Coincidentally on 18 June, Secretary of State Colin Powell, who was
attending the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) security meeting in Cambodia, put
pressure on Burma's reclusive generals, accusing them of being "brutal
rulers." Burmese Foreign Minister Win Aung launched a spirited defense
of his country's military rulers on 19 June, denying U.S. accusations
of brutality but setting no date for the release of pro-democracy leader
Aung San Suu Kyi. "We are not a brutal people," Win Aung responded to a
news conference on the fringe of a meeting of the Association of
Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). "If we were brutal, there would be signs of
brutality all across the country. We are not a heartless people," he
said.

Win Aung, ex-military officer, had likely forgotten the 1988 bloodbath
and crack-down on peaceful demonstrators. On 10 August 1988, people
remember, there was a hospital bed sheet on the wall of the Rangoon
General Hospital, with blood-red writing saying: "We urge the military to
stop shooting. We have got no medicines at all -Doctors and Nurses,
Rangoon General Hospital.''

Thousands of people were gunned down by the bloodthirsty military
troops during peaceful demonstrations. This lasted for nearly seven weeks,
and the death toll mounted to over three thousand. Because of such
brutalities by the army, Aung San Suu Kyi became the sole leader of the
Burmese democracy movement and won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991.

There are more than one thousand prisoners of conscience in the junta's
prisons. Most of them have been imprisoned for more than 10 years, and
many are suffering from physical and mental diseases. Most of them are
intellectuals and students. They are the future of the country. The
generals have put them in jail and practice torture on them. Is this not
brutality? Moreover, about one hundred political prisoners died due to
lack of proper medical treatments. That is why the Burmese people know
the junta as a brutal and inhuman regime.

In his defense, Win Aung added that the junta remained committed to its
long-stated path toward multi-party democracy and that Suu Kyi would be
released while no date for release was set. "Myanmar should have the
opportunity to enjoy peace like other countries," he said. "We don't want
to go back to the days of bloodshed. We don't have any animosity
against Aung San Suu Kyi. In fact, Aung San Suu Kyi and myself, we were born
in the same year. It means we come from the same generation, and the
same generation means 'Let us work together'," he said.

What ridiculous words! Numerous newspaper articles attest to the
military authorities' animosity towards and verbal abuse of Daw Aung San Suu
Kyi. In addition, the military frequently distributes pamphlets
degrading and humiliating her. Win Aung should be acquainted with these.

People still remembered the incident of November 1996 as if it as
yesterday. On 9 November 1996, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi reported that her car
was surrounded by some 200 people who used iron bars and motorcycle
chains to smash the windows. The USDA is perhaps the most dangerous new
element on Burma's present political stage. In the incident, media-men
found an apparent gathering of USDA demonstrators on a street behind police
lines, taking directions from a man with a cell phone and a
walkie-talkie - gadgets issued only to the regime's security officers. The Lady
was not injured, but she and witnesses said security forces stood by and
did nothing. She accused a military-backed civilian political group
called the Union Solidarity Development Association, or USDA, of being
behind the incident. After the incident, Daw Suu said that USDA was
behaving like a fascist organization and compared it to the Hitler Youth. But
every Burmese knows the patron o f the USDA is no other than Senior
Gen. Than Shwe. The 1996 November incident was also a manifestation of the
junta's animosity toward the opposition leader.

The news of the recent premeditated massacre on 30 May in Dipeyin
spread like a wild-fire through the nation. According to later reports by
the local residents of Monywa, 250 NLD members traveling in a motorcade
were attacked by a group of 5000 soldiers, police, USDA members and
convicts from Mandalay Prison, who reportedly shot at the tires of the
motor-vehicles and made an ambush assault under search-lights. In the
ensuing melee which lasted for an hour, the attackers beat up NLD members,
using bamboo-sticks and spears, and soldiers also opened fire, killing
and wounding a large number of NLD members. The attack was not just
harassment but a well-planned massacre, said one of the incident's
escapees. According to eyewitness accounts, the casualties might be as high as
one hundred.

Further brutalities took place subsequent to the ambush massacre. All
of the convicts who participated in the attack were gathered in the
northwest military command, to attend a victory dinner as they were told.
After the dinner, all of them were killed and never came out of the army
compound, said a relative of one convict. At present, the city of
Monywa is under heavily guard of troops in a bid to threaten the residents
into keeping silent about the massacre.

Against this background, the Burmese people shrugged off what Win Aung
said to the press during the ASEAN meeting in Phnom Penh. Recently,
underground students' union members have disseminated pamphlets in Rangoon
telling the inside story of the premeditated massacre from the
perspective of eyewitnesses. The students' union has successfully highlighted
the real culprits behind the 30 May massacre. Today while people grieve
for those who died in the massacre they all accepted recognise the
culprit.

On 19 June UK Foreign Office Minister Mike O'Brien stated that he had
learnt that Daw Aung San Suu was being held under Section 10(a) of the
1975 State Protection Law at Insein Jail, on the outskirts of Rangoon.
This is the most draconian of the Burmese military regime's laws, which
allows for detention without access to family or lawyers for 180 days
at a time up to a total of 5 years, with no prospect of appeal. This
move completely discredits the regime's claim that she is being held in
'protective custody'. It is amazing that the junta's foreign minister Win
Aung dares to deceive the ASEAN ministerial meeting and the ASEAN
Regional Forum (ARF) security meeting on the situation and whereabouts of
the Nobel Laureate.