Vol 8. No. 9, September 2000
Thai Scholars Ask FM to Back Off • Border Justice Strikes Again • MISinformation Campaign
Thai Scholars Ask FM to Back Off
A group of Thai academics have sent a letter to the Foreign Ministry in Bangkok asking officials to tone down their criticism of Burma’s military regime lest it cost them access to the country for research purposes.
The letter was a response to recent comments from high-ranking officials, including Foreign Minister Surin Pitsuwan, regarding the latest crackdown on members of Burma’s democratic opposition. Surin warned that the Burmese regime’s repression of its opponents could do further harm to Southeast Asia’s already battered image. The junta in turn replied that Surin’s remarks could damage bilateral ties.
The scholars said they were worried that they might be denied visas to enter Burma if the regime decided to retaliate against Thailand. The letter also advised officials not to make critical comments unless they are able to translate their words into action.
In a related development, it has been learned that Thailand is planning to send a new ambassador to Rangoon in the near future. The post is expected to go to Oum Maolanond, who is considered sympathetic to the Burmese democracy movement. Thai scholars take note. [Top]
A rebel group based on the Thai-Burma border has reported that some of its members have disappeared without a trace. Twelve members of the People’s Liberation Front (PLF) have been missing since July and August, according to the group’s chairman Aye Saung. In a statement published in the PLF’s monthly bulletin, Aye Saung claimed that "a handful of hoodlums and thugs" were responsible for abducting the missing rebels.
According to local Thai sources, PLF members living in the Mae Sot area, near the Thai-Burma border, were unpopular in the community as they often asked locals to provide "donations for the revolution." Unconfirmed reports also suggested that some PLF members had been acting as informants for the Burmese army. Members of the group have also been accused of robbery.
Previously stationed in Karen-controlled territory, the PLF was told to move as some of its members were "disturbing the Karen community," according to a Karen rebel source. Some sources are now suggesting that Thais in the area may have solved their problems with the PLF in their own way. Local Thai police have refused to investigate the disappearances.
Though no one has claimed responsibility, Aye Saung said that he suspected Karen rebels were behind the abductions. He added that he did not believe his men had been kidnapped by Burmese troops. But a high-ranking Karen officer told The Irrawaddy that the Karen National Union was not involved in the case, adding that some of its own members have also gone missing recently.
"If my members were not accepted in the community or had committed crimes, I could have punished them," Aye Saung told The Irrawaddy. He noted that several years ago, the PLF executed one of its members for committing unspecified crimes.
Meanwhile, Myo Win, the former Secretary 2 of the All Burma Students’ Democratic Front (ABSDF), has been acquitted of all charges related to his alleged order to execute fellow Front member Soe Win.
The execution was carried out in early 1997. Soe Win, then 25, had served in the Front for a number of years, but was later accused of being a spy after he refused to follow an order from Myo Win.
Under pressure from lower-ranking members, ABSDF leaders promised to investigate the circumstances surrounding Soe Win’s execution. Myo Win was put on trial and dismissed as Secretary 2, but was later re-elected as a member of the central executive committee.
Now, after more than a year, the ABSDF’s judiciary has cleared Myo Win of all charges. One central committee member confided that the case has damaged the Front’s image. [Top]
In an effort to discredit foreign-based Burmese-language radio stations and other media outlets critical of Burma’s military junta, various agencies under the control of Military Intelligence Services (MIS) chief Lt-Gen Khin Nyunt are coordinating their efforts to disseminate fabricated news.
According to a source cited by the Oslo-based Democratic Voice of Burma (DVB) radio station, the Protocol Office of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, along with the Office of Strategic Studies and the Directorate of Defense Services Intelligence, met on July 20 to discuss means of spreading false news.
The source said that a two-pronged strategy had been developed to systematically propagate misinformation fabricated by a special "news" unit, using Burmese embassies and defectors from insurgent groups as channels for spreading the rumors. Embassies abroad are to be in charge of dissemination to the international media, while former members of armed groups were to be sent back to the border after receiving special training from MIS units Nos. 19 and 25 and Operational Command units Nos. 8 and 7.
DVB reported that it had already received a number of falsified reports, most of them related to the arrest and torture of members of the National League for Democracy. Efforts to prevent news from leaving the country would also be stepped up, according to the DVB report.
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