Reporter in Exile

Estranged Burmese rebels reunited by mutual loathing for Yangon

Aung San Suu Kyi's release is certainly Burma's biggest post-fauxlection news, given the popularity of her narrative with Western audiences.

It does nothing, however, to mitigate Burma's other mess -- the civil war along its border with Thailand.

You know, the one Rambo IV was about.

Fortunately for Yangon, the Karen, an ethnic group at odds with Burmese leadership since independence from colonial Britain, have been too busy fighting each other in recent years.

In fact, Burma's military dictatorship was keen to transform the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army -- which broke away from the Christian-dominated Karen National Liberation Army 16 years ago -- into a border security force.

"Live for nothing, or die for something," indeed.

But one unintended consequence of this month's bogus election was reconciliation between DKBA and KNLA leadership. I don't know if any hatchets were buried, but I guarantee they've shared some hits from the opium peace pipe.

Most significantly, they've vowed to fight together against Myanmar's army. Their first dramatic offensive was seizing Myawaddy one day after the election, while the press were loitering a few kilometers away inside Thailand at Mae Sot.

My colleague Olivier Sarbil trudged into Burma to get some of the footage in this Al-J segment:

 

 

 

Burma's Aung San Suu Kyi's release imminent

It shouldn't come as a surprise that Yangon has announced it will soon release Noble Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi after nearly 15 years of house arrest. This comes less than one week after Burma's flawed election -- in which Suu Kyi and most other opposition candidates were not allowed to participate -- erected a civilian facade to its military leadership.

Karen rebels strike Burmese border town; refugees surge into Thailand

About 1,000 fighters of the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA) briefly seized the Burmese border town of Myawaddy yesterday, prompting a battle with government forces and the exodus of thousands of refugees into Thailand. The attack came one day after few Burmese voted in the first election for the country -- also called Myanmar -- to be held in two decades. As expected, about 8 in 10 seats in the new parliament were won by the political parties operating on behalf of the martial government.

View DKBA clash November, 2010 in a larger map

The Karen, an ethnic group which lives near or along the border with Thailand, have been fighting for an independent Karin state since Burma gained independence from colonial Britain nearly 50 years ago. The DKBA, a splinter of the larger Karen National Liberation Army, had managed detente with Rangoon: cessation of hostilities in exchange for an autonomous region.

Socking the Burma vote

TOP: Members of the Free Burma Coalition, Burma Refugee Council and other groups protested near the Burmese embassy in Bangkok on Sunday. RIGHT: Costumed "soldiers" intimidate voters trying to cast a ballot in a mock election held outside the Burmese embassy Sunday in Bangkok, Thailand.

BANGKOK -- Pro-democracy activists in Bangkok joined in demonstrations worldwide Sunday to denounce neighboring Burma's first election in 20 years as a "sham."

Reporters and Thai police outnumbered about three dozen Burmese refugees and activists, who gathered across from the Burmese Embassy to condemn both the military-led government and an election they believe is a rigged.

"We fervently hope that the vast majority of Burmese people with the right to vote ... will exercise their right not to vote," a spokesman for the Free Burma Coalition said, reading from an open letter drafted in response to the election.

Thai police stopped the protesters from approaching the embassy with a letter and burning Burmese flags.

Instead, demonstrators stomped their feet upon the flags and engaged in sidewalk theater. Two protesters dressed as Burmese soldiers intimidated and "beat" voters trying to cast a ballot for opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

Protesters also repeated calls for the release of Suu Kyi, who has been under arrest for most of the past 20 years since winning the country's last open election in 1990.

International observers and foreign media have been barred from entering Burma, which the military-led government renamed Myanmar after toppling civilian authority nearly 50 years ago.

Suu Kyi, along with thousands of other political prisoners, could not participate under rules determined by the ruling junta.

Instead the military-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party is all but certain to win handily, despite its lack of popular support.

Burmese officials describe the election as a significant step toward restoring representative democracy. Critics say it's a naked bid to legitimize their unpopular rule.

 

 

 

 

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The Bangkok journalism scene's buzz for the past couple months has been about who succeeded in securing visas to Burma to cover the election. I know or am aware of several people able to acquire tourism visas, a not-uncommon practice the authorities clearly anticipated. The SPDC nabbed a Japanese photog today in Myawaddy, a town just across the border from Thailand, according to Irrawaddy.

The Foreign Correspondents Club of Thailand is offering feeds of what information is available from its clubhouse in the Maneeya building at Chidlom.