No. 12 - 12/2005
16 December 2005

Politics

Two-sentence meeting in Kengtung

Township and district authorities of eastern Shan State who were summoned to its capital Kengtung on Wednesday (14 December) returned on the same day after receiving a two-sentence instruction from the regional commander, according to sources in Tachilek, opposite Maesai.

Maj-Gen Min Aung Hlaing and official
Photo Courtesy: www.myanmar.gov.mm

"The meeting started at 8 p.m. and lasted only two sentences made by Maj-Gen Min Aung Hlaing (Commander of Triangle Region Command who also doubles as Chairman, Eastern Shan State Peace and Development Council)," said a mystified official. "'See that everything's under control in your assigned areas,' he said, 'In the event that things run out of control, that'll be your own business.'"

The bewildered officials were ordered to return to their assigned township and districts right off. "Us from Tachilek (163 km away) got back at midnight," said one. "All the way we were puzzling over what the regional commander said."

There are some recent developments, they concluded, that might be relevant to what little they had heard from Min Aung Hlaing:

• The UN Security Council briefing on Burma due to take place today.
• Prime Minister Soe Win's invitation to Malaysia, Asean's current chair, to visit Burma and meet opposition leaders
• "Or maybe some drastic changes are in the offing," said another. "Some are saying Lt-Gen Myint Swe (Commander of Rangoon Region Command and head of the Office of Military Affairs Security) is next in line to Soe Win."

Coincidently, an unconfirmed report from Rangoon says Lt-Gen Myint Swe has invited representatives from ceasefire groups to a meeting to be held on Saturday (17 December) when the ongoing session of the National Convention is taking a weekend break.

"In a way, Burma is an orphaned child adopted by Asean particularly by Malaysia," one businessman close to the official circle reasons. "It must strike while the iron is hot and never allow Burma to treat it shabbily the way it had to the UN envoys and the ILO."

Ruth Dreifuss of the world's labor body had put it another way, according to AP, 25 March 2005: "There is always a promise to do something, a few little steps, then a terrible backlash."