Talks offer hope in Burma
Peace prize winner visits Dublin
BY SOLEDAD GALIANA
On Monday 12 March, Myat Thu, the assistant secretary of the All Burma Federation of Student Unions (ABFSU), visited Ireland en route from the Norway, where he accepted the student peace prize from the International Student Festival in Trondheim on behalf of imprisoned student leader Min Ko Naing.
Min Ko Naing, which means ``Conqueror of Kings'', is the nom de guerre of Paw Oo Tun, chairman of the All Burma Federation of Student Unions. He was arrested on 23 March 1989 for his activities in opposition to the ruling military junta and sentenced to 20 years hard labour in prison. During a general amnesty in 1992 the sentence was reduced to 10 years. According to this, Min Ko Naing should have been released in March 1999, but he is still held in prison. He has spent most of his time in solitary confinement.
Min Ko Naing's plight is not an exception in Burma, where the military junta government is holding around 2,500 political prisoners.
However, news of the Student Peace Prize award coincided with negotiations between the military dictatorship and the pro-democracy movement. The talks come after years of repression, and political analysts point out that the military leaders' decision to meet the pro-democracy movement has been forced upon them by international diplomacy and sanctions imposed against Burma's goods since 1990.
Trade sanctions imposed by the European Union and the United States have virtually halted all Western investment in Burma; tourism has shrunk dramatically in response to an international campaign for travellers to boycott the country; and consumer pressure has had a significant effect in persuading multinational companies that trading with Burma is bad for business. As a result, Burma's economy has collapsed.
The first move came at the end of January, when Burma's military rulers released 84 members of the National League for Democracy (NLD). Some had been detained since April, but most were arrested in September 2000 when their leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, tried to leave the capital Rangoon for Mandalay in the north.
The 84 activists, who had been held without charge at Rangoon's Insein prison, were released in small groups on Thursday, an NLD official said. The releases came a day after the NLD's second most senior figure, Tin Oo, was freed from a military base.
In 1990 the Burmese democracy movement, led by Aung San Suu Kyi, the daughter of former Burmese Prime Minister General Thakin Aung San, who had been assassinated in 1947, won a landslide victory in the country's general election. But the military regime refused to allow Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy to rule. For much of the past decade, Suu Kyi has been under house arrest and the Burmese military rulers have perpetrated a regime of unrelenting oppression and abuse of the human rights of its people.
Now, in an extraordinary development, Burma's military rulers are holding talks with Aung San Suu Kyi about the framework for a transitional administration to return the country to civilian rule.
But, the preconditions imposed by the military to reach an agreement could prove too much to be accepted. It seems that Suu Kyi, a Nobel laureate, is prepared to agree to the condition that she will not take a direct role in any future civilian government. But the military regimen is also looking for immunity from prosecution for their past and present human rights abuses.
Myat Thu was a second year student when an uprising erupted in 1988 calling for the democratisation of the country and challenging the one-party military rule.
On 18 September 1988, the military suppressed the demonstrations killing hundreds of people and formed a new government, called the State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC). Thousands of students and other activists fled the country, many of which are still living on the Thai-Burmese border, others were imprisoned. ``What the students of Burma were trying to do was to stand up for our rights, for our people, and what we got in response were bullets. Around 300 students are still in prison after been arrested during those demonstrations,'' said Myat Thu.
Myat had to flee his town, but took the decision to remain in the country, and hid with some relatives in another village. ``I hid there for a month, and then my father called me to come back, as a new military government was being formed and they had announced they would not harm any students involved in the demonstrations.''
In 1990, the military Junta decided to call a general election. This witnessed an overwhelming victory of the opposition National League for Democracy led by Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, but the dictatorship refused to acknowledge the results. Hundreds of people, including students, monks and members of National League for Democracy were arrested, tortured and sentenced to long-term imprisonment for their political activities. Following the elections, Myat Thu had to leave his country and take exile to Thailand, where he is still today. It was in exile that he joined the All Burma Student Federation Union ``formed by those students who fled from Burma in 1988''.
Myat Thu points out that though most of Burma's difficulties are caused by military rule, it is important to also consider the conflicts between the different ethnic groups within Burma. ``This is the reason we are asking the military regimen to enter negotiations with the democratic forces led by Aung San Suu Kyi and some ethnic leaders'', explained Myat, who also pointed out how volatility in Burma is causing instability in the region.
In the last two months, the military regime in Burma has launched attacks against two of its neighbours, Bangladesh and Thailand. Burma accused Thailand of supporting separatist Shan guerrillas.
At the beginning of the year, Bangladeshi and Burmese border guards exchanged fire amid rising tension over a controversial dam project on the Naaf river. After the controversy, Bangladeshi authorities were informed that the project had been abandoned.
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