Living Silence in Burma (54 page)

8 The military

1
Andrew Selth,
Transforming the Tatmadaw: The Burmese Armed Forces since 1988
(Canberra: Australian National University Strategic and Defence Studies Centre,
1996
), p. 132.

2
Human Rights Watch,
Sold to be Soldiers: The Recruitment and Use of Child Soldiers in Burma
, October 2007, pp. 32–44.

3
See Selth,
Transforming the Tatmadaw
, p. 50.

4
Images Asia, Karen Human Rights Group and the Open Society Institute’s Burma Project,
All Quiet on the Western Front? The Situation in Chin State and Sagaing Division, Burma
(Thailand: January
1998
), pp. 52–3.

5
‘Burmese economy is an obstacle to aid’,
New York Times
, 29 May 2008.

6
See Karen Human Rights Group,
Interviews with SLORC Army Deserters
(Thailand: 18 May 1996).

7
Human Rights Watch,
Sold to be Soldiers
, pp. 63–6.

8
See ‘Better the devil you don’t know’,
The Irrawaddy
, July 1999, pp. 20–21.

9
Soe Myint, ‘India and Burma: working on their relationship’,
The Irrawaddy
, March 1999, p. 22.

10
See
Chapter 7
, note 15.

11
See Andrew Selth,
Burma’s Intelligence Apparatus
(Canberra: Australian National University Strategic and Defence Studies Centre, June
1997
), p. 28.

12
David Steinberg, ‘Myanmar reconciliation – progress in the process?’, in A. Salim et al. (eds),
Southeast Asian Affairs 2003
(Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 2005), p. 176.

13
Kyaw Yin Hlaing, ‘Myanmar in 2004: why military rule continues’, in C. K. Wah et al. (eds),
Southeast Asian Affairs 2005
(Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 2005), p. 235.

14
‘The spring before Khin Nyunt’s fall’,
The Irrawaddy
, October 2008, p. 15.

15
Bertil Lintner, ‘Velvet glove’,
Far Eastern Economic Review
, 7 May 1998.

16
See Gustaaf Houtman,
Mental Culture in Burmese Crisis Politics: Aung San Suu Kyi and the National League for Democracy
(Tokyo: Tokyo University of Foreign Studies, Institute for the Study of Languages and Cultures of Asia and Africa,
1999
), pp. 142–7; ‘Minister U Tin Winn inspects departmental works in Monywa District’,
New Light of Myanmar
, 13 August 2002; and Bob Beale, ‘Further evidence for out of Asia theory’,
ABC Science Online
, 28 October 2003.

17
Than Myint-U,
The River of Lost Footsteps
(New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux,
2006
), p. 158.

9 Prison

1
See All Burma Students’ Democratic Front,
Tortured Voices: Personal Accounts of Burma’s Interrogation Centres
(Bangkok: July
1998
) for more information about interrogation centres.

2
NCGUB Human Rights Documentation Unit,
Human Rights Yearbook 1997–8: Burma
, p. 290.

3
Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP),
The Darkness We See: Torture inside Burma’s Interrogation Centers and Prisons
, December 2005, p. 22.

4
See Amnesty International,
Myanmar: Justice on Trial
, 30 July 2003, pp. 19–26.

5
NCGUB Human Rights Documentation Unit,
Human Rights Yearbook 1997–8: Burma
, p. 109.

6
‘Burma’, in Human Rights Watch/Asia,
Human Rights Watch World Report 1999
(Human Rights Watch, 1999).

7
‘Burmese gulag claims another victim’,
The Irrawaddy
, 17 October 2006.

8
See Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch annual reports on Burma.

9
See the home page of the AAPP website for regular updates:
www.aapp.org
.

10
‘Allegations contrary to present endeavours exerted by Government with goodwill for prosperity of Myanmar’, Myanmar Information Committee Information Sheet no. D-3873(I), 1 December 2006.

11
Win Naing Oo,
Cries from Insein
(Bangkok: All Burma Students’ Democratic Front,
1996
), p. 25. Also, AAPP,
Eight Seconds of Silence: The Death of Democracy Activists behind Bars
, May 2006, p. 25.

12
AAPP,
Forced Labor of Prisoners in Burma
(Thailand: May 2002), p. 2.

13
See Amnesty International,
Myanmar: Conditions in Prisons and Labor Camps
(22 September 1995).

14
Phone interview with Ko Tate, secretary of the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, 31 October 2008.

15
Translated by ATN.

16
The information provided here comes from interviews with Moe Aye. He has also discussed aspects of his prison experience in his self-published book,
Ten Years On: The Life and Views of a Burmese Student Political Prisoner
(Bangkok,
1999
). See also Kyaw Swa Moe, ‘Learning without bars’, in AAPP,
Spirit for Survival
(Mae Sot, Thailand: September 2001), pp. 111–16.

17
In 1995, twenty-two political prisoners were given extra sentences after a raid of their cells turned up printed materials such as
Time
and
Newsweek
magazine articles, transcripts of foreign radio broadcasts, short stories and poems, and pro-democracy literature. Some were tortured and placed in tiny dog cells for their ‘crime’. See All Burma Students’ Democratic Front,
Pleading Not Guilty in Insein
(Bangkok: February
1997
).

18
AAPP,
The Darkness We See
, p. 85.

19
Ibid., p. 76.

20
The regime responded to exile organizations’ reports on prison conditions in ‘Allegations contrary to present endeavours exerted by Government with goodwill for prosperity of Myanmar’, Myanmar Information Committee Information Sheet no. D-3873(I), 1 December 2006. The statement was read out by the director-general of the Myanmar Police Force, Brigadier General Khin Yi, in a press conference the day before.

10 Education

1
Asian Development Bank, ‘Myanmar’, in
Asian Development Outlook 2005
(Manila: 2005), p. 107.

2
See Min Zin, ‘Hard lessons’,
The Irrawaddy
, July 2003, p. 11.

3
Htet Aung, ‘Save our schools’, ibid., June 2007.

4
UNICEF, ‘At a glance: Myanmar’,
www.unicef.org/infobycountry/myanmar.html
.

5
Thein Lwin, ‘Issues surrounding curriculum development in the ethnic nationalities areas of Burma’,
Burma Studies Conference
(Gothenburg, Sweden: September 2002), p. 3.

6
UNICEF, ‘At a glance: Myanmar’.

7
Bertil Lintner,
Outrage: Burma’s Struggle for Democracy
(Bangkok: White Lotus,
1990
), p. 62.

8
Democratic Voice of Burma, ‘New curriculum excludes General Aung San’, 26 June 2008.

9
See Karen Human Rights Group,
The Situation of Children in Burma
(Thailand: 1 May 1996); Min Zin, ‘Hard lessons’, pp. 8–11.

10
‘Integrate public spirit and influence and lead people to regional development’, Myanmar Information Committee Sheet no. D-3578(I), 7 February 2006.

11
Monks at higher levels do engage in serious discussion of Buddhist philosophy, but for young children who attend monastery classes for only a few years, most of the learning is based on memorization.

12
Ashley South, ‘Mon nationalist movements: insurgency, ceasefires, and political struggle’, Paper presented at the Seminar on the Discovery of Ramadasa, Bangkok, Thailand, 10–13 October
2007
, p. 19.

13
‘While schools are closed’,
Burma Issues
, vol. 7, no. 9 (September 1997); communication, 3 August 1999.

14
Min Zin, ‘Hard lessons’, p. 11.

15
This policy was originally introduced in order to fill the need for more trained graduates in the sciences and technical fields. See Josef Silverstein, ‘Burmese student politics in a changing society’,
Daedalus
, vol. 97, no. 1 (Winter
1968
), p. 287.

16
Communication from Aung Saw Oo, June 1999. Universities were shut down in 1962, 1963, 1969, 1970, 1974 (twice), 1975, 1976, 1987, 1988 (twice), 1991 and 1996.

17
Nwe Nwe Aye, ‘Russia–Myanmar relations grow stronger’,
Myanmar Times
, 13–19 February 2006; Khun Sam, ‘Russia, junta begin search for uranium in northern Burma’,
The Irrawaddy
, 12 June 2007.

18
See Karen Human Rights Group,
Interviews with SLORC Army Deserters
, KHRG no. 96-19 (Thailand: 18 May 1996), p. 3; Win Htein, ‘Time to change the Tatmadaw’s image’, Mizzima News Group (posted on BurmaNet News on 26 March 2000).

19
Yeni, ‘Burma’s IT generation combats regime repression’,
The Irrawaddy
, 7 October 2008.

20
Jane Perlez, ‘A tiny window on the US, prized by those peering in’,
New York Times
, 23 November 2006.

11 The artistic community

1
For a history of the development of censorship in Burma, see Anna J. Allott,
Inked Over, Ripped Out: Burmese Storytellers and the Censors
(Chiang Mai: Silkworm Books,
1994
).

2
See David Brunnstrom, ‘Military rule in Myanmar – a writer’s tale’, Reuters, 25 August 1999.

3
Yeni, ‘Burma: the censored land’,
The Irrawaddy
, March 2008, pp. 20–21.

4
Allott,
Inked Over, Ripped Out
, p. 31.

5
Violet Cho, ‘Journalists arrested, detained for Nargis reporting’,
The Irrawaddy
, 2 July 2008.

6
Videotape of the 1990 Writers’ Forum.

7
Toby Hudson, ‘Lights, camera – but where’s the action?’,
The Irrawaddy
, September 2005, pp. 38–9.

8
See Gavin Douglas, ‘Who’s performing what?’, in Monique Skidmore (ed.),
Burma at the Turn of the 21st Century
(Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press,
2005
), pp. 229–47, for an analysis of how the regime has tried to promote and standardize particular types of music in order to serve its ideological interests.

9
Aung Zaw, ‘Burma: music under siege’, in M. Korpe (ed.),
Shoot the Singer: Music Censorship Today
(London: Zed Books, 2004), pp. 53–4.

10
Ibid., p. 56.

11
Kyaw Zwa Moe, ‘A man without a head can run Burma’,
The Irrawaddy
, February 2008, pp. 12–13.

12
Jane Perlez, ‘From a Burmese prison: a chronicle of pain in paint’,
New York Times
, 13 August 2007.

13
Htet Aung, ‘Junta reconsiders ban on social organizations’,
The Irrawaddy
, 24 May 2007.

14
‘Comic relief’,
The Irrawaddy
, June 2008, p. 13.

12 Religion and magic

1
Guillaume Rozenberg, ‘The cheaters’, in M. Skidmore (ed.),
Burma at the Turn of the 21st Century
(Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press,
2005
), p. 34.

2
Juliane Schober, ‘Buddhist visions of moral authority and modernity in Burma’, in ibid., p. 118.

3
Patrick McDowell, ‘Grand pagoda being restored’, AP, 19 July 1999.

4
For a more lengthy discussion of the tooth relic, see Juliane Schober, ‘Buddhist just rule and Burmese national culture: state patronage of the Chinese tooth relic in Myanma’,
History of Religions
, vol. 36, no. 3, pp. 220–44.

5
Images Asia, Karen Human Rights Group and the Open Society Institute’s Burma Project,
All Quiet on the Western Front? The Situation in Chin State and Sagaing Division, Burma
(Thailand: January
1998
), pp. 42–3.

6
These details were provided in a confidential report written in early May 1997. A videotape of this monks’ meeting and the damage done to the Mahamuni image was later circulated outside Burma.

7
See ‘Burmese monks protest innocence’,
The Nation
, 28 March 1997; Aung Zaw, ‘Rangoon plays the Muslim card’,
The Nation,
28 March 1997; and ‘Eyewitness recalls recent unrest in Burma’,
The Nation
, 5 April 1997, for more details.

8
Both Gustaaf Houtman and Juliane Schober have discussed how Buddhism has been perceived and practised differently by the top generals and the NLD leadership. See Schober, ‘Buddhist visions of moral authority’, and Gustaaf Houtman,
Mental Culture in Burmese Crisis Politics: Aung San Suu Kyi and the National League for Democracy
(Tokyo University of Foreign Studies,
1999
).