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Burma's Army Keeps Its Grip <the Wa
- Subject: Burma's Army Keeps Its Grip <the Wa
- From: Winston_Lee@xxxxxxx
- Date: Mon, 19 May 1997 11:27:00
Subject: Burma's Army Keeps Its Grip <the Washington Post: 05/18/97>
Burma's Army
Keeps Its Grip
Embattled Opposition Could
Be Targeted Anew After
Regional Group's Meeting
By R. Jeffrey Smith
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, May 18 1997; Page A18
The Washington Post
The police captain at the first checkpoint on the
road
leading to the home of 1991 Nobel Peace Prize
winner Aung San Suu Kyi was unyielding as he and
nearly a dozen colleagues blocked the path of a taxi
and insisted that "foreigners are not allowed to
visit"
her walled compound.
When an American visitor with an appointment to
see Suu Kyi at her home, less than a mile away,
asked why, the captain -- who gave his name as
Thein -- would only say, again and again: "Because
of the order."
Thirty-five years after seizing control of this
country, and seven years after annulling democratic
elections won by Suu Kyi's political party, the
Burmese military regime is accustomed to issuing
orders without providing explanations. Many citizens
here -- after looking around for spies of the
government -- charge that its decisions are
arbitrary,
corrupt or inept and can be carried out with lethal
brutality. As a result, they say, its leaders remain
widely hated and greatly feared.
Despite the public's animosity, and the growing
hostility of the Clinton administration, however,
the
military's grip on power in this Southeast Asian
nation of 48 million shows no signs of slackening.
In
fact, the generals may even be getting stronger due
to new repressive measures instituted in the last
seven months against Suu Kyi and her supporters.
Hundreds of university students have been jailed
since student protests against government education
policies and police tactics flared briefly last
December, effectively decapitating the student
movement, according to several diplomats.
Universities, which have been a crucible of
anti-government sentiment in Burma since 1920,
were abruptly shut that month with no date set for
reopening.
Separately, a fierce offensive by as many as
100,000 troops since February has routed insurgent
forces allied with the Karen National Union, an
ethnically based party in Karen state, east of the
capital. That party, until its repression in 1995,
played a key role in opposing the military regime.
In the last year, the military junta here has
persuaded a half-dozen
other ethnic minorities that controlled vast areas
in northern and western Burma
to sign cease-fire agreements by promising them
more autonomy and -- according to several Western
diplomats -- permitting them to cultivate and refine
a
substantial portion of the opium gum that winds up
on U.S. streets as heroin.
In addition, the military has jailed as many as 300
members of the National League for Democracy,
the chief opposition party and the platform for Suu
Kyi's activities, since last summer, including
several
of her close personal aides.
Win Thein U, for example, was sentenced to 14
years in prison last year for having arranged a
meeting between Suu Kyi and some farmers to
discuss the poor rice harvest and for having helped
an American television reporter interview a victim
of
torture. Suu Kyi's press secretary, Aye Win U, also
has been imprisoned without trial.
Suu Kyi, the charismatic daughter of the architect
of
Burma's independence from the British in 1948, has
been blocked from making any public speeches
since November. She also has been forced to restrict
her movements outside the compound since
hundreds of men in civilian garb were allowed to
pass through a government cordon that month to
attack her motorcade, smash its windows and beat
up many of her supporters. No arrests were made in
the attack.
Largely because of U.S. government complaints
about the regime, some visiting Americans are
subjected to extraordinary scrutiny by plainclothes
men who ask where they are going and whom they
represent -- at the airport, on the street and in
hotel
lobbies. Photographs are taken of those who try to
see Suu Kyi, drivers are questioned, and those seen
engaging in conversation with an American
sometimes are subjected to more detailed police
interrogation.
Interviews with dozens of people during a week of
traveling in Burma suggested that public discontent
is heightened by the country's economic failures.
The government's statistics indicate the economy's
growth rate has been falling steadily since changes
were introduced in 1992 to move the country away
from socialism toward a more market-oriented
system.
Inflation exceeds 30 percent, defense expenditures
reportedly consume as much as 50 percent of the
budget, and corruption and inefficiency are rife at
hundreds of large state-owned corporations or
private firms controlled by senior military
officers.
Without striking a deal with such a firm, or handing
over at least a 5 percent commission to a uniformed
officer, it is virtually impossible to invest here,
according to a half-dozen foreign businessmen.
Conditions outside this capital are stark. "They are
basically losing a generation," said a diplomat.
"Their
infant mortality and life expectancy rates are as
bad
as you might find in the worst nations of Africa."
But the armed forces have prospered since 1988,
when the State Law and Order Restoration Council
was formed to bring military officials into a more
direct governing role. The number of troops, then
186,000, has doubled. Everywhere, the council's
facilities are the most modern and well tended,
including an elaborate museum here with displays
touting achievements of each of the country's
regional military commanders.
To stem a grave shortage of foreign currency and
build up its domestic manufacturing industry, the
government last summer banned all imports of
nonessential goods -- creating what several
businessmen described as a brisk under-the-counter
trade.
But the measure did little to promote the creation
of
factories in this overwhelmingly agricultural
nation,
with the result that few up-to-date consumer goods
are on display. Only a few construction cranes dot
the skyline of the capital, a city of 3 million to 4
million people with a decrepit, faded air that
contrasts sharply with the modern bustle of
neighboring Asian capitals.
The Clinton administration last month banned most
American investment in Burma because of the
government's failure to thwart the drug trade.
But with few American goods in evidence -- other
than
Coke, Pepsi, Budweiser beer, and Lucky Strike and
Salem cigarettes -- and few joint ventures with
American firms outside the oil and gas sector, no
one believes the sanctions will cause much
immediate harm to the Burmese economy.
Many do say the publicity Washington's action has
generated will discourage some foreign firms that
are subject
to consumer boycotts at home from investing here,
and may
further discourage foreign tourism. Since the U.S.
sanctions
announcement, the value of the local currency has
fallen
nearly 8 percent against the dollar on the black
market.
"The sanctions are good, but they are not enough,"
said a university student, who asked that his name
be withheld because his family has been harassed
for advocating democracy. He complained that other
nations have not put similar pressure on the regime,
a view echoed here by others interviewed on the
street.
But many diplomats say that activists here are
naive,
and that there is little reason to expect the regime
will substantially alter its hard-line policies
under
foreign pressure. "Too many generals are making
too much money," said one envoy.
There appears to be a consensus among Western
diplomats here that as bad as Suu Kyi's personal
situation is now, it may become even more grim
after a decision on Burmese membership in the
Association of Southeast Asian Nations, a regional
trading group that could formally decide the issue
as
early as July. Many diplomats see the military's
recent
actions as having been relatively restrained by
a desire to avoid embarrassing its ASEAN neighbors
on the eve of the vote.
"If they get in, they will likely lock her up
again," a
senior diplomat said.
? Copyright 1997 The Washington Post Company
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