Assassins fear

A correspondent Mae Sot, Thailand
THAI police have arrested a group of 10 Burmese nationals suspected of being part of group of 20 assassins sent to eliminate exiled opposition figures.

The arrests in the Thai border town of Mae Sot were made three days before Christmas.

The group included women and weapons were seized from at least four of them.

They claimed the Burmese military had ordered them to Thailand.

Exiled opposition sources said a group of 20 Burmese undercover agents had been sent to Mae Sot with the sole purpose of killing those who oppose the ruling junta.

Several prominent Karen National Union and Karen National Liberation Army figures have bounties on their heads.

The KNU and its military wing the KNLA have been fighting the central government since 1949.

On February 14 this year former KNU secretary-general, Pado Mahn Sha, was executed at his home in Mae Sot.

During an interview at a coffee shop in this Thai-Burma border town newly-elected KNU vice chairman David Thackrabaw positioned himself behind a fridge so he could not be seen from the street.

Mr Thackrabaw, 71, was elected at the KNU’s most recent congress, the 14th convened since 1949, which began on September 30 and ended on October 23.

By some, even within the KNU, he is considered something of a hardliner.

The junta would dearly love to eliminate him.

“Ever since the military came to power in 1962, the ultimate goal of the military establishment [has been] to set up the fourth Burman empire,” he said.

“The fourth Burman empire – of course in this time and age, only fascists would think of setting up an empire in a multi-ethnic state like Burma.

“In the empire, the non-Burman ethnic peoples would be just slaves like in the days of feudalism, Burman feudalism.”

He said the generals would never willingly cede power.

“They think of themselves as the equal of the United States, an equal of China, of India, their self conceit is enormous.

“In pursuit of total control they will use war, they will use the military for total conquest of all the ethnic lands.

“Fascism is not easy [to defeat], because countries like Germany and Japan they are preaching development, that democracy and human rights will come naturally, automatically, but we see that we have to get rid of this oppressive system.

“We have to get rid of the monopolistic control of the economy by the [junta] and their cronies.

“Only then will there be development, only then will any development bear fruit.”

Thai police would not be drawn on the possible targets of the gunmen arrested on December 22, but with fresh KNU leadership looking for new ways to counter the ruling junta’s influence, any senior figure would constitute a prized scalp.