BNI Weekly News - September 22, 2003
. Attempted demonstration failed, 15 activists arrested
. Burmese MPs Demand Suu Kyi’s Release
. Teachers eager to upgrade education in border areas
. Floating Rohingyas of Teknaf
. He is a Prisoner - but unusual
. Is the Lady a Problem or a Solution for the Burmese Generals?
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Attempted demonstration failed, 15 activists arrested
18th September 2003:
Fifteen Burmese students who tried to stage demonstration in front of
Burmese Embassy in Bangkok were arrested by Thai authorities on 18th
September, which marks the 15th anniversary of military coup in Burma.
Daw Nu Kyin and sons, family members of one of the Thirty-Comrades, Bo Yan
Naing, were among them. Joint Action Committee for Democracy in Burma
(JACDB) and other four pro-democratic organizations jointly organized this
demonstration, the report said.
The detainees were immediately transferred to Thai Immigration Detention
Center (IDC). Ko Nay Min Paing who served as a bodyguard of Daw Aung San
Suu Kyi, the opposition leader of Burma said, “I am calling from IDC. We are
confined inside the hot police van. Total 15 activists were arrested
including student leaders from Bangkok, members of JOC, Mon students,
members of ABBESU, members of ONSOB and me.”
He said that he did not understand why the Thai government arrested them
while they were planning to stage a peaceful demonstration demanding release
of Aung San Suu Kyi and restoration of democracy in Burma.
It has been nearly four months that Burma’s democracy leader Aung San Suu
Kyi has been put under "protective custody” by the military government after
May 30 massacre.
The military government took over the state power exactly 15 years ago on 18
September 1988. Though the military promised to hand over power to the
winning party in 1990 general elections, the promise had never been
fulfilled.
Anticipating possible demonstrations in upcoming October APEC meeting in
Thailand, the Thai government issued a strong policy statement in the media
regarding ban on demonstration on September 17.
”The detainees are likely to be transferred from IDC to Special Detention
Center (SDC)”, one of the detained activists, Ko Zaw Gyi, said while this
report was being written.
In an earlier incident, the Thai government arrested eleven Burmese
activists and kept in the IDC from where they were sent to SDC as they had
links to politics. #
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Burmese MPs Demand Suu Kyi’s Release
17th September 2003
A group of exiled Members of Parliament elected in the 1990 general
elections held in Burma has called for the immediate release of their leader
Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and other political prisoners and to start a national
reconciliation process in Burma.
The Members of Parliament Union, in its statement on the eve of the 15th
anniversary of the bloody military coup in Burma, has also called on the
world community to step up pressure on the Burmese Regime, which came into
power by killing pro-democracy demonstrators.
"During the past fifteen years, the junta have blatantly broken its promises
regarding the transfer of power to the elected party, National League for
Democracy (NLD) led by Aung San Suu Kyi, and refused to any dialogue with
the NLD and ethnic nationalities for political reform and national
reconciliation", said the statement.
Several elected Members of Parliament left Burma after the regime cracked
down on the National League for Democracy and other winning parties after
refusing to hand over power to the NLD soon after the 1990 general
elections. They are at present living in exile in Thailand, India, USA,
Australia and the Netherlands. In exile they formed the Members of
Parliament Union to continue their struggle.
“If the generals are committed to establishing a peaceful, democratic Burma,
they must start the reconciliation process immediately and unconditionally
by releasing Aung San Suu Kyi, and others detained in connection with the
May 30 incident, as well as the other remaining political prisoners as a
first step”, said Daniel Aung, Vice President of the Members of Parliament
Union.
The Nobel Peace Laureate Daw Aung San Suu Kyi has been imprisoned in an
undisclosed location by the Burmese junta since May 30 this year after a
violent attack on her organizing tour in Upper Burma, which was allegedly
orchestrated by the military junta. #
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Teachers eager to improve education in border areas
16th September 2003:
Five teachers from the Burmese border with China and Thailand who went to
England for higher studies returned home and expressed their eagerness to
bring improvement to poor education system in border areas.
The teachers were selected by the Thai-based National Health and Education
Committee (NHEC) and were trained in teaching techniques at Newcastle
University, UK for one year.
Schools run by volunteers in border areas have been threatened by
insufficient financial assistance, inadequate number of teachers and
disturbance caused by civil war.
“I believe that my teaching experience and newly-acquired teaching
techniques would transform my school into a model one. And I hope I can
gradually persuade other teachers in my community to do the same,” said U
Hla Htay, the principal of Mae-Khong-Khar School (Zala Karen Refugee Camp)
run by All Burma Students Democratic Front (ABSDF).
He also admitted that these volunteer teachers needed to enhance their
abilities through combined efforts to improve the education of their school
children.
“I myself cannot do it. It depends on how much I can share my experiences,
how much these teachers are interested in and how much they can cooperate to
improve the education,” he said, explaining the necessity of participation
of all the teachers in the process.
Eighteen teachers are serving for nearly 400 students of various ethnic
nationalities at Zala Refugee Camp, which is run by ABSDF.
According to NHEC, over 140,000 students in border areas are receiving
educational assistance under the education empowerment program of the NHEC.
Several thousand students of various ethnic nationalities including children
of Burmese democracy activists have to depend on volunteer schools in their
own border areas. However, most of them cannot continue their education
after the 10th grade. #
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Floating Rohingyas of Teknaf
16th September 03:
Hundreds of families of floating Rohingyas from Burma have been living in
deplorable conditions in the southeastern tip of Bangladesh.
Over seven hundred families are living in the neighbourhood of a
kindergarten school in Teknaf under Cox’s Bazar district and close to the
Rakhine State border of Burma. The local residents are blaming them for
causing deterioration of the law and order situation of the small border
town, situated just across the river Naaf from Maungdaw in western Burma.
”The rise in prostitution in the town has increasingly been blamed upon the
Rohingyas who have been living in the area for some time. The local people
have raised high concern about the spread of the deadly AIDS through
unchecked prostitution among some of the Rohingyas who live unaccounted and
uncared for,” reported the Ajker Desh Bidesh published from Cox’s bazaar
recently.
”The situation was created when the Thana Nirbahi Officer (township
administrative official) ordered all of the floating Rohingya population in
the vicinity out of the rented houses in Teknaf Municipality recently.
Since then about 750 Rohingya families have been living in temporary shacks
constructed in front of the Teknaf Upazila administration office building.
The crowding of such a large number of floating populations has caused havoc
to the basic hygiene and sanitation of the town. The Rohingyas have often
unfairly been blamed for the rising crime rate, like robbery, drug
pedalling, extortion, murder, prostitution and rape,” said Jamil Reza, a
college professor.
Besides that the local workforce has been blaming the Rohingyas for taking
share in their labour market. “Rohingyas would work just for two square
meals a day and a bed to pass the night, while the owners of a teashop has
to pay at least one thousand taka a month beside board and bed to a
restaurant worker,” Abu Mansoor, a hotel and restaurant worker in the town
said.
Local people complained that the role of the police in checking the
prostitution among the Rohingya women is mysterious. Concerned individuals
in the locality last week formally appealed to the local Member of
Parliament, Mohammad Shahjahan, for taking necessary actions in uprooting
the illegal Rohingyas and repatriating them to Burma for the ‘cleanliness’
of the town.
”Though official repatriation of Rohingyas have been going on for the last
few months facilitated by the UNHCR, everyday hundreds of Rohingyas cross
the border to Bangladesh for work and medical treatment in the border town
as there is no work for the Rohingyas at home and there is no medical
facilities as sophisticated as on this side,” said Muhammad Yusuf, a local
doctor.
“The influx of Rohingyas also causes a number of problems to the local
residents including that of deteriorating law and order situation and
environmental degradation as many of them cut down sections of government
reserve forests and get settled in an unauthorized way and the law
enforcement agencies do not take actions”, said the college professor in the
town. “The seven hundred fifty families are not registered with the two
Burmese refugee camps in the upazila (township), either”, he added.
Rohingyas who have recently been repatriated to Burma allege that due to
joblessness in the border areas inside Burma and because of the Burmese
junta imposed restrictions on the travel of the Rohingyas, it has become
very difficult for the Rohingya people to survive. “Without jobs and the
right to livelihood where can we go for an earning?” asked a young Rohingya
woman who illegally came to Teknaf recently while carrying a bag of rice
back on her return.
Kamal Uddin, a resident in the shacks said, “It is totally unfair that we
Rohingyas have been blamed for the rise of lawlessness in the town. This is
a foreign country to us. How could we break the law here? We try to live a
decent life, according to religious regulations.” #
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He is a Prisoner - but unusual
15th September 2003
A prisoner of undisclosed identity has been held in an upper Burma prison
since the helicopter carrying the Burmese junta secretary number two,
Lieutenant General Tin Oo crashed in February last year.
The prisoner has been kept in a specially guarded room and has never been
allowed to mix with other inmates in Khanti prison, situated in Sagaing
Division of Upper Burma. The prisoners who have recently been released from
the prison said that his face is kept covered on occasions when he is taken
outside.
“The face of this mysterious man is covered with a piece of cloth even when
I give him a haircut,” said the prison barber.
“The military Intelligence interrogates him every other hour,” a prison
warder said, “even the prison staffs do not know anything about his case as
it is kept top secret, let alone his identity.”
After the Depeyin massacre on 30th May17 members of National League for
Democracy were also kept in this prison. #
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Is the Lady a Problem or a Solution for the Burmese Generals?
By Aung Naing Oo
17th September 2003:
The Burmese junta, the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC), will
exclude opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi from the political process. This
has been made plain by a policy speech by Burma's new premier General Khin
Nyunt on 30 August. Given the speech's tone, manner and setting, it looks as
if Rangoon has made up its mind.
According to General Khin Nyunt's declaration, the SPDC will go ahead with a
seven-phase roadmap. This strategy is not new but it is one, which cannot be
carried out while Aung San Suu Kyi enjoys her freedom. Conveniently, she
remains in detention following the junta's 30 May ambush on her entourage.
The Burmese junta has repeatedly stated: "We will release her at an
appropriate time". "An appropriate time" is likely to be when the junta
deems its strategy achieved - perhaps a long while into the future.
However, proceeding according to this strategy, the SPDC will not find a
solution for Burma.
Aung San Suu Kyi is a key part of the problem as well as the solution. And
if the SPDC leaders were smart, they would follow the example of the White
South African government. They would negotiate with Aung San Suu Kyi just as
the Apartheid government did with Nelson Mandela. Obviously, in order to do
so, the Apartheid government recognized Mandela's pivotal role in the
conflict.
Aung San Suu Kyi is Burma's Mandela. She holds the key to the conflict in
Burma. But Rangoon has tried for the past fifteen years to exclude her from
politics. This approach has proved futile. She has been imprisoned three
times already but with every detention her popularity soars. Her popularity
is certain to persist if she remains in detention.
Needless to say, it is her detention that has angered nations the world
over. Many countries, especially the US, the EU, Japan and the Association
of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean), have responded harshly. It can readily
be noted - and without any intention of causing offence - that if other
party leaders such as U Tin Oo or U Aung Shwe been detained, the
international reaction would have been considerably cooler. And any
additional sanctions imposed on Burma on the occasion of their detention
would have been unlikely. This is the sad truth.
Off and on, the Burmese junta treats Aung San Suu Kyi as a despised pariah.
It has sought at every turn to sideline and belittle her. Yet the generals
fear her defiant speeches and loathe seeing her meet with supporters all
across the state. Her doing so might well have compelled the SPDC to end her
campaign trips three months ago.
Aung San Suu Kyi's status as a Nobel Laureate continues to serve as a
perpetual reminder to SPDC leaders of their precarious hold on power. Most
importantly, they have not forgotten that her National League for Democracy
won a landslide victory in the 1990 election. Her continued detention will
only serve to cement her role as an integral part of the solution to Burma's
political crisis.
Clearly, the SPDC cannot kill Aung San Suu Kyi. This might have been
attempted during the ambush on that fateful day in May. But she is "like the
father, like the daughter." Her father, General Aung San, who died in 1947,
remains a symbol of freedom and defiance for the Burmese people. Aung San
Suu Kyi may die in detention or before she sees freedom in Burma but she
would die a martyr. And she would inspire the Burmese for generations and
haunt the despots from her grave.
Nor can the SPDC release her unconditionally, which is what she will ask as
a condition of her freedom. Her incarceration, therefore, poses a dilemma
for Rangoon. And her freedom causes the SPDC leaders headaches. She will
remain a thorn in the junta's side if she is not brought into the fold.
In particular, it is impossible to imagine how the West will end its
sanctions if she remains incarcerated. Recently Indonesia, the current Asean
Chair, warned Burma that her continued detention could become the focus of
the grouping's summit in Bali next month. Indonesia's call for Aung San Suu
Kyi's freedom is just another indication that SPDC is threatened with sour
relations not only with the West but also with its Asean's allies.
Crucially, Aung San Suu Kyi will continue to occasion intensely negative
publicity for the SPDC. The news about her hunger strike is just one example
- even if it is not true. The point is that the SPDC has jailed her
illegally. The best and most obvious choice for the generals, therefore, is
to make her part of the political equation.
"Aung San Suu Kyi was ready to compromise if dialogue took place," said Daw
San San, an NLD Member of Parliament from Rangoon, who escaped from Burma in
August. Unfortunately, Burmese politics took a wrong turn. Now the SPDC
leaders will never know her real intentions. Nor can she offer what she has
in mind now.
One may call it a cult of personality but Aung San Suu Kyi is probably the
only person who can make compromises with the SPDC leaders. It is highly
likely that the whole nation will accept flexibility in her dealing with the
generals. People will be happier to see a compromise solution if it
essentially halts the SPDC's entrenchment.
"Aung San Suu Kyi has realized that some of the key NLD demands are no
longer appropriate," said Daw San San. Reportedly, she might even accept
the SPDC's demand that 25 percent of the un-elected parliamentary seats be
reserved for army personnel. If genuine negotiations were to take place,
they would ease many of the junta's concerns. The junta would benefit
enormously.
Aung San Suu Kyi can be a nightmare or a pleasant dream for the generals.
Indeed, the ball is in the SPDC's court. Hopefully, they will make a timely
decision to reverse the trend. #
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Burma News International (BNI) is a network of six Independent Burma Media
organizations: The Mizzima News, The Narinjara News, the Kaladan Press
Network, the Khonumthung News Group, the Network Media Group and the
Independent Mon News Agency. #