Sunday Times -Exiles train for civi

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Subject: Sunday Times -Exiles train for civil war in Burma 

Sunday Times. Nov 2, 1999.
Exiles train for civil war in Burma

HUDDLED beneath the pelting late rains in squalid refugee camps along the
Burmese border, a growing mood of desperation among exiled democracy
activists is driving young men to join a new group dedicated to armed
struggle against the military rulers of Rangoon.

Its members have decided that time has run out for the policy of peaceful
resistance advocated by Aung San Suu Kyi, Burma's elected leader, who
continues to live under virtual house arrest in the country's capital. Only
force of arms, they believe, will succeed in driving out the country's
repressive and brutal regime.

"It has been 11 years of frustration since the military coup, and
non-violence has achieved nothing," said one activist last week. "We respect
Aung San Suu Kyi but now it is time for us to fight."

A small number of activists agreed to talk under conditions of anonymity to
The Sunday Times after securing agreement that their location along the
Thai-Burmese border would not be identified.

The interviews were conducted away from the prying eyes of the Thai army and
military intelligence, and after precautions to avoid suspected informers
for the Burmese military regime within the exile camps.

"We will be staging armed actions against the military across the border,"
said one member of the group, a former student aged 29, from Rangoon. "We
have access to weapons and training and there is no shortage of volunteers."
An estimated 1,700,000 Burmese have fled to Thailand, India and Bangladesh.

The activists claim to have made contact with relatives and friends in
several battalions of the Burmese army who say that under pressure from mass
protests and hit-and-run insurgency, the army could split apart between
units loyal to the regime and mutineers.

"The economic situation is now so bad for everybody that even the soldiers'
families are suffering," said one.

A return to violence by the political opposition would mark a significant
change in Burmese politics. The dissidents, mainly students and city
dwellers, tried but failed to wage a guerrilla campaign in the first months
after the army seized power. But now they say that men have been hardened by
years in camps along the border, where they are in daily contact with armed
rebels such as the Karen minority group.

For the first time in years, they say, members of the opposition who want to
fight can count on co-operation and support from the assorted armed ethnic
groups still battling government troops all along the southern border with
Thailand. In this territory of thickly wooded mountains and swirling banks
of low cloud, the border is hard to police, allowing Karen rebels and their
allies to slip across on well-worn muddy tracks cut through the vegetation.

There is no doubt that the armed opposition is serious. Three of the
activists interviewed said they had been involved in helping students storm
the Burmese embassy in Bangkok on October 1. The five gunmen held 30 people,
including 13 Burmese diplomats, hostage for 24 hours before releasing their
captives in exchange for a helicopter ride to sanctuary among rebels along
the northern border.

The stunning propaganda success of the siege, which ended without bloodshed,
has spurred exiles to believe that similar actions are more likely to
advance their cause than years of wasting away in refugee camps, writing
letters, staging demonstrations and waiting for homes in third countries
such as Canada or Australia.

The embassy siege has wrecked relations between Bangkok and Rangoon,
however, prompting Burma to close the frontier at the expense of millions of
dollars in cross-border trade and smuggling. It has also raised military
tension sharply and there have been skirmishes and significant troop
movements by both Thai and Burmese forces.

Since the siege, there have also been reports of explosions on board two
Burmese ships and strong rumours of other acts of sabotage.

"Johnny", leader of the embassy raid, and his four accomplices are now in
hiding. Not only are they targets for agents of the junta, but outraged Thai
fishermen, whose business has been devastated by a retaliatory Burmese ban
on coastal fishing, have put a price of £80,000 on "Johnny's" head.

None the less, Burmese activists seem undeterred. "We promise that there
will be no further actions inside Thailand," said one exile. "But we will
strike at the regime and its symbols wherever we can."

Aung, however, in a recent public statement, has maintained the commitment
to non-violence that won her the Nobel peace prize. "It is hard to blame
young people who have suffered," said a spokesman for the Euro-Burma
lobbying group in Brussels. "But our position on non-violence has not
changed. If it takes 10 years or 20, it does not matter."