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The BurmaNet News: October 13, 1999



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 Catch the latest news about Burma at www.burmanet.org
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The BurmaNet News: October 13, 1999
Issue #1178

HEADLINES:
==========
IPU: ADDRESS BY DAW AUNG SAN SUU KYI
AFP: GENERAL CLAIMS AIDS IS BEING USED IN PROPAGANDA
THE NATION: CLOSURE HAS LED TO PROSTITUTION
BKK POST: RELATIVES ARRESTED
SCMP: BORDER CLOSURE STRANGLES TRADE
BKK POST: CHUAN ASKS JUNTA TO NORMALIZE TIES
BKK POST: TROOPS ON ALERT ALONG BORDER
THE NATION: THAILAND MUST STAY PUT ON BURMA
CSM: FOR DISSIDENTS, THERE MAY BE NO GOING BACK
IHT: LATEST TECHNOLOGY LINKS JUNGLE REBELS
****************************************************************

INTER-PARLIAMENTARY UNION: ADDRESS BY DAW AUNG SAN SUU KYI
12 October, 1999 produced by PD Burma, Altsean

Message to the 102nd Inter-Parliamentary Conference by Daw Aung San Suu Kyi,
General Secretary National League for Democracy and Nobel Peace Prize
Laureate

[From pdburma@xxxxxxxxx: Sponsored by the Danish IPU Delegation.  For the
first time Daw Aung San Suu Kyi will address the IPU conference by a video
smuggled out of Burma. Also present is a delegation of Burmese MPs in exile
seeking for stronger support from the IPU and parliamentarians around the
globe. They will draw attention to the current situation of the elected MPs
in Burma, where parliamentarians has been denied the rights to convene for 9
years. For this reason the NLD have set up the Committee Representing the
People's Parliament (CRPP) to act on behalf of parliament until the official
parliament can be conveyed. Daw Aung San Suu Kyi appeals to the world to
recognise the committee as genuinely representative of the people of Burma.
Currently more than 40 MPs of the National League for Democracy and numerous
members and leaders of parties representing different ethnic groups have
been arrested and incarcerated.]

May I start by extending the greetings of the Committee Representing the
People's Parliament to the 102nd Conference of the Inter-Parliamentary
Union.

The CRPP was founded last year to represent the parliament that was elected
by the people of Burma in 1990. Nine years have gone by but the MPs who were
elected by the democratic will of the people have still not been allowed to
perform their duties. It is our intention that Burma follows the democratic
process in a non-violent systematic way that we may establish a good
precedent for good generations to come. This is the main reason why we
insist that the parliament that is elected by the people in 1990 must be
allowed to convene and must be allowed to take up their duties.

With regard to the recent happenings in East Timor, it has been said that
the democratically expressed will of the people should not be flouted and
should not be overturned through violence and intimidation. This is exactly
what happened in Burma nine years ago. The democratically expressed will of
the people was overturned through violence and intimidation.

We depend on parliamentarians all over the world to support us in our just
cause. We would like to thank all of you who have given us your sympathy,
your moral support and your practical help. The concern for the IPU has
shown for those MPs who are in detention in Burma has been a tremendous
boost to our morale. More than 40 MPs still remain under detention.

They remain under detention because they refuse to reject the will of the
people and stand by their principles that the democratically elected
parliament must be allowed to meet. Our MPs will do their duty until the
very end and the CRPP will represent them until they are allowed to convene.

We would like parliamentarians from all over the world to take a greater
interest in what is going on in Burma. This is not because we are concerned
with our own country alone. This is because we want to establish the
democratic principles must be allowed to work in the name of justice in
peace.

We believe in democracy because we believe that democracy is the only system
that ensures respect for basic human rights and without basic human rights
there can be no peace in our world. When the Burmese parliament is allowed
to meet, we are confident that it will represent the true will of the people
and that the true will of the people of Burma will go a long way towards
assisting democracy and peace in our region and in the world.

It is now over a year since many of our MPs were taken into detention. Some
have been released because of ill-health or extreme over age. There are
those who have been forced to give up their duties as members of parliament,
although it is a little ironic to say that they have been forced to give up
their duties because they have never been allowed to take up their duties
anyway. Before they have even been allowed to act as members of parliament
they have been made to resign. This of course is unacceptable because under
the democratic precedent laid down by our previous democratic government, no
MP can resign without the consent of our People's Parliament.  And since the
parliament has not met, none of our MPs can be made to resign. There is no
channel by which they can resign.

So as far as the CRPP is concerned, all those MPs elected in 1990 who are
still alive today remain the representatives of the people who elected them.
We make no distinction between the MPs from our party, the National League
for Democracy and those MPs from other parties. The Committee Representing
the People's Parliament represents not just the National League for
Democracy but also four other parties, all representing different ethnic
groups. Because of that we are confident the CRPP has the support of the
whole country. Ours is a union of different peoples and it is a very good
sign, it is a most auspicious sign that the CRPP represents different ethnic
nationalities.

When democracy comes to Burma, we hope that we may be able to make our own
contribution towards the progress of justice and peace in the world. But
until that time comes, we would like to call upon our friends all over the
world to help us in our struggle.

To struggle on a daily basis against a dictatorial military regime is not an
easy business. Many of our people have suffered grievously and some are
still suffering but they continue with their struggle because of their
deeply held beliefs in the ability of the human race to do better for
themselves now than they have done in the past. We believe that humanity is
capable of progress, which is not to say that we are not aware of our own
weaknesses. But we believe that we have the ability to overcome these
weaknesses. But in our times of trial, we would like to call upon our
friends to help us to combat our own weaknesses as well as the harshness and
injustices of our enemies.

I would like to conclude by thanking all of you and all those others who
have helped us in our struggle for democracy and who are helping to
establish democracy all over the world.

Thank you.

****************************************************************

AFP: MYANMAR GENERAL CLAIMS AIDS IS BEING USED IN PROPAGANDA WAR
12 October, 1999

A leading member of Myanmar's military junta Tuesday accused opponents of
the regime of using AIDS as a scare tactic in a propaganda war against
Yangon.

Powerful first secretary General Khin Nyunt told a gathering of health
ministers from across the region that claims of an Acquired Immune
Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) epidemic in his country were totally false.

"It is regrettable that some quarters are using the AIDS scare to attack
Myanmar since their allegations are false and groundless," Khin Nyunt said.

However, the general, who also heads Myanmar's powerful military
intelligence, admitted AIDS was "one of the challenges of the 21st century".

Earlier this year the United Nations AIDS program warned of a growing
epidemic in Myanmar and said the junta was largely ignoring it.

It said Myanmar was one of the danger zones in the region, with an estimated
440,000 Human Immune-deficiency Virus (HIV) positive people out of a
population of about 48 million.

But Khin Nyunt said in the past decade only 25,000 people had tested
positive for HIV, which causes AIDS.

He said Myanmar did not have a major problem with AIDS because its "cultural
values and traditions prohibited sexual promiscuity".

"We are convinced it will not reach pandemic scale," said Khin Nyunt.

He said the government had embarked on HIV education and public awareness
activities to combat the spread of AIDS.

Khin Nyunt told ministers at the three-day World Health Organisation (WHO)
meeting here that Myanmar's biggest health concerns were malaria,
tuberculosis and acute respiratory tract infections.

Ministers from Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Indonesia, the Maldives, Nepal,
Sri Lanka, Thailand and North Korea were attending the first WHO regional
meeting to be staged in Myanmar.

****************************************************************

THE NATION: CLOSURE HAS LED TO PROSTITUTION
12 October, 1999

Letter to the Editor

IT IS very shameful of the Burmese military junta that the closure of
universities and colleges has given growth to prostitution in Burma -- more
so than in Thailand. We Burmese wonder how dare the junta's mouthpiece, the
New Light of Myanmar [write] that ''the act of permitting prostitution is
adequate as manifestation of a free democratic state in Thailand'' without
visiting Thailand and also without the circumstantial evidence of Thai
culture and society.

We would like to request Agence France-Presse which wrote this news under
the heading ''Thai credentials blasted'' in The Nation dated Oct 9, 1999,
kindly investigate all the nightclubs at Theingyi Zay supermarket building
in Rangoon. Existing hotels which are built under the system of
''Built-Operate-Transfer'' within 30 years day-by-day are becoming
prostitution centres which are officially allowed by the junta's officials.

There is a Burmese saying, ''If you point one finger to someone, the other
four fingers are pointing at you''.

Tun Mra Aung, Bangkok

****************************************************************

THE BANGKOK POST: RELATIVES ARRESTED
12 October, 1999

Rangoon -- Ten relatives of Ye Thiha, believed to be one of five dissidents
who seized the Burmese embassy, were arrested on the day of the raid,
opposition sources said yesterday,

The National League for Democracy said 18 people were arrested at 10am on
Oct 1 before the junta knew the identity of the students who took the
mission.

It said the 18 included 10 relatives of Ye Thiha -- "the mother, the aunt,
three sisters, there brothers-in-law and their father U Nyo, including a
niece were arrested by security personnel and were released the next day",
it said.

****************************************************************

SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST: BORDER CLOSURE STRANGLES TRADE
12 October, 1999

Burma's closure of its border with Thailand has shut down the area's
bustling trade and is devastating the businesses of Thai fishermen who
operate in Burmese waters, officials said yesterday.

More than 400 Thai fishing boats have returned to port, leaving thousands
jobless.

An uncertain number of other vessels were stranded in Burmese waters, the
head of the provincial fishery department at the southern port of Ranong,
Sutha Theareephat, said.

Fishing operators and related businesses in Ranong had been losing more than
43 million baht (HK$8.9 million) a day, he said.

Prime Minister Chuan Leekpai said Thailand was seeking talks with Burma over
suspension of fishery concessions. But he warned Thailand would seek
alternative sites to fish in Indonesian and Malaysian waters if Rangoon did
not reopen its waters to Thai boats.

Rangoon unilaterally closed its land and sea borders with Thailand last week
after five armed dissidents stormed the Burmese Embassy in Bangkok. Thailand
gave the rebels safe passage to the Thai-Burma border in return for the
release of all 38 hostages.

The closure of the 2,100km frontier has frozen the normally bustling border
trade.

At the northern Thai border town of Mae Sot, only a few Thai military
officials can now cross the Friendship Bridge -- opened two years ago amid
high hopes of a new dawn in bilateral relations and a boom in cross-border
business.

The closure was costing Thai businessmen 25 million baht a day in lost trade
in consumer goods, construction materials and petrol, head of the local Thai
Chamber of Commerce, Suchart Srirattana, said.

He said local businessmen were petitioning the Thai Foreign Ministry to push
for reopening of the border, complaining they were owed money for goods sent
to Burma before the blockade.

Hundreds of stranded Burmese migrant workers have built shacks on the Thai
side, with Rangoon's forces strictly prohibiting any Burmese nationals from
crossing to Thailand.

Thai border troops are on standby in case fighting between ethnic rebels and
anti-Burmese forces, which are reportedly mobilising at various points along
the frontier, spills over into Thailand.

"We are taking precautions to guarantee the safety of our people living
along the border," Defence Ministry spokesman Colonel Somkuan
Sangpattaranetr said.

****************************************************************

THE BANGKOK POST: CHUAN ASKS JUNTA TO NORMALIZE TIES
12 October, 1999

Thanks Than Shwe for co-operation

Prime Minister Chuan Leekpai yesterday wrote to his Burmese counterpart
expressing hope the two countries would resume normal activities soon and
develop closer ties.

Mr Chuan also supported a planned trip to Rangoon by Agriculture and
Co-operatives Minister Pongpol Adireksarn to request Burma to reopen its
waters to Thai fishermen.

In his letter to Gen Than Shwe, the prime minister thanked Rangoon for
helping to bring a successful end to the siege at the Burmese embassy here,
and pointed to the constant contact between Thai and Burmese authorities
then as evidence of close co-operation between the two countries.

Mr Chuan expressed hope that Thai-Burmese relations would "progress"
according to the path he discussed with Gen Than Shwe in Chiang Rai in
March, according to Don Pramudwinai, the Foreign Ministry spokesman.

At that meeting, the two prime ministers endorsed plans for joint patrols in
the Andaman Sea as well as co-operation against drug trafficking.

Burma banned Thai fishermen from its waters and closed checkpoints along the
land border with Thailand after five Burmese dissident students seized the
Burmese embassy on Oct 1.

Speaking to reporters, Mr Chuan said he hoped talks between Mr Pongpol and
his Burmese counterpart would restore mutual understanding.

The prime minister noted that Burma also stood to gain from Thai fishing
operations in Burmese waters and that a ban on this activity meant a loss of
benefits for both sides.

Moreover, an extended ban would force Thai fishermen to turn to Indian or
Indonesian waters as they could not stay idle for a long time, said the
premier.

However, Thai fishermen should not defy the ban as this would make matters
worse, Mr Chuan added.

Fishermen comprised most of the 63 Thai prisoners Burma released last month.
Burma yesterday announced plans to release five more Thai prisoners,
including four fishermen, and a traveller without proper documents.

Meanwhile, Foreign Minister Surin Pitsuwan has contacted his Burmese
counterpart to try to reach an understanding with the Burmese government.

However, Mr Chuan said he had yet to be informed of the outcome.

The premier noted there has been no critical change to the general policies
between both countries and that it was normal for the two sides to face some
problems sometimes.

He also said Thailand would not take any retaliatory action against the
Burmese statement in Washington criticizing Thailand for the embassy siege,
or the Burmese military reinforcement opposite Ratchaburi province.

****************************************************************

THE BANGKOK POST: TROOPS ON ALERT ALONG BORDER
12 October, 1999 by Supamart Kasem

Rebel groups brace for crackdown as artillery moves in

Tak - Troops have been placed on full alert along the Thai-Burmese border
following reports of a planned Burmese military crackdown on anti-Rangoon
movements, a senior army officer said yesterday.

Maj-Gen Tomorn Kittisopon, commander of the Naresuan task force, said troops
and heavy weaponry have been deployed in five border districts as tension
mounted.

He insisted the preparations were to ensure security for Thai citizens and
to retaliate in case of encroachment by foreign troops.

"We've learned that the Burmese military plans to launch attacks on
anti-Rangoon movements along the border. So we have to be prepared for any
possible action," the officer said.

Maj-Gen Tomorn yesterday inspected readiness of troops in the border
districts of Mae Sot, Mae Ramat, Tha Song Yang, Phop Phra and Umphang.

The task force commander also inspected security preparations in Mawkier and
Umpiom refugee camps in Phop Phra and Mae La in Tha Song Yang district,
after intelligence reports of possible attacks by foreign troops on the
refugee camps.

Meanwhile, a security source yesterday said the United Nations High
Commissioner for Refugees plans to discuss with the Interior Ministry the
relocation of 1,800 Burmese students under its care to refugee camps in Tak.

However, authorities there said a relocation would only encourage Burmese
military attacks on the camps.

Meanwhile, a Burmese man drowned on Saturday as he and four others tried to
swim across the Moei river back to Myawaddy following Rangoon's closure of
the border.

The body of Koh, 27, of Kawkareik, was recovered 5km downstream from where
he was believed to have drowned. His funeral was held yesterday at Wat Ban
Tha Art, as the Burmese authorities denied entry.

In Kanchanaburi, Burmese troops were reported to have sent reinforcements to
areas opposite Thong Pha Phum and Sangkhla Buri districts.

Across from Thong Pha Phum district, the Burmese 32nd Battalion, a new
reinforcement, laid a barbed wire fence along the border in the vicinity of
Ban Itong, while other troops have done likewise opposite Sangkhla Buri
district.

****************************************************************

THE NATION: THAILAND MUST STAY PUT ON BURMA
12 October, 1999 by Kavi Chongkittavorn

Editorial

IT was a blessing in disguise that the Burmese junta leaders did not
appreciate Thailand's peaceful settlement of the recent Burmese embassy
siege. Rangoon has shown its truest colour. Thai leaders have now realized
they should not entertain any illusion that their Burmese counterparts are
capable of conducting diplomacy within the context of regional and
international norms.

It is sad that the discussion in Bangkok following the siege was
disheartening and focused on comments made by opposition parties, especially
the New Aspiration Party. Most of them were rubbish and showed how veteran
Thai politicians continue to indulge in diatribes without looking beyond
their myopic views.

The Chuan Government must count itself as fortunate because it has full
international support vis-a-vis the pariah state of Burma, dreaded and
isolated by the world. It has been a long-standing policy of Thai
governments to promote border trade. But so far the most troubled spots have
exclusively concentrated on the 2,400 km Thai-Burmese border.

Throughout modern Thai-Burmese relations, Thailand has constantly been held
hostage by Burma mainly for two reasons: the desire to trade and exploit
Burmese natural and maritime resources and the lack of consensus among the
Thai authorities in dealing with Burma.

Whenever there were divisions within Thai society, outside enemies would not
miss any opportunity to use these weaknesses to their advantage. Burma's
victory over Ayudhya was a good case in point. It was due to internal
bickering and lack of solidarity among the Thais.

Unlike the first Chuan administration and other previous governments, the
present policy towards Burma is firmer and flexible enough to sustain
bilateral deals. After one year of trying to accommodate the Burmese regime,
the government has toughened its position as its international stature
grows.

It is firmer because of the better coordination among the authorities
concerned in the central and provincial areas. Decision makers from the
Interior Ministry, Foreign Ministry, the army and the National Security
Council are in tune with the Foreign Ministry-led policy.

Without the like-minded or Democrat-dominated decision makers, the embassy
siege could have easily turned into a fiasco as the authorities concerned,
representing different coalition parties, would inevitably fight over the
approach. The fact that the hostage drama took only less than 25 hours to
resolve was testimony to the commonality of approach, admittedly rare in the
Thai bureaucracy.

Prior to the appointment of Gen Surayut Julanond as army chief, Burma was
effective in using divide-and-rule tactics with maximum exposure and
engagement with the Thai army. They often gave the army carrots and used
sticks with the Foreign Ministry.

Literally speaking, since the 1988 military crackdown on democratic forces,
the Thai army leaders have been on good terms with the junta leaders.
Attempting to compensate waning political influence, past army leaders have
sought to augment their influence along the 5,000km stretch of Thai border.
Doubtless, their interests clashed with the national interest.

Gen Surayut has since changed the pattern of engagement of the security
apparatus all along the border, particularly their involvement in border
trade and business. Army officials have been asked to stay away from
business deals and to focus on security matters.

Burma's malicious attacks were uncalled for and represented another attempt
to divide Thais. It is no longer easy. Junta leaders are trying,
unsuccessfully, to use the growing dissatisfaction towards the Chuan
Government over domestic issues to its advantage as if the current state of
Thai-Burmese ties were the outcome of this unpopularity. Certain newspapers
mistakenly chose to play the Burmese tune.

With a new general election in the offing early next year, the Burmese
regime probably thinks the current Thai foreign policy would not hold with
an incoming new government. That might partially be true. But the political
transformation in the past two years has ensured that whoever heads the next
government must pursue the same policy guideline emphasizing democratic
principles and the respect of human rights.

The Chuan Government has made clear that Thailand is not the cause of the
embassy hostage-taking. Make no mistake, it is a Burmese problem caused by
their own disregard for democracy. The Burmese generals are the ones who
have held the whole Burmese nation as perpetual hostage. As long as
political oppression and violation of human rights continue, democratic
forces outside Burma will continue to use every possible means to highlight
the true nature of the Rangoon regime.

The siege has strengthened the Thai resolve not to waver, especially when
Burma unilaterally closes down border trading posts or gives up bilateral
contracts and cooperation. Ways must be found to make Thailand less
dependent on Burma's natural resources. Alternative fishing cooperation with
other countries must be seriously explored.

Finally, as the chairman of Asean, Thailand will be busy in the year to come
in improving the grouping's credibility and economic potential to the world.
In so doing for the Asean interest, it does not have to put up with Burma's
growing intransigence. The best way to deal with Burma is to stay put and
patiently wait and see whose side time is on.

The more contempt shown by the Burmese junta, the more solidarity is
required from the Thai government and its people.

****************************************************************

CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR: FOR BURMESE DISSIDENTS, THERE MAY BE NO GOING
BACK
10 October, 1999 by Justin Pritchard

BANGKOK -- For nearly a decade, pro-democracy dissidents vying to topple the
military regime in Burma have urged a nonviolent strategy. Now, frustrated
by the lack of progress, some in the movement appear to be changing their
tactics.

Activists speculate that the first armed resistance outside Burma - last
weekend's hostage drama at the country's Bangkok embassy - will not be the
last.

On Saturday, after 25 tense hours at the embassy, the renegade exiles
exchanged the 38 unharmed hostages, including one American, for safe passage
in helicopters to the Thai-Burmese jungle border.

They say their action was designed to transform international sympathy for
the pro-democracy cause into international pressure on Burma, which is
called Myanmar by the current government.

Since nullifying a democratic election in 1990, the Army-run State Peace and
Development Council has ruled the pariah nation amid charges of gross human
rights abuse. While some dissidents have previously taken up arms in the
eastern reaches of the Southeast Asian nation, across the border in Thailand
pro-democracy exiles languish in refugee camps. Those who did not flee
following the military's consolidation of power in 1988, including Nobel
laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, report suffering harassment and arrest.

In the wake of the embassy incident, Burmese dissidents are grappling with
just what the raid by the heretofore-obscure Vigorous Burmese Student
Warriors means for their movement.

"I cannot support this action, but I can understand and sympathize with
their feeling," says Sai Win Pay at a conference attended in Bangkok this
week by several dissident groups. A member of Aung San Suu Kyi's National
League for Democracy Party (NLD), Sai Win Pay is one of the representatives
elected in 1990. His opinion echoed an official NLD condemnation of the
raid.

Despite the denunciation by the respected NLD, more than half of the
dissidents interviewed at the human rights training program - which
ironically convened just before the raid - say armed struggle must be a
complement to civil disobedience.

"Aung San Suu Kyi asked every democratic fighter to make decisions on their
own experiences and perceptions," says Khaing Kaung San, a representative of
Burmese students from the Arakan ethnic minority. In his mind, that is an
implicit endorsement of armed struggle.

The embassy raid came a few weeks after Burmese exile groups urged their
compatriots to launch "a wave of force that would topple the regime,"
beginning on the numerically auspicious date of Sept. 9, 1999. On Aug. 8,
1988, millions of Burmese took to the streets and demanded an end to
repressive military rule.

Though the dissidents differ on tactics, each predicts the embassy raid is
not likely to be a one-act wonder. Indeed, the Vigorous Warriors themselves
promised, "We will continue to fight until we get democracy," in an Aug. 29
statement announcing the group's founding, Thai press reported.

Burma watchers suspect that is not just bluster. Somchai Homlaor, who helped
negotiate the hostages' release, thinks that some splinter group - be it the
Vigorous Warriors or another upstart faction - will act again.

"My assumption is, so far as we cannot solve the problem in Burma, this will
happen again," he says.

Mr. Somchai, secretary-general of the Bangkok-based Asian Forum for Human
Rights and Development, noted that students have demonstrated regularly
outside Myanmar's walled embassy in Bangkok "but it didn't become big news."
And news, he surmised, was the ultimate goal of the exercise.

"The event has both positive and negative impacts," according to Somchai.

"The negative impact is that the Thai authorities may deploy more strict
measures to prevent the movement of Burmese students in Thailand. The
positive impact is that the Thai people [now] understand that whenever Burma
has a problem, Thailand cannot avoid the effect."

If the hostage-takers were looking for international sympathy, there is
ready evidence that they succeeded. In comments that vexed Burma's military
leaders, the Thai interior minister called the five gunmen "student
activists struggling for democracy."

And in a bizarre twist at the end of the drama, a half-dozen of the Western
hostages tearfully bid their captors goodbye, shouting "Free Burma" as the
helicopters whisked the five men away.

****************************************************************

INTERNATIONAL HERALD TRIBUNE: LATEST TECHNOLOGY LINKS JUNGLE REBELS
8 October, 1999 by Thomas Crampton

Wired Revolution Helps Guerrillas

Bangkok -- After fleeing into the Burmese jungle on foot as military police
closed in on his home, Sonny Mahinder soon found himself immersed in a world
for which physics classes had not prepared him.

One of the thousands of university students who fled Burma's central cities
following the military crackdown on pro-democracy protests in 1988, Mr.
Mahinder had no experience in jungle living and didn't even know how to hold
a gun.

But equally important for his and other student associations that had been
decimated after the crackdown was establishing effective communications to
find out who was where and exactly what was going on.

While this took months to accomplish in 1988, Mr. Mahinder and members of
rebel groups with strongholds along the Thai-Burma border say today's
communications technology would have dramatically increased the speed of the
process.

On arriving in the jungle, the students initially relied on communications
networks already set up by long-established insurgent groups along
Thailand's border. Many have been at war with the Rangoon government
virtually nonstop since Burma gained independence in 1948.

To send a message into a city in central Burma, the rebel groups relayed
messages via radio through a series of strongholds to the nearest friendly
position, from where the final message was often delivered by foot
messenger.

Although quite secure, the delivery time for foot messengers varies
tremendously. Runners in low-risk areas can move at high speeds, while the
presence of government troops limits messengers to night travel and forces
them to circumnavigate large military emplacements.

Notes normally change hands several times, especially when they are taken
into cities in central Burma.

Even after the students became more organized with the founding of the All
Burma Students' Democratic Front, it could take up to two months to gather
full information on allied and enemy emplacements.  The slow speed of
communications hindered defensive deployments, prevented coordinated
offensives and left soldiers blindly wandering into bloody clashes.

For those outside Burma, news was virtually nonexistent.

Now, however, the falling price of sophisticated radio equipment, the
introduction of inexpensive satellite imagery and the spreading of news via
Internet are making it easier to run jungle-based insurrection.

The communications revolution came to Mr. Mahinder in the form of FM
wavelength walkie-talkies and shortwave radios purchased soon after he
became regiment commander in charge of 200 soldiers.

''The FM communication completely changed our ability to report and get
instructions,'' Mr. Mahinder said. ''Finally our front-line troops could
tell where the government troops were coming from so we could prepare for
their offensive.'' Shortwave radios may have a greater range, but handheld
walkie-talkies are the most powerful communications tool for jungle warfare,
Mr. Mahinder said.

''Walkie-talkies are easier to jam and easier for the government to
monitor,'' he said. ''But it takes just a few minutes of training to operate
a walkie-talkie, and it fits easily in your pocket.'' Shortwave radios run
off bulky car batteries that must be recharged with a generator and setting
up for a broadcast requires both skill and time.

All insurgent radio broadcasts use code to conceal information.

''We learned very early that there are no secrets in the airwaves,'' Mr.
Mahinder said, adding that the Rangoon government has an elite signals
intelligence unit with sophisticated listening posts that monitor insurgent
broadcasts.

All information regarding troop positions, estimates of enemy movements and
the time and date at which operations will be undertaken are broadcast in
code that can be deciphered only with the help of a paperback code book
carried by each unit.

For added security, the soldiers occasionally use a radio scrambling
technique known as channel-hopping, whereby the radio frequency is changed
at irregular intervals to make it more difficult to monitor an entire
conversation.

Certain information - planned movements, logistics details and the names of
contacts - will only be communicated in writing between commanders and
delivered by hand with a messenger, Mr. Mahinder said.

The ideal addition to their current jungle communications equipment, Mr.
Mahinder said, would be a network of solar-powered FM transmission boosters.
Placed on hilltops inaccessible to government troops, signal boosters would
increase walkie-talkie range up to several hundred miles from the standard
two or three miles, allowing signals to be received in cities within central
Burma. ''I could see sending swarms of people into the cities with
walkie-talkies,'' Mr. Mahinder said. ''The government could trace the site
of each broadcast, but by that time we would already have walked down the
street.''

The clandestine radio communications coming out of Burma's major cities are
now limited to brief bursts of shortwave transmission at predetermined times
and frequencies in order to hamper the government in tracing broadcast
equipment, Mr. Mahinder said.

There are a number of illicit briefcase-sized satellite phones in place
within Burma, but their signal can be traced within a 50-kilometer radius
and the calls are far too expensive for frequent use, according to Kyaw,
director of the political defiance committee of the National Council of the
Union of Burma.

''Even when donors provide us with the phones, $3.70 per minute is too
expensive,'' Mr. Kyaw said. ''We are looking forward to prices of calls
coming down with the Iridium system in place.''

When working in Thailand, an operational base for many fighting the Rangoon
government, the dissident groups conceal their location from Thai
authorities by communicating almost exclusively via mobile phones, which in
some cases can even be operated from within Burmese territory.

Other recent technological advances that will assist dissident groups in the
conduct of jungle warfare, guerrilla fighters and military experts said,
include recent walkie-talkies designed to automatically channel-hop several
times per second, handheld global positioning system hardware that can now
be purchased off-the-shelf as well as the falling price of detailed spy
satellite photographs.

Perhaps the greatest technological breakthrough for the dissident groups,
however, has been the Internet, which they use to spread news and propaganda
and rally support. East Timor activists recently threatened to conduct a
campaign of cyber warfare against the Jakarta government if the promised
independence vote did not take place.

One of the first and best known cyber campaigns confronting the Rangoon
government is Burmanet, an e-mail service that distributes news about the
country. A mainstay for activists and journalists covering the country,
Burmanet is sponsored in part by the financier George Soros. The Internet
has become particularly important to the ABSDF ever since the group's recent
decision to give up armed struggle in favor of political action, Mr.
Mahinder said.

Collecting information about human rights abuses and delivering them to
Internet-enabled offices along the Thai border is now one of the group's
priority operations. ''If we hear about human rights abuses in the jungle,
they can be sent out across the world via Internet in just a few hours,''
Mr. Mahinder said.

The information gathered is often broadcast back into Burma on the
Norway-sponsored shortwave station the Democratic Voice of Burma, short
circuiting the Rangoon government's monopoly on domestic news, Mr. Mahinder
said.

THOMAS CRAMPTON is a correspondent for the International Herald Tribune
based in Bangkok.

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