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Desperate exiled Myanmar dissidents



Reply-To: "TIN KYI" <tinkyi@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Desperate exiled Myanmar dissidents resort to violence

Desperate exiled Myanmar dissidents resort to violence
BANGKOK, Oct 1 (AFP) - The attack on the Myanmar embassy Friday by an armed
dissident group appears to signal a desperate resort to violence in the
quest for democracy after years of political stalemate.
The struggle to end decades of brutal military rule in Myanmar has spilled
over into neighbouring Thailand, where thousands of Myanmar activists have
taken refuge from years of persecution at home.

Twelve armed men stormed the embassy in downtown Bangkok Friday, taking an
estimated 20 hostages, police said. Gunfire was heard but so far there have
been no reports of casualties.

Calling themselves the "Vigorous Burmese Student Warriors," they said they
were a breakaway dissident group and demanded the junta initiate immediate
talks with the elected opposition led by Nobel laureate Aun San Suu Kyi.

Thai authorities said they appeared to be elements of one of the several
clandestine Myanmar opposition groups based in refugee camps scattered along
the western Thai border.

The high-walled embassy is a regular target of protests by Bangkok's exiled
dissident community, mostly peaceful affairs lasting a few hours before Thai
police ask people to move on.

Some protests have lasted several days, with a dedicated few returning each
morning to wave placards at incoming staff and passing motorists in a bid to
raise awareness of the struggle for democracy in Myanmar.

Myanmar dissidents in exile called for a nationwide uprising last month
against the military government, but the movement failed to spark major
unrest.

The junta in Yangon is condemned internationally for alleged widespread
human rights abuses including the systematic rape and torture of ethnic
minorities, the use of slave labour and political imprisonment.

It is also vilified for ignoring the results of a 1990 election won in a
landslide by Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD)
opposition party.

Political dissent is forbidden in Myanmar.

Photographs of Aung San Suu Kyi are banned and the junta, called the State
Peace and Development Council, uses draconian emergency laws to imprison
people for crimes such as distributing pro-democracy pamphlets.

According to accounts from refugees in Thailand, dissidents are often beaten
and blindfolded during interrogation, refused legal representation in court
and incarcerated in Yangon's notorious jails.

Several NLD MPs have died or remain in prison. Hundreds of NLD members and
supporters have been locked up since August last year in a renewed junta
crackdown on the opposition.

Aung San Suu Kyi herself is no stranger to hardship in the name of
democracy. She spent six years under house arrest in the early 1990s.

But such is the fractious political scene in Myanmar, Friday's attackers
said they were not directly affiliated with the NLD, which has never openly
encouraged violent action against the regime.

Myanmar also has a number of ethnic minorities which have waged sporadic
guerrilla wars against the junta since the 1950s.

Chief among them are the Karen National Union and the Shan State Army, both
of which have strong support from refugees in Thailand and loose
affiliations with the NLD.

And as the world rushes to intervene to stop atrocities in places like
Kosovo and East Timor, there is a growing feeling among Myanmar's various
opposition groups their battle for justice and self-rule has been forgotten
by the international community.

Now it seems some have decided to take matters into their own hands.