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Shan groups denounce regime’s mass prisoner release as a publicity stunt
Saffron revolution not just Burman affair: event organizer
INTERVIEW WITH LUTHER HTOO
God's Army: The reason for the Burmese Embassy siege
Book Release: “Rediscovering the Khmers”
Pa-O youth: autonomy granted not genuine
Junta's election road map: political amnesty
Shan History Books?

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Shan groups denounce regime’s mass prisoner release as a publicity stunt

Press Statement - From: Shan Women's Action Network kenneri@shanwomen.org
Tuesday, 23 September, 2008

We, community based organizations from Shan State, denounce the regime’s recent mass prisoner release as a mere publicity stunt, and demand the immediate, unconditional release of all political prisoners in Burma, including Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and the nine Shan State leaders imprisoned since 2005.  

Although four political prisoners, including U Win Tin, have been released, there still remain 2,100 prisoners in Burma. While 79-year-old U Win Tin appears to have been released because of his age, we question why the ailing 73-year-old Shan leader Sao Hso Ten, sentenced to 106 years in Hkamti Prison, has not also been released. 

It is also highly ironic that the regime is claiming that the prisoners were released so that they could “contribute to the building of a new nation” and “participate in the 2010 election,” when elected Members of Parliament from the last 1990 elections continue to languish in prison on trumped-up charges. For example, 65-year-old Hkun Htun Oo, leader of the Shan Nationalities League for Democracy, the party which won the second highest number of seats in 1990, is serving a 93-year prison sentence in Putao, northernmost Kachin State. He is suffering from prostate problems, diabetes and high blood pressure, but has been denied proper medical treatment.

Meanwhile, activists who took part in the Saffron Revolution and in Nargis relief efforts have continued to be unjustly arrested and sentenced to long imprisonment. It is thus very clear that this recent mass prisoner release is a mere sham, aimed to present a benevolent face to the international community and gain support for their roadmap to “disciplined” democracy in Burma.

The regime has repeatedly orchestrated such publicity stunts to ease international pressure. We therefore urge the international community to maintain pressure on the regime, and demand the immediate and unconditional release of all political prisoners in Burma.

Signed by:

§ … Shan Health Committee
§ … Shan Human Rights Foundation
§ … Shan Overseas Community, Australia
§ … Shan Refugees Organzation, Malaysia
§ … Shan Relief and Development Committee  
§ … Shan Sapawa Environment Organization
§ … Shan State Nationality for Democracy, Japan
§ … Shan State Organization 
§ … Shan Women’s Action Network
§ … Shan Youth Network Group
§ … Shan Youth Power

Contact persons:
Charm Tong  + 66 81 603 6655
Sai Khur Hseng + 66 84 224 3748
   
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Saffron revolution not just Burman affair: event organizer
By Hseng Khio Fah
www.ShanLand.org - No.18-9/2008 - Politics
29 September 2008

Saffron revolution is not only Burman affair but also includes the involvement of ethnic monks and all citizens of Burma, said Nang Hseng Oo, an organizer of the first anniversary of the bloody shootings in Rangoon held on 27 September at the Chiangmai University, Thailand.

“The monks follow the Buddha’s teaching which teaches people how to solve the problems by peaceful way. Peace is not for only one ethnic group. Many of us are also Buddhists. We cannot therefore say that last year's demonstrations were just only for ethnic Burmans. They did it for all the citizens of Burma,” said Nang Hseng Oo.

“We should not also assume that it only involved ethnic Burman monks,” she added. "Other ethnic monks like Shan, Arakanese and Mons also joined the protests.”

More than a hundred Shan monks were among those detained by the ruling military junta during the crackdown while some were forced to return to their hometowns and some had escaped to the border, according to reports by Shan Herald Agency for News (SHAN) last year.

While thousands of monks in Rangoon were marching along the streets to demand for lower fuel price from the military government, some monks in ethnic states like Shan and Arakan also staged peaceful demonstrations despite the authorities’ restrictions.

Thirty seven monks from Wat Teuleng monastery in Kyaukme, a town in northern Shan State, staged a peaceful protest by marching and chanting Metta Sutta on the streets, according to a SHAN  report in October last year.

The whole Burma is oppressed by the military regime, but ethnic states are more oppressed, according to Shan Women's Action Network (SWAN), one of the organizing groups.

In Shan State, there have been numerous incidents of monks and civilians being detained, interrogated, tortured and killed by the regime’s troops, said a leaflet from the group.

Likewise, on 27 September, about 150 Buddhist monks in Sittwe in western Burma's Arakan state staged a protest march to observe the first anniversary of the 'Saffron Revolution', according to Mizzima News.

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INTERVIEW WITH LUTHER HTOO
Bangkok Post

A QUIETER LIFE: Luther Htoo with his wife Naw Paw Eh Hsoe and their two sons.

Q: Tell us about yourself and your family?

A: I arrived at Ton Yang camp with my brother Johnny in 2002. I am now married to Naw Paw Eh Hsoe. We have two sons, aged one and five. My mother, Naw Khay Htaw, stays with us. We have enough food and clothes here, but we cannot work.

Q: Where is Johnny now?

A: My brother is in Myitta town in Burma, but I am not exactly sure what he is doing. We have not seen each other since he left the camp in July, 2006. I have received only one message from him through a third party. He said he was not happy there. The Burmese woman who brought him to Myitta is not so good with him and other former God's Army members who surrendered. Our father stays with him and he also is not happy there.

Q: Do you miss your brother?

A: Yes, I miss him and my father, Poo Gaw, very much. I sincerely hope that they will come back here and we will stay together like before.

Q: Do you regret having been associated with God's Army?

A: That is the past and I don't want to talk about it.

Q: What did you learn during your stay with God's Army?

A: I learned that the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) is two-faced. They are the ones who create troubles for the Karen people. I could see clearly their culture, their activity and the way their troops operate.

Q: What is your opinion of the Karen National Union (KNU)?

A: It is a good organisation. If we didn't have the KNU the Karen people would have faced even more hardship and we wouldn't have had any leaders. We would be even more desperate and lost. The KNU is our mother organisation. It is leading the Karen people.

Q: Give us your opinion about the Vigorous Burmese Student Warriors (VBSW).

A: It was not my choice that they came to us. I didn't accept them. It was other people who brought them to us and it was Shwe Bya who allowed them to stay with us.

After the Burmese Embassy siege, when the Thai authorities came to us and asked my brother and myself to hand over the VBSW members, we agreed and would have been happy if they left us, but Shwe Bya was against it. We didn't want them to stay with us right from the beginning.

Q: Tell us your plans for the future.

A: We have all applied for resettlement in Sweden because my mother-in-law lives there. However, I am afraid that it won't be easy to go there because I was a member of an armed group and many countries won't accept a person like that.

Q: What would you like to do now?

A: I would like to learn how to use the computer and to get a job as a computer programmer, provided I am accepted by a third country. I would also like to study the Bible and to become a missionary.

Q: Would you like to go back home, to stay in Thailand, or to live abroad?

A: At this moment I can't go back to my village because the SPDC is there. I want to go with my family to a third country. I would like to remain in Thailand if we were able to move around freely, but that is not possible now. We are presently confined to the camp.

Q: What do you do with your free time?

A: I like to play the guitar. I also smoke cigarettes, but not as many as before.
Q: Tell us your biggest wish?

A: I would like to have my own computer and learn how to use it. However, at this moment, I don't have permission to learn because only those who passed Grade Six are permitted to do so.

Q: What were the happiest and most disappointing events in your life?

A: I am happy that the Karen people are able to exist as a nation and that God has allowed us to stay safely in Ton Yang refugee camp. We are also thankful to the Thai government for treating us and other Karen people humanely, although we caused them a lot of problems in the past. I am disappointed with the SPDC for its treatment of the Karen people.

By Maxmilian Wechsler
http://www.bangkokpost.com/280908_Spectrum/28Sep2008_spec29.php

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God's Army: The reason for the Burmese Embassy siege
Bangkok Post

The siege of the Burmese Embassy in Bangkok on October 1, 1999, was the beginning of the end for the offshoot of the Karen National Union known as God's Army, its reputation built around twin brothers said to have supernatural powers

MAXMILIAN WECHSLER

Released hostages walk out of the Burmese Embassy.

God's Army was formed by a Karen pastor, Thape, on March 7, 1997, inside Burma, after about 200 deeply religious and superstitious Karen Christian families decided to abandon the villages they had lived in for centuries in the Tavoy area of Burma and flee to Thailand in February, 1997.

"They fled because they were persecuted by Burma's ruling State Peace and Development Council [SPDC]," said 55-year-old Padu Kwe Htoo Win, who has been a leading member of the anti-government Karen National Union (KNU) and chairman of its Mergui-Tavoy district since 1991.
"During the journey to the Thai border, eight-year-old twins Johnny and Luther Htoo both claimed to have had a vision of God commanding them to lead their young compatriots to fight the SPDC," Kwe Htoo recalled.

"They asked my permission to fight the SPDC. I thought it was a joke and told them that anyone can fight the SPDC."

Police usher hostages to safety after they were released from the Burmese Embassy.

According to Kwe Htoo, the full name of the group was Kaserdoh God's Army. Some of its members also called themselves "Jesus Warriors" or "Jesus Commandos". Johnny and Luther were merely the spiritual leaders of God's Army and had little say in the group's planning and operations. These were under Shwe Bya, God's Army's military commander, who also manipulated the twins.

Between 1997 and 2000, God's Army had about 200 young soldiers. Some remarkable battlefield victories against the SPDC were attributed to the twins' alleged powers. God's Army reportedly inflicted heavy casualties and rarely suffered a death or injury.

This led the Karen people to believe that the twins had supernatural powers. However, the early successes more likely were the result of the determination, bravery and knowledge of terrain displayed by its young soldiers.

God's Army's bravado caught the attention of various foreign organisations, which donated money and materials to them. Among the biggest donors was a South Korean religious group that financed the construction of a church at Takolang, a small village near Suan Phung district in the Thai province of Ratchaburi, bordering Burma. Many God's Army members and their families, including the family of Johnny and Luther, lived there. They frequently crossed the border to their headquarters in Burma.

At the height of God's Army's successes in early 1999, opportunists within God's Army and the Karen Solidarity Organisation (KSO) tried to gain control of the group. The fortunes of God's Army started to decline. Internal squabbles weakened combat readiness and efficiency. These squabbles were mainly about money and other benefits derived from foreign donors.

Several young South Koreans who said they were "missionaries" frequently visited Suan Phung, where they were looked after by a Karen pastor. This pastor also tried to control God's Army, but failed because the twins didn't like him.

Armed dissident smiles as he releases a woman hostage from embassy compound.

I met these missionaries in September, 1999, and some said they previously worked for the South Korean government's security service.
Earlier, in June 1999, a KSO leader with connections to a foreign intelligence agency brought 12 members of a radical group called the Vigorous Burmese Student Warriors (VBSW) to Takolang. He introduced them to Saw Toe Toe, a founding member and secretary-general of God's Army, who led the VBSW members to God's Army's camp inside Burma in early September, 1999.
"Taking advantage of God's Army's innocence, they convinced the group that they would be better off joining in future VBSW military operations," explained Kwe Htoo. "They bribed the God's Army fighters with goodies, including cigarettes. The twins were chain smokers at that time."

TARGETS IN THAILAND

The 25-hour siege of the Burmese Embassy in Bangkok, almost exactly nine years ago today, was organised and carried out by the VBSW, whose members obtained hand grenades and rifles from the God's Army base. They took 89 people hostage, including embassy staff, foreigners and Thais.
After negotiations with Thai officials, the VBSW members and some of their hostages were flown from Bangkok to the God's Army headquarters inside Burma, where they were welcomed by a waiting group of God's Army soldiers led by Shwe Bya.

According to Kwe Htoo, God's Army had cleared the forest to make a helicopter landing pad, located about 300-400 metres from the Thai border, before the embassy siege began.

Earlier in June, 1999, Kwe Htoo received a letter from VBSW commander Ye Thi Ha asking his permission to travel inside Burma to jlconduct some activities.

"I didn't reply because I didn't know him. I heard later that the VBSW people arrived at Takolang and then moved to the God's Army headquarters, " said Kwe Htoo. "I thought they wanted to do something inside Burma. I never suspected that they would conduct an operation in Thailand."

ABOVE: A warrior’s reunion at a God’s Army hideout somewhere inside Burma. From left to right, an unidentified warrior, Johnny, Min Lwin and Pida.

The embassy siege was followed by another daring incident on January 24, 2000, when three VBSW members, accompanied this time by seven God's Army rebels, hijacked a bus near the Thai border and forced the driver to take them to Ratchaburi, where they then took over the provincial hospital. Several hundred people, including patients and hospital staff, were held captive for about 22 hours. The rebels made several demands, one being that the Thai doctors and nurses would be sent to treat their sick and wounded. The group claimed it had been under sustained attacks by Burmese troops for a week at their mountain base near the Thai border. They also wanted Thai authorities to open the border and allow about 200 God's Army soldiers to seek refugee in Thailand. After an aborted negotiation to determine terms for surrender, Thai commandos stormed the hospital and killed all 10 hostage-takers.

Kwe Htoo said the attacks on the Burmese Embassy and Ratchaburi Hospital had catastrophic consequences for both God's Army and the VBSW. Thailand was now their "second enemy" _ after the SPDC.
"After the hospital assault, God's Army's fate was sealed as all sponsors abandoned them," said Kwe Htoo.

"Before and after the embassy siege, the KNU tried desperately and unsuccessfully to convince God's Army leaders and the twins that they had chosen the wrong path by joining with the VBSW in their struggle to free their homeland. We urged them not to believe their promises, and instead to listen to their Karen brothers in the KNU.

"God's Army was exploited and tricked by the VBSW, who promised them new uniforms, food, medicine, weapons and ammunition in return for their support. None of their promises materialised. "

THE UNRAVELLING

The attack on the Burmese Embassy was led by Kyaw Ni, or Big Johnny, of the VBSW. After the Ratchaburi incident, God's Army soldiers became disillusioned with Kyaw Ni. The twins finally withdrew their support for the VBSW. Even Johnny, who was always accompanied by Kyaw Ni, turned against him.

God's Army started listening to the KNU, but it was too late. The damage had already been done. The twins gave several headline-making interviews which didn't help their cause either.

"They were presented to the public as a fanatical religious group," said Kwe Htoo.

God’s Army twins Johnny, left, and Luther Htoo at a Border Patrol Police base in Ratchaburi in 2001.

Finally, in January, 2001, after almost four years of armed resistance against the SPDC and being pursued most of that time by Thai authorities as well, about 20 hungry, exhausted and desperate God's Army remnants, including Johnny and Luther, surrendered to Thai authorities. Then Thai Prime Minister Chuan Leekpai met the twins at Suan Phung and talked with them briefly through an interpreter.

When I met the twins at Ton Yang refugee camp in Kanchanaburi on June 12, 2003, both said they would never take up arms again. "We want to go back home to see our friends," said Luther at that time.

Other participants in the God's Army saga went different ways. Former secretary-general Saw Toe Toe and some others were promptly granted refugee status in the US. But most of their Karen countrymen weren't so lucky.

About 418 God's Army rebels and relatives who had crossed to Thailand between February 2 and 3 in 2000, after the SPDC mounted an offensive against them, ended up at refugee camps in Thailand.

Thai authorities also retaliated against God's Army by evicting some of their relatives from Takolang and sending them to refugee camps as well.

VBSW commander Ye Thi Ha was luckier. When a Thai police unit waited outside his Bangkok apartment ready to arrest him, a phone call came with an order to abort the operation, lending credence to the suggestion that Ye Thi Ha worked for a foreign intelligence agency.

Shwe Bya surrendered to the SPDC in August, 2003, after being offered a logging concession in Burma. He later contacted the twins through an associate and promised all kinds of privileges if they surrendered to the SPDC. Johnny finally accepted the deal and surrendered together with his father and some other members of the group in July 2006.

The Burmese government newspaper, The New Light of Myanmar, published on July 26, 2006 a report accompanied by a photo showing 10 grim-faced men wearing military uniforms. In the photo Johnny Htoo is standing behind a row of rifles and ammunition. The report said that "a nine-member armed group of GA with its base in another country, led by Johnny Htoo, (had) returned to the legal fold."

TIRED OF THE FIGHT: By the time they reached the age of 13, the Karen twins who led their people against the Burmese junta only wanted a more normal life. Johnny Htoo, second left, and Luther with their parents and three-year-old sister at a refugee camp near the Thai-Burmese border.

After Johnny's "surrender", Luther contacted Kwe Htoo trying to find out what was going on with his brother. He said he had tried to contact Johnny many times, but to no avail.

Recently, Luther received a message from his brother, saying, "If someone comes and tries to persuade you to surrender (to the SPDC), kill him. Don't ever surrender."

According to reliable sources, Johnny is living with his new wife in Myitta town, east of Tavoy.

TREACHERY BEHIND THE SCENES?

The people who manipulated and exploited Johnny and Luther Htoo caused a great disservice to the Thai people. The most striking example of the exploitation of the twins occurred on November 4, 1999. On that rainy evening, a team of Thai Army and police officers dispatched to persuade Kyaw Ni and Pida to surrender were confronted by dozens of armed GA rebels in the jungle on the Thai-Burmese border. The officers promised them fair treatment. Several VBSW members who arrived from Maneeloy refugee camp also pleaded with Kyaw Ni and Pida to give up. Both refused. An erratic Kyaw Ni pointed his AK-47 assault rifle at the officers.

Finally, Kyaw Ni asked the twins to decide his and Pida's fate. Shwe Bya, who greatly admired Kyaw Ni, knew exactly what to do.

When a Karen interpreter asked the twins: "Do you want Big Johnny and Pida to leave us (the GA) and go with the Thai officers?", both said: "Yes, we want them to go."

But the interpreter, acting on the order of Shwe Bya, said exactly the opposite. This fact came out during this writer's recent interview with Luther. It was confirmed by another person who was there as well.

Had the interpreter not twisted the twins' words, the Ratchaburi Hospital tragedy would have never occurred.

The Thai officers' trip to persuade Kyaw Ni and Pida to surrender followed a letter the two sent to Prime Minister Chuan. In the letter, dated October 12, 1999, VBSW leaders apologised for their action and explained the motives behind the Burmese Embassy takeover.

In another expression of reconciliation with the Thai government, the VBSW returned a pistol seized from a Thai Special Branch policeman who had been guarding the embassy on the day of the takeover. Shwe Bya handed the pistol over to Thai officers in Takolang on Oct 22, 1999.

A Thai security officer recently remarked that it is perplexing that, after these overtures by the VBSW, Kyaw Ni and Pida didn't surrender.

A VBSW member disclosed that Kyaw Ni and Pida did intend to surrender in the jungle to the Thais on November 4, 1999, but a certain third party, after learning about their intentions, warned them that if they did so they would be jailed for many years in Thailand or transferred to the SPDC, who would execute them.

"Obviously, someone was afraid that they might reveal secrets to the Thai investigators or the media that could incriminate certain people," said the VBSW source.

Pida was killed in the Ratchaburi Hospital siege and Kyaw Ni was killed several years ago under mysterious circumstances, shortly after several exiles met him in the jungle on the Thai-Burmese border to discuss his future.

From its formation in March 1997 until its curtain call in January 2001, the GA was a costly failure.

It didn't bring any benefits to the Karen people or to the pro-democracy movement. The only ones who gained were a few exiled opportunists, their radical organisations, some foreign intelligence services and the SPDC.

The vast majority of the Burmese dissident leaders agreed that the embassy and the hospital sieges, ostensibly done to attract attention to the pro-democracy movement, were actually major setbacks, as they caused the sentiment of the Thai government and the Thai people to turn against them.
However, according to security sources, one foreign mission in Bangkok benefited from the Burmese Embassy siege considerably. The sources say that one of three vans that left the Burmese Embassy on Sathorn Road shortly after the siege began entered another nearby embassy compound, loaded with a huge volume of documents packed in rubbish bags.

According to the sources, the VBSW somehow managed to remove a number of secret documents, including identities of drug informers, from a vault inside the Burmese ambassador's office.

On Oct 2 the documents were sorted through according to importance by a leading Burmese exile who was called in to help. The man wasn't allowed to go home for some days.

The prominent exile died about two months later, on Dec 1, 1999, allegedly from heart failure.

At the end of November _ after he reportedly met with some foreign intelligence officers _ he appeared nervous and said emotionally that he was "not going to do that", without elaborating.

A few days later, he was ordered to move his office to a "more secure" location. He was reluctant to do so. During the move, he suddenly collapsed while carrying a desktop computer.

Among the many wreaths at his funeral in Bangkok, one was delivered by a man on a motorcycle who quickly disappeared. The acronym VBSW on the wreath was clearly visible to the crowd of mourners, who numbered in the hundreds and included a smattering of intelligence agents who were busy taking photographs of the mourners.

http://www.bangkokpost.com/280908_Spectrum/28Sep2008_spec001.php

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Book Release: “Rediscovering the Khmers”
By Antonio Graceffo

Get the book at Amazom.com
http://www.amazon.com/Rediscovering-Khmers-Antonio-Graceffo/dp/1932966560/ref=pd_bbs_sr_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1222356830&sr=8-3

Antonio Graceffo’s long awaited book about the Kingdom of Cambodia.

“Shortly after the turn of the century, some French guy crawled out of the jungle and announced, ‘I have discovered Angkor Wat.’ The Khmers looked at each other and said, ‘We didn’t know it was missing.’ Just like the famous temple, no outsider can truly discover the Khmers. But if we spend enough time in the country, learn the language, the religion, the martial art, and the culture, maybe we can re-discover them.”

Antonio Graceffo
 

Mention Cambodia and most people think of either Angkor Wat or the atrocities committed by the Khmer Rouge. But there is so much more! To help 'get the word out,' Antonio was hired to show Cambodia's possibilities, helping increase its tourism industry. To accomplish this daunting task, he traveled the country and played tourist. It turned out to be an interesting experience, full of an extreme variety of encounters. As you follow his adventures, it is difficult not to agree with his conclusions. Cambodia's infrastructure makes developing a proper tourism industry extremely problematic. However, the Cambodian people make some of the finest friends to be found anywhere. Enjoy traveling through Cambodia as only Antonio can describe, rediscovering who the Khmers really are!

“Rediscovering the Khmers” is Antonio’s fifth book. See all of his books on amazon.com
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_gw?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=antonio+graceffo&x=15&y=14

Join him on facebook.com email him at Antonio@speakingadventure.com
See his website speakingadventure.com
See his videos on youtube http://ca.youtube.com/results?search_query=antonio+graceffo&search_type=&aq=f

Checkout Antonio’s website http://speakingadventure.com/

Get Antonio’s books at amazon.com
The Monk from Brooklyn
Bikes, Boats, and Boxing Gloves
The Desert of Death on Three Wheels
Adventures in Formosa

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Pa-O youth: autonomy granted not genuine 
By Hseng Khio Fah
www.ShanLand.org - No.16-9/2008 - Politics
26 September 2008

Self administered regions assigned to 5 different ethnic groups in Shan State are “a bunch of hoax”, according to Khun Htee, the newly elected Chairman of Pa-O Youth Organization (PYO).

Ethnic groups in Shan State Kokang, Pa-O, Palaung, Danu and Wa, were granted self administrative status by the newly approved constitution drafted by the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC).

“We don’t believe that the autonomy given to us is real because they [SPDC] are an illegal government,” said Khun Htee.

“We [Pa-O] signed ceasefire agreements with the SPDC because we wanted political rights and we wanted to solve the problems by peaceful means as well as to develop our culture, literature and to promote living conditions of our people. But in practice, we don’t see that we are getting any better. It is just getting worse.”

“We will keep struggling until we achieve genuine rights, not a bunch of hoax,” he added.

The Pa-O people will join hand together with other ethnic groups to struggle to achieve democracy, solidarity of nationalities and a genuine federal union, according to the statement from the 3rd Conference of the PYO held on 20-21September, on the Thai-Burma border.

Most ethnic armed groups are still on the struggle even though the Burmese military has granted them self administration, according to Khun Htee. The Burma military has been urging non-ceasefire and ceasefire groups to surrender by 2009 and contest in the elections to be held in 2010.

“If there is a group that will participate in the elections on behalf of the Pa-O people, it must take full responsibility to achieve what our people need. If not, we will say that it has betrayed the people,” he said.

Until recently, there were two Pa-O ceasefire groups in Southern Shan State, Shan Nationalities Peoples’ Liberation Organization (SNPLO) led by Takaley and Pa-O National Organization (PNO) led by Aung Kham Hti.

The SNPLO was formed in 1968. In 1994 it concluded a ceasefire agreement with Rangoon. In 2007, one of its factions led by Chit Maung was forced to surrender to the Burmese military and another faction led by Khun Ti Sawng returned to the struggle changing its name to PaO National Liberation Organization (PNLO). The third faction led by Maj Hseng Fa surrendered in July.

On 3 August, the remaining SNPLO faction led by Soe Aung Lwin and Sein Shwe were forced to surrender.

The PNO, formed in 1976, concluded a ceasefire agreement with Rangoon in 1991. Its leader Aung Kham Hti is a co-chairman of the junta-organized Union Solidarity and Development Association (UNDA) Shan State South branch.

Outside Shan State, the only self-administered zone granted by the junta is for the Naga people in Sagaing division.

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Junta's election road map: political amnesty
Bangkok Post - Friday September 26, 2008
BURMA
LARRY JAGAN

Burma's military leaders have released several key political prisoners on the eve of the anniversary of last September's brutal crackdown on the monk-led demonstrations in Rangoon.

The political activists were part of a massive amnesty for more than 9,000 prisoners, mostly petty criminals, which anyalsts believe is part of the regime's preparation for the planned elections in two years' time.

Among those freed was the country's longest-serving political prisoner, the veteran journalist and political activist, Win Tin, 79. At least four other prominent MPs from the National League for Democracy (NLD) were also released. But party leader Aung San Suu Kyi remains under house arrest in her Rangoon residence, where she has spent more than 13 of the last 19 years.

Win Tin has spent the last 19 years in jail on subversion charges. Immediately after he was released he vowed to continue fighting until Burma became a democratic nation - a battle he took up in 1988, when mass pro-democracy demonstrations brought the country to a standstill for months before the army intervened and seized power in a bloody coup. "I will keep fighting until the emergence of democracy in this country," he told journalists gathered outside his house in Rangoon.

Many analysts believe these particular releases are timed to help deflect criticism and pressure from the international community at this year's UN General Assembly, which has just got under way in New York. Only last week, the UN envoy for Burma, Ibrahim Gambari, appealed to the Burmese leaders to release the country's political prisoners. It would seem the regime is trying to make concessions to the international community for fear that the UN Security Council might resume efforts to get international sanctions imposed against Rangoon. The releases were planned to help reduce international pressure, according to Bo Kyi, who runs an organisation for Burmese political prisoners, based in Thailand. "It is meant primarily to serve as a weapon for its allies China, India, Russia and Asean, in order to defend Burma at the UN," he said.

The international community has welcomed the releases, especially that of Win Tin. But most analysts and diplomats in Rangoon do not believe this is the start of a mass amnesty for the country's remaining political prisoners. While the release of Win Tin and his fellow prisoners is certainly the best news to come out of Burma in a long time, they represent less than 1% of the political prisoners there, said Benjamin Zawacki of Amnesty International. "These handful of people should never have been imprisoned in the first place, and there are many, many more."

The releases came as a complete surprise, as in the past few weeks the regime has sentenced several students and NLD activists to prison terms. During this month alone, the regime arrested 37 political activists, including the renowned student activist of the 88 Group, Ni Lar Thein.

The sentencing of the young labour activist Thet Way to two years' hard labour earlier this month drew sharp criticism from international organisations, especially the International Labour Organisation. Thet Way had been helping people, especially child soldiers, to file complaints against the government for forced labour. In a statement issued last week, the ILO said it was concerned and disappointed about Thet Way's sentence, and has been in contact with the military government about the case at a senior level.

Only last week, Lu Tin Win was sentenced to two years' in jail on charges of "disrespectful acts towards the state", according to opposition sources. Lu Tin Win was originally detained in 1999 and was released in 2007. He was re-arrested almost exactly a year ago at a checkpoint, where a police search found he was carrying a copy of the book Opinion of 88 Generation Students.

"This is the junta's strategy: release political prisoners, especially when their sentences finish, and re-arrest them when it is feared they are becoming a threat to the regime," said Mr Bo Kyi. Others feel that the regime's larger strategy for the future may be behind the recent release of these political prisoners; that it signals the start of a process of preparations for the planned elections, "the outcome of which the regime knows it must find ways of controlling without looking too draconian", according to Burmese academic Win Min.

The elections, which are part of the country's road map to "disciplined democracy", are scheduled to be held in the early part of 2010, according to Burmese military sources. As yet there is no concrete information as to which parties will be allowed to field candidates, and it is unclear whether the NLD will be permitted to compete.

The regime recently announced through state-run media that thousands of prisoners would be released in the run-up to the elections "because of their good behaviour and to allow them to serve the nation". The junta has already begun releasing the 9,002 prisoners in a gesture of "loving kindness and goodwill", the state-censored independent weekly Myanmar Times reported.

Amnesty International estimates there are still more than 2,100 political prisoners languishing in Burma's jails.

The government often releases prisoners to mark important occaisions, like Armed Forces Day or National Day, but these are usually petty criminals, although it sometimes includes a handful of political prisoners.

Junta leader Senior General Than Shwe has used the mass release of political prisoners as a way of signifying the start of a new era. More than 20,000 prisoners, including hundreds of political prisoners, were released over a period of several months in 1992, to mark his becoming the head of state and the start of the constitutional drafting process, with the preparations for the National Convention.

Again in November 2004, after the prime minister and military intelligence chief General Khin Nyunt was ousted, more than 10,000 prisoners were freed, including many of the 88 Student Generation such as Min Ko Naing, Ko Ko Gyi and others, who had been in prison for 14 years. They were re-arrested a year ago because of their involvement in the Saffron Revolution.

In the weeks ahead there is likely to be many cosmetic changes to Burma's political scene. The regime has already begun to describe itself as a "transitional authority". Information Minister Brig-Gen Kyaw Hsan told Mr Gambari when they met in Rangoon last month, that the "transitional government will oppose and wipe out those who attempt to jeopardise or harm the Constitution" . This can only mean the junta will continue to ruthlessly suppress dissent. And there is little likelihood of the forthcoming elections being free and fair. "The military will not make the mistake it did in 1990, when it allowed a free and fair election [which the NLD convincingly won]," Mr Win Min said.

What the junta fears most is another uprising in the streets and Win Tin's release may also be intended to dampen the anger against the regime in a country that is becoming more vociferous by the day.

http://www.bangkokpost.com/260908_News/26Sep2008_news18.php

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Shan History Books?
From: S.H.A.N. shan@cm.ksc.co.th

Here is the list of history books in Shan still in SHAN stock:

001	History of Tai Races	150 baht
002	Hsokhanfah the Great	80 baht
003	Shan poets	100 baht
	Total	330 baht
	Postage:	330 baht (approx)
	Grant total:	660 baht ($20)

If you wish to buy them, do let SHAN know and they will post them to you at the earliest convenience.
(e-mail SHAN for quote & ordering)

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