Tuesday, September 25, 2007

Asean is sleeping!

What is Asean doing while some 100,000 Burmese people, led by Buddhist monks, are rallying peacefully for improved economic conditions and political change?

We all know the answer. ASEAN is still sleeping.

However, Dr Surin Pitsuwan, who will take over as secretary-general of Asean next year, said in New York that he hopes the rally in Rangoon might bring about political reform in Burma.

The huge rally, he said, is something that has not been seen over the past years. "The rally is led by monks, who are well respected in the society. But I am afraid that if there are some 100,000 people involved, the situation might get out of control," Surin said.

 It seems Asean can't do anything in the face of a simmering political conflict that could turn worse any time soon. The rally over the past days in Rangoon is the largest in 20 years.

Hopefully the Myanmar monks and nuns will do as what 
the Roman Catholics did in the Philippines during 1986 
when they use peaceful demonstration to force Marcos 
to step down.

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A family was arrested in Thingangyun township for supporting the monks' protest

According to the Democracy Development Committee in Rangoon, U Kan Gyi, a strong supporter of the Monks' Excommunication Protest, was arrested by Tin Tun (a senior police officer) and the local USDA group this morning, 25 September 2007.

 U Kan Gyi & wife Daw Khin Thin Kyu who lived in Zawana Ward in Thingangyun township participated in the monks' protest on 23 and 24 of September. U Kan Gyi used his motorcar in support of the monks healthcare and offered medicines also.

At 8 o'clock in the morning of 24 September, Tin Tun & local USDA members blocked the house of U Kan Gyi for checking his car. Then, Tin Tun said that U Kan Gyi's car was not registered by his name.

Tin Tun told U Kan Gyi to come with him to MotorVihicle Office at 51st street Rangoon. When U Kan Gyi was taken by the police, Daw Khin Thin Kyu & a daughter accompanied with him. Eventually, Tin Tun took U Kan Gyi and family to the Kyaikkasan police detentioncenter, said a family member who shadowed the policecar.

The police officer Tin Tun's phone number is 549 463 and it was clear that U Kan Gyi & family was arrested for supporting the monks' protest. They were not sent back home so far.

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Army units move to Rangoon

Roland Watson, roland@dictatorwatch.org, has filed this report today.

"I have just received word from sources inside Burma that Army units LID 22 and LID 44 began moving last night, in many trucks, towards Rangoon.

This report is unconfirmed, but it says that the troops are being sent to replace the riot police that have been shadowing the demonstrators.  

LID 22 is based in Thaton, in Mon State. LID 44 is based in Paan, in Karen State. These divisions have soldiers that have been in combat with the resistance armies. Moving such troops to Rangoon is identical to what the junta did in 1988.  

Together with the report from Burma Campaign UK, that soldiers are shaving their heads and dressing themselves as monks, this is a very worrisome development.

Our sources believe that Than Shwe wants to crack down on the demonstrators, and the monks, and China, be dammed.

It is uncertain if he will be able to do this, if the other officers of the Tatmadaw, and the soldiers, will permit it.

Now is the decisive moment for Burma."

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Juanta prepares to strike back

Burma Campaign UK sources in Rangoon have reported that soldiers have been ordered to shave their heads, in possible preparation for infiltrating peaceful demonstrations. They would start rioting or attacking police, providing the regime with a pretext for a brutal crackdown on protestors.

Sources indicate that soldiers from Light Battalion 77 in Rangoon have been given the order. Sources also report that the regime has ordered 3,000 monks robes from a factory in Rangoon.

It is a tactic the regime has used in the past, including at the Depayin massacre in 2003, during which Aung San Suu Kyi was arrested. Regime militia dressed as monks were involved in the ambush which left up to 100 democracy
activists dead.  State television today reported that action would be taken against protestors.

"We know from experience that the regime is capable of opening fire on civilians", said Mark Farmaner, acting Director of Burma Campaign UK.

The regime came to power on the back of a massacre in 1988 that left at least 3,000 civilians dead. They have also been accused by the UN of breaking the Geneva Convention for their deliberate targeting of civilians in attacks on
ethnic minorities.

Despite the widespread expectations that the regime will use violence to suppress protest, the international community has been remarkably silent, with
the French government being the only one to make a strong statement warning of consequences if the regime respond with violence. ASEAN has also expressed concern.

"The regime has been held in check by the peoples' respect for the monks and the fact that the world is watching, but the scale of protests means they will be looking for options that allow them to justify a crackdown," said Mark
Farmaner.

"The UN Secretary General and other world leaders must speak out and make it clear that a violent response in unacceptable. At the moment the international community seems to be willing to watch from the sidelines as the regime moves closer to a massacre. If the regime does attack protestors, this will have been one of the most widely predicted massacres in recent history, and makes a mockery any government's claim to be committed to human rights."