Hush-hush Burma talks anger exiles
By Boonthan Sakanond
source : Asiatime/May-30-01
CHIANG MAI, Thailand - Nearly nine months after talks began to end confrontation between Myanmar's military junta and pro-democracy political groups, there is little sign of progress in their arriving at a consensus on the country's future.
Despite initial reports that the negotiations would prompt the release of hundreds of political prisoners and the resumption of political activity by the opposition National League for Democracy (NLD), nothing of the sort has happened. The talks seem to be bogged down due to differences of opinion within the ruling military government.
While a section led by the powerful chief of military intelligence Lieutenant-General Khin Nyunt favors sharing power with opposition groups, other hardliners within the military are not prepared to consider any proposals which they believe will "lead to uncontrollable processes".
In the meanwhile, frustration is growing among Myanmese activists in exile over what they feel is a lack of transparency in the highly secretive negotiations between NLD leader Aung San Suu Kyi and the State Peace and Development Council or SPDC, as the military rulers call themselves.
"The government is supposed to be discussing the future of the Myanmar and the Myanmese people, so why can't they let everybody know at least the agenda for their talks?" says Bo Gyi of the Association for Assistance to Political Prisoners, a Myanmese dissident organixation based in Thailand.
The SPDC is reported to have entered into negotiations with the NLD only on condition of strict secrecy over proposals.
Even many senior leaders of the organixation who are not part
of the talks have little idea about what is being discussed.
In the absence of hard information, various rumors are doing the rounds in the Myanmese capital, Yangon. According to some, the SPDC has mooted a proposal for it to hand over power to a transitional government led by the NLD provided the military is allowed to retain control over defense and home affairs and given substantive representation in any new Parliament. Although the NLD won the 1990 general elections by a majority of more than 90 percent of the votes cast, the military regime has refused to hand over power.
"It is difficult to figure out where the talks are leading to, assuming of course they are taking place in a proper way at all," says Zaw Min, a former student activist and currently in charge of foreign affairs for the Democratic Party for a New Society (DPNS), a Myanmese opposition group.
Reports coming from diplomatic sources in Yangon indicate that in recent weeks, the talks have been stalled due to the death in mid-February of Lieutentant-General Tin Oo, a hardliner opposed to sharing power and a powerful member of the SPDC hierarchy. Tin Oo died with several other military officers in a mysterious helicopter crash, attributed to sabotage by rivals within the SPDC, while on an inspection tour along the Thai-Myanmar border. His death is believed to have sparked off a severe power struggle inside the SPDC and made the dialogue with the NLD an issue of serious contention among the generals.
Many observers point out that even if the talks do go ahead as planned and produce some kind of framework for a transition of power from the military to civilian institutions, there is bound to be serious opposition from Myanmar's numerous ethnic minority groups, many of whom have been battling Yangon for decades to seek autonomy or even independence.
The ethnic groups have been left completely out of the talks
and have demanded inclusion if the discussions are going to have
any real political meaning for all populations living in Myanmar.
"The current negotiations between the military and the NLD are welcome but very inadequate without the participation of all ethnic groups," says Saw Ba Thein, president of the Karen National Union, which has been fighting for autonomy on behalf of the Karen minorities for more than half a century. According to him, what most ethnic groups want is a genuinely federal Myanmar where ethnic groups will have the freedom to socially and economically develop their societies without domination by the majority Myanmarns.
In fact, the question of how to bring in the various ethnic minorities into the transition process may prove to be the most contentious and divisive issue during the talks between the NLD and the military. While the SPDC has successfully signed ceasefire agreements with many of the erstwhile rebel groups, many senior military leaders still think of the ethnic minorities as being discontented populations to be suppressed and controlled without any consideration for their aspirations.
"All the ethnic minority groups are willing to be part of a Myanmar that is democratic and under a leadership that can be trusted to abide by the principles of federalism, but there is no way they will accept the current military regime," says Ba Thein.One unfortunate fallout of the secrecy surrounding the negotiations in Yangon has been a growing distrust between Myanmese dissident groups in exile and the ethnic rebel groups. Some ethnic minority leaders see the talks between the pro- democracy opposition groups and the military as a entirely "Myanmarn affair" and a snub to smaller ethnic populations inside the country.
"Whether or not the talks produce any transition to democracy, the SPDC is sure to emerge the winner in this episode because it has managed to cast aspersions on the motives of the NLD and divide the Myanmarn opposition activists from the ethnic minority rebel groups," says an Asian diplomat here.
Among the other rewards that Myanmar's military rulers have reaped by taking part in the dialogue with the NLD is a softening of the international stand against their regime, whose human rights record has been called one of the worst in the world. While some foreign governments like the Japanese have taken the talks as an excuse to break sanctions and restart financial aid to Myanmar, others have decided to tone down their opposition to the SPDC to "give them a last chance".
With the Myanmese economy in dire straits and on the verge of collapse, some see the entire talks as a charade carried out by the military rulers to buy time. The SPDC's foreign minister Win Aung, asked by visiting foreign reporters about a timeframe for the talks to conclude, replied: "There is no set time for the dialogue or peace process in Northern Ireland, or in Sri Lanka or the Middle East. This is also not a process where you can start a countdown. This is timeless."
For the people of Myanmar, already laboring under four decades of military rule, waiting for the military to make up its mind about giving up political power may not be a very appealing idea.
(Inter Press Service)