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BURMA
ABSDF Calls for Release of All Political Prisoners
A prisoner’s hand grips the bars on the window of a prison van as he leaves a court in Rangoon, where he was charged with inciting unrest by participating in a Nov. 26 protest against a copper mine in northwest Burma. (Photo: Steve Tickner / The Irrawaddy)
RANGOON—Leaders of a prominent armed group have called on Burma’s nominally civilian government to unconditionally release all remaining political prisoners, including their comrades.
“To build trust with opposition groups and to go forward with the peace and reconciliation process, it’s important to release political prisoners,” Than Kae, a spokesman for the All Burma Students’ Democratic Front (ABSDF) told reporters in Rangoon on Thursday.
Than Kae said that after submitting a list of political prisoners to government officials during earlier peace negotiations, 10 prisoners were released.
“However, 24 of us remain in the prisons, with over 80 years of prison sentences,” he said. “And there are many people from different opposition groups and armed groups who aren’t even named as political prisoners [but are in jail].”
Nine ABSDF representatives are on a two-week visit to Burma which will also include a stop in the capital, Naypyidaw.
In Rangoon, Burma’s biggest city, the delegation met with Tin Oo, a patron of opposition leader of Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy party, along with ethnic Shan, Arakan and Mon leaders from the United Nationalities Alliance.
The delegation also met with activists from the 88 Generation Students group.
“We will work together for development and reform in the country,” Than Kae said.
ABSDF was formed in November 1988, shortly after a series of national pro-democracy demonstrations, when student activists fled to border areas to fight against the military regime.
The group continued to oppose the country’s former military dictators for two decades, and its members today are based on both sides of the borders with Thailand, India and China.
The ABSDF delegation in Rangoon said their trip to Burma was the result of a meeting in November with the government’s chief peace negotiator, Minister Aung Min of the President’s Office, in Chiang Mai, Thailand.
The group said their participation in the peace talks showed they were willing to have political conversations rather than resorting to armed conflict.
“While there’s a civil war in Kachin State, we are here talking for peace,” said Than Kae, referring to the conflict between ethnic minority rebels and the government army in Burma’s northernmost state. Some ABSDF members have allied with the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) there.
“The country is in a very difficult situation,” Than Kae added. “We just want to have a nationwide ceasefire and peace, but for that we cannot work alone. The most responsible party is the government itself.”
President Thein Sein’s nominally civilian government has signed ceasefire agreements with more than 10 ethnic rebel groups and continues to hold peace talks with them.
However, clashes continue with some armed groups, especially in Kachin State, where fighting has escalated since a 17-year ceasefire broke down in June 2011.
Burma’s continued, widespread persecution of ethnic minorities, human rights defenders and political prisoners is a disgrace and stands as a shameful indictment of Burma’s leaders.
Better to look at yourself whether you have done anything good in developing and moving forward this country out of all this trouble. It is not good enough by sitting at the corner and making comments on who is right and who is wrong. Time to move forward as your comments make no contribution towards our country’s development.
It is the responsibility of intellectuals to speak the Truth and expose lies.
The Methods of Nonviolent Protest and Persuasion
Formal Statements
1. Public Speeches
2. Letters of opposition or support
3. Declarations by organizations and institutions
4. Signed public statements
5. Declarations of indictment and intention
6. Group or mass petitions
Communications with a Wider Audience
7. Slogans, caricatures, and symbols
8. Banners, posters, and displayed communications
9. Leaflets, pamphlets, and books
10. Newspapers and journals
11. Records, radio, and television
12. Skywriting and earthwriting
Group Representations
13. Deputations
14. Mock awards
15. Group lobbying
16. Picketing
17. Mock elections
Symbolic Public Acts
18. Displays of flags and symbolic colors
19. Wearing of symbols
20. Prayer and worship
21. Delivering symbolic objects
22. Protest disrobings
23. Destruction of own property
24. Symbolic lights
25. Displays of portraits
26. Paint as protest
27. New signs and names
28. Symbolic sounds
29. Symbolic reclamations
30. Rude gestures
Pressures on Individuals
31. “Haunting” officials
32. Taunting officials
33. Fraternization
34. Vigils
Drama and Music
35. Humorous skits and pranks
36. Performances of plays and music
37. Singing
Processions
38. Marches
39. Parades
40. Religious processions
41. Pilgrimages
42. Motorcades
Honoring the Dead
43. Political mourning
44. Mock funerals
45. Demonstrative funerals
46. Homage at burial places
Public Assemblies
47. Assemblies of protest or support
48. Protest meetings
49. Camouflaged meetings of protest
50. Teach-ins
Withdrawal and Renunciation
51. Walk-outs
52. Silence
53. Renouncing honors
54. Turning one’s back
The Methods of Social Noncooperation
Ostracism of Persons
55. Social boycott
56. Selective social boycott
57. Lysistratic nonaction
58. Excommunication
59. Interdict
Noncooperation with Social Events, Customs, and Institutions
60. Suspension of social and sports activities
61. Boycott of social affairs
62. Student strike
63. Social disobedience
64. Withdrawal from social institutions
Withdrawal from the Social System
65. Stay-at-home
66. Total personal noncooperation
67. “Flight” of workers
68. Sanctuary
69. Collective disappearance
70. Protest emigration (hijrat)
The Methods of Economic Noncooperation: Economic Boycotts
Actions by Consumers
71. Consumers’ boycott
72. Nonconsumption of boycotted goods
73. Policy of austerity
74. Rent withholding
75. Refusal to rent
76. National consumers’ boycott
77. International consumers’ boycott
Action by Workers and Producers
78. Workmen’s boycott
79. Producers’ boycott
Action by Middlemen
80. Suppliers’ and handlers’ boycott
Action by Owners and Management
81. Traders’ boycott
82. Refusal to let or sell property
83. Lockout
84. Refusal of industrial assistance
85. Merchants’ “general strike”
Action by Holders of Financial Resources
86. Withdrawal of bank deposits
87. Refusal to pay fees, dues, and assessments
88. Refusal to pay debts or interest
89. Severance of funds and credit
90. Revenue refusal
91. Refusal of a government’s money
Action by Governments
92. Domestic embargo
93. Blacklisting of traders
94. International sellers’ embargo
95. International buyers’ embargo
96. International trade embargo
The Methods of Economic Noncooperation: The Strike
Symbolic Strikes
97. Protest strike
98. Quickie walkout (lightning strike)
Agricultural Strikes
99. Peasant strike
100. Farm Workers’ strike
Strikes by Special Groups
101. Refusal of impressed labor
102. Prisoners’ strike
103. Craft strike
104. Professional strike
Ordinary Industrial Strikes
105. Establishment strike
106. Industry strike
107. Sympathetic strike
Restricted Strikes
108. Detailed strike
109. Bumper strike
110. Slowdown strike
111. Working-to-rule strike
112. Reporting “sick” (sick-in)
113. Strike by resignation
114. Limited strike
115. Selective strike
Multi-Industry Strikes
116. Generalized strike
117. General strike
Combination of Strikes and Economic Closures
118. Hartal
119. Economic shutdown
The Methods of Political Noncooperation
Rejection of Authority
120. Withholding or withdrawal of allegiance
121. Refusal of public support
122. Literature and speeches advocating resistance
Citizens’ Noncooperation with Government
123. Boycott of legislative bodies
124. Boycott of elections
125. Boycott of government employment and positions
126. Boycott of government departments, agencies, and other bodies
127. Withdrawal from government educational institutions
128. Boycott of government-supported organizations
129. Refusal of assistance to enforcement agents
130. Removal of own signs and placemarks
131. Refusal to accept appointed officials
132. Refusal to dissolve existing institutions
Citizens’ Alternatives to Obedience
133. Reluctant and slow compliance
134. Nonobedience in absence of direct supervision
135. Popular nonobedience
136. Disguised disobedience
137. Refusal of an assemblage or meeting to disperse
138. Sitdown
139. Noncooperation with conscription and deportation
140. Hiding, escape, and false identities
141. Civil disobedience of “illegitimate” laws
Action by Government Personnel
142. Selective refusal of assistance by government aides
143. Blocking of lines of command and information
144. Stalling and obstruction
145. General administrative noncooperation
146. Judicial noncooperation
147. Deliberate inefficiency and selective noncooperation by
enforcement agents
148. Mutiny
Domestic Governmental Action
149. Quasi-legal evasions and delays
150. Noncooperation by constituent governmental units
International Governmental Action
151. Changes in diplomatic and other representations
152. Delay and cancellation of diplomatic events
153. Withholding of diplomatic recognition
154. Severance of diplomatic relations
155. Withdrawal from international organizations
156. Refusal of membership in international bodies
157. Expulsion from international organizations
The Methods of Nonviolent Intervention
Psychological Intervention
158. Self-exposure to the elements
159. The fast
a) Fast of moral pressure
b) Hunger strike
c) Satyagrahic fast
160. Reverse trial
161. Nonviolent harassment
Physical Intervention
162. Sit-in
163. Stand-in
164. Ride-in
165. Wade-in
166. Mill-in
167. Pray-in
168. Nonviolent raids
169. Nonviolent air raids
170. Nonviolent invasion
171. Nonviolent interjection
172. Nonviolent obstruction
173. Nonviolent occupation
Social Intervention
174. Establishing new social patterns
175. Overloading of facilities
176. Stall-in
177. Speak-in
178. Guerrilla theater
179. Alternative social institutions
180. Alternative communication system
Economic Intervention
181. Reverse strike
182. Stay-in strike
183. Nonviolent land seizure
184. Defiance of blockades
185. Politically motivated counterfeiting
186. Preclusive purchasing
187. Seizure of assets
188. Dumping
189. Selective patronage
190. Alternative markets
191. Alternative transportation systems
192. Alternative economic institutions
Political Intervention
193. Overloading of administrative systems
194. Disclosing identities of secret agents
195. Seeking imprisonment
196. Civil disobedience of “neutral” laws
197. Work-on without collaboration
198. Dual sovereignty and parallel government
Source: Sharp, Gene. The Politics of Nonviolent Action (3 Vols.), Boston: Porter Sargent, 1973. Provided courtesy of the Albert Einstein Institution.
Gene Sharp is the messiah of Colour Revolutions and Arab Spring, and many are familiar with his book “From Dictatorship to Democracy”.. His take on Burma’s lack of success is interesting.
It’s an exhaustive list his non-violent methods.
148. Mutiny
198. Dual sovereignty and parallel government…Non-violent?!
Ultimately that’s what it’s going to take. But does our great opposition leader has what it takes? How to start a revolution or not.
A reform is a correction of abuses; a revolution is a transfer of power. Burma needs a transfer of power to be free and fair.
Amen to that.
Well presented copy and paste work. I am quiet impressed with your research or browsing work. If you could find time browse through a little more about the history of “Myanmar”. Preferably between 1826 to 1988. Then make your recommendation to reach solution for all conflicts. Don’t leave any piece of the history. That will be interesting.
Why thanks Bill. You will note that I credited the source: Sharp, Gene. The Politics of Nonviolent Action (3 Vols.), Boston: Porter Sargent, 1973. Provided courtesy of the Albert Einstein Institution.
I am happy to look at Burma’s history 1826 to 1988, but remember a nation that keeps one eye on the past is wise. A nation that keeps two eyes on the past is blind.
I would like to request President U Thein Sein to start to take action for under mention matter for peace for all people.-
“The Myanmar Govt should release all kinds of prisoners (not only political) from all jails in Myanmar & enact building for new laws & new punishments for new criminal cases from the first day of February 2013.”
God blessed U Thein Sein (Myanmar President) & All people in our country.