USDA is another face of the military junta - Exposed
By Zin Linn

http://www.asiantribune.com/show_news.php?id=8250

The USDA (Union Solidarity and Development Association) is a quasi -government terror organization – one half of it is said to be political, but the whole is a para-military outfit. In fact USDA is the another face of the military junta.

It was formed on 15 September 1993. According to the available information, up to 31 July 1999, there are 16 state and divisional associations, 63 district-level associations, 320 township-level associations and 14,865 village-tract associations, with the total membership of 11,806,009.

During the last ten-year period, the USDA has been formed at the centrall level, state/division levell, district level, township level and village/ward level.

It is a well-known fact, that although USDA claims itself as a non-governmental organization, but in fact it is the military regime's undercover gang of informants, as well as a hit squad.

All members of the association are required to attend various trainings, including crash military courses. The military normally make use of the USDA to create social unrest that would provide an opportunity for the armed forces to interfere to suppress the civilians and subdue them.

People still remember with fresh memories of the November 1996 incident as something that happened yesterday. When talking about that incident, Nobel Peace Prize laureate Daw Aung San Suu Kyi said some 200 people gathered around her car, who were armed with iron bars, motor cycle chains and other dangerous weapons, and smashed her car windows and windscreen, on 9th November 1996.

The USDA at present is perhaps the most dangerous, a ruthless militant outfit in the Burma’s political arena.

In the 1996, the ugly rowdy incident, media-men saw clearly the gathering of USDA demonstrators on a street behind police lines, taking instructions from a man with a cell phone and a walkie-talkie gadget issued only to regime's security officers.

The Lady and other witnesses when narrating about the episode said that the security forces stood by idly and did nothing. She accused the military-backed civilian political group called the Union Solidarity Development Association, or USDA, of being behind the rowdy incident. After the incident, the Lady made a remark that the USDA is behaving like a fascist organization, compared to the Hitler’s notorious ‘Storm Troopers.’

All most all the Burmese know the patron of the USDA is no other than Senior Gen. Than Shwe. The November 1996 incident was the result of the junta's very calculated offensive against the most popular Leader of the Opposition.

Moreover, recently on 30 May at Dipeyin the premeditated massacre of the 250 NLD members traveling in a motorcade was undertaken and attacked by a group of 5000 soldiers, police, USDA members and convicts from Mandalay Prison, who reportedly made an ambush and assault, as the place of attack was lit with powerful search-lights to make the attackers to easily target their victims.

In the ensuing melee, which lasted for an hour, the attackers harshly beat up the NLD members, using bamboo-sticks and spears. Other than that, soldiers opened fire at the innocent unarmed political activists, killing and wounding a large number of NLD members. The attack was not just making harassment, but committing a well-planned and designed brutal massacre, said escapees from the incident.

Eyewitnesses of the incident were unable to be present to witness the complete harrowing episodes, as they were forced to flee for their lives. But by piecing their narrations together, it became apparent that the casualties might be as high as one hundred, may be a little on the higher side.

With such a notorious history, the USDA is capable of undertaking any kind of crime and people in the country are concerned about the fate of the Nobel Peace Prize Winner, who is under detention by the Burmese junta.

What's the real cause of the junta's assaults upon the NLD? What's the real intention of organizing the USDA?

Sole idea was to crack down on the NLD. In the state-run media, the junta regularly attacked the NLD as the culprit of the country's socio-economic problems. And it also accuses Daw Aung San Suu Kyi of working for the Western Bloc or Neocolonialists and Imperialists.

Actually, the landslide victory of the NLD led by Daw Aung San Suu Kyi in the 1990 parliamentary general elections was the main grouse of the military regime.

The regime's major earlier anticipated the establishment of a military controlled parliament in the 1990 elections. Burmese generals had dreamt of a victory for the National Unity Party (NUP), which was the old military-backed Burmese Socialist Program Party (BSPP). But, surprisingly, the victory of the NLD heralded as a spoiler of the dreams of the generals.

However, the junta refused to honor the election results and rejected permission for the winning parties to convene the Parliament.

Instead, the junta in an act of deception, organized a sham National Convention with an intention of drafting a constitution that must be paved the way to pepetuate the military rule and to prolong the rule.

In fact the pro-military constitutional convention is latest design declared by the generals to ensure the military domination upon the future political arena in Burma.

That's why in late 1995, after the Nobel Peace Laureate's first session under house arrest, the NLD refused to join a new session of the national convention to draft the constitution. The junta shortly afterwards suspended the convention, which the NLD had rejected as an undemocratic forum.

But now, after a lapse of nearly 8 years, on 30 August, Prime Minister General Khin Nyunt declared a seven-point roadmap for democratic reform, including "free and fair" elections under a constitution to be drafted by national convention, which has stalled since 1996.

Burma's ruling military generals got down the USDA to organise and demonstrate support for their roadmap - a clever ploy to shore up their sinking credentials.

The state media reported that more than 15,000 people attended in each of those sham rallies held in each state capitals and divisions, organised by the military-backed Union Solidarity and Development Association. It was said that USDA organised carefully orchestrated mass rallies in a bid to demonstrate strong public support for the SPDC's policies.

At this juncture all freedom loving people in Burma urge the International governments and Institutions including the media world to take notice of the USDA's hidden nature when they consider about the solution of the Burma Issue or the national reconciliation dialogue in Burma.

This is the first part of the two-part news analysis by Zin Linn.