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THE NEW ERA JOURNAL – Dec. 15, 2004 (www.khitpyaing.org)
BURMA’S COMMUNISTS PLAN UPRISING
By Maxmilian Wechsler
The Communist Party of Burma (CPB), disintegrated in 1998 by the mutiny of its ethnic group members, has been rebounding and currently organizing a country-wide uprising plan called Demo-2006 against the State governing State Peace and Development Council (SPDC).
The party spokesman, Po Than Joung, said this week that Demo-2006 would be carried out strictly as an underground movement with grass level cells to be formed in factories, schools, universities, towns, etc. He stresses that no foreign movement is involve nor any financial support received from outside organizations.
In its earlier statement, the CPB explained a reason for the action: “The junta is determinedly carrying out its so-called National Convention so as to establish a constitution that would legalize the rule of the military for an unlimited period. In order to stop this process we shall have to wield the weapon of which the military leaders are most afraid – People’s Uprising!”
The statement also disclosed a formation of “The Working Group” that will make preparations to achieve the goals of Demo-2006 – an abbreviation for “democracy” and the year that is “not target date either.”
Another principal reason, according to a CPB source, is to prevent Burma from becoming the ASEAN chairperson in that year. “The uprising should be carried out at anytime, in fact, as soon as possible,” he said.
“The Demo-2006 doesn’t appear merely as a propaganda movement but an action to be taken seriously in the context of present political and economic conditions in Burma,” commented a Burmese analyst.
Most of the leading CPB cadres have been living quietly for years on the Chinese or Thai borders with Burma. But they have become increasingly active lately, launching a “propaganda blitz,” such as a website and a re-introduction of People’s Power journal.
At least two other opposition organizations, the Democratic Party for New Society and the All Burma Student’s Democratic Front, joined Demo-2006.
The CPB’s plan coincides with a similar one having made by pro-western exile organizations. A Burma watcher commented: “Maybe we are witnessing a proxy wars.”
According to an “inside” source, neither the National League for Democracy nor its leader, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, isn’t involved in the two planned uprisings. And this was confirmed by Po Than Joung: “I am not sure if they know about it or not. We don’t intend to have them involved in this movement. Legal parties shouldn’t join the underground activities; otherwise, the junta will get an excuse to smash them,” he said.
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