Arrests Shatter Prospects for Reform in Burma

A brief announcement by Burma’s official radio has drawn tight the curtain of repression, shutting out what less than two weeks ago had seemed a glimmer of reform.

The broadcast, monitored here Monday in neighboring Thailand, said that seven former Burmese military officers and three civilians have been arrested as “a preventive measure to protect the state.”

Beyond the names, no details were disclosed, except for a government pledge that “action will be taken against them in due course according to law.” On Tuesday, the arrest of two additional former military men was reported.

The crackdown on political dissent and presumed enemies was the latest in a quick series of blows that has turned a brief prospect of reform into what seems a cruel joke.

Expectations Dashed

“In a place where there hadn’t been any hope for change, expectations were suddenly raised,” Robert Nathan, a Washington economist, told the Associated Press. “Now that’s been dashed, down the drain.”

The reversal has been revealed in a series of government announcements over the past week. Travelers and Rangoon-based diplomats have provided some additional details. The Burmese government has refused to admit Western reporters to Rangoon, the capital, and one of the key sources of news, Sein Win, the AP correspondent in Rangoon, was among the civilians arrested.

First reports indicated that up to 25 presumed dissidents had been swept up Friday, but Monday’s radio announcement mentioned only 10.

Policies Criticized

Among them was Aung Gyi, a 70-year-old retired general and one-time colleague of the autocratic Ne Win, Burma’s longtime leader who retired late last month. Since a falling-out in 1963, Aung Gyi has become the 77-year-old leader’s sharpest domestic critic. In a series of letters distributed in Rangoon this spring, he blistered Ne Win’s so-called “Burmese way to socialism” and the police state that enforces it, though he refrained from directly attacking his former ally.

“That the country has gone from bad to worse . . . is evident to anyone not living in a fool’s paradise,” Aung Gyi wrote in a May letter. “The country has plunged to the bottom politically, economically and socially. The moral decay is most deplorable.”

In letters dated in June and July, Aung Gyi, who owns a small chain of tea and pastry shops in Rangoon, declared that 283 Burmese had been killed in student riots in March. By government count, there were only 43 deaths in the demonstrations, which were put down by riot police.

General Strike Urged

The possibility of further violence was raised Monday with reports from Rangoon that leaflets had been distributed there calling for a general strike next Monday. The leaflets were reportedly produced by a dissident student group.

Over the turbulent five months since the March riots, Burma’s secretive government, a mix of military management and socialist economics, had seemed rattled if not threatened for one of the few times since Ne Win came to power in 1962 after a military coup.

Late last month, the aging leader convened an extraordinary conference of his Burma Socialist Program Party, the country’s only political party, then stunned the delegates--and outsiders--with a series of announcements:

-- After 26 years as Burma’s leader, first as president and party chairman and since 1981 as party boss alone, Ne Win said he was retiring.

-- The party congress was asked to consider a referendum on whether Burma should remain a one-party state or open up the political process to opposition groups.

-- Economic reforms were proposed: investment by private foreign firms, an overhaul of state monopolies and legalization of cross-border trade, which currently fuels Burma’s vast black market.

But what looked like an about-face on popular reforms quickly turned sour. The congress rejected the idea of a referendum on multiple-party politics and elected as Ne Win’s successor as party boss and president a 68-year-old former general, Sein Lwin.

A Rangoon-based diplomat called Sein Lwin “Burma’s most despised political personality.” Sein Lwin reportedly commanded the forces that put down the March riots. He is reputed to be even tougher than Ne Win, and it was Ne Win who warned dissidents in his speech to the party conference: “In the future, if the army shoots, it shoots to hit. There will be no more firing in the air to scare.”

Sein Lwin called on the party to push ahead with economic changes, but Burma’s 38 million people now doubt that any reforms are likely, according to scattered reports from Rangoon.