Exiled Dissident Visits Burma

Exiled Dissident Visits Burma

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By WAI MOE Friday, September 5, 2008

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An exiled Burmese dissident who recently traveled back to his troubled homeland said that the purpose of his visit was to gain a better understanding of the economic and humanitarian challenges facing the country, not to talk politics.

Zaw Oo, head of the Vahu Development Institute, based in Chiang Mai, Thailand, told The Irrawaddy that he made a four-day trip to Burma in July as an economist interested in the weaknesses exposed by Cyclone Nargis, the biggest natural disaster to strike the country in generations.


Zaw Oo, head of the Vahu Development Institute
The prominent exiled dissident added that he did not discuss politics during his visit. He also confirmed that he was planning to return to Burma again in the near future.

Returning to Burma for the first time in nearly two decades, Zaw Oo said he was saddened by the widespread poverty that he witnessed there.

As a former policy advisor to the National Coalition Government of the Union of Burma (NCGUB), the government in exile, and director of the Burma Fund, the NCGUB’s think tank, he was once an outspoken opponent of the regime. He was also a leader of the All Burma Students’ Democratic Front, an insurgent group formed by Burmese students in 1988.

Some Burmese activists in exile compared Zaw Oo’s trip to one made by Zarni, co-founder of the Free Burma Coalition, in May 2004. Sources close to the Burmese authorities said, however, that the two trips were handled very differently by officials.

During his one-day trip, Zarni met with high-ranking military intelligence officers, including members of a think tank formed by Brig-Gen Than Tun and Col Hla Min, deputies of the former spy chief Gen Khin Nyunt.

Zaw Oo, by contrast, met mainly with lower ranking figures, including an officer of the Military Security Affairs, which replaced the Military Intelligence Service after the ouster of Gen Khin Nyunt in Oct 2004. Sources also said that Zaw Oo faced some problems applying for a visa.

Zaw Oo denied this, and said that he was well-treated by the authorities when he was in Burma. He said that he met with all of the officials he needed to meet, adding, however, that the meetings were not held formally.

He declined to provide any details about the ranks of the officials he met.

Yin Yin Oo, the sister of Deputy Foreign Minister Kyaw Thu and an official with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, reportedly played a significant role in helping Zaw Oo to get a visa, according to sources in Rangoon.

Zaw Oo said that his trip wasn’t like Zarni’s because he didn’t go to Burma to talk about politics. “I only talked about Nargis and economic issues there,” he said.

He said that the impact of Cyclone Nargis made many government officials realize that there is a need for change. He added that UN relief experts now have ministerial-level access to the government.

He also said that his trip made him realize that many exiles don’t have a complete picture of the situation inside Burma.