News & Articles on Burma-Sunday, 16 October, 2011-UZL

News & Articles on Burma Sunday, 16 October, 2011 ------------------------------------- India fetes Myanmar leader on state visit India to help Myanmar in rice cultivation Myanmar trying to balance relations with India and China Myanmar agrees to take back refugees from Bangladesh Japan to restart development assistance to Myanmar Learning from Myanmar Building bridges across Irrawaddy to Myanmar Burmese change aplenty but it's only skin deep 'They were screaming: Die, die, die!': ------------------------------------ ENERGY TECH India fetes Myanmar leader on state visit by Staff Writers: New Delhi (AFP) Oct 14, 2011 India rolled out the red carpet Friday for Myanmar President Thein Sein, on a visit that followed his government's release of 200 political detainees -- the latest in a series of reformist moves. The former general, who arrived in India on Wednesday and spent two days touring Buddhist pilgrimage sites, was given a full state welcome in New Delhi for the official leg of his three-day trip. He then began a round of extensive talks with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. The visit coincided with Myanmar's release on Wednesday of nearly 200 political prisoners, in another tentative sign of change in the authoritarian state after decades of military rule and repression. Thein Sein has surprised critics by signalling a series of political reforms since taking power in a controversial election last November, and has held direct talks with pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi. In a rare concession to public opinion, his nominally civilian government last month suspended construction of a controversial mega-dam, risking the anger of traditional ally China, which is backing the project. The prisoner release was welcomed by the United States and UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, although both called on the government to release all the roughly 2,000 political detainees still behind bars. "We see it as an important step that responds to the aspirations of the Burmese people," State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said. "We have not yet seen a complete list. We do believe that there is still a large number of political prisoners in prison, and we call for all of them to be released," she added. Observers say the releases and the overtures to Suu Kyi signal Myanmar's desire to end its long international isolation, backed by trade and financial sanctions. India began engaging the Myanmar junta in the mid-1990s on security and energy issues and as a counter to China's growing strategic influence in the Southeast Asian nation, formerly called Burma. The policy drew international criticism, with US President Barack Obama chiding New Delhi during a visit to India last year for not speaking out over human rights abuses in Myanmar. New Delhi feels vindicated by Thein Sein's recent inititatives and, during their talks, the Indian premier welcomed his "ongoing efforts at political, economic and social reform," according to a joint statement. India also sees the stand on the dam project as a sign that Myanmar is making room for other allies apart from China -- India's main regional rival. "What remains to be seen is whether these recent signs of opening signal a greater degree of economic liberalisation," said G. Parthasarathy, a former Indian ambassador to Myanmar. An Indian foreign ministry official insisted there was room for both China and India to play a role in Myanmar's future development. "Relationships between countries are not a zero-sum-game," the official argued. Beijing has long helped shield Myanmar from international opprobrium and the impact of western sanctions with trade ties, arms sales and through its position as a veto-wielding permanent member of the UN Security Council. Indian trade with Myanmar stood at $1.2 billion last year, far short of the $4.4 billion between Myanmar and China. http://www.energy-daily.com/reports/India_fetes_Myanmar_leader_on_state_visit_999.html ----------------------------------------- India to help Myanmar in rice cultivation Zia Haq, Hindustan Times New Delhi , October 16, 2011 Myanmar president Thein Sein on Saturday said he looked to India for his country’s food security, a comment that signals a big opening for India in a neighbour that has long relied on Beijing. Myanmar’s civilian government, to which the powerful junta handed charge after elections in February, is gingerly walking down a road of political reform to help end the nation’s pariah status. Balancing relations with India is inevitably a part of this course correction. In the past, Myanmar has offered China a direct path to the Indian Ocean, apart from a steady source of raw materials for its voracious economy. The visit of Sein, a retired general, comes barely two weeks after he stunned Beijing by cancelling a $3.6-billion (Rs 20,000 crore) dam project that would have almost entirely served China. India has reciprocated the warmth generously, from a $500 million (Rs 2,500 crore) credit line to border-trade pacts. But the way to Myanmar’s heart is through its stomach. “With growing population, we can no longer rely on traditional farming,” Sein told HT, as he toured the farms of Pusa on Saturday. India will set up an Advanced Centre for Agriculture and Research in Myanmar’s Yezin to help improve rice-eating Myanmar’s paddy yields. The job has been outsourced to the premier Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI), whose director HS Gupta made a closed-door presentation before the visiting president. IARI’s scientists will also help Myanmar grow basmati. Myanmar’s national planning minister U Tin Naing Thein asked IARI chief Gupta to brief him on per hectare production costs. But before it can suit the Burmese palate, basmati has to be acceptable to Myanmar’s climate. That will take a little genetic tweaking by IARI scientists. The two countries have set a target of $3 billion in trade by 2015. http://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/newdelhi/India-to-help-Myanmar-in-rice-cultivation/Article1-757830.aspx ------------------------------------- Myanmar trying to balance relations with India and China Sunday, 16 October 2011 03:25 NEW DELHI: Traditional dress for men in Myanmar combines an Indian-influenced sarong with a Chinese-style coat — fitting, perhaps, for a nation trying to balance ties with two giant neighbours as it looks outwards and relaxes decades of tightly buttoned rule. Wedged between India to its west and China to its east, Myanmar will need to work hard on that balancing act as its military-backed government heads down the path of political reform to end the nation’s pariah status and revive its economy. Throttled by Western sanctions, Myanmar has long relied on Beijing to keep it afloat with weapons, loans and infrastructure projects. But it is now courting India, too, to reduce its dependence on China, which many in the country see as a semi-colonial power. Myanmar is hoping competition between the two Asian rivals will earn it a better deal for resources such as gas and access to the Indian Ocean from its shores, for which China has so far paid bottom-dollar. “There is an awareness they have a lot in common with two great nations, China and India, and they must learn to cooperate with both to derive the maximum benefit for themselves,” said Lalit Mansingh, who was India’s foreign secretary when relations with Myanmar began to warm in the late 1990s. Broadly speaking, that seems to be the plan. Two weeks ago, Thein Sein, a retired general who in February became Myanmar’s first nominally civilian president in nearly 50 years, shocked Beijing by shelving a $3.6bn dam project that would have supplied almost no domestic electricity and had come to epitomise the army’s habit of kowtowing to China. This week he visited India, the world’s largest democracy, for a state visit that began with a pilgrimage to Bodh Gaya, the spot where the Buddha is said to have found enlightenment after meditating under a tree for three days and three nights. “When Myanmar’s government suspended the dam and went to India, it showed that it should not be underestimated,” said Christopher Roberts, an Asia expert at Australia’s National Security College. REUTERS http://www.thepeninsulaqatar.com/s.-asia/philippines/169298-myanmar-trying-to-balance-relations-with-india-and-china.html ------------------------------------ Myanmar agrees to take back refugees from Bangladesh Sunday, 16 October 2011 03:25 Dhaka: Myanmar has agreed to take back all its citizens lodged in two refugee camps in eastern Bangladesh, Foreign Secretary Mijarul Quayes said here yesterday. Currently, 28,000 Myanmar refugees, belonging to the Rohingya tribe, are staying in Nayapara and Kutupalong camps in Cox’s Bazar district, about 390km from here, since 1991. Quayes said that apart from the registered refugees, a large number of undocumented Myanmar nationals have also entered the country without having a refugee status. “Although they have no refugee status, we are not forcing them out of the country on humanitarian ground,” Xinhua reported quoting Quayes as saying at a press conference. He said Bangladesh and Myanmar are in talks to launch patrol on the border to stop fresh influx of Myanmar citizens into the country. IANS http://www.thepeninsulaqatar.com/s.-asia/philippines/169299-myanmar-agrees-to-take-back-refugees-from-bangladesh.html ---------------------------------------- Japan to restart development assistance to Myanmar 2011/10/16 Share Article このエントリをはてなブックマークに追加 Yahoo!ブックマークに登録 このエントリをdel.icio.usに登録 このエントリをlivedoorクリップに登録 このエントリをBuzzurlに登録 Foreign Minister Koichiro Genba plans to announce the resumption of official development assistance (ODA) to Myanmar (Burma), which has been mostly suspended until now in response to the regime's anti-democratic actions, when he holds talks with his Myanmarese counterpart in Tokyo on Oct. 21. Genba said on Oct. 14 he will meet with Myanmar Foreign Minister Wunna Maung Lwin, which will mark the first time since 1995 that either a leader or a foreign minister of Myanmar will come to Japan on an official visit for a bilateral discussion.The ministry plans to resume mutual visits by key government figures and make it clear that it wants to strengthen bilateral ties. "It is essential to support Myanmar's reforms," a senior ministry official said. The Myanmarese government began granting amnesty to thousands of inmates on Oct. 12, including hundreds of political prisoners, but the international community is yet to decide its response to the move. Japan's foreign ministry released a statement on Oct. 14 saying, "We appreciate the move as a concrete step toward democratization and national reconciliation." During the upcoming talks, Japan plans to propose reinforced cooperation in four fields: exchanges of personnel, ODA, economic relations and cultural exchange. With regard to ODA, Japan is to announce the resumption of both the rehabilitation of the Baluchaung No. 2 hydro power plant, which was suspended after democracy movement leader Aung San Suu Kyi was detained in 2003, as well as the construction of the Myanmar-Japan Center for Human Resources Development, which was suspended after anti-government demonstrations were suppressed in 2007. Japan plans to begin on-site surveys by the end of this fiscal year. However, several pro-democracy groups in both Japan and overseas have argued that Japan should act more cautiously and confirm whether democratization is truly under way before taking action. http://www.asahi.com/english/TKY201110150266.html -------------------------------------- Learning from Myanmar By Jyoti Malhotra Published: October 16, 2011 Who says Delhi doesn’t like dictators? Watching the Indian government romance the president of Myanmar U Thein Sein over the last few days has been fascinating. To be sure, Mr Sein is now the head of an elected, civilian government, even if the electoral process itself was suspect because of democratic leader Aung San Suu Kyi’s celebrated refusal to participate in the vote. Be that as it may, as the cliché goes. Mr Sein is here to stay for a few years and as Delhi’s eastern-most neighbour, the Myanmarese chief got a red-carpet welcome that began with the perambulation in Bodh Gaya on full moon night, considered by Buddhists to be inordinately auspicious. This was followed by a $500 million credit bouquet in the capital. Of course, this is tied aid. Meaning, Myanmar will get $500 million to spend, but all the goods have to be bought in India. It’s unclear, so far, how the money will be spent, because Myanmar is still under US-European Union-led sanctions, which means that Singapore makes a killing (in dollars, of course). That tiny city-country behaves like a clearinghouse, you see, much like Dubai does for Pakistan. That’s what the economic reform has enabled India to do, loosen its purse strings. Never mind how things are falling apart at home right now, and how everyone is in election mode already (state elections in Uttar Pradesh are expected anytime in the next six months, and with 80 seats, UP is widely believed to be a dry run for Delhi). For the moment, though, Myanmar is the flavour. Last week Delhi feted Hamid Karzai — this, after India signed a cheque for another $500 million when Manmohan Singh went to Kabul a couple of months ago. Last year, when Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina came to town, she was handed over another $1 billion. Clearly, this isn’t about dictatorship or democracy, but about India’s national interest. After all, when General Pervez Musharraf was coming to Delhi-Agra in July 2001 and then prime minister Atal Behari Vajpayee called to invite him, he began his telephone conversation with what was then considered both obsequious and controversial: “President sahib…” Vajpayee had dearly hoped that he could get Musharraf to promise the end of terrorism against India, so nothing was too big, including flattery. Musharraf’s conceit, of course, got the better of him in Agra and he proceeded to wreck the summit with his grandiose statements. The same applies to Myanmar. An exciting concatenation of circumstance is underway : In the wake of the elections, Suu Kyi has been allowed to get out of her house, even though her visits are tightly controlled (she has even come to the Indian embassy once); and Myanmar has announced that it will slowly move towards a market economy. Over the last few years, the Myanmarese have also been especially sensitive to shutting down insurgent camps that use Myanmar’s territory to target Indian civilian and military installations in India’s northeastern states. Get the drift? Stop the insurgency and watch India open its heart and its wallet. There’s a growing constituency inside India for greater linkages with its neighbourhood, but peace is a pre-requisite. Perhaps Pakistan’s generals could learn from their Myanmarese counterparts — who are also great friends of China — in giving peace a chance. The writer is a New Delhi-based journalist who has worked as senior editor at The Indian Express from 1997-2004 and since then has been writing for Khaleej Times, Business Standard and Wall Street Journal jyoti.malhotra@tribune.com.pk Published in The Express Tribune, October 17th, 2011. http://tribune.com.pk/story/275287/learning-from-myanmar/ ---------------------------------------- Building bridges across Irrawaddy to Myanmar Ranjit Gupta, TNN | Oct 16, 2011, 07.06AM IST For India few visits are more important than that of President Thein Sein. After decades, Myanmar is receiving very positive coverage in the global media in strong contrast to the past. A great deal of the credit for that goes to the president who is spearheading a remarkable and courageous process of political transformation in Myanmar . This is an appropriate time to consider why Myanmar is so important to India and to think about ways to substantially enhance India-Myanmar relations. India has a more security threatening and unfriendly neighbourhood than any other major country in the world. One contributory factor has been the nature of the regimes that our neighbours have had. China has consciously exploited domestic political equations in these countries for strategic advantage vis-a-vis India. In the process, China has spun a web of very strong economic, military, political and strategic relationships with Bangladesh, Myanmar, Nepal and Pakistan. Though India is widely regarded as an emerging great power also, the reality is that for India to be taken seriously in Asia, let alone in the wider world, an essential prerequisite is that it should command influence and respect in its neighbourhood. How can India resolve this conundrum? India cannot do much in respect of inducing change in the policy orientations of China or Pakistan. Things are looking up in Bangladesh but domestic political uncertainties remain an issue. Nepal will be in flux for some time and, in fact, is likely to pose increasing challenges. India's best prospects are in Myanmar simply because amongst all of India's neighbours, only Myanmar shares very deep strategic concerns vis-a-vis China. The two overriding objectives of India's relationship with Myanmar, beyond the self-evident need for good bilateral ties, should be: to ensure the economic development of the northeastern states and, second, to ensure that Myanmar does not become a pawn of China's strategic ambitions visa-vis India. The strategic factors underlying why Myanmar is imperatively important may be summarized as follows: in the context of India's territorial integrity; the security, stability and economic development of our northeastern states; India's strategic interests in the Indian Ocean; our energy requirements ; our 'Look East' policy with Myanmar being the geographical bridge between India and Asean; and China's ambitions in Asia. India's lack of focused interest has enabled China's footprint in Myanmar to become the largest amongst all of India's neighbours. If China were to acquire full sway over Myanmar, then, for all practical purposes, China would surround India's northeastern states and China's de facto border would also extend to the shores of the Bay of Bengal. The extensive dual use transport and economic connectivity infrastructure and other strategic assets that China is creating in Myanmar could then acquire rather sinister dimensions, particularly as Myanmar's economy is headed towards becoming a part of the Chinese economy. Such a China - Myanmar relationship would ensure that India's national security, well-being and potential role in Asia in the future could become hostage to China's strategic plans. The fact is that India cannot and should not compete with China in Myanmar. But remedial action is possible and needs to be initiated. As a first step, India has to ensure that no potentially inimically inclined foreign country, let alone China , is granted huge projects or permitted a large presence of its citizens west of the Irrawaddy River. This should be considered a strategic red-line which Myanmar should be encouraged not to breach. This would be achievable only by providing Myanmar sufficient stakes in complying. India is upgrading the Sittwe port and making 225 km of the Kaladan river from Sittwe to Setpyitpyin navigable. It would be connected to Mizoram by a 62-km road. The Kolkata-Sittwe sea route is 539 km. These projects are designed to provide connectivity between mainland India and its northeastern states. But we should think big and the setting up of a multi-purpose Special Economic Zone around Sittwe should be considered on a priority basis. Indian private sector companies should be involved. The SEZ would provide an avenue for the utilization of the gas from the exploration blocks currently with ONGC Videsh and Essar. Power for downstream industries in the SEZ could be supplied from captive power plants but also from the two hydropower projects that India is involved in Tamanthi and Shwezaye. Rites is involved in the development of rail transportation. The SEZ would synergise the objectives of these projects and become the symbol of India's presence in and commitment to Myanmar's economic development in a non-exploitative fashion, in strong contrast to what other major foreign investors are doing. An Indian consulate should also be set up in Sittwe. The president's visit could be used to signal such an Indian interest at the highest levels. A special high-level multi-disciplinary team should be constituted as a matter of high priority to study relevant data and initiate discussions with the concerned agencies of the Myanmar government at the earliest . All this would fit in well with the achievement of Myanmar's ambition for the early lifting of sanctions. The writer is a former diplomat. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Building-bridges-across-Irrawaddy-to-Myanmar/articleshow/10372950.cms -------------------------------------- Burmese change aplenty but it's only skin deep by: Bertil Lintner From: The Australian October 17, 2011 12:00AM IF most Western pundits are to be believed, fundamental change is taking place in Burma. After holding a seriously flawed referendum in May 2008 on a new constitution that gives the country's military controlling powers, and holding an election last November condemned by the West as rigged, Burma's new government has stunned the world by taking steps towards what appears to be more openness. Pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi has been freed from house arrest; she and new President Thein Sein have been meeting; strict censorship rules have been relaxed; and on Tuesday the release of thousands of prisoners began. More importantly, Burma suspended a $US3.6 billion mega-dam joint project with China in the north of the country. According to the view of the same Western observers, recent developments may also reflect a power struggle between "hardliners" and "reform-minded liberals" within the government and the military that controls it. But reality is far more complicated. Firstly, the new constitution and elections were not intended to change the basic power structure but to institutionalise it. Once the new parliament and other institutions were in place, and the military-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party had secured an absolute parliamentary majority and formed a new, seemingly legitimate, government, concessions were expected. Suu Kyi's release had been announced before the election, and there had been talks about prisoner releases and an amnesty for Burmese exiles. The concessions went much further than that when the military discovered that Suu Kyi, despite her long house arrest, was as popular as ever. Nor had her party, the National League for Democracy, disappeared despite being dissolved in May last year. At the same time, a powerful, popular movement was growing against the controversial dam project at Myitsone in the northern Kachin State. The dam would have flooded an area bigger than Singapore and 90 per cent of the electricity was to be exported to China. And it would have seriously harmed the Irrawaddy River, the nation's economic as well as cultural artery. There was a potential for an upheaval that could have threatened the unity of the armed forces. The government had to act to prevent the public and elements of the military joining forces. China has been Burma's closest economic, political and military ally since the pro-democracy uprising of 1988. But it has been an uneasy alliance, as many Burmese army officers have not forgotten that China for decades supported the insurgent Communist Party of Burma. Even today, China maintains cordial relations with the United Wa State Army, a successor to the CPB, which in 1989 made a ceasefire agreement with the Burmese government. Chinese duplicity was bad enough; robbing the country of its natural resources was seen as even worse. By suspending the controversial dam project, Thein Sein has taken the wind out of the sails of this movement and weathered the storm many were waiting for - at the same time as the suspension, not cancellation, of Myitsone leaves open the door for negotiations with China. Thein Sein has skilfully played "the China Card" with the West. In Washington, on September 29, Burmese Foreign Minister Wunna Maung Lwin met Derek Mitchell, the newly appointed US co-ordinator on Burma; Kurt Campbell, assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific Affairs; and Michael Posner, a specialist in human rights. The next day, the government decided to suspend the dam until 2015. At the same time, ongoing talks with Suu Kyi are meant to "tame" the NLD and persuade it to "return to the legal fold", as the government always terms it. Some Rangoon-based sources even suggest the aim of the government could be to form a USDP-NLD coalition after the next, 2015 election. Consequently, the US is showing signs of softening its hard stance against Burma. The US position will be eroded totally once the NLD is re-registered and all political prisoners are released. Then, sanctions are likely to be eased if not completely lifted. The EU will give in even earlier. Apart from trying to neutralise the NLD, releasing prisoners and inviting emigres to return, the government is also attempting to revitalise the economy. Economic progress is seen as vital for regime survival, and to have US and EU sanctions lifted will serve that purpose. In order to be "re-admitted" into the global community, and break its diplomatic and economic isolation from the West, Thein Sein's government is said to have set three other high-profile goals which would improve its international reputation: to host the Southeast Asian Games, which are scheduled to be held in Naypyidaw, Burma's new capital, in 2013; to assume the chairmanship of ASEAN in 2014; and the 2015 election. It is likely to succeed in these endeavours, and the economy will most probably benefit as well from more interaction with and acceptance by the West. Some economic liberalisation could also follow, but major political reforms are unlikely. The new constitution has enough safeguards to protect the military and its ultimate grip on power. Despite the new honeymoon with the West, Burma is unlikely to shake off its dependence on China. And recent changes are unlikely to alter the country's fundamental power structure with the military effectively in command. The sad truth is that there is no "step-by-step" process in motion that would lead to real democracy in Burma. Bertil Lintner is a Thailand-based correspondent for the Swedish daily Svenska Dagbladet and author of several books on Burma, -------------------------------------- 'They were screaming: Die, die, die!': The dramatic inside story of Aung San Suu Kyi's darkest hour It was Aung San Suu Kyi's darkest hour – and it very nearly ended in her murder. Here, in an exclusive extract from a major new biography of the Burma democracy leader, Peter Popham uncovers the truth about the terrible events of 30 May 2003 Sunday, 16 October 2011 Almost a year after Aung San Suu Kyi's release from house arrest, Burma finally seems to be on the path of reform. A series of highly symbolic moves, starting in August with an invitation to the democracy leader and Nobel Peace Prizewinner to meet the new president, culminated this week with a significant release of political prisoners – one of the opposition's key demands. But if both Suu herself and the outside world react with caution, it is understandable. Burma has been down this road before, and has been bitterly disappointed. The elections which brought the present, notionally civilian government to power were widely condemned as fraudulent; the president himself is a former top general; and standing behind him are the monstrously corrupt generals, headed by former Senior General Than Shwe, who ransacked the country while amassing vast wealth. The first time Suu was released from house arrest, in July 1995, after nearly six years, she was barred from leaving Rangoon. She was detained again in September 2000, but when she was freed in May 2002, the UN's Special Envoy, Razali Ismail, persuaded Burma's military junta to agree not merely to let her leave her home but to go wherever she chose. It was widely believed that the regime was keen to open negotiations with her party, the National League for Democracy (NLD): her release, granting her full freedom to travel, was seen as the first step. She wasted no time putting the agreement to the test. She took her democracy show, which had galvanised the country in 1989 at the start of her political career, back on the road, travelling to every corner of the country. But the epic journeys very nearly ended in her death. When Suu started travelling again in 2002, it was as if she had never been away, as if nothing had happened in the 13 years since her last election campaign trip in May 1989. If anyone supposed that the Burmese masses had forgotten all about their heroine in the intervening years, it was a rude awakening. As videos shot during her meetings prove, everywhere she went the crowds were again vast, and vastly good-humoured. Her tours in 1989 had been the most dramatic political manifestations in Burma's independent history, the most vivid demonstrations, nationwide, of the strength of opposition to the junta and the strength of support for her. The re-runs in 2002 and 2003, despite the passing of the years, were no less so. But this time around there was a sinister new element. One of the initiatives taken by Senior General Than Shwe after taking power in 1992 was the creation of a mass organisation to counter the influence of Suu's NLD. The Union Solidarity and Development Association (USDA) was the military's civilian proxy: its means of securing the allegiance of millions of ordinary Burmese at every level of society by giving them favourable access to services and facilities, ranging from paved roads to courses in computing, from which the masses of those who don't belong are excluded. Last year the organisation mutated into the Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP), which is now Burma's notional ruling party. Both the USDA and USDP have their respectable faces, but there is another side that is not respectable at all. When occasion demands, the USDA provides hoodlums, thieves, drunks, drug addicts and other men with nothing to lose with the weapons and training to do the dirty jobs which k the regime does not care to entrust to regular soldiers. The USDA can rapidly mutate into a force of mercenary vigilantes, given a vicious edge by opening the gates of the jails, offering drink, drugs, crude weapons and meagre bribes to the inmates, then sitting back and watching the mayhem. Suu had long experience of their tactics. "The USDA has become a very dangerous organisation," she said back in 1996. "It is now being used in the way Hitler used his Brownshirts... [it] is being used to crush the democratic movement." The same year, when Suu and her colleagues were driving from her house in University Avenue to address a meeting nearby, a USDA gang attacked the car and smashed the windows; two years later, other thugs from the organisation forced her car off the road. And during her new tours of the country, this shadowy militia dogged Suu and her colleagues every step of the way. The trips had begun in June 2002. Suu travelled in a new Toyota Land Cruiser, and to counter the USDA threat, her team included a significantly larger number of student bodyguards than previously. They criss-crossed the country, visiting 95 cities, towns and villages. Then, on 29 May 2003, she left the northern city of Mandalay, heading west to the town of Monywa. The journey was planned as carefully as a military manoeuvre – which in a sense it resembled, despite the authorities' formal approval of the itinerary. Suu had warned her companions that if they were attacked by the USDA, they were not to retaliate. So their only hope of safety was in careful planning, and in numbers. Wunna Maung, one of her bodyguards, said later in testimony to the US Congress: "Before our journey we heard many rumours that local officials of the military regime were training their troops with blunt weapons, including clubs, spears and iron spikes. For this reason, Daw Suu [literally, Aunt Suu, an honorific title] advised us absolutely to avoid any words or behaviour that might lead to confrontation with any members of the military. She told us that if we were attacked we must not fight back. Even if we are struck or killed, she said, we should absolutely not fight back." Suu was well aware of the potential danger they faced. During one of the most tense periods of her previous spell of freedom, in November 1996, the secretary of the USDA, U Win Sein, who was also Minister of Transport, had told a meeting of villagers near Mandalay that killing Aung San Suu Kyi was their duty. Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, "the creator of internal political disturbances" must be "eradicated", he said. "Do you understand what is meant by eradicated?" he asked them. "Eradicated means to kill. Dare you kill Daw Suu Kyi?" Villagers within earshot later testified that he repeated the question five or six times but received no reply. Given this high-level interest in her elimination, Suu was taking no chances. At 9am on 29 May, seven NLD cars and 20 motorcycles rolled out of Mandalay on the road west. In the lead, a few hundred yards ahead of the rest, was a scout car; next came Suu's dark-green Toyota, driven by a law student and party member called Kyaw Soe Lin, followed by two other cars filled with senior NLD figures, including party vice-chairman U Tin Oo, then the cars of local supporters. The group consisted of about 100 people in all. The trouble that awaited them had been carefully prepared. Starting six days earlier, the military authorities in the area, under the command of plump, pasty-faced Lieutenant Colonel Than Han, had mustered local USDA members from townships around the town of Shwebo, 100km north of Mandalay, a total it is claimed of about 5,000 men, and brought them to the grounds of Depayin High School along with more than 50 lorries and 10 pick-up trucks, to train them for the assault. On the day of the attack they were issued with their weapons: bamboo staves, baseball bats, sharpened iron rods, and similar crude implements, many of them specially made by a local blacksmith. After spending the night at a supporter's home and making a speech in the centre of Monywa, Suu did as she had been doing up and down the country and re-opened the local NLD office. Then she and her party set off again, bound for Shwebo district, 50km to the north-east. As usual, they had obtained full authorisation for this journey in advance. But as the jabs and taunts of their enemies intensified, they must have felt like an army patrol travelling through hostile guerrilla country: never sure when the next attack would come or what form it would take. And now, as they approached Depayin township, the army joined in the harassment. "When Daw Aung San Suu Kyi arrived near Zeedaw village," an eyewitness later testified, "military authorities from the Northern Command headquarters stopped the convoy, including the cars of the people of Monywa who had come to see them off." Suu and her party were permitted to proceed, but when her supporters returned later to the same village on their way back to Monywa, "the police waiting in readiness beat them up and put them under arrest". Unaware of this, Suu and her team drove on to the town of Butalin, where she once again performed the ceremonial re-opening of the local party office. They were now deep into the flat paddy fields of the countryside, far from any sizeable town and even further from the gaze of foreign diplomats and journalists. They stopped at the little town of Saing-pyin, where Suu had an emotional encounter with the family of the local NLD MP-elect, who was still serving a jail sentence. Meanwhile, her minders sent a car on to scout the road ahead. Ominously, it failed to return. Motorcycles were sent to find out what had happened to it. But they, too, disappeared. Still miles from their destination, with darkness closing in, Suu and her team were driving blind into terra incognita, with a hostile army presence behind them and no way of knowing what lay ahead. By the time they arrived at the little village of Kyi, it was pitch-dark. They had not planned to stop here, but a little way beyond the village the headlights of Suu's car picked up two elderly monks sitting on the roadside, who hailed them as they approached. "They asked if Suu could address a gathering," Kyaw Soe Lin, her driver, recalled. "I told Daw Daw Suu that we shouldn't stop, as we usually get harassed around dusk. But the monks said they had been waiting for Suu Kyi since the evening before and requested that she give a speech and greet them." To turn down such a request from two old monks would be the height of bad manners, whatever the circumstances. Suu fell into the trap. According to Kyaw Soe Lin, "Daw Daw said we should stop for them." The old men were not monks at all, but imposters from the USDA. And as the convoy halted on the road while Suu decided how best to accede to their request, the full fury of the USDA fell upon them. Four vehicles which had been tailing them, two lorries and two pick-up trucks, now roared up alongside the convoy and armed men poured out, shouting anti-Suu slogans. When the local villagers, who had come out of their houses to see what was going on, started shouting back at them, the USDA thugs attacked them with iron rods, bamboo staves and baseball bats. One of the USDA lorries took a run at the villagers in its headlights, and the villagers scattered in terror – whereupon a much larger USDA force – 4,000, according to some eye-witnesses, though the figure is impossible to verify – who had been waiting to ambush the convoy poured from the sides of the road and attacked the NLD cars and their motorcycle outriders and local supporters. "We watched helplessly and tried to show courage," said Wunna Maung, the bodyguard. "Because we had been told to never use violence, we tried to protect Suu's car by surrounding [it] with our bodies in two layers. As we waited, all the cars behind us were being attacked, and the USDA members beat the NLD members mercilessly. The attackers appeared to be either on drugs or drunk. "The USDA members struck down everyone, including youths and women. They used the iron rods to strike inside the cars. I saw the attackers beat [NLD vice-chairman] U Tin Oo and hit him on the head before they dragged him away. He had a wound on his head and was bleeding. "The attackers beat women and pulled off their longyi [skirts] and their blouses. When victims, covered in blood, fell to the ground, the attackers grabbed their hair and pounded their heads on the pavement until their bodies stopped moving. The whole time, the attackers were screaming the words, 'Die, die, die...' There was so much blood. I still cannot get rid of the sight of people, covered in blood, being beaten mercilessly to death." What saved Suu's life, according to Aung Lynn Htut, a senior military intelligence officer who later defected to the United States, was that the officers in charge of the attack had not expected her car to be at the front – which was why the initial attack was concentrated on the cars in the middle and the rear. But it was not long before they realised their mistake. "As the USDA members approached Daw Suu's car, we braced ourselves for the attacks," Wunna Maung recalled. "The attackers first beat the outer ring of my colleagues on the left side of Daw Suu's car, and smashed the window... As my colleagues collapsed one by one, the attackers then started beating the inner ring of security. The attackers hit my colleagues ferociously, because they knew we would not fight back." Wunna Maung was saved only because he was on the right side of the car, while the attacks were concentrated on the left. Inside the car, Suu's driver pleaded with the attackers, telling them who exactly he was carrying in the back – but that only inflamed them further. "My anger exploded," he admitted, "I wanted to run them over." He put the vehicle into reverse, stamped on the accelerator and the car hurtled back; the assailants reacted by raining blows on the car, breaking the windows both in the front and the back, where Suu was travelling, as well as the wing mirrors and the headlights, and battering the car's bodywork. Over his shoulder as he roared backwards, Kyaw Soe Lin saw wounded colleagues sprawled across the road, in his path; frightened that he might run them over, he again reversed direction – but now the road ahead was blocked by trucks. Pulling over to the verge he succeeded in squeezing past them, but then found himself faced by dozens more trucks, their lights illuminating more attackers – 200 to 300 was his estimate, some holding banners with anti-NLD slogans. The USDA men looked on "in surprise", he said, as he hurtled towards them. Some of his party's bodyguards were clinging to the outside of the vehicle, hanging on for dear life. "I was worried that the attackers might pull them off if we got too close," he said, "so I drove straight at them, pretending I was going to run into them, and they scattered. Then I pulled the car back on to the road and kept driving." In the murk ahead he saw more roadblocks, but resolved to get through them without stopping. "I realised that all of us, including Daw Daw, would die if we didn't get out of this place, so I kept on driving." As he roared through the hostile mob they threw objects at the car, smashing the remaining windows, and one of them striking him. "Daw Daw asked me if I was OK. I said I was fine and kept on driving. I knew that if I stopped at the road blocks they would beat us to death." He wove through another barricade of trucks and past a line of police with their guns pointed at the road, and other figures with guns who looked like soldiers. "I drove through them but didn't hit anyone, as they jumped out of the way," he recalled. "Daw Daw said we should stop only when we reached Depayin." But they didn't make it that far. As they entered the town of Yea-U, armed guards forced them to stop, demanded to know who was in the car, and made them wait. Half-an-hour later a large contingent of soldiers turned up. "One officer, apparently a battalion commander, arrived and put a gun to my temple and ordered us to go with them," Kyaw Soe Lin said. "Daw Daw nodded at me, so I did as they said. We were taken to Yea-U jail." Suu's year of freedom – her year of living more dangerously than ever before – was over. WHAT HAPPENED NEXT Suu survived the Depayin massacre without serious injury, thanks to the courage and skill of her driver, but it cost the lives of about 70 of her supporters. She herself was first put in jail and then, after protests from the UN Envoy Razali Ismail, sent back to house arrest. For the outside world, and for most people in Burma, too, Depayin was a major setback. The hopes for a negotiated return to democracy that had been raised with her release from detention in May 2002 were dashed. But the true story was not that simple. Soon after the attack, Senior General Than Shwe admitted having ordered it: in a letter to Asian governments he justified it by claiming that Suu and her party were "conspiring to create an anarchic situation... with a view to attaining power". But when the US tightened sanctions and Japan, the regime's most reliable friend, suspended aid, it became clear that the assault had been a colossal mistake, and its failure a personal humiliation. To recoup some ground he promoted military intelligence chief Lieutenant General Khin Nyunt, the third man in the ruling triumvirate and the man who had pushed for talks with Suu, to prime minister. Khin Nyunt announced a "seven-point road map to democracy", intended to produce a constitution and elections. He then launched the regime's first-ever serious negotiations with Suu, so secret that their existence emerged only after Suu's release last year After a number of meetings, the two sides were close to agreement: "We were almost there," Suu revealed last November. But when Khin Nyunt presented Than Shwe with the deal, the Senior General took fright. Both Khin Nyunt and the brigadier who had led the negotiations were purged and jailed, and Burmese politics went back into the deep freeze. Another six years were to pass before Suu was released. This extract is adapted from 'The Lady and the Peacock: the Life of Aung San Suu Kyi' by Peter Popham, published by Rider on 3 November

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