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| Published in Washington, D.C. March 28, 1990 |
Burmese election suspect
By Richard S. Ehrlich
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
BANGKOK, Thailand
Burma is preparing to hold an election with its three top opposition candidates locked up, tens of thousands of dissidents forcibly evicted from their neighborhoods and polls hidden from international verification.
Burma's plight is ignored by most of the world, causing many Burmese to say they feel desperate and helpless to change events since troops crushed a student-led uprising against military rule two years ago.
An estimated 3,000 demonstrators were killed in March, August and September of 1988 while the military set up a ruling junta under Gen. Saw Maung.
Since then, thousands of opponents of the government have been imprisoned or tortured or have escaped to the jungles either to team up with ethnic rebel groups or to seek asylum, usually in vain, in neighboring Thailand or the West.
For the past 40 years, a handful of non-Burman ethnic groups throughout Burma have waged insurgencies, with aims ranging from autonomy to full independence. Their fight, too, has drawn little attention from the international community despite the continuing bloodshed.
Instead, Burma has drawn maximum attention for its notorious reputation as the world's biggest illicit opium producer, flooding the West with high-grade heroin from its rebel-held Southeast Asian Golden Triangle region in northern Shan state.
Meanwhile, in the grimy, dilapidated capital, Rangoon, authorities are trying to ensure that the upcoming May 27 national election -- the first in 30 years -- is held in a sanitized atmosphere free from any real opposition.
The capital has been strewn with barbed wire to hem in would-be anti-government crowds, residents said. New footbridges have been constructed above main roads to allow troops to rush atop the high vantage points if any demonstrations erupt, the residents said.
Western diplomats say men, women and children have also been systematically ousted from their homes by authorities, often at gunpoint, and carted off in crowded trucks. Their houses are often then destroyed.
Western envoys say the forced exoduses are continuing.
The United States has publicly condemned the situation in the country.
The government's forced exodus program is clearly designed to break up neighborhoods where anti-government sentiment is strongest, including streets that provided the biggest pro-democracy support during the failed 1988 uprising.
The government, however, insists the people involved were illegal squatters in need of a transfer.
Burma's opposition leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, continues to challenge the government -- prompting some to view her as a possible Corazon Aquino or Benazir Bhutto figure, following the footsteps of women who, against all odds, rose to power in the Philippines and Pakistan.
She is the daughter of Aung San, an assassinated World War II and independence hero. To squelch her, the government in January disqualified her candidacy by charging she had links to insurgent organizations and clamped her under house arrest. She has denied the charges.
Other candidates from her National League for Democracy hope to run in the elections, though they doubt their chances because the government controls the radio, TV, newspapers and campaigning permits.