Burmese Exiles Unite in New Strategies For Freedom Struggle

(October 20, 2003 )

WASHINGTON, Oct. 20 (AScribe Newswire) -- Burmese pro-democracy organizations around the world have agreed to work together to end Burma's military dictatorship and have reaffirmed their support for imprisoned national leader and Nobel Peace prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi and her National League for Democracy party.

"Unity in the movement is what the people of Burma want and what the generals are most afraid of," said Dr. Sein Win, Prime Minister of the National Coalition Government of the Union of Burma (NCGUB) - the Washington-based Burmese government in exile. "We were able to unify different organizations and individual exiles and secure an unprecedented level of cooperation among various forces of our movement."

At a two-day working conference in Fort Wayne, Ind., conference attendees endorsed fully the joint leadership of the exile government and the National Council of the Union of Burma (NCUB), the broad coalition of democratic forces including armed resistance organizations, non-violence campaigners and Burma's underground networks based in the Thai-Burmese border.

The conference resolutions spelled out strategic cooperation, functional unity, and solidarity among the country's ethnic nationalities as the cornerstone of the opposition movement, especially among Burma's exiles.

"As long as there is genuine recognition of the need for ethnic equality and the right of self-determination, I am confident that unity and solidarity among ethnic nationalities, including the majority Burmans, can be established," said P'doh Mahn Sha who traveled from Southeast Asia to participate in the conference. Mahn Sha is General Secretary of the Karen National Union and a national leader with the National Council of the Union of Burma.

Prompted by the regime's May 30 ruthless crackdown on Aung San Suu Kyi and her supporters, the opposition groups and independent exiles have been working to find ways to end the country's dictatorship.

"The successful completion of this conference and adoption of clear-defined strategic options is a cause for encouragement and hope," celebrated Aung Moe Zaw, the general secretary of National Council of the Union of Burma. He added, "our coalition - NCUB - is stepping up its resistance initiatives inside Burma. Through systematic efforts aimed at mass mobilization within Burma, we can end the dictatorship."

"All of us, Burma's citizen exiles, deeply appreciate the help we receive from the international community. On our part, we are committed to bringing about democratic transition in our country, with or without any outside help. But of course with concrete support and solidarity from our friends around the world, we can speed up the transition from dictatorship to democracy," said May Oo, spokesperson for the international Free Burma Coalition which helped build grassroots sanctions campaigns.

More than 300 participants and representatives from 33 organizations attended the conference organized by veteran activists from Fort Wayne which has the largest concentration of Burmese political exiles in the United States. The conference, held from Oct. 11 to 12 in Fort Wayne is the latest and most successful effort to build a united front. It was preceded by a series of working meetings in Australia, the United States and Thailand.

Burma has been ruled by a military dictatorship since 1962. In 1990, the military held multi-party elections in which Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy won 82 percent of the parliamentary seats. So far the regime continues to disregard the election results and rules the country with an iron fist.

With a population of 50 million, Burma is the largest country in mainland Southeast Asia. Despite its richness in natural and human resources, Burma has one of the world's most repressive governments, which has made it one of the world's poorest nations with per capital income of $200. The military regime spends nearly half of its national budget on arms purchases. It is currently building a nuclear reactor with the help of Russia. The regime receives its revenues from Burma's
drug-based economy, cross-border-trade with China, India and Thailand, and several Western oil companies including Unocal and TotalFinaElf.

Media Contact: May Oo, Free Burma Coalition Director for
Communications, 202-547-5985; mayoo@freeburmacoalition.org