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Monks with guns? Burma's younger activists get bolder.

Last year's crackdown on Burma's biggest protests in 19 years spurred them to try new tactics, from teaching human rights to stockpiling arms. Part 1 of three.

from the September 18, 2008 edition

Page 2 of 2

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The security dragnet is forcing some groups, such as the semi-legal National League for Democracy (NLD), led by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, to operate with caution. During the September demonstrations, NLD's central committee urged party members to avoid the protests, though it verbally supported the monks.

"But the youth[s] started helping the monks anyway, and they defied party orders and marched," says Nay Shi Shwe, a leader of the NLD's youth wing.

"There is definitely frustration with the leadership," he continues. Young people "think that this is a good opportunity to fight the dictatorship, but the old men are taking too much time. They want to wait until 2010" – the year of scheduled elections – "but we want action now."

Older activists of the NLD, whose election win in 1990 was ignored by the ruling junta, say that too open an association with proscribed groups and illegal demonstrations may jeopardize the party's hard-fought semi-legal status and disqualify them from the 2010 elections.

But to some, the party seems to be caught in suspension, without a coherent policy to address the current political climate. "The NLD is slowly losing relevancy," says a member of the underground group, the 88 Generation Students.

Still a unifier: Aung San Suu Kyi

But while the NLD stagnates, youths, monks, and underground activists agree that Ms. Suu Kyi, who has been under house arrest for 12 of the past 18 years, is the only figure who can unite the opposition and revitalize the party.

When Suu Kyi reportedly refused to meet the United Nations envoy to Burma, Ibrahim Gambari, a few weeks ago, the hopes of many activists who are frustrated with the UN and NLD jumped.

"The UN is no good. All they do is talk, and when they come here they are focused on dealing with the regime [rather] than with fighting for democracy," says Thaw Htun, an opposition sympathizer.

Mr. Gambari is mandated to help facilitate the release of Suu Kyi and the reopening of NLD offices, but in six visits he has only met mid-level government officials and no one from the junta leadership.

Suu Kyi's lawyer, U Kyi Win, suggests that her refusal may be a strategy to convince authorities to alleviate the conditions of her detention rather than a principled opposition to the UN's role in Burma. She'd also refused food deliveries for almost a month until the government agreed this week to some of her requests, including the right to receive mail regularly and certain foreign publications.

Activists with the underground groups say they are not banking on legal strategies or UN visits. Instead, many are looking for new opportunities in the current political climate.

"My vision is that through the development of local NGOs after Nargis, we can start building community-based activist groups," says Hein Thein, a longtime opposition member.

Mr. Thein says these groups can function like "urban guerrillas," rising to protest when needed and blending back into society during times of repression. If the whole community is involved in such work, he says, it becomes very hard for authorities to crack down effectively.

Other sections of the underground, like some young monks, think armed insurrection is the key. "We can't make the mistakes our predecessors did," says Tha Kay, one such advocate. "We have to develop new leaders and a new vision. For example, we are stockpiling arms. It's too early to use them, but the time will definitely come."

 

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