To

To: The Editor 
Far Eastern Economic Review 
Hongkong

October 19, 1995 
Bertil Lintner's articles, "The Noose Tightens: Khun Sa faces a day of reckoning", in your October 19 issue needs to be emphasized with regard to three facets, namely: the takeover of the Shan State Restoration Council(SSRC) by the Central Executive Committee (CEC), the CEC drug eradication proposal to the United Nations and the real motive behind the State Law and Order Restoration Council's (SLORC) military build-up to attack the Mong Tai Army(MTA). 

On August 12, eleven members of the CEC took over the SSRC from Khun Sa and now effectively control the political and military affairs. The new political line spelled out by the CEC includes full autonomy for the Shan State and a new union under a united central government based on equal status and rights of all constituent states. Other elements in the political line are a democratic system of government, full enjoyment of human rights by the people, rule of law, political settlement of all existing political issues, and unity and peace of and for the people of all races. 

In a letter to UN Secretary General Boutros Boutros Ghali, dated September 12, Zao Gunjade, the new Chairman of the CEC said: "We hope the change in the Shan leadership and the policies receives the approval of the international community and yourself." 

We humbly appeal to you for your assistance in restoring peace, unification, democracy and human rights in Burma and in the timely elimination of the drug problem." 

"We are ready to place all our men and resources at your disposal and supervision, even if it should mean we will have to cooperate with the present government of "Myanmar" or any other government."

"The Central Executive Committee would also place itself under the direction of any international agency or task force appointed by you."

The real motive of the SLORC's military build-up to attack the MTA is primarily to break the backbone of the Shan resistance movement rather than to get rid of the drugs. Furthermore, SLORC believes that by attacking the MTA it will, perhaps, win the sympathy and legitimacy of the international community and thereby shore up its illegitimate rule. By subduing the Shan resistance, which is one of the strongest still combating the SLORC, it will be in a position to tame all the other non-Burma ethnic armies and eventually bring them to their knees. If this is complete, the installation of the military-dominated, centralized, unitary state will be in place. 

The final question to be asked here is why the SLORC has rejected a ceasefire overture from the MTA, when it has successfully made deals with the Was and Kokangese, who on their own accounts are still in the drug business. Wouldn't it be even better to work out a drug eradication program together with all parties concerned in a peaceful manner rather than shedding each other's blood, if SLORC is really sincere in rooting out the poppy cultivation once and for all? 

Sai Myo Win 
Representative of the Shan State National Congress
Europen Union