Burmese Language
Student army taken off US terror list
A Burmese student army that rose to prominence following the 1988 uprising has been removed from a list of organisations deemed terrorists by the US government in the wake of the 9/11 attacks.
The All Burma Students’ Democratic Front (ABSDF) had been classed as a terrorist organisation despite the US having granted asylum to some of its members in the 1990s. Its former chairman, Htun Aung Kyaw, resides in the US, while other senior members were granted scholarships at prominent American universities.
Htun Aung Kyaw told DVB that some members, unaware they were being classed as terrorists, had asylum bids turned down, while others who already had green cards were denied citizenship.
He said the group’s name was removed from the list after former ABSDF members in the US petitioned the government.
“About 60 or 70 [former ABSDF members] signed the petition [in December] and we sent it to Human Rights First, an organisation based in Washington who had been providing us with assistance.
A meeting was held on 20 December between HRF and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the group was removed from the list. Htun Aung Kyaw said that an official announcement will be made shortly by the DHS.
“This will give a moral support for our ABSDF comrades who are currently [fighting] as they are no longer seen by the world as terrorists but as freedom fighters making an effort to bring democracy to Burma.”
He added that the petition was pushed as testament to the many ABSDF members residing in refugee camps along the Thai-Burma border whose asylum requests were left pending following 9/11. “Now they will once again be given opportunities to come here to the US.”
The ABSDF has recently been engaged in fighting in eastern Karen state after joining forces with a breakaway faction of the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA), which has been battling the Burmese army.
At its peak the student army had some 10,000 troops. It has been linked with the Karen struggle ever since its formation in the late 1980s, when thousands of students fled to the jungle and were sheltered by the Karen National Union (KNU) and its armed wing, the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA).
The US has nerarly 50 groups on its list of foreign terrorist organisations, the vast majority of which are based in the Middle East. Only six hail from Asia.
Comments
Other News, Politics Stories
- Burma expels Rohingya members from political party
- Muslims displaced during Meikhtila riots return home
- Activists slate prisoner amnesty ahead of Thein Sein’s US trip
- Weakened cyclone hits coastline after chaotic evacuations
- Burma fails on natural resource governance: report
- Thai raid on fishing operation frees dozens of enslaved migrants
- Thousands of Rohingya stranded by the sea as cyclone looms
DVB TV
Meikhtila displaced return home
MOST READ STORIES
- Home
- Burmese army seizes Shan rebel outpost after latest attack
- Nic Dunlop: ‘It is no longer useful to view Burma through the prism of Suu Kyi’
- Who are the monks behind Burma's '969' campaign?
- Burma begins to move displaced Rohingya as cyclone nears
- Thousands of Rohingya stranded by the sea as cyclone looms
You need to log in to vote
The blog owner requires users to be logged in to be able to vote for this post.
Alternatively, if you do not have an account yet you can create one here.
Powered by Vote It Up
ABSDF, keep up good work! This is an encouraging news to all the exiled Burmese and the people of Burma.
JOIN with your ethnic alliance and fight the last battle:topple the regime once and for all.
It is becoming quite evident to those in our government that the SPDC’s hold on Burma is starting to unravel.
With each passing day, the armed resistance becomes more stronger and the Burmese Army has not been at all able to crush the freedom fighters, who continue to receive assistance and volunteers from all over the globe.
Read \War in Karen Country\
(available on Amazon.com), for a more in depth look into the foreign volunteers that help the Karen National Liberation Army.
The US must put the Burmese military on the terrorist list and must recognized this military goverment as illegal.
The real terrorists are the military regimes of Burma. They might not be harmful to USA but harmful to the priciples and practices of Democracy. It certainly terrorize the 60 millions defenceless people of Burma.
Actually, the USA Government should have not added ABSDF as the terrorist group at first point, and they should have analyzed what the ABSDF was and still doing? It is absolutely opposite, the ABSDF was and still against the terrorism, dictators and pro-democratic force since 1988.
After 9/11 ABSDF and all freedom-fighters were named Terrorists (taliban) by the US. At that time Khin Nyunt did a lot of home works to gain US support by labelling that Talibans were as if in Burma. In fact students at the fields expected material helps from US.
Due to 9/11 ABSDF students had suffered a lot.The back bone of ABSDF was broken.The ordinary people who never took part in revolution and politics had no problem to resettle and earned residence and Nationality in US BUT the real students had a lot of problem to be faced.Finally the US understood that who are the real terrorist freedom fighters or Military junta.