Government Campaign Against Opposition

Keesing's Record of World Events (formerly Keesing's Contemporary Archives),
Volume 38, February, 1992 Myanma, Page 38767
© 1931-2006 Keesing's Worldwide, LLC - All Rights Reserved.

Government campaign against opposition

The ruling military junta, the State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC), placed further legal restrictions on the National League for Democracy (NLD) and other opposition parties during early 1992.

On Feb. 2, in accordance with the recommendation of the Multi-Party Democratic General Elections Commission of the Union of Myanma, the SLORC ordered the abolition of 17 political parties, on the grounds that they had failed to provide the Commission with details of their party structures and membership. Six more were abolished on Feb. 13, and a further three on Feb. 27. An NLD member of the People's Assembly was disqualified on Feb. 19. This followed the deregistration of 17 parties in January and the disqualification of 15 People's Assembly representatives from the NLD.

Gen. (retd.) Tin U, former chair of the NLD, was imprisoned for seven years on Feb. 21.

The SLORC announced the appointment on Feb. 7 of Commander Than Nyunt as C.-in-C. of the Navy and of Maj.-Gen. Thein Win as C.-in-C. of the Air Force.

Throughout February the army continued its offensive against rebel forces in the south and west of the country [see also p. 38725]. As part of Operation Dragon King along the Thai border, 7,000 troops advanced to within 10 km of the town of Manerplaw, headquarters of the Karen National Union (KNU), of exiled students and of the “National Coalition Government of the Union of Burma", a parallel administration established by opposition parties in December 1990 [see pp. 37915-16].

Despite being outnumbered by three or four to one the KNU claimed that it had inflicted heavy casualties. According to the KNU in January the army lost 128 dead and 500 wounded, while the KNU lost 20 dead and more than 75 wounded. About 10,000 civilians from Manerplaw and the surrounding villages were reported to have fled to temporary refugee camps in Thailand. As part of the campaign the army attacked KNU strongholds along the border south of Manerplaw, capturing camps at Yegyaw (on Feb. 4) and Azin, overrunning an outpost of the KNU base at Kawmoora and attacking KNU positions in the Tenasserim region.

Many of these bases were particularly vulnerable to attack from the Thai side of the border and on a number of occasions Myanman troops were reported to have crossed into Thailand. This led to a deterioration in relations with the Thai army. During the attack on Yegyaw Thai aircraft fired warning shots at a Myanman unit of 100 men which had crossed into Thailand before attacking the KNU camp. On Feb. 10 a Thai military commander announced that Myanman troops had been ordered to halt the construction of a bridge across the Moei River near the Thai border town of Mae Sot. Thai officials feared that the bridge would be used by Myanman troops to enter Thailand to attack rebel camps just inside Myanma.

The government also continued its offensive against Moslem Rohingya rebels in Arakan province [see p. 38725] and the numbers of civilians crossing into Bangladesh continued to grow. The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) announced on Feb. 21 that it was allocating $1,000,000 in emergency funds for the refugees, which it estimated now totalled at least 100,000 and were crossing the border at the rate of 1,000 a day.

The Bangladesh government said on Feb. 24 that thousands were on the verge of starvation because relief efforts were inadequate. On the same day the UN World Food Programme announced that it was granting $1,900,000 in emergency supplies to Bangladesh. The SLORC continued to accuse the foreign media of carrying “exaggerated and fabricated” reports about the situation in Arakan and the refugees crossing into Bangladesh.

The Associated Press news agency on Feb. 9 reported Bangladesh sources as claiming that 200 Moslem rebels detained in Arakan by the government had died of starvation or suffocation in the preceding week, while 75 others were reported missing after Myanman troops fired on boats of refugees. A report issued on Feb. 9 by the New York-based organization Lawyers Committed for Human Rights said that inside Myanma thousands remained detained for long periods under poor conditions, with some prisoners being tortured.

Last article p. 38725; reference article p. 38628-29.