BurmaNet News, April 29 - May 1, 2006

[Editor]

April 29 – May 1, 2006 Issue # 2952


INSIDE BURMA
Reuters: Suu Kyi's party hit by resignations
AP: Cyclone Mala killed four and injured several in Burma
DVB: Detained Burmese heroine Su Su Nway not well
SHAN: Embattled NLD has company
DVB: Drunken Burmese soldiers shoot innocent Muslim in Rangoon

ON THE BORDER
Mizzima: FTUB marks Labour Day with call for workers’ rights

BUSINESS / TRADE
SHAN: Thailand to Burma, roads for free

INTERNATIONAL
AFP: US condemns Myanmar military crackdown amid calls for UN action
Irrawaddy: Burma’s slide “horrific”—senior US official
UN News Center: UN Security Council strongly condemns violence against
civilians in wartime
VOA: Italian trade organization presents human rights award to detained
Burmese trade unionist

OPINION / OTHER
Boston Globe: The Burma test
Bangkok Post: Junta failing reality test


____________________________________
INSIDE BURMA

May 1, Reuters
Suu Kyi's party hit by resignations

Yangon: Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy has been hit by a
spate of resignations it blames on pressure from Myanmar's military junta,
which has threatened to ban the party.

An NLD spokesman confirmed weekend reports in state-controlled newspapers
that 17 party officials in Northern Shan State had quit en masse last
week.

"We think it is just because of pressure by authorities," NLD spokesman
Nyan Win told Reuters on Monday.

"We hear NLD members in some other regions are also under the same
pressure. So we think there will be more resignations."

The New Light of Myanmar newspaper reported on Sunday that nine NLD
executives in Lashio Township and eight in Hsenwi Township in Northern
Shan State had quit last week.

"They said the party was plagued with grudges and attacks and disagreement
among the party members," the newspaper said.

The NLD, which won a landslide election victory in 1990 only to be denied
power by the army, was accused last week of having ties to "expatriate
groups, terrorists and destructive groups" blamed for attacks on the
former Burma.

The NLD rejected the charges by Information Minister Brigadier-General
Kyaw Hsan, who said the government had "firm evidence to declare the NLD
unlawful" but it would allow the party to exist for now.

Foreign diplomats say they believe the junta, which moved further into
isolation after decamping to a new jungle capital late last year, is
preparing a final crackdown against the NLD despite its weakened state.

The party's offices outside Yangon have been shut since May 2003 when Suu
Kyi, 60, was detained. The Nobel Peace laureate remains under house arrest
at her Yangon home, her telephone cut off and visitors restricted.

____________________________________

May 1, Associated Press
Cyclone Mala killed four and injured several in Burma

Four people were killed and 31 injured as Cyclone Mala battered Burma's
Irrawaddy delta, its west coast and the outskirts of the capital,
state-run media reported Monday.

The tropical cyclone, packing winds of 240 kilometers an hour, slammed
into Burma on Friday and Saturday destroying hundreds of houses, two beach
resorts and at least five factories, the Kyemon daily and the
International Federation of the Red Cross said.

Residents in Burma cleaned up Sunday after a tropical cyclone cut a path
of destruction. Cyclone Mala wreaked havoc Saturday along the coast on the
Bay of Bengal.

"This is the worst damage I have ever seen in my life," said a resident
from the Hlaing Thar Yar industrial zone outside of Rangoon that took the
brunt of the storm.

"Even containers fell and cars were blown into the air by what looked like
a tornado," he said, requesting anonymity because of the political climate
in the country. The fierce winds ripped roofs off dozens of buildings and
destroyed five factories in Hlaing Thar Yar, according to The New Light of
Myanmar newspaper on Sunday.

The International Federation of Red Cross said that 586 homes in Hlaing
Thar Yar had been damaged. It has also sent an assessment team to Gwa, a
coastal resort about 190 kilometers northwest of Rangoon, to check on
damage there.

Residents in Hlaing Thar Yar spent Sunday sifting through the twisted
metal and broken glass searching for their belongings, while the police
and military stood guard nearby.

"I don't know how and when I can repair my house because the price of
housing materials are so high," said Hla Myint a, 45-year-old peddle taxi
driver whose apartment was damaged. "I am now looking for my bag of
clothing which was lost during the storm."
The cyclone has moved inland and weakened significantly, according to U
Tun Lwin, director of the country's meteorological department. The weather
in Rangoon was clear and sunny on Sunday.

The storm cut a destructive swathe through Burma’s Irrawaddy delta,
battering Haingyi Island—about 200 kilometers southwest of Rangoon—with a
wind speed of more than 120 kilometers per hour on Friday, damaging
several houses.

Bassein, to the west of Yangon, was also hit.

"We escaped major damages but trees and utility poles fell in Bassein and
some buildings were damaged by fallen trees," said Yin Sein, a resident in
Bassein who was reached by phone on Sunday.

In 2004, the worst cyclone to hit the area in 30 years battered Arakan
State, leaving 140 people dead or missing and thousands homeless.

Cyclones—known as typhoons in much of East Asia and hurricanes in the
Western hemisphere—are large-scale rotating storms that generate high
winds and typically form at sea before moving inland.

____________________________________

April 29, Democratic Voice of Burma
Detained Burmese heroine Su Su Nway not well

Rangoon Kawmoo Township’s Htan Manaing villager, Su Su Nway who has been
detained for fighting against forced labour practices, is suffering from
heart diseases and gastric complaints, according to her brother who went
to see her at Insein Jail recently.

During her five-month detention, Su Su Nway’s health condition has never
been satisfactory and even deteriorating, said her brother.

“Su Su Nway’s health is not good. Currently, her legs are swollen. She has
gastric. It is worse than before. She is quite thin. She said everything
was OK. I gave her all the medicines and food she needs,” he said.
“Health-wise and physically she is thinner. As a brother, I am not feeling
good about it – feeling sad for her. I want her to be released as soon as
possible. Her health is not good.”

Su Su Nway is the first person ever in Burma to have successfully sued her
local authority members over forced labour practices. But, as an act of
revenge, she was subsequently counter-sued with trumped-up charges by them
and sentenced to 18 months in prison.

According to her lawyer Myint Thaung, an appeal will be lodged on her
behalf in early May and the result will be known within a week.

____________________________________

April 30, Shan Herald Agency for News
Embattled NLD has company

An elected member of Burma's second biggest party has "resigned of his own
accord," reported The New Light of Myanmar yesterday.

Sai Saung Si aka Nelson, 58, had submitted his resignation to the Shan
Nationalities League for Democracy (SNLD) Kyaukme branch on 6 April and to
the Multiparty Democracy General Election Commission in Rangoon on 27
April, says the paper. He had been elected with 90.78% of validated votes
from Kaukme township constituency-2 in the 1990 elections.

Sai Hsawng Hsi (spelling according to British transliteration system) as a
result became the third SNLD Member of Parliament who has been "chased
out" of the party, according to sources from northern Shan State:

    * The first MP was Sai Tun Aung, 48, of Langkher on 5 June 2004
    * The second being Khun Tun Oo, 63, the leader of the party, of Hsipaw
township constituency-1, who was sentenced to 93-year imprisonment on
3 November 2005

Several sources confirmed that he was summoned by the Home Ministry's
Special Branch on 6 April and was given a choice between resignation and
the closure of his Arun Oo Guesthouse in Kyaukme. "He chose what was best
for him and his family," said one of his close friends. "We don't blame
him."

An earlier report also said one of the party's guiding stars Sai Fah aka
Sai Hla Pe, 56, of Kyawkme township constituency-1, "has had it too," but
other sources were somehow hesitant to say anything about it.

The facts later emerged that Sai Fah was forced to sign a prepared
resignation on 7 April, a day after Sai Hsawng Hsi, after being given a
choice between quitting the party and termination of his lifelong
literature and cultural activities among the Shan populace that had shot
him into fame since 1970.

Later on 12 April, the party's Hsipaw branch, headed by Sai Ngo Kawn and
Nang La Pyi, was reportedly ordered to close shop. The closure of the
branch in Nawngkhio, led by Sai Tun Kyi, either followed or preceded the
one in Hsipaw.

However, it is still unclear how other branches are faring although the
one in Muse, headed by Sai Kyaw Naing aka Sai Kham Hseng, was "politely
requested" to present a full 11-member list of its branch committee on
Friday, 28 April. Branches in Taunggyi in the south and in Kengtung in the
east meanwhile are still strictly left alone. "It's part of the junta's
aim to rid the north of all political and armed opposition movements,"
said a party sympathizer.

The party had already suffered dissolution of its southern branches in
Langkher, Mongkerng and Hsihseng 5 years earlier.

The SNLD emerged at the top statewise with 23 seats in 1990. However, Ten
were disqualified by the Electoral Commission, while 6 others have died,
leaving only 7 valid members: Hkun Tun Oo, Sai Fah, Sai Tun Aung, Sai
Hsawng Hsi, Sai Tha Tun Mya (Laikha), Sai Awn (Mongkerng) and Sai Tin Win
(Namzang).

____________________________________

April 30, Democratic Voice of Burma
Drunken Burmese soldiers shoot innocent Muslim in Rangoon

A 40-year old Muslim man is in critical state at a hospital in Rangoon
after he was shot in the stomach by drunken Burmese soldiers on security
duty.

According to eyewitnesses, the incident occurred on 10 April at around 9pm
local time. The victim, Than Oo and his wife from Rangoon Shwe Pyitha
Township were accompanying a female relative to her home when they were
confronted by a group of drunken soldiers and security agents in civilian
clothing at the Hlawkar railway crossing.

They interrogated and beat up Than Oo and attempted to rape the two women.
When he pleaded with them not to do so, the two agents stabbed him with a
knife and he shouted for help. The leader of the group, an army corporal
fired his gun in the air to frighten Than Oo into silence.

Unfortunately, the gun startled Than Oo into a panic, causing him to run
away. The soldier then shot him in the back and his stomach burst opened.

He was taken to North Okkalappa Medavi Hospital’s emergency ward and he is
still in critical state. Moreover, it hard for him to stay on in the
hospital as he could not pay 5000 Kyats per day for the medicines and
cares he is receiving. Than Oo has been making a living as a mender of
shoes and umbrellas, and his family members are afraid to seek assistance.

When DVB contacted Shwe Pyitha Township police station, an officer on duty
confirmed the report of the shooting and asked us to contact the nearby
Hlawkar Police Station for details. Nevertheless, a police officer on duty
was reluctant to say anything but he confirmed that the incident occurred
on 10 April.

“When it comes to this matter, we have no permission to make comments. We
have to report the incident to higher authorities.”

Recently, a former political prisoner Thet Naing Oo was beaten to death by
the police and fire brigade members of Rangoon Kyimyintaing (Kemmendine)
Township and a youth from Mandalay died in police custody. Both of them
were blamed the authorities for their deaths.

____________________________________
ON THE BORDER

May 1, Mizzima News
FTUB marks Labour Day with call for workers’ rights - Nga Ngai

The Federation of Trade Unions-Burma marked Labour Day today with a call
for the release of detained worker’s rights activists in Burma, including
Su Su Nwe, Aung Myo Thant and Aye Myint.

FTUB vice general secretary Dr Zaw Win Aung told Mizzima the Burmese
military continued to flout international labour laws.

“Burma is a member state to the [International Labour Organization] but is
not abiding with the charters and continues to suppress the rights of
labourers, and there are continued forced labour and no freedom of
association,” Dr Zaw Win Aung said.

“The main problem of labourers in Burma is a . . . lack of human rights,
and the people need democracy.”

He said the Burmese military’s recent decision to drastically increase the
salaries of civil servants and military personnel did not redress the
issues of forced labour or a lack of labour rights in the country.

Dr Zaw Win Aung said the wage rises would not help raise the living
standard of Burmese workers as inflation rates had also risen.

The military junta announced in March they would increase the salaries of
government employees from between 500 and 1200 percent.

Since the announcement the prices of many commodities in Burma have
skyrocketed.

While celebrations and demonstrations were held across the world today
marking the 116th international Labour Day, Burmese workers in Thailand's
Phang Nga district attended the first ever celebration in the region.

____________________________________
BUSINESS / TRADE

May 1, Shan Herald Agency for News
Thailand to Burma, roads for free

One of Thailand's respected papers, Matichon, reported yesterday Thailand
has already agreed with Burma to build a 40 km road for free as part of
its plan to increase its exports to Burma.

Wirakorn Khamprakob, the Prime Minister's deputy secretary general, who
was on an inspection trip to the border on 29 April told Matichon the
17.35 km road from Myawaddy (opposite Maesod) to Thingan Nyinaung at a
cost of 119 million baht ($ 3 million) is due to be completed in May. The
Thai government will continue to build another 40 km to Kawkareik as part
of its overall scheme to reach Rangoon. "The kingdom's exports are
expected to rise 3-4 fold from the present 14 billion baht ($ 350 million)
after completion," he said.

____________________________________
INTERNATIONAL

April 29, Agence France Presse
US condemns Myanmar military crackdown amid calls for UN action

Washington: The United States strongly condemned Friday the Myanmar
military's offensive against ethnic minority groups, believed to be the
biggest crackdown in a decade.

Up to 11,000 people have been driven from their homes in eastern Myanmar,
where some 2,700 villages have been destroyed by the ruling junta,
according to non-governmental groups which also reported cases of "torture
and killings."

"We condemn in the strongest possible terms the Burmese regime's actions
against civilians and ethnic minorities within Burma," US State Department
spokeswoman Julie Reside said, using tough diplomatic language.

"The military campaign is another indication of the repressive nature of
the regime," she said. Burma is the former name of Myanmar.

Reside said the attacks were resulting in "ever increasing number" of
displaced Myanmarese -- within the country and across the border --
"highlighting again the threat of the regime's actions posed to the
region."

Myanmar's military rulers have long been accused of gross human rights
abuses, including for locking up the country's opposition leaders,
particularly democracy icon and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu
Kyi.

Their latest crackdown on ethnic minorities is largely targeted against
the Karens. Rights groups say it is the most serious offensive since 1997.

The Karen National Union (KNU) has been battling Yangon in one of the
world's longest-running insurgencies, and claims to have 10,000 resistance
fighters. Myanmar's junta has reached ceasefires with 17 ethnic armed
groups.

Reports from Myanmar indicate that Karen villagers are being uprooted and
targeted even if they have no connection to the resistance, the New
York-based Human Rights Watch reported, citing "killings" of women and
children.

The military stepped up its attacks during the dry season because it is
easier to move troops around the country, the rights group said. The wet
season starts in June.

Church World Service, a New York-based group representing 36 Protestant,
Orthodox, and Anglican denominations, called on the UN Security Council to
pass a binding resolution demanding Myanmar military to stop the attacks.

"Now it needs to move beyond words and act. The longer the Security
Council waits, the more villages will be destroyed and the more people
will die," it said in a statement Friday.

The United States put the international spotlight on Myanmar in December
when it successfully pushed the Security Council, despite initial
objections from China and Russia, to hold a briefing on human rights and
other problems in the Southeast Asian state for the first time.

"These heinous attacks in eastern Burma should open the eyes of the world.
The Security Council has been complacent on the issue for too long," said
Jeremy Woodrum, co-founder of the US Campaign for Burma, which is
coordinating a global push to free Aung San Suu Kyi.

Noting that the Security Council specifically touched on the situation in
eastern Myanmar during the December briefing, he said, "The crisis is much
worse now."

The American group Refugees International says more than a million people
from Myanmar have become refugees in neighboring countries, saying it has
the largest refugee outflow in all of Southeast Asia and faced the most
serious internal displacement crisis in all of Asia.

____________________________________

April 28, Irrawaddy
Burma’s slide “horrific”—senior US official - Clive Parker

Eric John, US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for East Asia and the
Pacific has talked of the “horrific descent of the situation in Burma,” in
an interview with The Irrawaddy on Friday.

John pointed to Burma’s reportedly worsening HIV/AIDS pandemic, the recent
outbreak of bird flu in the country and a “misguided, armed leadership” as
the main examples of the slide. He repeated that Burma presents a danger
both to itself as well as the region, and should therefore be referred to
the UN Security Council.

“Nothing is getting better, things are only getting worse,” he said in the
interview at The Irrawaddy’s office in Chiang Mai, Thailand.

He was positive about Asean’s recent increased concern about Burma’s
continuing political deadlock and failure to move towards democracy. John
described this as “unique in Asean’s history.”

 John said that the onus remained on the region to keep the pressure on
Burma, but also warned that Washington would continue to push the Burma
issue at the UNSC. The US has led the effort to address Burma at the
UNSC, which culminated in an informal briefing on the situation to
members in December.

The senior state department official refuted claims by Burma’s Information
Minister Brig-Gen Kyaw Hsan on Wednesday that detained opposition leader
Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy is linked to terrorists.

“The NLD is not a terrorist group
it is just a group that wants to help
give a voice to the Burmese people,” he added.

On the new Burmese administrative capital, Pyinmana, John was emphatic
that the US would not relocate its embassy to what he called an
“illegitimate capital,” describing the move as a “sad ego project.”

There was, however, bad news for the many Burmese both inside and outside
the country waiting for the US to do to Burma what it did to Iraq under
the former dictator Saddam Hussein in 2003.

“We’re not going to attack Burma,” John said, which was good news for the
ruling Burmese generals rumored to be fear such an invasion.

____________________________________

April 28, UN News Center
UN Security Council strongly condemns violence against civilians in wartime

The United Nations Security Council today issued a ringing condemnation of
all violence committed against civilians during armed conflict, directing
its strongest language at attacks on women and children, and pledged to
ensure that all peace support operations employ all feasible measures to
prevent the scourge.

In its unanimously adopted resolution, the 15-Member body also condemned
all attacks deliberately targeting UN personnel and others involved in
humanitarian missions, urging States to bring those responsible to
justice.

Acknowledging that the most effect way to deal with violence against
civilians would be to eradicate armed conflict world-wide, the Council
nevertheless demanded that all parties involved in such conflicts comply
strictly with all the obligations of the Geneva Conventions, as well as
the earlier Hague Conventions.

Council reprobation was particularly directed at sexual violence,
including all acts of sexual exploitation, abuse and trafficking by
personnel involved in UN operations, for which it welcomed the
zero-tolerance policy now in place.

In his latest report on the issue, released in December 2005,
Secretary-General Kofi Annan said that despite a sharper United Nations
focus on the protection of civilians in armed conflict, civilians continue
to suffer devastating “collateral damage,” as well as targeted violence,
increasingly in the form of sexual abuse, forced displacement, terrorism
and extreme economic deprivation, requiring ever-evolving protective
mechanisms.

“In the five years since the adoption of Security Council resolution 1296
(2000) there have been new challenges to the safety and well-being of
civilian populations, and the tools that we have at our disposal to
address these concerns need to be developed accordingly,”
Secretary-General Kofi Annan says in his latest report on the matter,
which the Council discussed today.

In his report, Mr. Annan points to the conflicts in northern Uganda, the
Darfur region of Sudan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) as
examples of the forced displacement and violence against women.

The occupied Palestinian territory and Colombia were cited as examples of
complex situations that include terrorism, and Nepal and Myanmar as cases
of economic suffering resulting from armed conflict.

____________________________________

April 29, Voice of America
Italian trade organization presents human rights award to detained Burmese
trade unionist

The Italian Trade Union Confederation is honoring a detained Burmese trade
unionist with its 2006 human rights award.

The confederation said it is presenting Myo Aung Thant with the
International Giulio Pastore Award for his efforts to protect Burmese
workers from the oppression and violence of the Burmese military.

The organization says Myo Aung Thant was sentenced to life in prison by
Burma's government after being charged with treason for his trade union
activity.

The Italian Trade Union Confederation says Myo Aung Thant is being held in
solitary confinement in a prison in the remote Kachin State.

____________________________________
OPINION / OTHER

April 29, Boston Globe
The Burma test

The United Nations Security Council, fulfilling the promise of an accord
among world leaders at a UN World Summit last September, passed a
resolution Friday ''On Protection of Civilians in Armed Conflict." This
resolution affirms a collective responsibility of all UN members to
protect civilian populations from genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing,
and crimes against humanity when their governments do not provide that
protection.

While diplomats in New York were voting for this embodiment of a
long-sought human-rights principle, thousands of civilians from the Karen
ethnic minority in Burma were trekking through rain-whipped forests,
pursued by troops of Burma's military junta who have been killing Karen
villagers, destroying their food supplies, and burning their homes.

The junta's pretext for its latest assault on an ethnic minority is a
claimed need to suppress the Karen National Union, the principal Karen
opposition group. In reality, the junta's ethnic cleansing of the Karen is
only the latest in a long skein of crimes against humanity by a regime
that rivals its ally, North Korea, for capricious cruelty against its own
population.

What connects the UN resolution on a collective ''responsibility to
protect" to the uprooted villagers in Burma is a renewed push by the
United States and its allies to pass a Security Council resolution that
would place the issue of Burma's depredations on the council's provisional
agenda. This is a sound, much-needed measure that would not lead to
sanctions, much less a peacekeeping intervention.

Drawing on the junta's manifest threat to the peace and security of
Burma's neighbors -- from the effects of exported narcotics, refugees, and
HIV/AIDS -- the resolution would engage the council in persistent efforts
to bring about national reconciliation in Burma. This would be a firm but
diplomatic way of fulfilling the UN's commitment to protect civilians from
crimes against humanity perpetrated by their own government.

This resolution would require the junta to submit a plan for national
reconciliation to the Security Council. This would mean opening a dialogue
with the elected government of Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi's
political party, the National League for Democracy. Hence, the resolution
would call for the unconditional and immediate release of Suu Kyi.

At present, President Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice are
focusing their UN diplomacy on Iran's nuclear program. But the impending
Burma resolution offers them an opportunity to show the world that
American oratory about democracy and human rights is not merely a
rationale for the pursuit of big-power interests. And the sad truth is
that if America does not lead the way in pressing for a Security Council
resolution on Burma, the civilian victims of the junta will continue to
suffer and perish, unprotected.

____________________________________

May 1, Bangkok Post
Junta failing reality test

There is good reason to believe that the Burmese dictators are on the
verge of taking the ultimate step to snuff out legal opposition to their
appalling misrule. The generals already have begun saying that the
National League for Democracy (NLD) and its leader, Aung San Suu Kyi,
exist only at their whim anyway. In a series of striking tirades from the
forbidden capital of Pyinmana, the regime has been laying out details of
what they claim is an elaborate, international terrorist plot against the
junta.

More and more, the attacks have centred on the NLD. The party, said
information minister Brig-Gen Kyaw Hsan, "has connections with expatriate
groups, terrorists and destructive groups".

Burma, of course, has been attacked by terrorists. Even a military
dictatorship has both the right and duty to take action to punish
terrorists, and to move to prevent further attacks. But in its
explanations of how it is dealing with attacks on Rangoon shopping malls
and up-country locations, the regime has drawn a mostly unbelievable web
of conspiracies, hearsay and fabrication.

In half a dozen Castro-length news conferences, authorities have failed to
draw any line at all between Mrs Suu Kyi or her party organisation on one
hand, and either terrorism or anti-government violence on the other.

The most notable thread holding together the generals' version of
politics, insurgency and terrorism in Burma is just how many groups and
individuals are involved.

Of course, there is huge opposition inside and outside Burma to the
military regime, its dictatorial methods and the lack of freedom and
democracy. But the generals are mistaken if they believe they can credibly
link the NLD to violent insurgents, let alone outright terrorism. If the
regime proceeds to the final step of outlawing the NLD, the international
community will have a duty to respond.

The claims of the military junta, even more opaque and isolated since
their move out of Rangoon, bears some inspection. Like the popular social
networking legend, they seem to think that no two groups can be separated
by more than six intermediaries. The generals have elaborated a giant,
terrorist network of Burma-based insurgents including the NLD, expatriate
groups in Thailand, Europe and America, and commanders among foreign
governments _ Thailand and America unnamed but included.

This is largely risible, and can mostly be dismissed. Of course, there is
no doubt that Burma and Burmese have been attacked by terrorists _ just
not by a world conspiracy. And there is evidence that the insulated and
politically in-bred military leaders actually believe such tripe.

Their proof of a foreign-led conspiracy, for example, includes the fact
that foreign diplomats in Rangoon have been seen talking to NLD members.
Brig-Gen Kyaw Hsan stepped up the heat on Mrs Suu Kyi last Thursday.
"Their Western masters ... are giving instructions," he told a news
conference. They have "incorrect polic[ies] such as confrontation,
defiance of authority, utter devastation, blocking the nation and relying
on the external elements".

Those are pretty serious charges, or they would be in a nation with
respect for freedom and law. Mrs Suu Kyi has been locked up for most of
the past 18 years, mainly at home because even the military dictators
cannot figure out a law she has broken.

The regime has referred to a group called NLD (Liberated Areas), which it
says supports violent attacks against the army. But the generals have
provided no evidence beyond their word that the group has anything to do
with the NLD which won the only Burmese election since 1962.

The junta certainly knows violence when it sees it. There is evidence that
backs up claims by the resistance forces that the army has uprooted at
least 11,000 villagers, burning their homes to force them to flee. The
140,000 refugees in nine camps on Thai territory speak eloquently to the
support and credibility that Burmese give to their government.

If that regime proceeds to outlaw the NLD and further harm Mrs Suu Kyi and
her supporters, the United Nations and its members must move quickly to
retaliate. Burma is reviled for failing to bring in democratic reforms,
but it cannot be allowed to stomp on freedom-loving people again.