Letters from Burma by Aung San Suu Kyi.

Operation Anarchy

For some time I have been thinking that I should perhaps, for a change, write a letter about Burmese autumn festivals and flowers, turning my mind from political to cultural and aesthetic interests. But it would not feel right to be quoting verses about scented lotuses under pale strands of moonlight when the political scene is so very unpoetic. So I have to set aside thoughts of the beauty of the dying year and once again focus attention on the current situation in the country.

When I wrote some time ago that life was not dull for dissidents in Burma I did not realize just what an understatement I was making. Something always seems to be cropping up to keep the adrenaline flowing strongly in the NLD (National League for Democracy) system. When we completed our series of meetings at the end of last month, we thought we were in for a period of humdrum administrative work aimed at implementing the resolutions of the meetings. A bit of routine dullness, we thought .... Such a thought was, of course, tempting fate.

Saturday, Nov. 9. The date should have told us something. There are those who take numerology very seriously and the importance that the authorities in Burma put on the number 9 has become something of a joke, albeit a bad one. The previous weekend, our supporters who had, very peacefully, come as close to my blocked off road as possible to try to hear me speak had been subjected to harassment by thugs organized by the Union Solidarity and Development Association (USDA) and by members of the security forces. U Kyi Maung, U Tin U and I therefore decided that on Saturday the ninth we would leave my barricaded road to meet those who had gathered some distance away to demonstrate their support for our cause.

It had been arranged that I would meet U Tin U and U Kyi Maung at the latter's house. I was in a closed car with dark windows to keep out strong sunlight and prying eyes. A blue car nearby, which held my military intelligence (MI) security personnel, led the way and we were followed by a blue open-back van carrying some NLD members and young men from our house and by a black police car. We stayed for about a quarter-of-an-hour at U Kyi Maung's house, then set off for the place where we knew our supporters would be gathered. This time, the blue open-back van was at the head of our motorcade, my car came next, then U Tin U's car which carried both him and U Kyi Maung, then followed the blue MI car and the police car.

U Kyi Maung's house is in a lane off the main road. When we had entered the lane 15 minutes previously, there had been just a few uniformed members of the security forces and a few people in civilian clothes lounging around the place. But as our cars swung out on the road, a crowd of people converged on us from both sides. The blue van slipped through unscathed but the mob started attacking our car with stones, iron bars and other lethal instruments under the instructions of a man who had looked in through the front windshield to check who was inside. In an instant the back windshield had shattered but fortunately the sunscreen film held the pieces together and prevented splinters from scattering over us. There were also two big gashes, probably the result of a flailing iron bar. We continued driving and the whole episode was behind us within a matter of seconds. Later we discovered that U Tin U's car had lost all the glass in both rear windows and the rear windshield. The MI escort car also had all its glass shattered and the back windshield of the police car was in a state comparable to the one in my car.

The most striking feature of the whole episode was that it had taken place within an area which had been cordoned off by members of the security forces, who stood by doing nothing to prevent the attacks. Neither did they make any attempt to arrest the perpetrators of the violence. On the contrary, after our cars had driven away, the mob settled down across the road and remained there for several hours under the - one imagines - benevolent eyes of the security personnel.

Where had this mob appeared from? They were members of the USDA, who had been brought in from the suburbs and satellite townships of Rangoon early in the morning. They were positioned in large groups within the area around my house, which was closed off from the general public to prevent our weekend rallies from taking place.

The attitude of the authorities with regard to the incident is telling. Although there has been an announcement to the effect that an inquiry would be made into the matter, we are not aware that there have been any moves to take action against the thugs who must be well known to the members of the security forces who had watched them commit their acts of vandalism with perfect equanimity. This is in glaring contrast to the zeal with which supporters of the NLD are arrested and condemned to substantial prison sentences for trivial matters. What price law and order in a country where injustice and anarchy are condoned by those who hold official responsibility for protecting the citizens from acts of violence?