EXCLUSIVE-Myanmar protests "just the start" - top dissident

By Ed Cropley

BANGKOK, Sept 13 (Reuters) - Nearly four weeks of protests in Myanmar are "just the start" of a mass movement against the ruling junta and the grinding poverty endured by the former Burma's 53 million people, a top activist said from hiding. "There is no way this will stop," Htay Kywe told Reuters from a secret location inside Myanmar, where he has been in hiding since evading an Aug. 21 crackdown on dissidents who launched a rare string of protests against shock increases of fuel prices.

"Arresting and killing people will not free us from economic hardship," the 39-year-old said in digitally recorded answers to questions e-mailed by Reuters and authenticated by a person known to be a very close friend.

Thirteen of Htay Kywe's colleagues in the "88 Generation Students Group" that spearheaded a nationwide uprising against military rule in 1988 have been arrested and accused of terrorism, charges that could see them jailed for decades.

But Htay Kywe, who managed to elude midnight raids on homes across Yangon, said the generals who have run the Southeast Asian nation for the last 45 years would never be able to cover up the reality of deepening poverty.

"As long as the public are experiencing a lack of development, economic hardship, authoritarian rule and injustice, there will be, and will always be, a situation where the public will not accept it and will fight back," he said.

More than 150 people have been detained in the current crackdown, one of the harshest since troops were sent in to crush the 1988 uprising with the loss of an estimated 3,000 lives.

Although memories of the bloodshed are still fresh in people's minds, Htay Kywe said increasing economic hardship would fuel the underground social movement.

"As long as they are unable to solve the troubles the country is in today, movements like this will never end," he said. "Like the rising tide and waves, the military government will be hearing these voices loud and clear."

Even as the protests have spread, they have remained focused firmly on deteriorating living conditions in a country seen as one of Asia's brightest prospects when it won independence from Britain in 1948 and now one of the region's poorest.

"AMONG THE PUBLIC"

Countering junta charges he was being "sheltered" by a Western embassy, Htay Kywe said he was hiding "among the public".

"We are hiding because we want to continue working hand-in-hand with the public to show evidence of this military government's untruthful political solutions," he said.

Analysts said the fact he and other activists such as Ma Nilar and Suu Suu Nway had remained undetected for so long suggested the junta's internal spy networks may not be as powerful or sophisticated as they used to be.

In particular, they pointed to the 2004 purge of Prime Minister Khin Nyunt and the dismantling of his Military Intelligence-run network of informants and secret police.

Despite the latest crackdown, the fuel price protests have spread to the centre and northwest and have started to involve Buddhist monks, key players in the 1988 uprising.

The army's firing of warning shots to disperse a crowd of protesting monks in Pakokku last week triggered an angry response the next day from monks, who seized 13 government officials and torched four of their vehicles.

Local church aids refugees from Myanmar

BY PAT FAHERTY
SPECIAL TO THE STAR-BANNER
OCALA - The young man flipped through a dog-eared dictionary sitting on a coffee table that had seen better days. The dictionary is "English to Myanmar" and his name is Sai Lay.

The 27-year-old is originally from Myanmar, formerly Burma, and this was his first day in America. He had arrived the night before from a refugee camp in Thailand to connect with members of his extended family, who had beat him to Ocala by several weeks. They are one of two Myanmar families being settled here through the efforts of Blessed Trinity Catholic Church.

Sai Lay knows some refugee camp English and was working on new words with his uncle Than Thai, 29. They translate backward with old tourist-talk books linking their language to popular English idioms. Making the leap to English will be the family's big challenge.

The other family members are Nain Aung Kyaw, 41, his wife La Jo Paw, 34, and their son Lay Lay, 5. They arrived in Ocala on Aug. 21 and Sai Lay followed Sept. 6.

"We have Burmese refugees already in Orlando, but this is the first Burmese family we've resettled in Ocala," said case manager Kim Nu, with Catholic Charities of Central Florida. "Here they have a good support system that is willing to help newcomers like them."

That support includes the Rev. Patrick Sheedy, of Blessed Trinity Catholic Church; church-connected volunteers such as Celeste and Luke Reckamp; and Steve Hoesterey, director of Brothers Keeper.

"Father Pat called us . . . ," said Celeste Reckamp, who described herself as "a go-between" and expLayned how the relocation started. The United States had agreed to accept 25,000 Myanmar refugees from camps in Thailand. Catholic Charities got involved with the resettlement and parishes were contacted to see if they could accept any families.

"Father Pat announced at church one day that we were sponsoring two families and asked if anyone could . . . help," said Hoesterey. It turned out that a woman at the church that day was tutoring a young man in English, who spoke Myanmar and worked at the sushi bar at the Churchill Square Publix.

"So we asked for helpers to sign up and look what we got - a translator," he said. "That's how it works; when you do good things, good things happen."

Hoesterey has previous resettlement experience - working with two families from Kosovo - which he said was invaluable for navigating the maze of government agencies.

"And if we get good at it, we'll take a couple more families," he said.

He now hopes other churches will step up and sponsor some families and take advantage of his experience.

"It's always a challenge with the language," said Hoesterey. "But you can communicate. We use sign language. When they smile and say 'thank you,' that says it all, we can only imagine what they went through."

The family has now moved into a more permanent apartment. Lay Lay has started school, the adults are studying English and share a bicycle for transportation. And they soon will have new neighbors with something in common.

The second Myanmar family of six was scheduled to arrive in Ocala today.