04.02.2007
MRND in Rwanda; USDA in Burma
_ By Network for Democracy & Development
This report concerns the current activities of the Union Solidarity and Development Association (USDA) and the threat it poses to peaceful transition to democracy in Burma. It is structured into three parts:
1. Detailed description of a particular event of political oppression involving the USDA
2. Short discussion of the relationship between the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) and the USDA
3. Reflections on the potential threat posed by the USDA in light of the Rwandan experience.
It is argued that a precedent for the growing danger of the USDA can be seen in the experiences of Rwanda and the role played by the Movement Re'volutionnaire Pourle De'veloppement (MRND) in creating conditions for and triggering the 1994 Rwandan Genocide.
The USDA and NLD in Bogalay Township, January 2007
¨ This event occurred on 3rd and 4th January 2007 in Bogalay Township, Irrawaddy Division. It concerns an attempt by members of NLD's Bogalay Township branch to commemorate the 59th anniversary of Independence Day on 4 January 2007 and local authorities’ actions to prevent the NLD activities from taking place.
¨ In the afternoon of 3rd January, the Township Peace and Development Council (TPDC) Chairman, U Soe Thein and the Township Elections Commission summoned Bogalay's NLD Chairman, U Aung Khin Bo, warning him that nobody except state agencies were permitted to hold Independence Day ceremonies. He was also warned that if he carried out the ceremony without authorization he must bear responsibility for all consequences.
¨ The Township Municipality also pressured U Aung Khin Bo to pull down a banner hanging under the eaves of his house bearing Aung San's words "Only Democracy is suited to Independence."
¨ The Bogalay Township NLD officials refused to give in to the authorities' intimidations and continued their preparations. At 7:30 pm, on 3rd January, a group of 40-60 men carrying sticks, machetes and assorted weapon-like items arrived at U Aung Khin Bo's house and shouted obscenities. They bullied him to remove the banner with Aung San's words.
¨ U Aung Khin Bo informed Police Sub-Inspector, Than Zaw, who was on stand-by one hundred yards from the house, of what was happening. He refused to intervene, saying his superiors had not assigned him the task of maintaining order.
¨ When U Aung Khin Bo went to the police station to file a lawsuit, the group of weapon bearing men temporarily stopped their intimidation.
¨ At midnight that night, 70-80 men came again to U Aung Khin Bo's house by car and insisted on taking sixteen guests staying at the house to TPDC office for questioning. All sixteen guests had already reported their overnight stay with U Aung Khin Bo with local officials.
¨ When the NLD officials refused to comply, saying they had already reported their stay to the Ward, No. 7 Ward Peace and Development Council (WPDC) office, a newly-appointed WPDC member, Thein Tun, also a USDA member known for his fervent commitment to the organization, led the group in chanting, "Pull down the signboard at once!" "We don't want any political party!" "Our Town is disgraced!"
¨ Some of the USDA-led group then climbed U Aung Khin Bo's house using a ladder and forcibly removed the banner.
¨ On 4th January at 7:00 am, a group of about 150 people led by TPDC Secretary, U Myo Nyunt, Police Station Chief, U Soe Tint and new WPDC Chairman of Ward No. 7, U Than Swe, arrived at U Aung Khin Bo's house, trying to force him and his sixteen guests to go to the TPDC office.
¨ As the authorities promised to return the guests before the Independence Day ceremony started at 8:00 am, the sixteen guests agreed to be taken to the TPDC office.
¨ At the TPDC office, authorities forced them to sign a statement admitting they were holding a ceremony without authorization, had hung a signboard without permission and caused fear to the people.
¨ One senior woman guest signed the statement agreeing to be punished if she engaged in similar activities again. The other 15 guests signed a paper stating they did not accept such an undertaking.
The SPDC and USDA
¨ This incident is the first reported in 2007 in which SPDC authorities used USDA members, also called 'people's power holders', to intimidate a political party.
¨ On Martyrs' Day, 19 July 2006, USDA members armed with machetes, crowbars and hoes and thinly disguised as sanitary workers, stood at the base of Shwedagon Pagoda to threaten NLD Youth and '88 Generation Students who came to pay respects to Burma's Martyrs if the marchers did not disperse quickly.
¨ The SPDC is selecting particularly fervent members of its estimated 23 million-member USDA and assigning them the posts of Village Peace and Development Council chairmen and members. They are also being given training in administration, information and intelligence. Additionally, the junta is giving these selected members military training in respective townships, villages and wards and organizing them as military reserves.
¨ The SPDC is also giving military training to Auxiliary Fire Brigade members and organizing them into regional commands, tactical commands, battalions, companies, platoons and squads imitating army structure. It is compelling all townships to form one battalion of Fire Brigade. The Red Cross Society, Women's Affairs Association, Maternity and Child Care aggressively.
Lessons from the Rwandan Experience
¨ The SPDC is methodically increasing its strength at the local government level. It is compiling a list of fervent USDA members to appoint to local government positions who can be mobilized to ensure popular approval of the SPDC's draft constitution by referendum and ensure its success in elections planned for 2008. They are doing this to prevent a repeat of the May 1990 General Elections.
¨ The SPDC generals are systematically building the USDA as a political force in a very similar way that the Rwanda's Hutu coup leader, General Habyaimana, set up the Movement Re'volutionnaire Pourle De'veloppement (MRND) to ensure his retention of power.
Role of the MNRD in the Rwandan Genocide
¨ General Habyaimana, who seized power in July 1973 during the Rwandan Civil War, established the MRND in 1975 to support his social and political agenda. He was able to draft a national constitution and have it popularly approved by utilizing this Hutu-majority group. Moreover, he used this organization to get the necessary support for military-backed Hutu ethnic political parties to be elected. He systematically used the MRND to discriminate and oppress minority Tutsis and political opposition.
¨ After 1990, the MRND become more powerful, joining the interim government and controlling important administrative and propaganda machinery. As MRND leaders were Hutu 'hardliners', they disapproved of the 1993 Arusha Peace Accord signed between the Hutu government and Tutsi armed force, Rwandan Patriotic Force (RPF), and mediated by the international community and neighboring countries. In response, they planned a war of genocide in Rwanda, systematically setting up radio and TV propaganda programs aimed at promoting ethnic hatred.
¨ On April 6, 1994, unknown attackers shot down a plane carrying Hutu General Habyaimana, killing him instantly. MRND-controlled propaganda immediately announced, "Cut down the tall," a secret call to kill Tutsis. After issuing this instruction, nearly one million people were massacred between 7 April and 4 July 1994. Another two million fled to refugee camps on the Rwandan-Congo border.
Reflections for Burma
¨ Very few could know in depth the meaning of a genocide costing millions of lives within three months. Few could also appreciate role played by the extremist MRND in creating the conditions for and triggering this horrible massacre.
¨ The exact strength of the MRND in Rwanda, whose population is just over eight million, is not known. However, in Burma, with a population of approximately fifty-four million people, the USDA is said to have a membership of 23 million.
¨ The USDA is supervised by a group of patrons consisting of SPDC generals and military regional commanders. It is directly administered by a Central Secretariat and a Central Executive Committee comprising of major general-level SPDC cabinet members. Its members are given military training courses and various types of subversive training.
¨ If the USDA were to launch a campaign leading to violence and genocide in Burma, more blood would certainly be shed than in Rwanda.
Entrenching the USDA in Local Government
¨ Since late 2006, SPDC generals have gradually moved the USDA to the front line of local level political control. According to the SPDC Secretary-1's Statement No. 2/2006, 18 September 2006, two USDA members were appointed to each VPDC or WPDC in every one of the 13725 wards or village tracts throughout the whole country. The junta made direct appointments of three member-TPDCs for each of the 385 townships and sub-townships, four member-DPDCs for every 65 districts and four member-SPDC/DPDCs for each of the 7 states or divisions. These are high positions in the civil service so it is highly probable that all these appointments are USDA members.
¨ These government structures and regime appointments strongly suggest that the SPDC is systematically working towards consolidating its dictatorship by entrenching hardcore USDA members in the local administration of each region. Through mobilizing these USDA members, the SPDC could attempt to have its constitution, currently being drafted at the Nyaung-hna-pin Convention, passed in a referendum in 2007. If this was successful, the USDA could again be mobilized to ensure the election of their desired candidates in new elections which could be held during 2008. If, on the other hand, the outcomes do not favor the SPDC, they can mobilize the USDA to instigate a situation leading to civil war or worse.
¨ The SPDC generals and the USDA should not be under-estimated. We must take note of USDA members who committed the 30 May 2003 Depayin Massacre and the 9 November 1996 mob attack at Kokine Junction. Additionally, we should note the USDA leaders-cum-SPDC generals who openly call for the elimination of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and other dissidents.
¨ The SPDC generals do not fear anything except for relinquishing their power. We should not forget SPDC Chairman Sr. Gen. Than Shwe's personally order at the SPDC's second triannual meeting of 2005 to compile a list of dissidents and non-collaborators in each and every military command region and to eradicate these people if external powers invade Burma.
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