Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
07RANGOON996
2007-10-09 10:53:00
CONFIDENTIAL
Embassy Rangoon
Cable title:  

BURMA: REGIME APPOINTS LIAISON TO AUNG SAN SUU KYI

Tags:  PGOV PREL PHUM BM 
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DE RUEHGO #0996/01 2821053
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
O 091053Z OCT 07
FM AMEMBASSY RANGOON
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 6650
INFO RUCNASE/ASEAN MEMBER COLLECTIVE
RUEHGG/UN SECURITY COUNCIL COLLECTIVE
RUEHBY/AMEMBASSY CANBERRA 0579
RUEHNE/AMEMBASSY NEW DELHI 4112
RUEHUL/AMEMBASSY SEOUL 7669
RUEHKO/AMEMBASSY TOKYO 5228
RUEHCHI/AMCONSUL CHIANG MAI 1110
RHHMUNA/CDR USPACOM HONOLULU HI
RHEHNSC/NSC WASHDC
RUCNDT/USMISSION USUN NEW YORK 1013
RUEKJCS/SECDEF WASHDC
RUEKJCS/JOINT STAFF WASHDC
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)

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