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SHAN DEMOCRATIC UNION: STATEMENT ON



Subject: SHAN DEMOCRATIC UNION: STATEMENT ON UNION DAY: 

11 February 1999 

PRESS RELEASE

SHAN DEMOCRATIC UNION: STATEMENT ON UNION DAY 

On this day, February 12, fifty-two years ago, leaders of the Shan States 
and other nationalities leaders signed an accord at Panglong in the Shan 
States with U Aung San and AFPFL (Anti-Fascist People's Freedom League), 
wherein an agreement was reached between these leaders to establish a new 
nation-state -- the Union of Burma -- made up of equal and co-independent 
nations or member states. 

On March 2, 1962, the armed force (the tatmadaw), dominated by Burman 
ultranationalist officers, unilaterally abrogated the 1947 Union 
constitution, a document founded on the historic accord reached at 
Panglong in 1947. In doing so, the military has destroyed the Union. The 
Union is no more. 

A number of Burmans at the time of the 1962 coup were misled by the 
military. They believed that the military had to strike, to seize -- or 
rather, usurp -- political power in order to prevent the break up of the 
Union. Since then, having experienced long years of brutal military 
misrule and mismanagement, the majority Burman have come to realize that 
the real reason for the 1962 coup was none other than to impose and 
perpetuate the monopolistic control over the country of men in uniform. 
The Burman have themselves lost their freedom and all their dignity and 
rights as human beings. 

Successive military juntas have claimed that they have kept the Union 
together and have preserved and strengthened national solidarity. This 
claim is empty rhetorics. 

It is a historical fact that the Union of Burma was built by civilian 
leaders, not by military officers. We also believe that the majority of 
men and women serving in the armed force likewise accept the fact that 
only leaders who enjoy the support of the people and are accountable to 
them can rebuild the Union and restore national unity. 

We call upon men and women serving in the tatmadaw to honestly examine 
their conscience therefore: to ask themselves whether those who have 
destroyed the Union and waged war against the people, will be able to 
rebuild what they have destroyed. 

We believe that for the Union to be rebuilt and national unity and 
solidarity restored, men and women serving in the tatmadaw must do their 
duty as patriotic sons and daughters of the country -- their foremost 

duty being, to transform the armed force: from being a self-interested 
class that rules at gunpoint and in lawlessness, into a genuine armed 
force composed of honorable, law-abiding men and women in the service of 
a government chosen or elected by the people. 

We call upon personal of the tamadaw to urge their leaders to hold dialogue
in a constructive and responsible manner with Daw aung San Suukyi and
leaders of the Nationalities, as resolved by the United Nations General
Assembly, and proposed at Mae Tha Raw Hta in 1997 by all nationalities
leaders and organizations. We also hope that military leaders will not view
a tripartite dialogue as a threat, but as a constructive step to rebuilding
the Union and building national accord. 


SHAN DEMOCRATIC UNION 
February 12, 1999