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DSIF SETS BURMA UP FOR A BEATING AT



DSIF SETS BURMA UP FOR A BEATING AT THE GA

With a brilliance of timing we have come to expect, the Burmese junta's
Department of Shooting Itself in the Foot (DSIF) is making a major effort
to embarrass Burma at the UN General Assembly, which begins in New
York today (6 September) with the Millennium Summit.

In pursuit of public humiliation in what is probably the most prestigious
UN meeting ever, the DSIF has been working hard to underscore and
amplify Burma's pariah status. First, in full knowledge of what  was likely to
happen, it organised the 9-day roadside blockade of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi
and her colleagues, in the process embarrassing ASEAN and demonstrating
the junta's political insecurity within the country. The blockade brought 
about
the desired international condemnation but, no doubt fearing that it had not
alienated every government  -- Japan, for instance, hardly reacted at all, in
public, at least --, DSIF  arranged a brutal end  to the rustic "holiday" 
in Dala,
with Aung  San Suu Kyi and U Tin Oo reported to  have been handcuffed and
forced into cars and their supporters beaten up and  imprisoned. Finally,
having "escorted"  the NLD leaders back to Rangoon, it  looted the NLD 
offices,
took away documents, placed  Daw Suu and colleagues under incommunicado
de facto house  arrest, made further  threatening moves against the  NLD, and
even  managed to  man-handle the British Ambassador.

In this case,  the junta followed through superbly with a classical 
blaming-the-
victim accusation that in  trying to visit  Daw Aung San  Suu Kyi, the 
Ambassador
had "overstepped the universal  diplomatic norms."  This brings to mind the 
junta's
growing international role as a mentor on human rights. One of its pupils, 
Australia,
is already applying the lessons it received from the generals at the human 
rights
trainings in Rangoon, and is well on its  way to joining Malaysia, Burma et 
al in
embracing "Asian values", putting the UN Special Rapporteurs in their place 
and
getting off the hook of universal standards and treaty obligations (see the 
Human
Rights Watch press release of 31 August, "Australia undermining global 
human rights").

Will the DSIF's exploits be enough to ensure a humiliating condemnation at the
Millennium Summit and in the GA resolution on the Situation of Human Rights in
Myanmar? Probably, but since the junta is a true masochist, and wants to make
sure there is no way out,  we can expect further provocations over the next 
weeks.


Caveat

It would be a mistake, of course, to view the activities of the DSIF as 
irrational or
historically eccentric. Shooting oneself in the foot is, after all, a 
practical way to
avoid battle and potentially more serious injuries or death. And provoking 
attacks
from outside to justify crackdowns, impose internal "unity" on the people 
and get
the elite to close ranks, has been in the political toolbox for millennia.