BURMA: REGIME APPOINTS LIAISON TO AUNG SAN SUU KYI

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 RANGOON 000996 SIPDIS SIPDIS DEPT FOR EAP/MLS, DRL, AND IO PACOM FOR FPA E.O. 12958: DECL: 10/08/2017 TAGS: PGOV PREL PHUM BM SUBJECT: BURMA: REGIME APPOINTS LIAISON TO AUNG SAN SUU KYI REF: A. RANGOON 487 ¶B. RANGOON 983 RANGOON 00000996 001.2 OF 003 Classified By: Acting DCM Leslie Hayden for Reasons 1.4 (b) & (d) ¶1. (C) Summary: In a sign the regime is serious about engaging in dialogue with Aung San Suu Kyi, the GOB appointed Deputy Minister of Labor Aung Kyi as liaison between Aung San Suu Kyi and Senior General Than Shwe. Aung Kyi has been a key interlocutor during past negotiations with the ILO and UNHCR in Burma. Aung San Suu Kyi's doctor told us that before Gambari's visit, she told him she believed she should take any opportunity for dialogue that was offered. Arrests and raids reportedly continue, and accounts of brutal interrogation are being relayed by those just released from prison. Unlike Rangoon, monks in Mandalay are still visible and out on the street. Pro-democracy activists still at large are finding it difficult to regroup but remained determined to proceed with a "second wave" of demonstrations. End summary. Regime Appoints a Liaison to Aung San Suu Kyi -------------- ¶2. (C) In a development that indicates the regime may be serious about its offer to begin a dialogue with Aung San Suu Kyi, the government announced October 9 that the Deputy Minister of Labor, Major General Aung Kyi, had been appointed liaison between Aung San Suu Kyi and Senior General Than Shwe. Aung Kyi has been a key interlocutor in the Burmese government for negotiations with both the ILO and UNHCR. Former ILO Burma Liaison Officer Richard Horsey told us that Aung Kyi had been key in brokering the deal with the ILO for a mechanism to address forced labor in Burma and had been helpful in moving ILO cases forward (ref A). UNHCR separately told us that, during his previous posting as Deputy Minister for Immigration and Population, Aung Kyi was the most helpful GOB interlocutor for UNHCR's expanded operations in Northern Rakhine State. Several of our sources describe him as flexible, diplomatic, open-minded, and calm. He is reportedly hard-working and obedient to the senior generals. The Doctor's Take -------------- ¶3. (C) Emboffs met today with Douglas, Aung San Suu Kyi's doctor, who told us he passed a "proposal" from Aung San Suu Kyi to Ibrahim Gambari through the diplomatic pouch of a Western country before Gambari's visit to Burma. Douglas told us he did not know the content of the proposal, but assumed Aung San Suu Kyi had discussed it with Gambari during their meetings. Douglas told us that during his last visit with Aung San Suu Kyi, they had discussed the possibility of a dialogue with the regime. According to Douglas, Aung San Suu Kyi told him she believed she should take any opportunity for dialogue that was offered. ¶4. (C) Douglas also told us that Aung San Suu Kyi had been thinking about who would be the best liaison between herself and the regime should dialogue become a possibility. He told us that, at her request, he had passed her information on several regional commanders and other high-level regime officials so she could have background information on possible candidates. Douglas has not met Aung San Suu Kyi for two months and does not know when the regime will grant him permission to visit her again. We gave him a general readout of Gambari's October 5 UNSC briefing to pass to Aung San Suu Kyi during his next visit. ¶5. (C) Douglas said he has received word from doctors he knows at Insein Prison that the 88 Generation Students leaders are still alive and in the prison. He told us that Su Su Nwe and Phyu Phyu Thinn remain under his care while in hiding from the regime. He confirmed to us that all patients wounded or killed during the recent demonstrations had been taken to Yangon General Hospital, where junior doctors (presumably more beholden to the regime) had been charged RANGOON 00000996 002.2 OF 003 with their care. He had no concrete numbers for dead or wounded but told us that a worker at Yey Away cemetery had been ordered to cremate approximately 200 bodies brought to him from the hospital. Accounts of Interrogations -------------- ¶6. (C) We are hearing similar accounts of conditions and interrogations from several people we have spoken to who were held in recent days at government interrogation centers. Some have told us they were in hot rooms, crammed with people, and that other prisoners had died of heat stroke. Held in deplorable sanitary conditions, the prisoners were reportedly terrorized each night around midnight when the guards would shut off all lights and douse the prisoners with water to disorient them. They would then be hauled off for three separate interrogation sessions, one with the Special Branch Police, one with Military Security Affairs, and one with a "special investigative unit." If the information elicited from all three confessions was consistent and un-incriminating, the prisoner would be released. Others remained in custody. Monks reportedly also endured brutal interrogation and torture. Searches, Raids, and Arrests Continue -------------- ¶7. (C) Daily inspections and nighttime raids of monasteries reportedly continue. Al Jazeera's reporters in Rangoon have captured footage of military trucks entering monasteries and leaving with truckloads of monks. They also have footage of soldiers beating monks. We have heard from several sources that Special Branch Police has distributed CDs of pictures they took of protesters to all Township and Ward Peace and Development Council chairmen. They reportedly have been ordered to identify residents who participated in the demonstrations and turn them in to the police. Plans for a "Second Wave" -------------- ¶8. (C) Activists still at large have told us they are planning a "second wave" of protests, but will not be able to gather the necessary organization and momentum for several months. Their communications networks have been disrupted, both phone lines and internet, and they are unable to find safe places to gather. Rangoon restaurants and hotels are under orders to report the names of individuals of groups of more than five people who gather to meet. One action the activists are contemplating is calling for a boycott of Chinese goods. The Situation in Mandalay -------------- ¶9. (C) Residents in Mandalay told visiting foreign journalists that the crackdown was not as harsh as in Rangoon but say the economic impact on local businesses has been severe. Unlike in Rangoon, visitors to Mandalay reported few rumors of mass arrests and virtually no stories of protesters being killed. Monks have been seen collecting alms by the hundreds this week and many local monasteries appear to be operating normally. Nonetheless, authorities clearly did crackdown on protests in Mandalay, as they did everywhere else. Local residents reported that security forces in Mandalay began taking action against protesters on September ¶27. In addition to confronting protesters directly, authorities reportedly prevented many monks from leaving their monasteries to join ongoing demonstrations. Witnesses reported that, as a result, by Friday September 28, few monks continued to march in Mandalay. UN Asked to Turn Over Hard Drives, VSAT Licenses -------------- --- ¶10. (C) According to UN contacts, not only was the Japanese International Cooperation Agency ordered to turn over the RANGOON 00000996 003.2 OF 003 hard drives from their offices in the Sakura Tower October 5 (ref B),but UN offices located in the Traders Hotel were reportedly asked to turn over their computer hard drives and the licenses for their offices' VSATs. Traders Hotel also overlooks many of the demonstration sites. The UN has reportedly refused the request. Power Shift at the Top? -------------- ¶11. (C) We confirmed today that Regime Number Two, Vice Senior General Maung Aye, has been replaced as the Trade Policy Council Chairman by Secretary One and Acting Prime Minister Thein Sein. The Chairmanship of the Trade Council is one of the regime's most powerful and lucrative positions. The Council grants key import/export licenses, awarding them to subservient cronies. The replacement of Maung Aye by Thein Sein may be a sign of an ongoing power shift, but it is too soon know for certain. What the Embassy is Doing -------------- ¶12. (C) Emboffs are attempting to contact all of our pro-democracy activist contacts that remain free. In the coming days, we will access the impact of the regime's crackdown on the pro-democracy movement and find out what assistance the activists need from us to rebuild their networks and continue their work. Our American Center remains a key resource for accurate information and is showing daily news broadcasts of outside media coverage of the events inside Burma. The center is continuing all English language and University courses and the library continues to receive heavy visitor traffic. Ordinary people continue to visit the center to report human rights violations being collected by two Burmese human rights activists documenting the events of the last two days. ¶13. (C) Our locally employed staff are also visiting townships around Rangoon to access the economic impact of the recent price hikes and the effect of the curfew on local business owners. We are also reaching out to meet with the recipients of our small grants program to access the impact of the crackdown on nascent civil society programs and to obtain their views on recent events. Comment: -------------- ¶13. (C) Our Senior Political Assistant, Arthur Aye, who courageously covered the events of the past two weeks from the front lines, summed up the silver lining of Burma's dark cloud: This uprising resulted in far fewer dead than in 1988, but commanded much greater world attention. The protests happened at an opportune time - right in the middle of the UN General Assembly. Additionally, before the recent protests, the number of young political activists in Burma was minimal - maybe even as few as one hundred. The courage of the monks and the regime's brutal response to their peaceful protests has raised the political awareness of young Burmese - both inside and outside of Burma. Finally, everyone at last agrees that dialogue is the only solution to Burma's political impasse. End comment. STOLTZ