USDA Starts Recruitment Drive Ahead of Referendum

By SAW YAN NAING
The Irrawaddy News
www.irrawaddy.org

February 21 ,2008 - Members of a mass-based organization backed by Burma’s ruling junta have begun a recruitment campaign to drum up support for an upcoming national referendum, according to Rangoon residents.

A resident of Hlaing Thayar Township in the former Burmese capital told The Irrawaddy on Wednesday that members of the Union Solidarity and Development Association (USDA) have been conducting a low-key membership drive in the area since February 2.

“They [members of the USDA] have been calling residents at night, telling them good things about the regime and asking them to join their organization,” he said. “They also said that they will build new roads and clinics for the residents if they register as members.”

But many have responded coolly to the organization’s efforts to lobby on behalf of the regime, which ordered a brutal crackdown on peaceful demonstrators in September 2007.

Sources within the USDA revealed last week that the association had been tasked with organizing the referendum—set to take place in May—on a constitution drafted by delegates handpicked by the ruling military regime.

USDA members at the township and district levels will form local commissions to oversee voting in the referendum, said sources close to the organization. They would also be involved in preparations for general elections slated for 2010, according to the sources.

One source who requested anonymity said that the USDA was recruiting respected local people to serve on the referendum and election commissions. The USDA is also looking for wealthy and well-educated candidates to run in the elections, the source added.

The USDA, which was formed in 1993 to rally mass support for the regime, has 24 million members. It has also been instrumental in efforts to intimidate opposition activists and civilians.

USDA members played a key role in the bloody crackdown on the 2007 uprising and in a deadly attack on Aung San Suu Kyi’s motorcade in 2003, in which about 100 people were killed.