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>Subject: AFP-Myanmar dissidents tr



Subject: >Subject: AFP-Myanmar dissidents try to sow seeds of revolution

>
>From: "TIN KYI" <tinkyi@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>To: <burmanet2-l@xxxxxxxx>
>Subject: AFP-Myanmar dissidents try to sow seeds of revolution
>Date: Wed, 8 Sep 1999 00:36:00 +0900
>
>Myanmar dissidents try to sow seeds of revolution
>
>BANGKOK, Sept 6 (AFP) - Myanmar dissidents hope to outflank intense
>government security Thursday to rekindle the embers of revolt against the
>country's military rulers.
>Students and activists plan a campaign of civil disorder, leaflet campaigns
>and general strikes.
>
>Plans for September 9 or Four Nines Day (9/9/99), are a tribute to hundreds
>of protestors killed when troops turned their guns on a student uprising on
>August 8, 1988 (8/8/88.)
>
>But given the vice-like grip of military intelligence on every level of
>Myanmar society, many analysts and diplomats believe a popular revolt is
>impossible.
>
>Even some exiled activists privately admit the plans may simply underscore
>the army's omnipotence.
>
>Security has been tightened in recent days with extra officers on duty in
>the capital Yangon and troops reportedly transported to the provinces.
>
>Dissidents say hundreds of activists have been detained, a claim rubbished
>by the junta.
>
>"It looks like it will be very difficult for anything to happen," one
>dissident source told AFP. "The authorities have the situation under control
>and it looks like only something they do could create a spark.
>
>"I think there are some people that will dare to try something but a lot of
>people have been arrested, especially activists from 1988," he said.
>
>Civil servants have been ordered to turn up for work, extra troops have been
>deployed in Yangon and in the provinces and popular restaurants and
>tea-shops have been ordered to close, witnesses and dissidents said.
>
>The government, which observers say has been careful not to alarm residents
>with a sudden clampdown, claims Four Nines day is an invention of exiles,
>including the Thailand-based All Burma Students Democratic Front.
>
>Junta spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Hla Min told AFP that the authorities
>were prepared.
>
>"On the ninth, they will create here and there small things but no major
>disturbances," he said.
>
>"I think by now people have come to realize that's not going to work because
>people are fed up with all this nonsense."
>
>Foreign obsevers are pessimistic that change will come soon.
>
>"The only hope for a transition is the unexpected, which could arise from
>gross mismanagement of the economy," said a Yangon-based diplomat referring
>to soaring inflation, an almost worthless currency and power shortages.
>
>The junta has been locked in an acrimonious power struggle with the
>opposition since 1988 when students stepped into a power vacuum left by the
>retirement of reclusive dictator Ne Win.
>
>It was at a mass demonstration on 8/8/88, an auspicious date for the
>numerically fascinated Burmese, that demonstrations turned ugly.
>
>Troops cut down hundreds, and according to some estimates thousands of
>demonstrators in Yangon and other cities.
>
>Further mass demonstrations and political confusion followed, from which
>current democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi emerged, and the military was
>forced to call elections.
>
>Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy's (NLD) won by a landslide
>but the results were ignored by the military.
>
>In recent months there have been mounting signs that a government attempt to
>crush the organisational structure of the NLD has worked.
>
>Dissent has emerged in party ranks from members who want the leadership to
>make concessions to the government in the hope of prodding the military into
>reform.
>
>Hundreds of NLD members have been detained by the authorities in the last
>year -- many have renounced links with the party after being released from
>custody, proof the NLD claims of coercion.
>
>Aung San Suu Kyi, who has refused to condemn plans for an uprising, is no
>longer under house arrest but has no freedom of movement or expression and
>is constantly lambasted in the official press.
>
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