ANATOMY OF A BURMESE POLITICAL BLOOD BATH

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 RANGOON 001429

SIPDIS

USPACOM FOR FPA

E.O. 12958: DECL: 11/06/2013
TAGS: PGOV PREL PHUM BM ASSK NLD
SUBJECT: ANATOMY OF A BURMESE POLITICAL BLOOD BATH

REF: RANGOON 658

Classified By: COM CARMEN M. MARTINEZ for Reasons 1.5 (B,D)


1. (C) SUMMARY: Additional information on the May 30 Depeyin
attack continues to emerge from victims and eyewitnesses,
providing new context and clarity to the regime's true role
in the premeditated assault on ASSK and the NLD. On November
4, NLD members smuggled to us video footage of Aung San Suu
Kyi (ASSK) and the NLD convoy, taken in the days and hours
preceding the attack, which portrays the phenomenal support
the NLD leader enjoys in Burma's hinterland as well as clear
evidence of the aggressive position authorities took against
her convoy. New testimony obtained in late October from
three wounded survivors also underscores the regime's direct
role in facilitating the attack, which resulted in the
political killings of at least 6 NLD members, an unknown
number of supporters, and perhaps as many as 70 members of
the convoy's self-appointed security escort of motorcycle
outriders. END SUMMARY.

Video Evidence: The Eve of the May 30 Attack
--------------


2. (C) On November 4, NLD supporters at the behest of ASSK
smuggled a videotape to the U.S. Embassy, requesting that it
be delivered to UN Human Rights Special Rapporteur Pinheiro.
The one-hour tape, filmed by NLD cameramen, documents the
final four days of ASSK's swing through northern Burma and
ends the night of May 29, just 24 hours before the deadly May
30 attack on the NLD convoy. Juxtaposed against footage of
many thousands of cheering villagers and townspeople, who
gathered to welcome ASSK and listen to her speeches, are
numerous shots of government security forces and USDA
"protesters" who grew in numbers over the course of the trip
to harass the passing NLD convoy.


3. (C) In one scene on the video, government-sponsored
protesters half-heartedly waved anti-NLD signs; however,
local villagers berated the protesters and pulled down their
signs, prompting USDA minders to rush in and prod the
protesters to keep in line. In one small village, the camera
records a large group of protesters who suddenly drop their
anti-NLD signs, rush across the road to join NLD supporters,
and spontaneously join in singing the Burmese National Anthem
as a sign of support for the convoy. Further footage
portrays USDA thugs increasingly angry and abusive as the
convoy made its way through small towns and villages on the
planned return trip to Rangoon.


4. (C) The videotape also shows footage of government
security forces maintaining a constant presence along the
convoy route and at village stops, including military
intelligence and police vans, trucks, motorcycles, and jeeps
littering rural roadsides. By the time the NLD convoy
reached Myin Mu in Sagaing Division during mid-day on May 29,
the USDA had dramatically increased its numbers and added
several packed tour buses, light trucks, and sedans to its
own parallel convoy. As ASSK and her delegation reached the
outskirts of Monywa, the last major town on the route before
the attack in Depeyin, hundreds of young motorcycle riders
joined the NLD's twelve-vehicle convoy to act as a buffer
against the USDA convoy. Finally, as the NLD convoy entered
Monywa that evening, authorities cut off the town's
electricity. The final scene of the tape shows a massive,
candle-lit crowd of thousands welcoming the NLD convoy into
an eerily darkened downtown Monywa.


5. (C) The Embassy showed the tape with accompanying
translation to visiting UN Human Rights Special Rapporteur
Paulo Pinheiro on November 6 during his visit to Rangoon.
Pinheiro was taken aback by the huge size of the crowds
turning out in every town and village through which the NLD
convoy passed. He had previously been under the impression
that the NLD delegation was being greeted at every stop by
masses of anti-NLD protesters and that very few locals were
supporting the NLD. He felt strongly that this tape should
be shown to ASEAN leaders, who to this point don't believe
ASSK has any popularity left in Burma. He advised that
Razali should see the tape and use it in further briefings
with ASEAN. Pinheiro will see that international television
media outlets receive a copy of the tape when he leaves Burma.

Survivors: Witnesses to the Blood Bath
--------------


6. (C) On October 30, three survivors of the May 30 attack
secretly traveled to Rangoon to give their eyewitness

SIPDIS
accounts to Embassy officers. All three showed us permanent
wounds from the attack, including scars, punctures, and
broken bones. The three survivors, NLD members based in
Mandalay, were in the first and third cars immediately behind
ASSK's vehicle during the attack on May 30. Their testimony
picks up the story from where the videotape ends. At dusk on
May 30, ASSK, eleven additional NLD cars, a truck full of
pro-NLD monks, and hundreds of volunteer pro-NLD security
"outriders" left Monywa and arrived at Kyi village. Earlier
in the day, ASSK, apparently aware of the increasingly
aggressive posture of the USDA and local authorities, had
ordered her entire delegation to use passive resistance if
attacked.


7. (C) As the convoy passed through Kyi village, a local monk
ran up and asked ASSK if she would address the villagers,
adding that they had been waiting for her all day. NLD Vice
Chairman U Tin Oo, in the lead car, pulled over to wait about
30 yards further down the road. At that moment, a column of
USDA buses, trucks, and sedans that had tailed the NLD convoy
for the previous three hours stopped and unloaded. Hundreds,
possibly thousands, of USDA members armed with bamboo staves,
sharpened wooden stakes, and slingshots began attacking
villagers and motorcycle outriders at the rear of the convoy.
The villagers fought back, trying to seize weapons from the
USDA attackers. Some members of the NLD convoy stepped out
of their cars and could see the melee illuminated by
headlights from trucks in the rear. After five minutes, the
USDA attackers began attacking the NLD convoy itself,
advancing forward on both sides of the road firing bicycle
spokes from the slingshots and using their weapons to beat
the occupants of each successive NLD car.


8. (C) According to one of the eyewitnesses, Kin Maung Thaun,
NLD Mandalay Division Executive Member and a passenger in the
third car behind ASSK's vehicle, was hit several times in the
head by a USDA youth who pleaded with him, "Uncle, please lie
down and pretend you are dead; I was told to kill you." Kin
Maung Thaun slumped down as instructed, while the attackers,
always aiming at the head, badly beat four women and killed
two other men in his car. Before the USDA reached the lead
car, eight of ASSK's bodyguards surrounded her but were
either beaten to the ground or were forced off into nearby
rice paddies. The wounded driver from Kin Maung Thaun's car
saw the USDA smash ASSK's windshield, so he ran forward to
help protect her. The USDA beat him, breaking his right arm,
and pierced him above the eye with a bicycle spoke. When the
driver fell down, the attackers wrenched his broken arm and
continued beating him for 10 minutes. Thirty minutes into
the attack, ASSK's own driver, with ASSK still unscathed but
now unprotected, sped her away from the attack scene and to
the next village (Note: ASSK was then detained by local
authorities. End note).


9. (C) After ASSK safely escaped the scene, USDA attackers
shifted from beating and killing to looting the NLD vehicles.
Two hours after the attack began, a USDA leader blew a
whistle that sounded retreat to the attackers and waiting
buses. Kin Maung Thaun, the NLD Mandalay official, then
climbed out of his car and saw three dead NLD members in the
car behind his. He then hid with three other NLD men in a
rice paddy about 80 yards from the head of the NLD convoy.
Around 11:30 PM, about 1.5 hours after the USDA mob had left,
military and riot police forces arrived and began to clean up
the attack site, washing down the road and arranging the NLD
vehicles to look as if they had been in accidents. Riot
police used their shields to bring sand to cover the diesel
and blood stains on the road surface. Kin Maung Thaun then
watched them use a blanket to load at least fifteen severely
wounded and dead onto a waiting truck. Around 3:00 AM on May
31, a group of high level officials arrived from Monywa,
slowly passed alongside the destroyed NLD convoy, and left
the scene.

Comment: A Well-Planned Attack
--------------


10. (C) The new video and eyewitness testimony provides more
clarity on the methodology the regime used to attack and shut
down the NLD in May. As the NLD's trip progressed through
Mandalay and Sagaing Divisions, and as ASSK drew larger and
larger crowds even in the face of ever-stiffer government and
USDA intimidation, the regime tried increasingly hostile and
aggressive tactics with the hopes of dissuading the NLD from
continuing. This in turn generated more support for the NLD
in each town and village, and eventually led to hundreds of
NLD supporters on motorcycles joining to provide security
from the growing USDA menace. Faced with the huge
candlelight reception in Monywa on May 29th, held in the face
of more government and USDA intimidation, the regime then
chose not to risk attacking the NLD in a public area, and
instead safely attacked in a remote village on a desolate
stretch of road where very little civil population was
available to rise up and come to her defense.


11. (C) The USDA youth telling the older NLD member to
"pretend you are dead, uncle," because he was ordered to kill
him, is compelling evidence that the regime, through its
agents in the USDA, ordered these people killed for political
reasons. This conclusion is further supported by the
government security forces being continuously present
throughout the entire trip up to Monywa after which they
suddenly disappeared. The regime held back its security
forces so the USDA could attack and destroy the NLD convoy,
kill supporters, neutralize NLD leadership, and leave the
government with plausible deniability. We have provided
Pinheiro with both the video tape and pictures of the wounded
survivors so he will have a fuller understanding of the
context surrounding the May 30 human attack. END COMMENT.
Martinez