A history of repression - Haaretz

Subscribe to Print Edition

Thu., October 18, 2007 ,

Israel Time: 21:37 (EST+7)

web haaretz.com

Back to Homepage

Print Edition

Diplomacy

Defense

Arts & Leisure

Real Estate

Jewish World

National

Advertising

Magazine

Week's End

Business

Opinion

Rosner's Domain

Anglo File

Books

Travel

del.icio.us

Digg It! new

A history of repression

By Yotam Feldman

The demonstrations in Burma, which reached their peak at the end of September, are the first, and indeed the only, wave of resistance to the government since the 1988 events, which the army put down mercilessly, killing 3,000 civilians in the process. Those demonstrations brought down General Ne Win, who seized power in a military coup in 1962 and introduced a socialist military regime under the slogan "the Burmese way to socialism." After the demonstrations were quelled, the military junta that is still in power took control under General Saw Maung and the State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC), which in 1997 laundered its name and became the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC).

In 1988 the new military government changed the economic system in Burma and tried to introduce a market economy. In 1992, Saw Maung was replaced by General Than Shwe, who still rules the country. Under the generals the country was isolated internationally, while internally the state exercises absolute rule.

The government's relations with its many opponents have known ups and downs over the years. The leaders of the junta know that they cannot eradicate the active opposition, and therefore pursue a policy of relentless suppression, utilizing political arrest and torture, accompanied by the meticulous collection of information through military intelligence and the many security services that operate in the country.

	Advertisement

The ruling clique obtains information about its opponents through an army of agents in the universities and a network of informers in residential areas, who report on every move people make. During the socialist regime, one person from every street had to become a party member and was responsible for providing the authorities with information about his neighbors.

According to a member of the main opposition party, the NLD (National League for Democracy), Ku Moo, who moved to Bangkok four months ago, the current government rules the civilian population in part by implementing the Union Solidarity and Development Association, a purportedly voluntary civil-community movement that supports the government and in practice is completely under its control. Its members, who are recruited by means of intimidation or incentives, give the authorities information about events in their places of residence, schools and places of employment, and hold meetings to bolster identification with the government.

Win Hlaing, who was a political prisoner for 10 years, told me that after he was released from prison there was no way he could renew his ties with his friends: "I did not know who the government had recruited, so I preferred to disappear and live cut off from my natural environment. Months after I returned home, neighbors were surprised to see that I was there - they had not felt my existence."

In 1990 the government allowed democratic elections, in which the NLD won 392 of the 492 seats in parliament. The party was headed by Aung San Suu Kyi, the daughter of General Aung San, considered the liberator of Burma from British colonial rule. She is the unchallenged leader of the opposition in the country and is its face and symbol worldwide. The junta refused to transfer power to her. She has been under house arrest off and on since 1990 (she was placed under strict house arrest in 2003 and not allowed to leave the house).

Her home, on Inya Lake in Rangoon, is completely off limits to visitors and is guarded by more than 10 soldiers and policemen who are positioned behind a firing position and barriers and keep outsiders away. Sources in the party believe that she was taken to a prison in the second week of the demonstrations after being found speaking to monks in her yard and was returned to her home a day later.

Bookmark to del.icio.us


	Hitler to 'turn in grave'
	Barenboim's Israeli-Palestinian orchestra are to play at an arena built by the Nazi leader.


	Old Hebron's last Jew
	Yosef Ezra, whose family only left the city in 1947, testifies for its Jewish residents today.




1.	Aung San Suu Kyi.	03:17	\|	sandra chitayat	13/10/07

Today Online


	Egypt accuses IDF troops of aiding arms smuggling into Gaza
	Responses: 119


	'Army does nothing to stop settler violence against Palestinians'
	Responses: 87


	Zionist rabbis agree to serve on independent conversion courts
	Responses: 53


	PM Olmert urges Putin to back new sanctions on Iran
	Responses: 111


	Israel Harel: Abbas will play the victim, and Israel will foot the bill
	Responses: 36


	Haaretz.com TV: Two Iraqi children undergo heart surgery in Israel
	Responses: 33

More Headlines
21:31 PM Olmert urges Putin to back new Iran sanctions


21:33 Winograd Committee to publish final war report by end of year


21:36 FM Tzipi Livni condemns Belarusian President's anti-Semitic remarks


21:12 Top IDF officer censured over use of 'human shields' in Nablus


20:57 University professors to strike after talks with government fail


21:08 Arson suspected in string of forest fires in western Galilee


19:42 AG to comptroller: Allow cabinet to dismiss accountant general


17:40 Briton who saved Czech-Jewish children in WWII leaves hospital


19:35 Palestinian surveyors take first internal census in a decade