Junta ‘frees prisoners for anti-protest mobs’

The Independent: - Daniel Howden
Wed 29 Aug 2007

Burma’s military junta has been freeing prisoners from jail and then recruiting them to bolster gangs that have been used attack prodemocracy activists on the streets of Rangoon, campaigners and diplomats say. Before last week’s protests, the government released hundreds of prisoners in preparation for the arrest of dozens of activists whoa are campaigning against the country’s soaring inflation and lack of political process, it is claimed.

Sources suggest, although there is no proof, that the prisoners may have been recruited to join the shadowy Swan Aah Shin or “capable strong person” or-ganisation.”It’s an underground organisation and I don’t know who would admit to it existing, but it exists and it exists in force, and it has been evident over the last week,” one diplomat told Reuters.

“Basically, they are junta-backed thugs. They come from anywhere, and are the unemployed underclass. And they’ve been really effective - they are threatening. Everywhere you go, there are groups and truckloads of grubby-looking men looking bored and looking for a fight.” The claims came as campaigners again took to the streets of Rangoon yesterday but were only able to march a short way before being set upon by pro-government gangs. Many were punched as they were dragged away and thrown into waiting trucks.

A former political prisoner, Su Su Nway, took part in the protest but managed to escape arrest in a taxi with several colleagues. “Peaceful protests are brutally cracked down upon and I want to tell the international community that there is no rule of law in Burma,” she told reporters.

Although she has a heart condition, the 35-year-old said she believed it was her duty to join the protests since so many other activists had been arrested and detained by the government last week. About 60 are believed to still be in jail. “I will continue to stand in front of the public and I am ready to face government persecution,” she said. Campaigners have said that, in the past week, the government has been boosting its military forces in the capital, raising fears that troops could be used against protesters - much as they were in 1988 when scores of people were killed.

So far, however, the government has been using the Swan Aah Shin, believed to be organised by the military-created Union Soli-darity and Development Association (USDA). While the Swan Aah Shin operates mainly in Rangoon, the USDA and its networks of informers cover the provincial parts of the country.

Meanwhile, Buddhist monks were among up to 300 people who took part in a separate protest yesterday in the city of Sittwe, capital of Burma’s western Rakhine State. A report on the website of Democratic Voice of Burma, an opposition radio station based in Norway, said the protest had lasted for at least an hour without government interference.