Charter. Any union or federation must be through the voluntary decision of
these peoples. 
All the military dictatorships of Burma, starting from the first down to
the present SPDC, follow the policy of domination by military conquest. It
is nothing but a policy of pure imperialism. The SPDC has to adopt
increasingly drastic measures to crush resistance to its domination. It has
to depend increasingly on the drug business and wage a war of genocide. 
It is tempting for the non-Burman ethnic nationalities to declare their
lands independent, and seek international assistance. However, it is still
not too late to work for genuine federation based on equality and democracy
for the unity of the good against the evil SPDC. Through unity of the
democratic and the ethnic forces, there is still a good chance for wiping
out ultra-nationalism or chauvinism, militarism and the policy of genocide,
forever. In this period of New World Order, there must be more freedom for
the International Community to help oppose military imperialism, which is
the worst form of aggression, exploitation and State terrorism. 
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