Rangoon, Shans: No more Mr Nice Guys

Politics

Reporter: Hawkeye

Rangoon, Shans: No more Mr Nice Guys

Lt-Gen Thein Sein, Chairman of the National Convention Convening Commission and Col Gaifah, General Secretary of the Shan State Peace Council, were at loggerheads with each other yesterday in Rangoon over last week's arrests of several prominent Shan leaders, reports ceasefire sources from northern Shan State:

When Sao Gaifah informed Gen Thein Sein, in no uncertain terms, that the SSPC's two principal member groups, Shan State Army "North" and Shan State National Army, were boycotting the next round of the National Convention due on Thursday, 17 February, the latter's response was reportedly blunt. "We'll manage without you," he was reported as saying. "Remember, if we could do it to our Gen Khin Nyunt, so could we to your Hkun Htun Oo and Hso Ten. What matters is you toe our line, when you're with us."

Gen Khin Nyunt, former Prime Minister and spy chief, was incarcerated on 18 October.

"The SPDC (State Peace and Development Council, the Burmese military's highest organ) will be held responsible for whatever is going to happen," said the highly-placed source from the Sino-Burma border.

A joint statement on the latest political developments by several ceasefire groups that have arrived in Rangoon to attend the National Convention is expected sometime today.

Both junta and Shan forces in northern Shan State has been on full alert since the arrest of Maj-Gen Hso Ten, Chairman of Shan State Peace Council Hkun Htun Oo, President of the Shan Nationalities League for Democracy, and others on 9 February.

There are 7 brigades under the command of the SSPC. The First Brigade, under the command of Col Panghfah, with 2,800 men fully armed, is regarded as the strongest.

Meanwhile, Japan's Overseas Courier Service in Rangoon, where Hkun Htun Oo has been its Technical Representative since 1984, has been ordered to suspend its operations. The order came from Communications, Postal and Telegraph Ministry yesterday.

"We are worried," said a family source. "Both Hkun Htun Oo and Sai Nood (also known as Sai Nyunt Lwin, his secretary) have not been heard since they were taken."