BurmaNet News: December 11 2002

[editor at burmanet.org]

December 11 2002 Issue #2138

INSIDE BURMA

Irrawaddy: Farmers feel the pinch
Retuers: Suu Kyi says Myanmar reform could be slow
AP: Daughter of former dictator Ne Win holds religious rite

GUNS

SHAN: War : Shan rebels strive to stem Burmese offensive

DRUGS

BBC: Fighting Burma’s drugs trade
AFP: Thailand invites Myanmar junta figure for talks over drugs crisis

REGIONAL

Mizzima: Indian industry focus export promotion with Burma
DPA: Singapore-Kunming rail network inches closer to reality

ON THE BORDER

AFP: Myanmar rebels claim Thai military killed leader after embassy siege
Irrawaddy: Arrests hit Mae Hong Son

OPINIONS

New Zealand Herald: Democracy sure to rise from a dead man’s bones

INSIDE BURMA

Irrawaddy December 11 2002

Farmers Feel the Pinch
By Naw Seng

Farmers in Burma’s Kachin State say that their survival is becoming
increasingly precarious due to a combination of soaring commodity prices
and a government policy forcing them to sell a large portion of their
crops at a reduced rate.
Government authorities have been requiring all rice farmers in Kachin
State to sell 12 tin (1 tin = 32 kilograms) of rice paddy, or unmilled
rice, for every acre of arable land they possess. Each acre produces a
minimum of 40 tin. But farmers say that if part of their land is not under
cultivation, they still are expected to provide the government with an
amount corresponding to their total acreage.
The market price for a tin of rice paddy is 1,500 to 2,000 kyat (1 USD =
1,050 kyat). The government, however, only pays the farmers 350 kyat per
tin. Farmers who cannot grow the necessary amount must purchase rice paddy
at the market price before reselling it to the government at the reduced
rate or face arrest.
"If farmers do not have crops to sell authorities, they will certainly
face arrest," said a farmer from Bhamo Township in southern Kachin State.
He said the government detained some of his neighbors for two months after
they failed to meet the requirements.
There has been a rice shortage in Burma this year due to flooding. And
Rangoon-based diplomats have predicted the scarcity of rice will be more
noticeable in January as available rice rations begin to dry up.
In September, a series of lootings occurred in Burma due to food
shortages. Passenger buses were reportedly stopped and forced to hand over
any food on board, while dozens of villagers in Mon State were arrested
after they raided a rice warehouse in Mudone Township.
Rice prices have doubled in Rangoon this year already, and reports from
some rural areas have said the price has even tripled. Over the past
couple of months the government has given out daily rice rations in hopes
of easing public dissent. Sources in Burma, however, have said that much
of the rice bought by the government is being exported to shore up hard
currency reserves.
On Sunday, the Ministry of National Planning and Economic Development said
that rice exports had reached 742,000 tons during the first eight months
of this year, marking a year-on-year increase of 114.19 percent for rice
exports.
According to government statistics, Burma's agriculture industry supplies
28.3 percent of the country's exports and 48 percent of the country’s
gross domestic product. Burma has more than 18 million acres of arable
lands, half of which is farmed.
______

Reuters December 11 2002

Suu Kyi says Myanmar reform could be slow

Manmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi has said she is confident
political change will come to the military-ruled country but the process
could be slow, the British Broadcasting Corporation said on Wednesday.
The BBC Web site quoted Suu Kyi as saying in an interview that talks
between her National League for Democracy (NLD) party and the junta had
made some progress since her release from 19 months of house arrest in
May, but there was still "some way to go".
Suu Kyi, winner of the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize, said she was hopeful of
progress towards political reform by this time next year and that she did
not think it was impossible that some political change could take place
"within months".
BBC television on Wednesday quoted Suu Kui in an excerpt from the
interview as saying she did not know when the time would be right for
change, but adding:
"I don't think it will take too long for the simple reason people long for
change and we are working as hard as possible for the kind of change that
will benefit our country."
The NLD won Myanmar's last democratic elections in 1990 by a landslide but
has never been allowed to govern. Instead its members have been arrested
and party offices have been shut.
The junta has said it wants some form of democracy eventually but that too
speedy a transition would destabilise the country, formerly known as
Burma.
Suu Kyi and the generals began secretive talks two years ago as part of a
reconciliation process brokered by U.N. special envoy to Myanmar Razali
Ismail.
That led to hopes for a speedy move towards democracy.
But despite the release of several hundred political prisoners, the United
Nations says more than 1,000 opposition activists remain behind bars and
there are no signs yet of real political change.
Suu Kyi's pro-democracy opposition movement has asked the international
community to maintain sanctions against the country until there are signs
of reform and discourages tourism.
The BBC Web site quoted Suu Kyi as urging foreign travellers keen to visit
Myanmar to be patient.
"We have not yet come to the point where we encourage people to come to
Burma as tourists," she said.
The Web site said the BBC World Service radio would broadcast the
interview with Suu Kyi in full on December 15.
________

Associated Press December 11 2002

Daughter of former dictator Ne Win holds religious rite

The eldest daughter of former dictator Gen. Ne Win offered food and
saffron robes to Buddhist monks on Wednesday in memory of her father who
died last week under house arrest.

Only a handful of close relatives attended the quiet ceremony at Sandar
Win's lakeside residence in Yangon. Ne Win, who ruled Myanmar with an iron
fist from 1962 to 1988, died last Thursday at the age of 91. It is a
Buddhist custom in Myanmar, also known as Burma, to hold a merit-making
ceremony on the seventh day after a person's death.

Ne Win had been under house arrest with Sandar Win since the March 7
arrest of her husband and three sons for attempting to overthrow the
military government. They were sentenced to death in September and have
appealed.

State media and the government ignored Ne Win's death. He was cremated
without the military honors usually granted a general.

Ne Win, a hero of Myanmar's struggle for independence from Britain,
presided over the country's demise from prosperity to poverty, as he
trampled a fledgling democracy and imposed military rule, turning the
country into an international pariah.

A government official said Sandar Win's status as a detainee under house
arrest has not changed after her father's death.

"She will remain as she was before. She is still under house arrest," he
said on condition of anonymity.

Foreign diplomats said they cannot send condolences to the family as the
government has not made any official announcement of the death or opened a
condolence book.

GUNS

Shan Herald Agency for News December 11 2002

War : Shan rebels strive to stem Burmese offensive

Reports from the ceasefire quarters and the locals indicate the Shan State
Army "South" of Col Yawdserk had been waging preemptive strikes against
Burmese forces in Southern Shan State since last month.

"Well-known guerrilla tactics such as ambushes, raids and sniping have
been employed in the SSA's campaign", said an officer from a ceasefire
group. "These have been going on since 27 November."

According to other sources, the Burmese forces had been using Laikha, 108
miles northeast of Taunggyi and Kengtawng, 137 miles east of Taunggyi, as
staging areas. (Kengtawng is a sub-township of Mongnai, not to confuse
with Kengtung, eastern Shan State's capital).

"Although most of them are hit-and-run affairs, the clashes are frequent
and fierce, especially in the Kengtawng area," he added.

The Shan State Army has 4 brigades west of the Salween: the 198th
commanded by Lt-Col Wi Lek, in Mongkerng: the 758th commanded by Lt-Col
Moengzuen in Laikha, Monghsu and Mongnawng; the 756th commanded by Maj
Khurh Lao in Mongpan and the 759th commanded by Maj Khamleng in Mongnai,
Lankhurh and Kengtawng. The rest which includes the 241st commanded by
Lt-Col Khun Jaw, the 757th commanded by Maj Timar the Kengtung Force
commanded by Lt-Col Kawnzuen and the three mobile columns: Khunsang
Tonhoong, SurhKhanfah and Kawnzoeng are all operating along the Thai
border.

The SSA's chief of staff, Col Khurh-ngern, had downplayed the operations
across the Salween as "normal local affairs." But his boss on hearing
reports about upcoming Burmese onslaught, promised, "You won't find us as
sitting ducks."

Along the border, the Burmese have been reinforcing their troops and
weapons. "There are only 3 battalions confronting us," said Lt-Col
Kawnzuen from Loi Kawwan, opposite Chiangrai province. "Infantry Battalion
#227 at Pangnoon, Light Infantry Battalion #526 at Maemaw and Light
Infantry Battalion #331 at Loi Zarngmob. But each of them are close to
full strength with an estimated total of 700". Adding the Wa and local
militia units the present aggregate strength would be 1,000, according to
him. "Normally, they only had understrength units during relatively
peaceful periods."

Meanwhile, the Thai army's northern gatekeeper, the Third Regional Army,
had assured S.H.A.N. Thais would not "give up an inch of our territorial
sovereignty" to any foreign armed groups to be used in their attack
against one another.

"Even a police commissioner cannot order a policeman not to catch a known
criminal," said Special Colonel Wechchai Dokmai, representative of Lt-Gen
Udomchai Ongkhasingh, Commander of the Third Army, on 29 November. "It
goes the same for us. We have been constitutionally entrusted with the
duty to protect our sovereignty. Nobody can stop us from carrying out our
duty."

DRUGS

British Broadcasting System December 11 2002

Fighting Burma's drugs trade

Burma's ruling generals and their Wa allies on the country's north eastern
border have pledged big cuts in opium production, hoping to head off
international criticism. Larry Jagan, the BBC's Burma analyst, reports.
Bao Yuxiang, the notorious drug warlord and commander of the United Wa
State Army, says he will dramatically cut production of opium poppy in
areas under his control within the next 12 months.

"I have promised to make the Wa areas drug-free by 2005 and I will," he
told the BBC in a recent interview in his home-base of Pangshang, on the
border with China.

The Wa are one of the main poppy growers in Burma's Golden Triangle -
situated in the north-west tip of the country bordering, China, Laos and
Thailand.

UN drug officials now estimate that most of the world's illicit heroin
originates in this inhospitable and mountainous region.

Profitable crop

The Wa have been involved in the drugs trade for decades, largely because
of the difficulty of growing any other cash crops, and lack of industry.

Since 1989 the Wa have had a ceasefire agreement with the Burmese military
junta.

During much of that time opium production has sky-rocketed.

But in the last few years poppy cultivation has declined dramatically, say
UN drug control officials.

Mr Bao, who along with his three brothers commands the 20,000-strong
United Wa State Army (UWSA), says that over the past two years, the Wa
have begun to resist the temptation to continue growing poppy.

UN financial assistance has been used for crop substitution projects,
including fruit trees and tea plantations, and to set up small-scale
industries like tea production and slate manufacturing factories.

"In some areas the Wa have reduced the amount of land under poppy
cultivation by up to 80%," said an independent Australian researcher,
Jeremy Milsome, who has just completed several months of detailed surveys
in UWSA areas.

"Last year, overall the UWSA managed an average reduction of poppy
production of more than 30%," he said.

Most independent assessments of opium production in the Wa areas also show
a major reduction in the amount of poppy that is cultivated.

Allegations continue

But despite this, the Wa are still blamed by Thai army chiefs for millions
of amphetamines that flood into Thailand every year, and by Western
governments like the United States for most of the heroin on the streets
of Europe and North America.

These are allegations which Mr Bao vigorously denies.

"It makes me fed up and angry... I'm tired of hearing it. It's nonsense,"
he said.

But the allegations continue, and with the new growing season at its
height, there is increasing international concern about the production of
opium in Burma's Golden Triangle.

The Burmese authorities are now insisting that poppy cultivation this
season will be half as much as last year.

"We hope to cut opium production by 50% in the current production year
[2002-3]," said the head of Burma's drug suppression committee, police
colonel Hkam Awng.

"There will be a dramatic reduction in poppy cultivation in the coming
year," the Burmese Foreign Minister Win Aung told the BBC. "You will see!"

'Too fast, too soon'

But UN officials are worried about the possible impact of this planned
rapid decrease in poppy cultivation.

They fear that as a consequence, poor farmers who are dependant on growing
the illicit drug will suffer.

"A 50% reduction is revolutionary and we should be happy with that," said
the head of the United Nations Drugs Control Programme in Rangoon,
Jean-Luc Lemahieu.

"But it's too fast, too soon. I don't see enough income coming in for the
opium poppy farmers and I'm concerned that we'll have a humanitarian
crisis on our hands as a result."

UN officials fear that if there are no viable substitute cash crops or
income generating schemes for the poor farmers, the result will be that
they have no alternative but to return to poppy production the following
year, as happened in Afghanistan.

And while the Burmese authorities continue to insist they are doing all
they can to reduce opium production, the reality is that amphetamine
tablets, known as crazy medicine or ya baa, continue to flood across
Burma's borders, especially into Thailand.

Thai military officials are warning that Thailand is facing an invasion of
more than a billion tablets next year - most of which will be produced in
the Golden Triangle.

"The precursor chemicals needed for the manufacture of amphetamines are
not produced in Burma and are illegal here," Win Aung told the BBC.

"They come from India, Thailand and China. More needs to be done to stop
the smuggling of these chemicals across our borders."

But as many experts point out, the only way to effectively combat drug
trafficking is to suppress the demand for it as well as cut its
production.

_________

Agence France-Presse December 11 2002

Thailand invites Myanmar junta figure for talks over drugs crisis

Deputy prime minister Chavalit Yongchaiyudh said Wednesday he had invited
the Myanmar junta's number-three Khin Nyunt to Thailand to discuss
bilateral ties and the drug-trafficking problem.

"I have invited Khin Nyunt to come to Chiang Rai in the next few days to
exchange views and ideas over cooperation between the two countries
including on the drugs problem," Chavalit told reporters. The deputy
premier said that at the meeting in the northern border town, he would put
forward his idea of joint military patrols at border checkpoints to avert
conflict between the neighbours.

"Thailand will push for the joint deployment of both Thai and Myanmar
troops at border checkpoints, which are prone to drug smuggling, to avoid
misunderstandings," he said.

Thailand and Myanmar spent the first half of this year embroiled in a
bitter diplomatic war over border clashes between rival ethnic armies
accused of involvement in the drugs trade.

Although the spat has since been healed, new niggles have emerged recently
after the Thai army said it expected one billion "speed" pills to be
trafficked across the border next year from drug labs in Myanmar.

The Thai government also voiced disappointment over the military regime's
failure to cooperate in plans to repatriate nearly one million illegal
Myanmar workers from Thailand.

Myanmar's junta has repeatedly and angrily denied allegations that it is
engaged in the drugs trade, which United States and Thai anti-narcotics
authorities believe is controlled by ethnic armies allied to Yangon.

It has rejected the army's "billion pills" estimate and urged the
institution "to contribute in a more constructive and meaningful way in
the regional and international war against narcotic drugs".

Chavalit said no date had yet been set for the meeting with
Lieutenant-General Khin Nyunt, who is Myanmar's chief of military
intelligence.

REGIONAL

Mizzima December 11 2002

Indian industry focus export promotion with Burma
The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), an apex body of Indian
industry houses, has suggested the Government of India to improve the
existing infrastructure in the North East India in order to boost export
with Burma, Bangladesh and the southeast Asian countries.
Addressing a press conference in Guwahati, the capital of Assam State in
the northeast India today, the CII's president Ashok Soota  said that time
has come now to pay a special attention to this region to develop export
infrastructure in the north east India  to open trade with neighboring
countries. He also suggested  setting up of a task force  to identify the
thrust area for investment. "We have to develop tourism and the
agriculture sector in the region  for promotion of export", he added.
"One of the major problems in the region is unemployment and to address
this issue in a limited way, CII, with the help of its member companies is
arranging training in Automobile, Appliances, Hospitality, Health-care
etc."
On the prospect of trade with the neighboring countries, the CII's
president expressed the view that the region would emerge a major trade
hub if proper attention were paid. "The northeast India is full of natural
wealth  and we must  take initiative to tap this", he added. Expressing 
satisfaction over improving the law and order situation in this region,
Mr. Soota  said this would help  in bringing  the investors.
The CII  has decided to set up a centre of excellence on handlooms and
silk in Guwahati.
_______

Deutsche Presse-Agentur December 11 2002

Singapore-Kunming rail network inches closer to reality

The governments of China and Malaysia were praised on Wednesday for their
pledges to help bring the dream of a comprehensive railroad network
through Southeast Asia an important step closer to reality.

Speaking at the opening of the Fourth Special Working Group Meeting on the
Singapore-Kunming Rail Link (SKRL), Myanmar's (Burma's) Transportation
Minister U Pan Aung congratulated Beijing and Kuala Lumpur for their
pledges last month in Phnom Penh to help rebuild a rail link between the
Cambodian towns of Poipet and Sisophon. Construction of the
48-kilometre-long "missing link" between the two towns would make rail
traffic possible between Bangkok and Phnom Penh, one of the key sub-links
in the proposed SKRL rail network.

"On behalf of the delegates, may I extend our thanks to Malaysia and China
for their kind-hearted and far-sighted support of the SKRL project," U Pan
Aung said at the meeting held at the Sedona Hotel in Yangon (Rangoon).

"I am confident that all the foundations have been laid and the first step
is going to be taken by connecting Bangkok and Phnom Penh," he added. "At
the same time, necessary studies and implementation are required for the
rest of the missing links and spur lines."

Malaysia offered to provide Cambodia with rail track materials to build
the link and China agreed to co-finance the project.

Several members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, the Asian
Development Bank, China, Japan and South Korea have expressed willingness
to take part in the construction of the rail network, which is hoped to
eventually make it possible to travel by train from Singapore to Kunming,
with spur links to Yangon, Vientiane, Phnom Penh, Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi
and other cities.

ON THE BORDER

Agence France-Presse December 11 2002

Myanmar rebels claim Thai military killed leader after embassy siege

A Myanmar rebel group has claimed that its leader Kyaw Ni, who carried out
the 1999 siege of the Myanmar embassy in Bangkok, was captured and
executed by the Thai army the following year.

The Vigorous Burmese Student Warriors (VBSW) said in a statement mailed to
AFP that Kyaw Ni, better known as Johnny, was arrested on the Myanmar
border with the help of elements in an allied rebel group in July 2000.

Johnny was one of a band of VBSW gunmen who seized the Myanmar mission in
Bangkok in protest against the military regime, holding 38 people hostage
for more than 24 hours. "If Johnny committed a crime, Thailand should have
taken action according to the law. Such activities, taking people into
custody without public knowledge and execution, violate human rights by
Thailand," the rebel group said.

"The truth of the incident should be uncovered and those involved should
be investigated by Amnesty International," it said, adding it did not
reveal the abduction before because it felt vulnerable to further action
by the Thai army.

Johnny's movements were shrouded in mystery after the embassy siege, which
ended when Thai officials negotiated a deal which saw the hostages
released and the rebels flown to the border in a helicopter.

The VBSW holed up with a group known as the Karen God's Army, which was
led by cheroot-smoking 12-year-old twin brothers Luther and Johnny Htoo.

In February 2000 God's Army rebels slipped accross the border into
Thailand and took over a provincial hospital with several hundred
patients, demanding Myanmar and Thai troops cease attacks on them.

The hospital siege ended when Thai special forces stormed the building
killing all 10 gunmen -- at least two of whom were reported to have been
VBSW members.

The VBSW said that elements in the Karen National Union (KNU), a leading
rebel group fighting the Myanmar junta which dwarfs both the VBSW and the
now-defunct God's Army, betrayed Johnny as a favour to the Thai army.

In July 2000 a group of top Karen leaders led by central committee members
Mahn Nyein Maung and Myint Thein went to see him at a God's Army camp and
invited him to move into safer territory which they controlled, it said.

Citing the testimony of a VBSW cadre who accompanied Johnny, the group
said that when he left the following day with KNU forces he was delivered
into the hands of Thai soldiers. Later, the rebels learned he had been
killed.

Mahn Nyein Maung, currently the KNU's joint secretary, admitted to
attending the July meeting but denied he was involved in Johnny's death.

"It is true that I went to see Johnny... and we asked him to move into
territory under our control for his safety," he told AFP. "But we are
arrested by Thai authorities on our return from there.

"I also heard that Johnny was killed, but I don't know when or where," he
added.

Thailand's army denied any knowledge of Johnny's capture or death.

"I don't have that information. All we can confirm was that 10 people died
after we cleared the hospital," said spokesman Colonel Somkuan
Seangpattaranetr.
___________

Irrawaddy December 11 2002

Arrests Hit Mae Hong Son
By Kyaw Zwa Moe

More than twenty Burmese democracy activists were arrested yesterday on
immigration violations after Thai police raided a meeting in Mae Hong Son
Province that the activists were attending, according to reliable sources.
Mae Hong Son’s mayor also told a Thai newspaper that more arrests were to
follow, citing the possible negative impact Burma’s democracy movement
could have on Thai-Burma relations.
The raid occurred at 11 am yesterday at the Green November-32 office, a
non-governmental organization specializing in human rights and
environmental issues. Those arrested include ethnic Shan, Karen and
Karenni from Burma. Sources say meetings regularly take place at the
office in order to discuss political, human rights and educational issues
affecting Burmese youth.
According to the provincial mayor, representatives from six organizations
were arrested, and eyewitnesses said police also confiscated political
documents during the raid.
Some of those arrested were later released after presenting legal
documents allowing for their stay in Thailand. But 9 men and 5 women
remain in detention.
"The police said that they will be tried on charges of illegal immigration
tomorrow," said an ethnic dissident helping the group. "We don't know
exactly if they will be released or deported. But I don't think they will
be directly handed over to the military regime."
In August 31 activists were arrested in the Thai border town of
Sangklaburi, in Thailand’s Kanchanaburi Province. They were all deported
to border areas near Three Pagoda Pass before sneaking back into Thailand.
International and local rights groups condemned the move, saying the Thai
government was only trying to appease Burma’s military regime.

STATEMENTS/OPINIONS

New Zealand Herald December 12 2002

Democracy sure to rise from a dead man's bones
by Gwynne Dyer

One should not speak ill of the dead, but an exception is justified in the
case of Burma's late dictator Ne Win. He was responsible for almost 40
years of tyranny and poverty in his country, and most Burmese would gladly
dance on his ashes if it were allowed.
By the time he died at 91 last Thursday, however, the process of undoing
his malignant legacy was well under way.
Last May, Aung San Suu Kyi, the woman who is as much the symbol of
democracy in Burma as Nelson Mandela was in apartheid South Africa, was
freed from house arrest by the generals who are Ne Win's successors.
"My release should not be looked on as a major breakthrough for
democracy," Suu Kyi warned. But she added: "I would cautiously say that
where we are is better than where we have ever been."
Even as he neared death, Ne Win tried to kill the hope for democracy in
Burma.
His son-in-law and three grandsons were arrested last March while trying
to organise a coup that would have unseated his successors and aborted the
talks aimed at securing Suu Kyi's freedom.
They were sentenced to be hanged, and Ne Win died a lonely and unhonoured
death under house arrest at his home on a lake in central Rangoon - just
across the lake, in fact, from the house where Suu Kyi had been confined
for so long. It couldn't have happened to a nicer guy.
Other Southeast Asian countries also had liberation heroes who turned into
monsters and blighted their people's lives - Indonesia's Sukarno and
Vietnam's Ho Chi Minh spring to mind - but none lasted so long or did as
much damage as General Ne Win.
One of the legendary "Thirty Comrades" who began Burma's war for freedom
from Britain, he overthrew the country's shaky democracy in 1962 and ruled
with an iron hand for the next 28 years.
Ne Win was so superstitious that he once replaced the country's existing
paper currency with 45-kyat and 90-kyat notes because nine was his lucky
number.
He was so suspicious of foreigners that he walled Burma off from almost
all outside contact, imposing an erratic "Burmese Road to Socialism" that
turned the region's richest country into its poorest in only three
decades.
And then, when popular protests broke out in 1988, he abruptly resigned.
A new kind of non-violent democratic revolution was toppling dictators all
across Asia in the late 1980s - in the Philippines, Thailand, Bangladesh,
South Korea - and Burma was swept along.
So was Aung San Suu Kyi, the daughter of Burma's greatest independence
hero, Aung San.
Long settled in Britain with her English husband and their two sons, Suu
Kyi just happened to go home that year to nurse her dying mother.
To most Burmese her father, who had been assassinated when she was just 2,
was still the most powerful symbol of the future that had been betrayed,
so she suddenly found herself leading a democratic revolution.
Then the frightened generals massacred thousands of citizens in the
streets of Rangoon to save their power, Ne Win came back to power in
another coup and Suu Kyi discovered her destiny.
Ne Win's new junta opened the country to foreign investment in an attempt
to revive the devastated economy, and so much oil and timber money poured
in that the regime was emboldened to hold an election in 1990.
But the brief burst of prosperity changed nobody's mind: 82 per cent of
the voters backed Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy against the
generals.
So Ne Win simply refused to accept the election's outcome, jailed most of
the League for Democracy's elected members, and embarked on a long duel
with Suu Kyi - who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991 - over the future of
Burma.
Knowing she would never be allowed back into Burma if she left, she
remained in Rangoon, mostly under house arrest, while her children grew up
without her. Her husband eventually died of cancer without even being
allowed a visit to say goodbye.
The military regime's propaganda called her a "foreign stooge" and a
"genocidal prostitute", but most ordinary Burmese know her simply as "The
Lady", and trust her completely.
The ageing Ne Win eventually withdrew from power, leaving three lesser
generals to carry on the struggle against democracy.
But Burma's economic plight grew ever worse as a trade embargo by
democratic countries tightened during the later 1990s, and early this year
the junta decided to seek a deal with Suu Kyi.
Ne Win, in character to the end, tried one last coup to stop it, but Suu
Kyi was released seven months ago and Burma began to emerge from the long
darkness.
What is going on now is a delicate and secretive process in which the
repressive regime negotiates a safe exit from power and an indemnity for
its past crimes - rather like the first year after Nelson Mandela was
freed from jail in South Africa.
As General Khin Nyunt put it in August: "The democracy that we seek to
build ... will surely be based on universal principles of liberty, justice
and equality ... [but] such a transition cannot be done in haste and in a
haphazard manner."
Aung San Suu Kyi concedes that after all this time it cannot simply be a
matter of handing power over to the National League for Democracy
government that was legally elected in 1990.
But, she adds: "Who's to say we won't get a bigger majority this time?"