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BurmaNet News: January 28, 2000




=========== The BurmaNet News ===========
January 28, 2000
Issue # 1449
=========================================

=========
Headlines
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International--

NATION: KAREN RESHUFFLE LEADERSHIP

ASIAN AGE: MUIVAH HELD BY POLICE IN THAILAND

THE ECONOMIST: GOD, WHAT AN ARMY

BORNEO BULLETIN: HOSPITAL SIEGE PUTS KARENS UNDER THAI MICROSCOPE

DEM ACTION PARTY (MALAY): ASEAN SHOULD REVIEW POLICY TOWARD BURMA

BANGKOK POST: CHUAN DENIES BLAME FOR SECURITY LAPSE

BANGKOK POST: ARMY COMMANDER GETS GENERAL ACCLAIM

IHT: THAI RESCUERS EXECUTED REBELS, WITNESSES SAY; 
'WE SHOT FASTER' IN FIREFIGHT, OFFICIAL REPORTS 

BANGKOK POST: REBELS WEREN'T EXECUTED

BANGKOK POST: MANEELOY SET FOR CLOSURE BY YEAR-END

BANGKOK POST: GOD'S ARMY HOLDING OUT AT BESIEGED JUNGLE CAMP

MIZZIMA: LEGAL AND SMUGGLING TRADE BETWEEN BANGLADESH AND BURMA
===

Inside Burma--

NLM (State press): EX-REPRESENTATIVE-ELECT OF NLD MEETS VOTERS

===

Editorial--

THE BURMA CAMPAIGN UK: GOD'S ARMY - GOD'S CHILDREN


NATION: CAN WE LIVE WITH USE OF EXCESS FORCE?

KNL: STATEMENT ON THE SEIZURE OF THE HOSPITAL IN
RATCHABURI, THAILAND BY KAREN SOLDIERS OF GOD'S ARMY 

NY TIMES: LETTER--DESPERATE IN MYANMAR 

BSDO: PROTESTS AND CEREMONIES FOR TEN MARTYRS BEING PLANNED IN CANADA

===

ADDENDUM:  SPEECH BY JOHN RALSTON SAUL (With corrections)
=========================================



*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
 INTERNATIONAL
*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*

NATION: KAREN RESHUFFLE LEADERSHIP
24-hour siege. 
By Yindee Lertcharoenchok 
January 28, 2000

BURMA'S longest-standing Karen guerrilla group has for the first time in 
decades reshuffled its leadership, replacing long-time chairman Gen Bo 
Mya with one of his deputies and promoting younger officers to top 
posts. 
The election of the new 11-member executive committee of the Karen 
National Union (KNU) took place on Wednesday as the 50-year-old group 
held its Congress at a jungle hideout on the Thai-Burmese border, 
opposite Thailand's Tak province. 

KNU officers have expressed optimism that the leadership change would 
''inject new life'' into Burma's last remaining armed ethnic group, 
which has yet to strike a peace deal with the Burmese junta. Thai 
officers hoped the change would help revive the peace talks between the 
KNU and Rangoon. 

Bo Mya, 73, who ruled as chairman for almost half the 50 years the 
anti-Rangoon movement has been in existence, is now vice-chairman. Padoh 
Ba Thin, 63, has been elected chairman while his former position of 
general secretary goes to Padoh Mansha, who was Bo Mya's ex-secretary 
and political adviser. 

Tu Tu Lay is now joint secretary 1, David Takaplaw joint secretary 2, 
David Thaw officer in charge of foreign affairs, and Roger (one name) 
officer in charge of health and welfare. 

Gen Tamalabaw has been elected general commander. Former vice-chairman 
Brig Gen Shwe Saing takes charge of the transport and communications 
department, Gen Kasedoh the forestry and mining department and Mahn Yin 
Maung the alliance department.
 
In an interview with The Nation yesterday, the KNU governor for Tavoy 
and Mergui districts, Padoh Kwe Htoo, denied speculation that the change 
in leadership constituted ''a coup'' to topple the ageing chief. Kwe 
Htoo said the new top brass was elected by the 115-member KNU Congress 
which met from Jan 10 to 26. The Congress normally meets every four 
years to review the movement's activities and set new policies. 

Kwe Htoo agreed that the new executive committee comprises younger 
leaders whom, he said, would ''help inject new life'' into the movement. 
''At least half of the leaders are a new [KNU] generation,'' he stated. 

The governor said that under the new leadership, the KNU would come up 
with more active policies and activities including a plan to resume 
peace talks in the future with the Burmese junta. ''But it [the 
resumption of peace talks] also depends on the SPDC [the country's 
ruling State Peace and Development Council],'' said the governor. 

The KNU and the Burmese regime began negotiations in mid-1995, but talks 
ground to a halt in January 1997 when the Karen group said it could not 
accept Rangoon's demand for it to lay down arms. The junta, which has 
struck a cease-fire deal with about 15 armed ethnic groups since 1989, 
has allowed those groups to keep their weapons. 
Once Burma's most powerful guerrilla movement, the KNU has suffered 
serious political and military setbacks after its Manerplaw 
headquarters, opposite Tak's Tha Song Yang district, was overrun by the 
Burmese Army in early 1995. Two years later its 4th Brigade 
headquarters, which was situated opposite Thailand's Kanchanaburi 
province, was also taken by the Burmese troops. 

Thai security and intelligence officials said the promotion of younger 
leaders to key executive KNU positions was long needed especially after 
the loss of two strategic positions in 1995 and 1997. Young KNU officers 
had, in 1995, tried to persuade Bo Mya and other senior leaders to step 
down, but the Congress later that year re-elected him the chairman. 

One official said he believed the Burmese junta was watching the KNU 
meeting with keen interest and waiting to see the outcome. He believed 
Rangoon would certainly send representatives to probe the possibility of 
resuming peace talks. 

''KNU policies are certain to change. They [the group] can't stay on 
without holding [peace] talks with the Burmese. At the same time, the 
SPDC might also change its tough position against the KNU. Everything 
will certainly change,'' insisted the official. 
Like other KNU leaders, Kwe Htoo denied the group had any knowledge of 
or played a part in the siege of the Ratchaburi Provincial Hospital by a 
group of 10 heavily armed terrorists early this week. 
Thai authorities believed the assailants were members of the God's Army 
-- a small Karen messianic militia movement which sprang up after the 
fall of the KNU's 4th Brigade -- and of the Vigorous Burmese Student 
Warriors group. The latter raided the Burmese Embassy in Bangkok early 
last October. 

However, Thai security agencies have yet to identify the 10 gunmen who 
were killed when anti-terrorist commandos stormed the hospital to rescue 
the hostages and break the 

*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
ASIAN AGE: MUIVAH HELD BY POLICE IN THAILAND
Talks in jeopardy

"The Asian Age" Newspaper
Date-January 28, 2000.

By Rezaul H. Laskar

New Delhi, Jan. 27: The arrest of Thuingaleng Muivah, general secretary 
Isak-Muivah faction of the National Socialist Council of Nagaland, in 
Thailand last week has put a question mark against the next round of the 
peace talks between the Union government and the rebel group.

 Mr. K. Padmanabhaiah, the centre's principal negotiator for the Naga 
talks, was scheduled to meet Mr. Muivah and Mr. Isak Chisi Swu, the NSCN 
(I-M) president, in Bangkok for discussions on January 29 and 30. This 
would be the third round of talks between the NSCN (I-M) leadership and 
Mr. Padmanabhaiah since the BJP-led government came to power year.

 Mr. Muivah and his close associate I. Shimre were arrested at Bangkok 
airport on January 19 on charges of entering Thailand on fake documents. 
The duo had travelled to Bangkok from Karachi, and was using forged 
South Korean passports. Mr. Muivah has been living abroad since the 
1980s to avoid arrest. Home ministry sources said the incident had 
"again proved that Pakistan was actively supporting" Indian militant 
organizations. "This has also proved the ISI's link with Northeastern 
rebel groups," they said.

 The Naga talks have been under a cloud over the past few months 
following differences, between the two sides on several key issues, 
including the area covered by the cease-fire announced by the NSCN (I-M) 
and the Union government in August 1997. The Centre maintains that the 
cease-fire is limited to Nagaland, while the rebel group insists that is 
should be extended to all Naga-inhabited areas of the Northeast. The 
Centre's decision to remove its first principal negotiator. Mr. Swaraj 
Kaushal, and appoint Mr. Padmanabhaiah in his place also has not gone 
down well with the band outfit. The cease-fire is valid till July 31 
this year. Officials in the home ministry said they had learnt about Mr. 
Muivah's arrest on January 21, and the Union government had subsequently 
contacted authorities in Thailand to obtain more information.

They refused to comment on the home ministry's future course of action 
with regard to the peace talks. The Union government is in a piquant 
situation following Mr. Muivah's arrest. It can not seek his
extradition-- there is no Interpol red corner notice against Mr. Muivah 
and it would be embarrassing for the Centre to seek the extradition of a 
rebel leader it has engaged in peace talks. At the same time, the Centre 
cannot bring pressure on the Thai authorities for his release. 

 Meanwhile, agency reports from Bangkok said Mr. Muivah was being held 
in Bangkok's Klong Prem prison. His case is likely to come up for 
hearing in a court on February 1. The reports quoted a police source as 
saying that Mr. Muivah could only be charged "for entering the country 
with fake documents". The Hong Kong-based Far Eastern Economic Review 
also reported its latest edition that Muivah had acknowledged in 
interviews with the magazine to organizing, bank robberies, ambushes of 
Indian Army patrols and assassinations of Indian and Naga opponents.


*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
THE ECONOMIST: GOD, WHAT AN ARMY 

January 29, 2000 

 
 RATCHABURI 

    AT DAWN on January 24th, ten armed young men slipped across 
Thailand's border with Myanmar and hijacked a bus. They seemed confused, 
unsure of where to go, and anxious to get medical attention for comrades 
who had been injured in several days of fighting with Myanmar government 
troops. Eventually the hijackers descended on a hospital in the 
provincial capital of Ratchaburi. They stormed the emergency room and 
surgical ward, trapping inside about 900 patients and staff. 

It soon emerged that the kidnappers were members of God's Army, a 
fundamentalist Christian group based in a region of Myanmar populated by 
ethnic Karen. The group had broken away from the main Karen guerrilla 
organisation, which has long been fighting for a separate state. The 
figureheads of this splinter group are 12-year-old cheroot-smoking 
twins, Johnny and Luther Htoo. The black-tongued twins, who are supposed 
to possess divine fighting powers, stayed in the jungle with other 
followers. 

Among the group, however, were three or more of the student rebels who 
had seized the Myanmar embassy in Bangkok last October. They had been 
set free in return for releasing their hostages unharmed. They had taken 
refuge with God's Army in Myanmar. 

In the confusion within the hospital, many of the hostages managed to 
escape, and several policemen were able to enter, disguised as patients 
or doctors. One genuine doctor successfully completed a brain operation 
on a ten-year-old child. 

When the group announced their demands, it became clear that, in 
addition to wanting doctors to treat their wounded, they were angry with 
Thailand's soldiers. Since the hostage-taking at the embassy, the Karen 
and other rebel groups fighting Myanmar's military regime have been 
prevented from using Thailand as a sanctuary. Thai forces have shelled 
God's Army positions to keep the guerrillas inside Myanmar. 

Within 24 hours, the hostage drama was over. Thai commandos moved in and 
killed all ten rebels. Some were shot in the head at close range, though 
they offered no resistance, said some of the hostages. Thai military 
officials denied that the kidnappers had been murdered. 

The fierce military response was very different from that in the embassy 
incident, for several reasons. The first was outrage at the group's 
capture of a hospital. The embassy was technically part of Myanmar and 
the gunmen who took it over were described by a Thai minister at the 
time as "students fighting for democracy". But this group was seen as 
rag-tag jungle fighters. Thailand's prime minister, Chuan Leekpai, 
described the incident as an ungrateful act by a group that had been 
taking shelter on Thai soil. 

Another reason was deterrence. The Thai government took a chance when it 
released the hostage-takers last October, hoping it would not provoke 
more incidents. Now that it has, a firm stand was needed. "It is a 
statement from Thailand that you can no longer do this kind of thing to 
us," said the prime minister's national security adviser, Prasong 
Soonsiri. The incident seems to have had some effect across the border: 
on January 27th, the main Karen guerrilla group announced it had a new, 
more moderate leader. 

Yet it is far from an end to Thailand's Myanmar-inspired troubles. 
Thailand must still cope with the 100,000 or so refugees and about half 
a million illegal workers who have crossed into the country from 
Myanmar. It has also witnessed a recent flood of cheap drugs from next 
door. The Thai authorities used to see the ethnic insurgents that 
operated along the border as something of a buffer against Myanmar's 
security forces. Clearly, no more. Thailand is taking firm control of 
the frontier. And those Thais who want to engage the Myanmar regime in a 
more direct manner will have been strengthened in their convictions.

*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
BORNEO BULLETIN: HOSPITAL SIEGE PUTS KARENS UNDER THAI MICROSCOPE

January 27, 2000 

    TAKAULANG, Thailand - The bloody end to a hospital hostage siege 
this week marks a hardening of Thai attitudes towards guerrillas and 
refugees from decades of internal military conflict in Myanmar, much of 
it centred along the mountainous Thai-Myanmar border. 

Once, ethnic minority insurgents held large swathes of territory along 
the frontier and were valued as a buffer between Thai and Myanmar 
forces. But as the rebels' military fortunes have waned in recent years, 
so has their use to Thailand. 

Now two rash terrorist acts in four months involving Myanmar rebels has 
served to tighten the screw on remaining insurgents and the more than 
100,000 refugees - mostly ethnic Karen villagers - encamped on Thai 
soil. 

The 10 insurgents who captured a provincial hospital on Monday in 
Ratchaburi in western Thailand were identified as members of God's Army, 
a splinter Karen group led by twin 12-year-old boys, and an even tinier 
band of dissidents, the Vigorous Burmese Student Warriors. 

At Takaulang village, seven kilometres from the Myanmar border, where 
God's Army has its domain, Karens from Myanmar used to play soccer 
matches against Thai border police. 

Now, Karens who have settled in the Thai village hide in the jungle, 
fearing likely deportation to their military-run homeland. 

The crackdown started after the Myanmar embassy in Bangkok was stormed 
Oct 1 by five members of the Vigorous Burmese Student Warriors demanding 
democracy in their military-run homeland. 

They captors were given safe passage by Thailand to the Myanmar border 
to ensure the release of dozens of hostages. 

The rebels found shelter with the God's Army, whose 200 fighters believe 
twins Johnny and Luther Htoo have magical powers that make them 
invincible in battle. 

On Oct 9, one week after the siege, 148 Karens, including children, were 
rounded up and their simple houses then dismantled by Thai troops, 
villagers said. Today, only ashes and bamboo remain. 

The apparent reason was that they did not have identification papers. 

The hospital seizure this week will only increase perceptions the 
refugees pose a security threat. 

"The Karens will be carefully watched," Chaiyachok Julsiriwongse, 
associate professor at the department of international relations at 
Chulalongkorn University. 

"After a second incident like this, I don't think the Thai people will 
allow the government to sit by and do nothing," Chaiyachok said. 

Myanmar dissident groups in Thailand and the Karen National Union, the 
mainstream rebel force that has been fighting the Myanmar government for 
over 50 years, rapidly moved to distance themselves from the hospital 
siege that triggered outrage among Thais. 

Meanwhile, Altsean, an Asian group which lobbies against Myanmar's 
military regime, appealed to Thailand to show compassion and continue 
humanitarian assistance for the refugees. 

Thailand says it will still let Karens fleeing battle find temporary 
shelter, as long as they were unarmed. 

But Gen Mongkol Ampornpisit, Thai supreme commander, warned that a deal 
made with hospital raiders during the siege that Thai forces would not 
to shell God's Army inside Myanmar to keep them off Thai soil was off. 

Since the raiders had refused to surrender, Thailand was at liberty to 
fire on them again, he was quoted as saying by the Bangkok Post. 

At Takaulang village, where Johnny and Luther Htoo used to sneak over 
the border to come and watch movies at the local open-air cinema, the 
days of peaceful coexistence with the rebels are certainly over. 

But sympathy remains among Thai residents for the Karen villagers, 
caught in the crossfire of battle and changing Thai policy.

*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*

DEM ACTION PARTY (MALAY): ASEAN SHOULD REVIEW POLICY TOWARD BURMA 

 Democratic Action Party of Malaysia, Petaling Jaya, in English 27 Jan 
00 


Text of "press statement" by Teresa Kok, DAP (Democratic Action Party) 
International and NGO affairs secretary and MP for Seputeh in Kuala 
Lumpur on 27th January; published in English by Petaling Jaya Democratic 
Action Party of Malaysia web site on 27th January 

The recent hostage-taking situation at Ratchaburi Hospital, Thailand, by 
Burmese dissidents again highlights the desperation faced by the 
opponents of the Burmese junta. 

While I do not condone terrorism and do not agree with the approach 
taken by these dissidents, I regret that 10 dissidents' lives have to be 
lost to capture the world's attention on the pathetic situation in 
military-ruled Burma. 

Although their terrorist action was not sanctioned by the NLD [National 
League for Democracy] and NGOs that work on Burma issues, it is clear 
that the motive of their action was to highlight the long-standing 
frustrated situation in Burma to the international community, 
particularly the ASEAN countries. 

I am concerned that if ASEAN do not step in soon to mediate, this form 
of terrorism may well spread to other neighbouring nations, Malaysia 
included. This is not a situation we either want nor encourage. 

With this in mind, I call on ASEAN member countries and the 
international community to consider to intervene into the problem in 
Burma, and to impress upon the Burmese military regime to recognise the 
wishes of the people of Burma for political reforms. ASEAN is in the 
best position to play a mediating role in the internal conflict of 
Burma. 

The heads of government of ASEAN should bring up the problem faced by 
the Burmese in the coming ASEAN finance ministers meeting in Seri 
Bagawan on 25th to 26th February 2000. They should censure the 
authoritarianism and cruelty of the SPDC regime and review their 
"Constructive Engagement" policy with Burma.


*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
BANGKOK POST: CHUAN DENIES BLAME FOR SECURITY LAPSE
January 28, 2000

Opposition seizes on intelligence failure
Wut Nontharit and Ampa Santimatanedol 
The government should resign to show responsibility for the intelligence 
failure that enabled God's Army to enter the country and seize 
Ratchaburi regional hospital, the opposition said yesterday.
Intelligence should have been improved after dissidents, including some 
of the Ratchaburi raiders, seized the Burmese embassy on Oct 1, said 
Adisorn Piangket, a New Aspiration deputy leader.
"What have the intelligence agencies been doing?" he said, accusing the 
government of presiding over two rebel threats to security in four 
months.

The rebels must have passed police checkpoints on their way from the 
border to Ratchaburi town, he said, and it was strange the government 
had been unable to reveal the identities of the 10 killed in Tuesday's 
rescue mission.

Mr Chuan said intelligence units had kept their supervisors informed of 
developments. There had been reports God's Army was under Burmese attack 
and could be wiped out.

But the hospital raid was beyond expectation, Mr Chuan said. It would 
have been hard to guard against an overnight decision made by the 
rebels.

Interior Minister Sanan Kachornprasart said there was only one police 
checkpoint on the 70km stretch from the border to Ratchaburi. Border 
Patrol Police and the army had checkpoints close to the border, Maj-Gen 
Sanan said. However, the border was long and inspections may not be 
thorough.

The minister said the guerrillas took a regular bus which was full of 
locals so the police did not stop it.

Denying the government was seeking to conceal the identities of the 
rebels, he said one had been found to be Beda or Preeda or Nui, who had 
taken part in the embassy raid.

Authorities were waiting for relatives or friends of the rebels to help 
identify the other nine, he said.
Maj-Gen Sanan said he described Beda as a dissident student at the time 
of the embassy raid because that was his status at the Maneeloy holding 
centre in Ratchaburi.

Beda lost that status after a warrant for his arrest was issued for his 
role in the embassy raid. Since he was part of an armed incursion, he 
was a terrorist.
"If Beda was still a student, he would be alive now," Maj-Gen Sanan 
said.
Mr Chuan said the government had no choice but to eliminate 
heavily-armed intruders. "We should be proud of our rescue team for 
saving all the hostages instead of questioning if our actions were 
right," he said.

The majority supported the action and there was no reason to resign. 
"But someone may want us to fail to give him grounds to attack 
us."Vichet Kasemthongsri, a Ratchaburi MP, said refugee policy should be 
reviewed in light of the embassy and hospital crises.

*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
BANGKOK POST: ARMY COMMANDER GETS GENERAL ACCLAIM
January 28, 2000
Wassana Nanuam 

The successful operation against God's Army rebels who siezed Ratchaburi 
hospital was a major topic of discussion among foreign military 
dignitaries at the Armed Forces Day ceremony at army headquarters.

Several military attaches praised army chief Gen Surayud Chulanont for 
the way the operation was executed, without casualties to the security 
force.

"Excellent," one foreign military attache was heard to say as he was 
welcomed by the army chief at the auditorium's entrance.
Prime Minister Chuan Leekpai, the defence minister, was heard praising 
Gen Surayud in conversation with former army chief Gen Wimol Wongwanich.

"I've confidence in the army commander, who said that at a range of 
10-25m his special forces men would not miss shots to the head," Mr 
Chuan said.


*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
IHT: THAI RESCUERS EXECUTED REBELS, WITNESSES SAY; 
'WE SHOT FASTER' IN FIREFIGHT, OFFICIAL REPORTS 

International Herald Tribune (Neuilly-sur-Seine, France) 

January 27, 2000, Thursday 


By Seth Mydans; New York Times Service 

BANGKOK 

 
A mood of triumph in Thailand after the quick, clean end of a hostage 
standoff at a hospital was soured Wednesday by questions over whether 
some of the 10 Burmese gunmen had been executed after surrendering to 
security forces. 

Local newspapers published accounts from witnesses saying that some of 
the hostage-takers had been shot in the head Tuesday after being told to 
strip off their clothes. One paper published a photograph of four bodies 
in their underwear, all of whom appeared to have been shot in the head. 

The concerns were boosted by the fact that none of the hundreds of 
patients and medical workers who had been held hostage for 22 hours in 
the town of Ratchaburi had been hit by gunfire, suggesting the absence 
of any intense firefight. 

Officials strongly denied that any of the men had been executed. 

''A well-trained commando normally will shoot to kill, especially with a 
head shot, because if hostage-takers with dangerous weapons are not 
killed immediately they could still harm hostages,'' said an army 
spokesman, Lieutenant General Sanan Kajornklam. ''No commando will 
target the body, because terrorists could be wearing bulletproof 
vests.'' 

Military officials said nine of the hostage-takers were killed 
immediately within the main hospital building. They said the 10th 
attempted to escape but was gunned down on the hospital grounds shortly 
afterward. 

The Thai military, meanwhile, said it had resumed shelling the hilltop 
base of the ethnic Karen rebel band, led by twin 12-year-old boys, that 
staged the raid from across the border with Burma. 

Prime Minister Chuan Leekpai, asked by reporters why not one of the 
hostage-takers survived, said: ''The reason is easy. We shot faster than 
they did.'' 

He added: ''If some Thai officials had died in this operation, the 
questions would change to, 'Why did we send our officials to die?''' 

The Thai police have faced criticism in the past for summarily executing 
people they arrest as criminals. This is not the first time that there 
were no survivors in a confrontation with security forces. 

When the 10 bodies were displayed to reporters Tuesday, all were wrapped 
in white sheets knotted around the neck so that they looked like 
faceless dolls. Bloodstains suggested that at least some had been shot 
in the head. 

Newspapers reported Wednesday that all 10 were then buried without 
further examination. 

According to newspaper accounts, the dawn attack on the poorly organized 
gunmen at the Ratchaburi Provincial Hospital, 120 kilometers (75 miles) 
west of Bangkok, had been well prepared. 

As many as 40 commandos infiltrated the hospital during the night 
dressed as patients or medical workers. They hid weapons in a kitchen 
and moved quietly among the hostages, telling them to turn off their 
lights and lie on the floor. Sharpshooters and observers with two-way 
radios took up positions on the perimeter. Reporters were moved away 
from the scene with the ruse of a news briefing. 

At about 5:30 A.M., two percussion grenades at one corner of the 
compound created a diversion and signaled the start of the raid. 

''Some of the hostages cried,'' according to an unidentified woman 
quoted in the Bangkok Post. ''The rebels did not return fire. I thought 
they would just arrest the rebels because they had surrendered.'' 

The newspaper quoted an unnamed hospital official who said she looked 
out from a hiding place and saw the police holding rebels at gunpoint. 

''They were shot in the head after they had been told to undress and 
kneel down,'' she said. 

The Nation, another English-language daily newspaper, quoted a hostage 
named Decha Yoowong, 32, as saying he thought some of the gunmen might 
have surrendered. 

As they crouched together, he said, ''the hostages asked them not to put 
up any resistance, with some of them agreeing to that.'' The gunmen then 
walked into a hallway, and it appeared that they were preparing to give 
themselves up. 

''The commandos sprayed bullets into the room, shattering all the 
windowpanes,'' he said. ''None of the hostages were hurt. None of us saw 
any of the terrorists being shot because it was still dark.'' Like 
similar reports in other newspapers, however, these accounts were 
displayed modestly on inside pages. 

Interior Minister Sanan Kajornprasart, commenting on the gunmen's death, 
said, ''They all deserved it, since they've brought much trauma and 
suffering to Thai people.'' 


*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
BANGKOK POST: REBELS WEREN'T EXECUTED 
January 28, 2000
Anucha Charoenpo

Police deny they tied the wrists of the God's Army guerrillas or that 
they forced the raiders to strip and kneel before shooting them.
What appeared in a photograph to be binding on the wrists of one of them 
was a talisman and some electric cable, Pol Gen Pracha Promnok, the 
national police chief, said.
The cable was applied after the guerrilla had been killed to enable 
police to lift the body to check there were no booby-traps underneath 
him, Pol Gen Pracha said.

Photographs of the bodies in Khao Sod newspaper on Tuesday were taken 
while the bodies were being taken out and prepared by rescue workers.
The clothes had been removed from the bodies for the purposes of medical 
examination, he said. Police could not have ordered them to strip while 
they were still armed and in a position to attack the assault party. 
Police had acted in self-defence and had not over-reacted, he said.

Pol Maj-Gen Chalermchart Sitanont, deputy commissioner of Region 7, 
assigned to oversee the examination of the corpses, said fingerprints 
would be taken to establish their identities.

Pol Col Pracha Vichairak, deputy commander of Ratchaburi police, said 
the dead rebels' clothes were removed to make sure they did not have any 
explosives attached to their bodies.

An inquiry has been set up to find out who released the photos showing 
the dead rebels in their underwear to Khao Sod. A police source said the 
scene had been closed to the media. Only police were present. 


*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
BANGKOK POST: MANEELOY SET FOR CLOSURE BY YEAR-END
US agrees to take in 1,500 students
Yuwadee Tunyasiri

The Maneeloy holding centre in Ratchaburi is likely to be shut down by 
the end of this year, as all Burmese students there are expected to be 
resettled in a third country by then.
National Security Council chief Kachadpai Burusphat made the 
announcement yesterday after meeting Jahanshah Assadi, regional 
representative of the United Nations High Commission for Refugees, and 
Jeffrey Rook, refugee affairs coordinator of the American embassy.
Mr Assadi spoke of the current status of Burmese students under the care 
of the UNHCR. He said previously there were 800 students with "person of 
concern" status under UNHCR care in Bangkok.
Of these, 500 had been sent to Maneeloy centre after reporting to the UN 
agency.

He estimated there are about 1,200 Burmese students hiding in Bangkok. 
These students are regarded as illegal immigrants and will be arrested 
when found.
Mr Rook confirmed the United States will co-operate by taking about 
1,500 Burmese students for resettlement this year.

With a promise from Australia and other countries to accept students, at 
least 2,000 will be resettled in a third country.
Mr Kachadpai expressed uneasiness with the UNHCR regional representative 
over the body giving person of concern status to people too easily, 
adding to Thailand's problems.

He said these people were mostly hostile to the governments of the 
countries they came from and were regarded by Thailand as illegal 
immigrants.
However, with the person of concern status they may freely conduct 
activities threatening the country's law and order, he added. 



*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
BANGKOK POST: GOD'S ARMY HOLDING OUT AT BESIEGED JUNGLE CAMP
Johnny said to have fled with the twins
 (January 28, 2000)
Wassana Nanuam
God's Army's jungle base at Kamaplaw has not been over-run, despite 
reports to the contrary, army chief-of-staff Gen Montrisak Boonkong said 
yesterday.

A Burmese government force had, however, taken a Karen National Union 
camp at Ban Mae Phia Lek, opposite Ban Khok Mu and the Khao Chong 
Krachom border pass in Suan Phueng district, Ratchaburi.

A report said the Kamaplaw camp was attacked late on Tuesday following 
days of heavy shelling. The report, quoting a KNU officer, said Johnny 
and Luther Htoo, the 12-year-old twins who purportedly lead the rebels, 
disappeared during the attack.

An army source said yesterday that the 200-strong God's Army force 
protecting Kamaplaw was still able to withstand heavy attacks. From a 
border patrol police position at Hill 1000 at Khao Chong Krachom, 
soldiers of God's Army could be seen still well entrenched, he said. The 
source said Johnny, or Kyaw Ni, a Burmese student who took part in the 
seizure of the Burmese embassy in Bangkok in October, and the young 
twins had fled Kamaplaw believing the camp would soon be over-run, but 
it had been kept secret so the defenders' morale would not suffer.

Johnny, the student, had not taken part in the Ratchaburi hospital 
seizure but sent Beda, also known as Preeda or Nui, instead. Beda was 
killed along with nine other guerrillas.

"In fact, Beda did not want to come because he was about to marry his 
girl friend, but God's Army insisted that he act as the guide. Johnny 
was fortunate to have escaped death," the source said.
The source confirmed one of the 10 rebels killed was Beda's girl friend.

He said the Burmese military attache had reported to Rangoon confirming 
that Johnny was not among the dead.
Supreme Commander Gen Mongkol Ampornpisit, when asked whether Johnny was 
still alive, said, "Let's not pay attention to him." He also downplayed 
the possibility of God's Army taking revenge on Thai targets.


*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
MIZZIMA: LEGAL AND SMUGGLING TRADE BETWEEN BANGLADESH AND BURMA

By Our Reporter, Mizzima News Group
Dhaka, January 27, 2000

Between period January 1999 to January 2000, there has been adverse 
balance of trade between Burma and Bangladesh. According to revenue 
records of Taknef, a border town in Bangladesh, worth of goods exported 
to Burma by Bangladesh from January 1999 to January 2000 was Taka 3, 
272, 400 and from Burma to Bangladesh the worth 291, 227, 000. (One Taka 
is equivalent exchange rate Burmese currency Kyat 7).

The goods that Bangladesh exported to Myanmar are cement, iron, 
electronic goods, construction goods and goods that Myanmar exported to 
Bangladesh are male/ female slippers, eatables, spices, onions, garlic, 
beetle nuts, dry chilly, ginger and forest products.

The smuggling trade activities between the two countries are fast 
increasing from year to year. The entry passage to Bangladesh is easy. 
Rice, forest products, cosmetics, textiles, buffaloes, cows and 
household utensils from Burma to Bangladesh worth monthly lakh 600 to 
1000 Bangladesh Taka. These smuggled goods specially come through Arakan 
State bribing the Army units and Army officers doing joint venture with 
Bangladesh. Irrawaddy Delta is the second centre, Tennasarim Division in 
Mon State is the third centre of smuggling.

Bangladesh is as big as Shan State but with population 130 million. 
Bangladesh population is 3 times of Burma. Eatables, meat, bamboo, house 
hold goods are insufficient for domestic consumption in Bangladesh. They 
therefore buy from neighboring Burma, opening wholesale trading centres 
for smuggled goods. Villages and small towns along the border town 
Taknef are conduits for smuggling. There is no inquiry, no arrest if 
told goods are for Bangladesh. Hundreds of smugglers of Bangladesh 
origin are going and coming. There is clear understanding between 
trading centres smuggling from both sides.


*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
 INSIDE BURMA
*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*

NLM: EX-REPRESENTATIVE-ELECT OF NLD MEETS VOTERS



YANGON, 26 Jan - Dr Ye Myint who resigned from
representative-elect from Kyangin Township
Constituency-2 and National League for Democracy
met voters and the public the the sports ground in
Kyangin Township this morning.

Dr Ye Myint said he had attended the National
Convention as a delegate of NLD.  When Daw Suu Kyi
was released from house restriction, NLD
representatives had to leave the National
Convention under her absolute order.

Daw Suu Kyi's response to presentations submitted
by representatives-elect of Dedaye and
Taungdwingyi townships was against democracy
practices.

Members of NLD were not allowed to know the
decisions of higher-level members in advance.
They had to face the absolute power of NLD central
Who turned down their presentations.
Representatives also felt so disappointed to leave
the National Convention.

He also elaborated on Daw Suu Kyi's attempts to
block foreign investment, adding increase in the
foreign capital will lead to building of more
facilities required for national development.

He said formation of the ten-member committee and
perpetrations to call the Hluttaw are dangerous
acts; he left NLD as he would be included in the
persons causing the nation and the people trouble
as long as he was a member of the party.

Present were voters of the constituency,
ex-members of NLD, observers who are not from the
government bodies and the people totalling 2,500.




*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
 EDITORIALS
*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*

THE BURMA CAMPAIGN UK: GOD'S ARMY - GOD'S CHILDREN

Patrons:
Sinead Cusack, Clive James, Miriam Karlin, Baroness Helena Kennedy QC, 
Glenys Kinnock MEP, 
Sue Lloyd-Roberts, Sir John Mortimer, Dr Jose Ramos-Horta, Rt. Hon Sir 
David Steel 




What leads young men and children to take such desperate action? As easy 
condemnation of 'God's Army' mixes with a morbid celebration of the 
deaths of the youths who fought under its banner, we should at least 
have the humanity to ask why? 

It is absolutely clear that Burmese pro-democracy groups and ethnic 
nationality communities do not condone the actions taken by 'God's 
Army'. But anyone who knows what is happening across the border inside 
Burma will at least be able to understand how a traumatised people, 
brutalised by a massive military machine, can be pushed to such extreme 
acts. Who knows the personal stories of those who were carried out of 
the Ratchburi hospital in body bags? Where our own children go to 
school, these young people would have had to fight hard for simple 
survival; where our children come home each day to the security of their 
families, Karen youngsters will have seen their villages burned and 
their loved ones murdered. Let us not be so quick to judge. If we are 
truly against violence it is our duty to understand that those who were 
killed were themselves victims of violence for much of the brief time 
they spent on this earth.

Recent news reports suggest that the youths treated the hostages well, 
had no intention of harming anyone, did not fight back and according to 
some witnesses were summarily executed after surrendering. Although we 
understand Thailand's anger at the incident, it must also take its share 
of the blame. In joining forces with the Burmese army in its fierce 
attack on positions held by God's Army and Karen civilians along the 
Thai-Burma border, the Thai 9th Infantry lit the fuse that led directly 
to the taking of Ratchburi hospital. If you peel away only one layer of 
the onion, it is clear that what on the surface might appear to have 
been a simple act of terrorism was in fact an appeal of the most 
desperate and human kind - for an end to the bombing.

However, ultimate responsibility for this bloody event must be levelled 
at its architects - Burma's dictators sitting comfortably in their 
Rangoon villas, watching from a safe distance as the tragedy they wrote 
played itself out. Half a million ethnic nationality people, have been 
forced from their homes by the Burmese Army, their villages destroyed, 
their women systematically raped in a brutal ethnic cleansing campaign. 
Amnesty International has reported that:

"The Burmese army has devastated the lives of thousands of Shan, Karen 
and Karenni people by targeting them simply because of their ethnicity 
or perceived political beliefs. Many have been killed, others tortured, 
and thousands have fled to neighbouring countries? The military have 
forced thousands of civilians, including children, to work on massive 
building projects..."

Karen refugees tell of:

"Village burnings, constant demands for forced labour, looting of food 
and supplies, torture and killings by the military...Thousands of Karen 
villagers have also been forced off their land, unable to farm and 
provide for their families."

The real tragedy of yesterday's events is the story that isn't being 
told and the questions that aren't being asked. What terrible atrocities 
must this small child-led army have endured to resort to such an extreme 
action? The world must quickly start asking the right questions - they 
will find the answers to all of them lie with the Generals in Rangoon.

For more information contact:

TBC: 0171 281 7377 or bagp@xxxxxxxxxx


*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*

NATION: CAN WE LIVE WITH USE OF EXCESS FORCE?

January 28, 2000

The government was stunned this week by the criticisms of the way the 
security forces disposed of the 10 God's Army rebels during Tuesday's 
lightning rescue operation at the Ratchaburi regional hospital centre. 
How quickly things change. Initially there had been nothing but 
heartfelt praise for the operation and the rescue of the hundreds of 
patients and hospital staff without any of them getting hurt.
Criticisms centre on allegations by some hostages that the rebels were 
slaughtered needlessly. Hostages claim the rebels put up little 
resistance, some had put up their arms in surrender, yet still all were 
shot dead by members of the army's special forces and elite police 
anti-terrorist units. The public were shocked, to say nothing of the 
shell-shocked hostages experiencing the so-called Stockholm Syndrome of 
sympathising with their captors. But a hostage rescue demands decisive 
action from commandos with only a split second to react when they come 
upon the hostage takers.

The God's Army Karen and their Burmese student allies may be engaged in 
a just struggle against the Rangoon military junta. But they became 
terrorists the moment they took the patients and medical staff of the 
Ratchaburi hospital hostage at gunpoint. For the government and brave 
men who risked their lives to storm the hospital there was no other 
alternative but to treat them as such.

The government made the right decision to order the rescue operation 
once the rebels refused to lay down their arms. Letting them go free as 
they did the Burmese embassy raiders, some of whom also took part in 
this hospital siege, would only ensure future acts of terrorism, which 
almost inevitably would result at some stage in the loss of Thai 
civilian life.
Once the decision was made, the rebels' fate was sealed. The training of 
anti-terrorist units the world over is to shoot first. Once a terrorist 
target is identified he has to be taken out. This ensures he has no 
chance of firing his weapon or detonating explosives, which can be done 
even with raised hands, because the safety of the hostages and the 
rescuers comes first.
About the only thing unacceptable in a hostage rescue is the summary 
execution of hostage-takers subdued without deadly force. Witnesses 
claim this is what happened to some of the rebels. One said she saw 
commandos disarm a number of rebels, order them to strip down to their 
underwear, tie their hands behind their back and lead them into a room 
from which shots were heard soon afterward.

The allegation was underlined by photographs in Khao Sod daily showing 
the corpses of the rebels, most of them near naked and one with his 
hands tied behind his back. The security forces said stripping the dead 
guerrillas was necessary to discover any weapons that may still have 
strapped to their bodies. That makes sense. But if they were already 
dead, why tie their hands behind their backs?There has been no 
satisfactory answer to this. If the allegation is true that they were 
executed it was indeed cruel and unnecessary. Even in war the enemy 
cannot be disposed of in this way. And then the authorities did not help 
their case by covering up the bodies and hurriedly sealing them up at a 
nearby temple. A full autopsy, which one official claims has already 
taken place although this is questionable given the short time 
available, would establish how they died-whether they were shot at point 
blank range while kneeling on the floor.

Short of this, there will always be the suspicion, here and overseas, 
that the rebels were executed as a message to anyone else considering 
similar action. Some may see nothing wrong with this, but it is uncalled 
for, to say the least. More importantly, it raises the disturbing moral 
question which we all must ponder of what sort of society it is in which 
we want to live.

*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
NY TIMES: LETTER--DESPERATE IN MYANMAR 

January 28, 2000
    
To the Editor: 

Re "For Inept Band of Burmese Rebels, Only Death Was Certain" (news 
article, Jan. 26): There was a dearth of discussion about the conditions 
in Myanmar, formerly Burma, that have led children and peaceful farmers 
to take up arms against a brutal military government. 

I lived for a year with the peaceful ethnic Karen people. They have 
endured forced labor and relocation, torture and rape under one of the 
most oppressive governments in the world. Facing increasing military 
pressure from both sides of the border, in Thailand and Myanmar, it 
should be unsurprising that acts of desperation like the seizure of a 
hospital in Thailand that you reported take place. 

There are now 100,000 Karen refugees in Thailand and 300,000 living as 
internally displaced persons within Myanmar. The real story of these 
people lies in their suffering, not simply their random acts of 
desperation. 
PETER KLATSKY 
New York, Jan. 27, 2000  




*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
KNL: STATEMENT ON THE SEIZURE OF THE HOSPITAL IN
RATCHABURI, THAILAND BY KAREN SOLDIERS OF GOD'S ARMY 

Karen National League


Based on the international and local news media(BBC,AP, Bangkok Post), 
the  following is a chronology of what we believe (this might change 
later as we  get more updates) to be some of the main events that lead 
up to the seizure 
of the hospital and the aftermath.

The SPDC increased their usual atrocities and oppression of Karen 
non-combatants in the Tavoy area due to the combination of the usual dry 
season increase in fighting and their desire to punish God's Army for 
harboring the perpetrators of the Burmese embassy takeover about 3 
months ago.

SPDC troops, apparently in collusion with the Thai 9th Infantry 
Division,  crossed into Thai soil to
outflank God's Army. This caused God's Army to plant
land mines (in the poorly marked Burma-Thai border) to
prevent the SPDC from doing this again. Four Thai
soldiers were killed as a result of stepping on these
land mines. The Thai 9th Infantry Division retaliated
by bombarding the area where God's Army and some
internally displaced persons (IDPs) were. This
resulted in the death of about 200-300 Karens.

Because of the above bombardment and what God's Army personnel saw as 
other unjust treatments such as the refusal of some local Thai 
authorities in the area refusing to treat injured Karens, and not 
offering refuge to civilians, but instead, pushing them back to Burma, 
God's Army personnel seized the hospital in Ratchaburi. 

This seizure resulted in about 200 innocent Thais 
becoming hostages with God's Army demanding that the 9th Infantry 
Division stop the shelling to prevent further killings of IDPs, and 
redress of other issues that they saw as unjust. It must be pointed out 
that overall, the Thai nation and people as a whole have been very 
sympathetic and understanding of the plight and situation of the Karens 
(both refugees and IDPs). It is only certain individuals and groups that 
are making life difficult for the refugees and IDPs.


The Thais seeing the seizure of the hospital as a violation of their 
sovereignty had their commandos
storm the hospital to attempt a hostage rescue. 
According to the local Thai authorities at the scene,
ten God's Army soldiers were killed while no hostages
were harmed.

It is the policy of the Karen National League to abhor and condemn any 
situation where combatants/authorities through specific targeting or 
gross callousness subject innocent civilians to lethal force for 
military or political aims whether they be SPDC, Karens, concerned 
authorities, or anyone. 


Karen National League
Policy Affairs Department
2000 Jan 26


*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
BSDO: PROTESTS AND CEREMONIES FOR TEN MARTYRS BEING PLANNED IN CANADA 

January 27, 2000


Demonstration against Thai government's act of summary execution on ten 
Burmese freedom fighters will be held in front of the Consulate General 
of Thailand, Vancouver, Canada, on January 28, 2000 at 3 PM.  The 
demonstration is now being organized by Burmese Student's Democratic 
Organization (Vancouver) along with the Burmese Democratic Organization 
and Canadian Karen Community.  

 
Contact: 

Activities in Vancouver- Htay Aung at (604) 873-1740
Activities in Toronto- Htun Htun OO at (416) 461-9298

Activities in Ottawa- Toe Kyi at (613) 567-1610
Or overall activities info- Tin Mg Htoo at (519) 686-4745

Information Department
Burmese Students' Democratic Organization (Canada)  

 
*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
ADDENDUM:  SPEECH BY JOHN RALSTON SAUL (With corrections)
1999 JOHN HUMPHREY FREEDOM AWARD CEREMONIES. 
MONTREAL, DECEMBER 10, 1999

27 January 2000


It seems for me, that every time I speak about Burma -it's been 20 years 
now- I have to be cautious. I come, as many of us do here, from a 
country in which human rights and freedom of speech mean something that 
is clearly defined. There are some flaws in our system. Some things are 
missing. There are mistakes and weaknesses, but what we mean by human 
rights and freedom of speech is reasonably clear to all of us. 

Let's for a moment turn ourselves towards people who live in a different 
situation, one in which human rights and freedom of speech are not as 
well defined. They live in some degree of anarchy. Let's turn to them 
with modesty and restraint. Individuals like Min Ko Naing and Dr. 
Cynthia Maung do not need our sympathy, our emotions, our love, our 
lessons; or indeed the certainties and opinions that emerge from our 
comfort. They need our respect. We need to give them our admiration. We 
need to be ready to put ourselves beside them, even in our comfortable 
situ ation, and as Mr. Allmand, President of ICHRDD, said, to defend, 
even if it is just a little, their rights, those rights which do not 
exist at this moment. 

It is important to show our inability to understand their personal 
strength, mainly because we have not lived their situation, though some 
people in this hall may have lived it. People from Canada, the United 
States or Europe generally never experience that reality. We cannot 
imagine the lives they are living. Many of us may have witnessed their 
reality simply by visiting their country. For example,  I've just 
visited Kosovo. Indeed, during the 80's I used to visit Burma. But 
visiting a country is not living a situation. It isn't experiencing 
imprisonment, or being an 'outcast' as is one of our recipients tonight. 
So when I talk about Burma, I always do it with certain reservations, 
mainly because the particular situation is so appalling.

Above all, I am very careful always not to put forward easy, clear, 
certain answers to the obvious problems of Burma. I have a tendency to 
force myself to speak with a certain pessimism about Burma. If you don't 
speak with a certain pessimism, you are pretending that it is going to 
be easier to deal with the problem than it is, or that it can be done in 
a classical Canadian way, as opposed to the very difficult and complex 
way which Dr. Cynthia knows far better than we do and Aung San Suu Kyi 
knows far better than we do, sitting as she has in a form of prison for 
years.

I'll give you a small example of why I am careful. Twenty years ago, I 
started writing about, something which many of us knew even then: the 
involvement of the military junta in Burma in the drug trade. For years 
it was impossible to get any respectable newspaper or Western government 
to pay attention to this fact. Why?  In part because international 
politics is international politics; there is a certain nobility to the 
diplomatic profession and to the journalistic profession when they are 
writing about diplomacy. On the other hand, drugs is police work and 
that's not dignified. It belongs on another page in the newspapers or in 
police headquarters, not in diplomatic headquarters. The result was that 
it was for years impossible to get people to discuss openly the 
involvement of  Burmese leaders in some ways in the drug traffic. 

Finally, about three or four years ago, there was a breakthrough.  
Western governments began to say what they should have said long before. 
 They spoke about the self-evident involvement of the junta in the drug 
business in various ways and at various levels. Only now have we begun 
to talk about the fact that the repetitive war on drugs in the United 
States and Canada is directly related to our policies on Burma. Most of 
the heroin on our streets comes from Burma and the junta in Burma plays 
some sort of role in that heroin getting this far. 

If we in the West were serious about a war on drugs, we would be putting 
an enormous effort, throughout the Western world, into working for a 
change in Burma. 

People say that it is hard to get public attention for the situation in 
Burma because we have so few relations, we sell and buy so little, 
people know so little. I can only suggest that every time we say the 
word 'heroin', 'overdose', 'addiction', 'organized crime', 
'crime-related' or 'death of youth in the street' we simply add three 
words: 'Burmese military rulers'.  It will then become far easier to 
concentrate on the  situation in Burma as being absolutely central to 
the situation in our streets in the West. If Burmese military rulers is 
too long, we could use the word SLORC (State Law and Order Restoration 
Council), which I persist in using.  SLORC sounds right for what we are 
dealing with. 

I would suggest also that when people talk or argue about the possible
benefits of investing in Burma -building a pipeline for example from 
Burma to Thailand - and talk about the positive trickle down effects 
(There were none. What there was was slave labour), I think it would be 
interesting to do a bit of inclusive economic calculations. Even if 
there were a trickle down effect, or a benefit from the pipeline (which 
there was not), how much was it versus how much is the ongoing cost - 
direct and indirect  - of the heroin in our streets which comes directly 
from Burma with some involvement from the military junta in that 
country? How do they stack up against each other? Well, we know very 
well. Even the most optimistic calculation would put  the trickle down 
effect at a few million. At its most modest, the heroin effect is 
billions and billions of dollars. 

There are an increasing number of respectable and responsible people in 
the Western world who are saying we have got to be more rational and 
productive in terms of Burma because we have been working at this for 
quite a while (a few years) and getting nowhere. What we are doing, they 
say, hasn't worked, so we must try something else. This is the classic 
western frenetic approach
towards public policy; the administrative approach; the management 
approach. It is very short term. You have got to produce results in the 
quarter, in the year, in the five years. If you don't have results, then 
you are failing. And if you are failing, you've got to do something 
else. It is a very, very management view of reality and of course 
reality has nothing to do with management, particularly in a situation 
such as Burma. It isn't about quarterly reports. It isn't about showing 
progress in the short term.  

The choices of people like Dr. Cynthia and Min Ko Naing demonstrate to 
us that it isn't about short term results. It's about being ready to 
engage for the long term. Their approach and the approach of people like 
them, Aung San Suu Kyi and others , who show that there is another view, 
another approach which is not only possible but is probably the only 
approach possible if you live inside a society like today's Burmese 
society. Let me put it this way. They live with an astonishing tension 
which pits courageous impatience (i.e. a willingness to take risks with 
their lives), against a stubborn patience, (a readiness to take the time 
necessary to get real change).  On top of that they have a memory, a 
positive memory, a real memory of what has come before. I didn't 
experience or visit Burma during the first two decades of Ne Win's 
regime from 1962 on. But I read a lot about it.  What I saw and came to 
know was the Burma of his last real decade, the eighties. I was there on 
a regular basis. I wrote about it. What I'm saying is that the
Burma situation began not 10 years, not 20 years but 3 decades ago.  The 
first 26 years led to the explosion of 1988; the violence and the 
deaths. Then, suddenly, Burma disappeared. It was as if a new country 
and a new situation had popped out of an egg. We no longer had a memory 
of those 26 years. Instead we had a new place called Myanmar.  Suddenly 
you couldn't push a button on a computer and see the history of the 
preceding decades come up.  I am joking, but only slightly. A new 
situation, apparently, with new dictators, a new name -  SLORC. And then 
suddenly, 10 years later another new name - the SPDC (State Peace 
Development Council). Apparently it was again a new situation. But of 
course the SPDC is the SLORC and the SLORC is the military group which 
came out of and is part of the 1962 regime of Ne Win. Soldiers grow old 
but they replace each other even in situations like this. We are looking 
at an extremely long-lived rogue regime, which alters itself by slight 
degrees every 5, 10, 15 years. But it's the same regime, with the same 
philosophy, and the same approach.  Nothing fundamental has changed 
since 1962. 

Now, I hear phrases today from people who don't want to remember that it 
goes back to 1962.  They say such things as: 'our influence over Burma 
is weak because we don't trade enough with them. If only we traded more, 
then we would have more influence over them'. Well, there are many other 
people who have traded with Burma since 1962, who have invested in Burma 
in the 70s, in the 80s, over the last 10 years and today. Do any of them 
have any influence over the regime? Is there any indication over the 
last decades that by investing in Burma you would get any influence over 
this regime? There isn't a single example of it. Japan, Thailand, nobody 
has gained any influence by putting money into the country through 
economic investment. 

Secondly, I hear people trotting out the classic Western argument that 
if we invested then there would be a trickle down effect that would 
create a middle class. A middle class would lead to liberalization and 
liberalization would lead towards democracy. You've all heard that sort 
of argument.  But it is an approach which has been tried several times 
over the last 30 years.
Most recently it was tried in the years leading up to 1988 and of course 
it was tried in a small way through the pipeline to which I have made 
reference. Note: We were promised by the people building the pipeline 
that it would have an effect, a trickle down effect. I quote from their 
spokesperson, 'We believe our presence in the region is a force for 
progress for economic and social development.' All right, the pipeline 
is more or less built. Has there been progress? Has there been economic 
development? Has there been a trickle down? No. There hasn't. We just 
have to remember that it didn't work. It didn't turn out the way they 
said it would turn out.

There is a third phrase I hear increasingly, which is : normalize 
relations and then we'll sort of draw them out into a conversation. And 
as a result of that the SLORC were allowed into ASEAN (Association of 
South-East Asian Nations) and they've been in ASEAN for a while now and 
what has changed? Have they been drawn out? Has ASEAN gained influence 
over them? Has something changed for the better? No. Nothing has 
changed.  It is still exactly the same as it was in 1962, 1963, and I 
won't go through the years since then one by one... Nothing has been 
changed through this approach. 

My own sense of this regime, and I have said this in various ways 
before, is that it is a very peculiar regime. If you don't focus on this 
peculiarity, it is very difficult to deal with it. It is an extremely 
mediocre regime. These are mediocre people. They don't even have the 
glorious ambitions of your classic dictators. They are not in it for the 
money, except for small amounts of money. This is a very rich country, 
Burma. They could be making hundreds and hundreds of millions of 
dollars, billions of dollars, but they're not. They're making five 
million dollars, 10 million dollars. It's very mediocre. And they're not 
in it for the glory. It's very unglorious, their regime. It's very small 
potatoes - except for the deaths of individuals. It's a regime of 
mediocre people clinging to the minimum sort of power for small amounts 
of money. 

These are people who are willing to destroy their own country in order 
to hang on. And there is something else about them which  is rarer than 
we believe.  These are dictators who are willing to open fire on their 
own citizens in order to hang on to power. Most unpleasant dictators are 
willing to kill a few people, a few of their own citizens.  But very few 
of them are actually willing to kill thousands of their own citizens. 
It's a relatively rare phenomenon. 

This is what I call a rogue regime, not a real government at all. It has 
no legitimacy, not by any standards. It doesn't have a legitimacy that 
would come from Asian standards. It is completely at variance with Asian 
ethical standards. It certainly doesn't even have the legitimacy of 
being true to the realpolitik of international politics or of Asian 
realpolitik. It isn't even a real regime by the standards of 
dictatorships. It isn't even a real dictatorship. This idea of a rogue, 
marginal, peculiar regime isn't new. After all, we treated South Africa 
as if it were a rogue regime and brought it down in the end by doing 
that. In the end, we treated the Duvaliers in Haiti - far too late in 
the day but nevertheless - as a rogue regime. 

So, I have offered my rather pessimistic view. What does it mean?

Well, Aung San Suu Kyi is ready to negotiate with the military without 
any preconditions. In other words, she is ready to engage in a strategic 
risk, which I think is a very reasonable position. She is not merely 
ready to talk about nuts and bolts. She is willing to talk about the big 
picture with them - if they are willing to do that. 

Equally, I think that the proposition made by the United Nations special 
representative De Soto in 1998, that he would coordinate one billion 
dollars of assistance in exchange for some positive initiatives from the 
military, is also a very reasonable strategy.  If you could actually get 
that kind of agreement, a big agreement, then things would move in a 
relatively big way. But in spite of offering enough money for all of 
them to go to Switzerland for the rest of their lives, or wherever they 
want to go, there is no response. Nothing is happening.  Because that 
isn't the essence of why they are there. The corruption of this regime 
is so profound that it is impossible to imagine how one could construct 
a step by step rational management process towards normalization. 

You know, John Humphrey said about the Universal Declaration of Human 
Rights, "There has never been a more revolutionary development in the 
theory and practice of international law and organization than the 
recognition that human rights are matters of international concern.  
Revolutionary, strategic. Soon we are going to have an International 
Criminal Court, active and capable of dealing with issues and with 
people who resemble in many ways those who are in power in Burma. It 
would be perhaps possible to apply the rules of that court to some of 
those members of the Burmese junta. To apply the court to these people 
would be a strategic approach. To offer them a billion dollars in return 
for some sort of movement would be a strategic approach. 

I believe that what we have to do is to avoid at all costs the classic 
temptation of Western countries, avoid the comfortable trap of the 
Western approach, according to which we believe that all situations are 
susceptible to detailed management. In other words, are susceptible to 
tactics. You know, sometimes tactics are really aimed at the self esteem 
of the people who initiate the tactics, not at the real situation. 
Sometimes tactics, while reassuring, will actually undermine the very 
strategy they are designed to serve. I have always sensed that progress 
in Burma would come from a strategic long-term and extremely tough 
approach.  And that tactics
would backfire.

I feel this is the message, the real message of people like Dr.  Cynthia 
Maung and Min Ko Naing. We must engage ourselves, but we must also 
accept that there do exist juntas - or to be more precise, rogue regimes 
-  that resist other nation's logic and international laws. There aren't 
many in Asia, but there are some. And in these particular cases, we must 
think and act in a different way, aware that we are dealing with a long 
term and a risky situation. That's why the jury has recognized the 
engagement of Dr. Cynthia Maung and Min Ko Naing, by presenting them 
with the John Humphrey Freedom Award.

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