Parade Magazine Story on CSB President

On August 23rd Parade Magazine ran a story on the president of Civil Society for Burma, Htun Aung Gyaw. This was the most recent in a series of articles appearing in national publications during the past few years, covering the role Htun has played in Burma's democracy movement. "A Guerrilla War on the Internet", another notable article, appeared in the New York Times on April 8, 1997. Full text for the Parade article appears below.

"He Fights Dictators with the Internet" by Michael Ryan

After the repressive Burmese military cracked down on peaceful demonstrations in 1988, killing thousands of unarmed civilians, more than 10,000 students took to the jungles to organize an armed resistance. As their leader, the students chose Htun Aung Gyaw (pronounced tun awn jo), who already had been fighting the regime for 13 years.

"We thought we would be able to get arms and supplies from Western governments," he recalled. It was a doomed effort. Few outsiders came to their aid, and the movement -- low on arms and ammunition, food and morale -- slowly eroded. Htun, arrested in 1992 by Thai authorities when he slipped over the border with an American aid worker, had two choices: Apply for refugee status in the U.S. or be shipped back to Burma, where he had been sentenced to death in absentia. Htun chose life in America.

Today, at 44, Htun Aung Gyaw is still a freedom fighter. But now he uses a weapon that didn't exist when he was fighting in the jungle: the Internet. I went to see him on the front lines of the struggle - the cozy apartment in Ithaca, N.Y. where he runs the Civil Society for Burma.

Htun, his wife, Swe Swe Myint, their son, Htet, 13 and daughter, Kyi, 11, survive on the relatively modest salaries that Htun and Swe earn for their jobs at Cornell University's library. Without e-mail and the Internet, Htun said, he couldn't afford to keep his worldwide Burmese resistance network alive.

As I watched, Htun booted up his computer and scrolled through e-mail messages he had received from from Bangkok, Los Angeles, Australia and other places around the globe. "We organize conferences over the Internet," Htun said as he scanned the latest news from Burma. "We have a chat room where we meet to discuss strategy."

Most of the information that comes into Burma makes its way through the Internet to the border, then it's quickly smuggled in by resistance workers. "Not many people in Burma have access to the Internet," Htun said. "The government controls it, and it costs $80 a month," an astronomical fee in that poor country.

Since fax machines were used by dissidents in Eastern Europe and students in Beijing's Tiananmen Square a decade ago, modern electronics have become a crucial lifeline for resistance movements. Today, information can flow freely into, and often out of, dictatorships. Htun's group makes sure that foreign companies doing business in Burma get faxes detailing the latest atrocities of the military regime.

In recent years, Burmese troops have crossed the Thai border to burn refugee camps and slaughter their occupants. In Burma, civilian men are rounded up to work as porters for the army. When these slave laborers become too weak to carry their heavy burdens, they are shot.

Htun's own tale of government abuse is chilling. Arrested in 1975 for participating in a student demonstration, he was beaten into unconsciousness three times and sentenced to life in prison. Htun said the student-prisoners lived on a diet that was insufficient and rancid, and they were subjected to beatings by "real" criminals. "I was released in five years under a general amnesty," he said, "but I never thought of giving up politics. My best friend was sentenced to death and hanged in prison. I owe it to him."

Since 1962, when they seized control of the country, Burma's military leaders have occupied every important post in government. In 1990, when the people voted members of the opposition party into office, the military simply ignored the results. They also have refused to negotiate with the acknowledged leader of the opposition, Aung Suu Kyi (featured in PARADE on Jan. 19, 1997), who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991.

In his own effort to open talks, Htun recently offered to negotiate with Ne Win, the military strongman who controls Burma from behind the scenes. That suggestion enraged many dissidents, who consider Ne Win evil. Now the Internet is filled with squabbling among the factions.

Htun launched a Web site for the Civil Society for Burma at www.csburma.org earlier this month. His receives e-mail at hag2@cornell.edu. He also broadcasts to Burma weekly over Radio Free Asia, financed by our government. The Open Society Institute, underwritten by the financier George Soros, has a Web site at www.freeburma org. Even the military regime has a site at www.myanmar.com on the Web, where it heralds the "glories" of Myanmar, its preferred name for Buma.

Despite the machinations of the military, Htun remains determined to win freedom for his people. "I love democracy," he said, "and I promised friends that I would always continue the struggle. We will get democracy for Burma."