When Burma's pro-democracy leader, Aung San Suu
Kyi, announced that she planned to go on a national political tour later
this month it sent shock waves through her supporters _ and for good
reason. In 2003, the last time she was free to travel to meet the
Burmese people, international humanitarian groups estimate that
government-sponsored thugs killed at least 70 of her supporters and
injured hundreds more in premeditated attacks.
WATCHFUL EYE: Toe Lwin, behind Aung San Suu Kyi, was head of her
bodyguard at Depayin on May 29, 2003, and among the 256 National League
for Democracy members arrested that day.
"They tried to assassinate her then ... and today ... the military
hardliners, still want her dead. They won't do it themselves, but
they'll use drunken thugs like they did in Depayin," says Moe Zaw Oo,
joint secretary of the exiled branch of the National League for
Democracy (NLD), on the Thai-Burmese border.
Following her release after 19 months of house arrest in May, 2002,
Aung San Suu Kyi, with permission from the military regime, embarked on a
mammoth 95-town political tour. She met with various ethnic groups
including the Shan, Kachin and the Karen. She also opened NLD offices in
country areas.
Mrs Suu Kyi's ability to attract large, passionate crowds reaffirmed
her position as a national leader and that she was a huge threat to the
regime.
Years of house arrest and official vilification by the regime had
done little to diminish her popularity. From makeshift stages, Mrs Suu
Kyi urged the tens of thousands of enthusiastic supporters, who came to
meet her in each town, to continue to struggle for democracy and to
respect human rights.
REGIME’S WRATH: Left to right: The 2003 rally; assorted thugs in
monks’ robes and English-language signs; more thugs in monk’s robes
wielding clubs; Aung San Suu Kyi addresses the people.
DEPAYIN MASSACRE
By the time Mrs Suu Kyi and her entourage of about 100 people and
seven NLD vehicles had entered the town of Depayin in Sagaing Region on
May 29, 2003, the regime was putting the finishing touches to its
planned response to her ever-increasing popularity. The increasing
number of metal-bar-wielding drunken thugs along the route indicated it
would be violent.
About 800 members of the regime-sponsored Union Solidarity and
Development Association (USDA) lined the streets and gave a taste of
what was to follow. They hurled threats and harassed the pro-Suu Kyi
crowds.
Moe Zaw takes a CD from a plastic folder and says, "People need to
see this to understand Suu Kyi's relation with the people and to
understand why the regime fear her so much."
Rough titles splashed across the television screen announce that we
are about to see raw footage taken from Mrs Suu Kyi's 2003 tour. What is
striking about the images on the screen is the spontaneous reaction of
the crowd to Mrs Suu Kyi. There is no doubting the crowd's open
adulation for her. The massive 40,000-strong crowd crams itself into
every available space _ rooftops, shopfronts, verandahs and trees. They
want to touch her as she passes and are silent as she speaks, hanging
onto her every word. Mrs Suu Kyi urges them to get involved in politics,
to take responsibility and to help shape their country.
"When I hear the people's voice I know they want change, but the
people have to do something to have that change _ it won't happen by
itself. People have to know the truth, but it is not enough just to know
... people have to do something for the truth," she shouts above
microphone static and the crowds roared approval.
Mrs Suu Kyi tells the crowd to have "tolerance, patience and endurance".
The raw footage is tangible testimony of Mrs Suu Kyi's rapport and
ability to touch the Burmese people _ a response politicians' around the
world would be envious of.
Since Burma's recent national elections, the first in 20 years,
various international groups and political pundits have questioned if
Mrs Suu Kyi's 15 years of house arrest have reduced her relevance and
importance to the country's political future, but the video images leave
no doubt that like Nelson Mandela, she shares an unbreakable bond with
her people.
And it is this connection between Mrs Suu Kyi and the Burmese people
that has the hard men ruling Burma running scared and makes them
prepared to do whatever it takes to remove her from public life _ even
if it means jailing her for decades or attempting to kill her.
Moe Zaw freezes the video to show a mixed mob of stick-waving monks,
metal-helmeted men and army-jacketed USDA members swearing and
fist-waving at the NLD convoy. The 800-strong mob wave English-language
signs that say "Get out!" and scream slogans parroting the regime's
accusations that Mrs Suu Kyi is under the influence of foreigners.
By the night of May 30, 2003, Mrs Suu Kyi and hundreds of NLD
supporters lay bloodied in hospital beds, others dead or under arrest.
Following the attacks the regime arrested 256 NLD members, including Mrs
Suu Kyi.
Toe Lwin was one of those arrested.
"As head of Suu Kyi's bodyguard I was in the middle of the attacks. I
tried to protect her from the thugs and the metal bars. Suu Kyi was
bleeding from cuts caused by flying glass. I saw women and children
badly beaten. Female NLD members were dragged from cars, their clothes
torn from them and they were beaten until they lost consciousness."
Toe Lwin says he started to worry about Mrs Suu Kyi's security in Madaya city.
"The USDA had been harassing our convoy. Many local monks joined us
to help protect Suu Kyi. It was after this that we started to notice
that fake monks had joined with the USDA."
Toe Lwin says it was not hard to spot the fake monks. "Their heads
were recently shaved, we called them 'green heads', they wore arm bands,
they were drunk _ they carried sticks and swore. They weren't even
robed properly. When the attack happened they smashed the young women
with their sticks, cursed them _ they were ruthless."
Despite his injuries, Toe Lwin was arrested and taken by Military
Intelligence Unit 17 to Khantee prison. "I was mentally tortured and
beaten by the MI [Military Intelligence] for two weeks."
WHEN IN ROBES: Ashin Issariya, left in glasses, was one of the
leaders of the 2007 ‘Saffron Revolution’ protests initiated and led by
monks.
Immediately after the killings and jailings the international
community voiced its condemnation. The regime's response was to lie.
At the UN General Assembly meeting on Sept 29, the junta's Foreign
Minister Win Aung lied to the international community when questioned
about Suu Kyi's jailing.
"We don't call this house arrest ... we are helping her to overcome health problems."
A report by the Asean Inter-Parliamentary Burma Caucus, two years
later, noted that "Asean broke its usual silence on Myanmar [Burma] and
expressed its outrage in the awake of the attack on 30 May, 2003, but
now two years later that voice has diminished" and "it is crucial that
Asean does not forget the vile attack at Depayin".
The 12-page report joined the dots and concluded that the Depayin
attacks were a regime-sanctioned attempt to kill Mrs Suu Kyi. "There is
clear indication that the attack was premeditated," the report stated.
"The Depayin Massacre was essentially an assassination attempt on
Aung San Suu Kyi and members of the NLD. A report by Special Rapporteur
on Human Rights to Myanmar, Professor Paulo Sergio Pinheiro said that,
'There is prima facie evidence that the Depayin incident could not have
happened without the connivance of State agents."'
Despite Asean's outrage at the time its voice has since shifted to
one of encouragement and engagement with Burma's new government.
KINDRED SPIRITS: NLD leaders Aung San Suu Kyi, Tin Oo and U Win Tin.
BURMA'S NEW GOVERNMENT
The New York-based Human Rights Watch's senior researcher on Burma,
David Mathieson, spotlights USDA involvement in the 2003 attack on Mrs
Suu Kyi and the NLD.
"In 2003, hundreds of its [USDA] cadres staged a violent assault on
Mrs Suu Kyi's motorcade in the upper Burma town of Depayin, killing
about 70 of her supporters.''
Mr Mathieson says Senior General Than Shwe formed the USDA in 1993 as
a civilian surveillance network to intimidate activists, stir up
trouble at political rallies and to harass political opponents by using
threats, beatings and arrests.
Mr Mathieson explains that prior to the recent elections the USDA
morphed into the Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) to enable
the regime to keep its grip on power. ''Many of the generals who have
ruled the country for years assumed nominally civilian roles in the new
power structure.
''All are from the USDP, which won more than 77 percent of the votes
in the November, 2010, elections widely derided as completely rigged.
The new president is former Prime Minister Thein Sein, who is also party
leader of the USDP.''
The NLD's Moe Zaw explains that it was only the swift action of Mrs Suu Kyi's driver that saved her life.
''It was an assassination attempt. Her driver disobeyed her order to
stay and help the people ... the thugs smashed the car windows and tried
to beat Suu Kyi with metal bars. She was hurt and bleeding, but the
driver saved her life by getting her to safety.''
Moe Zaw pauses the CD and the screams of the beaten are silenced as the screen clicks to black.
FIGHTING ON: Moe Zaw Oo, joint secretary of the exiled branch of the National League for Democracy.
THE PARTY MEMBER
Outside the two-storey house that is the exiled NLD office, monsoon
rains lash loud against the shuttered windows. The dirt road leading to
the house turns to mud.
Moe Zaw takes off his glasses and explains that he spent nine of his
42 years in a Burmese jail for writing about politics. ''I was sentenced
to 10 years jail under the Emergency Provisions Act section 5, A, B and
E. I don't know what they are or what they mean, but it meant I spent
nine years in jail. I was 21.''
Before going to jail, Moe Zaw was an active member of the NLD's youth
wing, the Central Working Committee, and took part in non-violent civil
disobedience activities led by Mrs Suu Kyi.
Moe Zaw's admiration for his political leader is mired in the worry
that if she does not take enough security precautions she will be
killed.
''It's a life and death situation. She knows it's risky _ she doesn't
like to talk about it. It's tough for her _ if she doesn't go to meet
people, they win. I pray if there's trouble she runs.''
Moe Zaw says both sides have signalled their intentions.
Mrs Suu Kyi has been anything but silent since her release from jail
in November last year. She has used media interviews, videoconferences,
video messages and face-to-face interviews to call for all of Burma's
2,100 political prisoners to be released. This week she urged the
International Labour Organisation ''to help usher in an era of
broad-based social justice'' in Burma.
The former military regime, now masquerading in what many
international observers say is a civilian government in name only, has
also responded in the media to Mrs Suu Kyi's intention to tour.
Earlier this month, vice-president Tin Aung Myint Oo in a statement
to welcome US Senator John McCain to Burma and published in the state
controlled newspaper The New Light of Myanmar, warned: ''Regarding Daw
Saung Suu Kyi issue, she is considered to be an ordinary civilian that
the government will not prohibit an ordinary civilian from doing any
activities in accordance with the law; however, it is needed to give
priority to State stability and peace and the rule of order.''
In the same newspaper, the country's foreign minister, Wunna Maung
Lwin, reiterated the vice-president's remarks in response to questions
from Senator McCain.
UNBOWED: Right, supporters of Aung San Suu Kyi waiting for her
release at her National League for Democracy headquarters in Rangoon on
Nov 13, 2010.
''McCain asked about the attitude towards Daw Saung San Suu Kyi. The
union minister replied that now she has the right to act as an ordinary
person. She is meeting freely with the persons she wants to, including
diplomats. Any Myanmar citizen must accept and recognise the state
constitution. For the people, they as individuals or in parties can
participate in nation-building tasks if they wish to do so by standing
for election.''
Senator McCain's questions about Burma's 2,100 political prisoners
were treated with disdain by both the vice-president and the foreign
minister in The New Light of Myanmar.
''Union Minister U Wunna Maung Lwin said that Myanmar has firmly
announced that there are no political prisoners in the country. Those
serving their prison terms in Myanmar's jails are just law [criminal]
offenders.
''Although some of them may be associated with political parties,
action was taken against them not because they are members of political
parties.''
Many of Mrs Suu Kyi's supporters say the vice-president and foreign
minister's statements are little more than a reminder of what they can
do under Burma's vague but deadly laws.
In its 2009 report, ''Burma's Forgotten Prisoners'', Human Rights
Watch explained how the regime manipulated the law to jail its
opponents.
''The military government uses vaguely worded archaic laws that
criminalise free expression, peaceful demonstration and forming
organisations.''
In Burma, all opposition-driven political activity is regarded as a
threat by the government. Freedom of expression or association is
non-existent.
Mrs Suu Kyi's supporters say the government won't hesitate to use
laws such as SLORC [State Law and Order Restoration Council] Order No2,
which was created during the 1988 demonstrations and clearly outlaws
practically everything Mrs Suu Kyi plans to do when she goes up country
to meet the people. It states in part that: ''Gathering, walking,
marching in procession, chanting slogans, delivering speeches, agitating
and creating disturbances on the streets by a group of five people or
more.''
THE MONK
Ashin Issariya (aka King Zero) was one of the monks leading the
protests that swept through Burma in 2007. The popular protests, dubbed
the Saffron Revolution by the international media, were initiated and
led by monks. Ashin Issariya knows first-hand what the government does
to its political opponents.
''The words of the government minister are a clear warning to Suu
Kyi. They can't be considered anything less. They have put her on
notice.''
Ashin Issariya says in Depayin in 2003 the government demonstrated how far it was prepared to go.
''They used convicts, dressed them as monks. Real monks I've spoken
to in the area did not know any of them. They had chain marks on their
wrists and ankles. They were drunk and crazed on ya ma [amphetamines].
Their behaviour was never that of real monks.''
Ashin Issariya says Mrs Suu Kyi needs to go to the people, but warns that she needs tight security.
''They are afraid of her, she can organise the people, the people
listen to her and the people want her. Depayin was an attempt to kill
her, they failed then, but they arrested her and kept her out of
politics by jailing her for seven years.''
In 2007, Ashin Issariya was leading the monks that brought Burma to a
standstill. The military regime responded with a crackdown that left
many dead and 206 monks and seven nuns in jail. His supporters worry
that if the regime arrests him, he will be sentenced to as many as 70
years in jail. Ashin Issariya's co-leaders are now serving draconian
jail terms.
Ashin Gambira was sentenced to 63 years and Ashin Kheminda to 35 years.
''All we did was protest on behalf of the suffering of the people. We
just walked on the streets, we broke no laws, yet they [the regime]
killed and beat us. They are not interested in talking. They want
control of everything, the revenue, the people, the land. There's no
freedom of speech, we can't write, we cannot speak out. It is so bad
that people are leaving the country in their millions.''
In spite of the danger, Ashin Issariya believes Mrs Suu Kyi has to go to the people.
''She is a national hero. She needs to talk and the people need to
hear her talk. People are waiting for her to speak. The people want to
know what she wants them to do.''
Ashin Issariya accuses the recently elected government of being a
civilian front for the military, to make it more palatable for
international governments, foreign aid donors and investors to do
business.
''The new government is run by the USDP, the old USDA. Same face
different uniforms. The government is afraid of Suu Kyi's relationship
with the people and the power they give to her. That's why they want to
kill her.''
Mrs Suu Kyi's former bodyguard, Toe Lwin, agrees with Ashin
Issariya's assessment. ''Daw Suu is the only one who all the people of
Burma believe. The ethnic people and their organisations support her _
she is the key to national reconciliation.''
ETHNIC BACKING
David Thakabaw, vice-chairman of the Karen National Union and
chairman of the National Democratic Front, agrees Mrs Suu Kyi is
fighting for the rights of all of the people of Burma.
''The Karen movement led by the KNU fully supports Suu Kyi's position
and her political activities. She's fighting for freedom, freedom from
suppression by the military rulers of Burma.''
The KNU leader has a warning for international countries and the UN.
''International observers should not be fooled by the military regime
changing their uniforms for civilian clothes _ there's no difference,
it's just more of the same.
''We fear for Suu Kyi's safety when she goes on tour. This regime are
frightening, they're ultra-nationalists and they're only interested in
maintaining their power. Suu Kyi will have to be very careful. She needs
to get their guarantee that she will be safe.
''In 2003 it was a well planned attempt to kill Suu Kyi, sanctioned
by the highest authority in the land _ it was a premeditated attempt to
assassinate her.
''The thugs used to beat up and kill people in her convoy were given
drugs and alcohol. The whole episode demonstrated how the USDA was used.
Remember, the USDA are now the USDP, the same leaders, the same
mind-set.''
Nobel Peace winner Mrs Suu Kyi celebrates her 66th birthday todayon
June 19 and it is rumoured she will begin her political tour shortly.
Last week while addressing the International Labour Organisation's
100th General Assembly by videoconference, Mrs Suu Kyi put the
international community on notice about what she expects from them.
''Burma must not be allowed to fail and the world must not be allowed to fail Burma.'
