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Japan Times Editorial



Errors-To:strider@xxxxxxxxxxx
>From:NBH03114@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Date:February 4, 1995
Time: 2:54PM JST
SUBJ:Japan Times editorial

MORE OF THE SAME IN MYANMAR
The Japan Times, Saturday Feb. 4, 1995
Editorial 

After 46 years of determined resistance to the
central government of Myanmar, the military forces
of the Karen ethnic minority group were driven from
their headquarters in Manerplaw this week.  The
rout has created a refugee problem for neighboring
Thailand and revealed once again that Myanmar's
leaders prefer the neat logic of military strength to
the inevitable compromises of democratic politics. 
It is a lesson that we cannot afford to forget.

Although many of the details are still unknown, this
much is clear: After a lightening assault, the Karen
National Union (KNU) forces were driven from their
self-declared capital, sending about 10,000 civilians
and nearly 4,000 fighters over the Thai border.  Who
led the assault is not yet clear.  The State Law and
Order Restoration Council (SLORC) the military
junta that governs Myanmar, declared that the
attacking forces were made up of Buddhist rebels
who had broken off from the KNU last year.  By
that account, the military engagement was an
internal matter among rival factions within the Karen
movement.

That is convenient.  In April 1992, SLORC declared
a unilateral cease-fire with all ethnic rebel forces so
as to open the way for peace negotiations.  The
junta claims to have signed 13 separate agreements
with rebel groups in the period since then.  The
KNU signaled its willingness to hold talks with
SLORC last fall, but dissension within the Karen
movement apparently convinced Myanmar's rulers
that delay would work to their advantage.  It did.
The KNU has been divided between Christian and
Buddhist factions, a split that led last December to
the defection of the Buddhist group and the
formation of the Democratic Kayin Buddhist
Organization (DKBA).  SLORC was quick to
exploit that division in the largest and strongest rebel
group.

After initial denials of involvement in this week's
attack, Myanmar admitted that it had provided
"logistical" support for the DKBA.  News reports
suggest that it was much more: that government
forces provided the body of the troops used in the
assault, artillery fire and armored personnel carriers
during the attack.  If these reports are true, SLORC
violated the terms of its own cease-fire.

It was certainly a tempting target.  Manerplaw was
the command post of the Karen movement, but it
was also the headquarters of the self-proclaimed
Burmese government in exile--the democratic
politicians of the opposition who fled after SLORC
nullified the 1990 election -- and a refuge for
dissident students who had escaped the reach of
security forces after the military crushed the 1988
democracy uprising.

Having seized the Karen stronghold, miliary officials
in Myanmar assert that they will eliminate the
guerrillas.  For their part, KNU leaders maintain that
they will regroup in Thailand and resume their
independence campaign.  Some fighters welcome the
setback; freed from defending a fixed position, they
can now return to the hit-and-run tactics that are
favored by guerrilla forces.  That could threaten to
widen the war, just as a large group of Karen
sympathizers in Thailand could spark border clashes.

Myanmar's neighbors and trading partners--including Japan--have stuck to their
 policy of
"constructive engagement" in the hope that contacts
with the repressive regime would educate leaders of
that hermetic nation about the outside world and
their responsibilities to their citizens.  Last summer,
Myanmar's foreign minister was invited to the
ministerial talks that accompany the annual ASEAN
summit as a carrot to entice SLORC to greater
democratization.

A series of meetings between democracy activist
Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi and SLORC leaders
galvanized hopes that the policy was finally paying
off.  But there has been no progress since and the
military engagement this week -- and the regime's
duplicity concerning its involvement -- suggests that
the promise of constructive engagement amounts to
little more than hope.

Myanmar is paying for ins intransigence.  Attacks on
the Karen rebels have earned it censure from the
United States and Australia.  Foreign companies
operating in Myanmar are beginning to appreciate
the taint that comes from associating with the
regime and are closing up shop.  This weekend, a
United Nations delegation visits Rangoon to resume
the dialogue begun in October by Secretary General
Boutros Boutros-Ghali.  That dialogue should
continue, but we wonder about its worth when
Myanmar's leaders refuse to keep their word.