USDA a stooge of Burmese junta: Opposition researchers

Mizzima News
April 2, 2008

In order to maintain its illegitimate stranglehold on the country, the Burmese military junta has created Burma's only civil society group the Union Solidarity and Development Association (USDA) to use it to shore up its reign, an opposition group said.

The Thailand based Network for Democracy and Development in a report released on Monday said, the junta effectively uses the USDA to suppress opposition activities. It called the civil organization a stooge of the junta.

Htay Aung from Research and Documentation department of NDD said, "The organization is at the forefront in attacking and defaming pro-democracy and opposition activists who are struggling against the evil military dictatorship."

"The USDA even resorts to violence against opposition groups in many cases and support the junta in perpetuating its power," Htay Aung said.

The report, titled 'USDA or Pillar of Military Dictatorship', documented details of how USDA members brutally attacked Burmese pro-democracy leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi's motorcade on May 30, 2003 at Depeyin in central Burma, and the monk led protest in Pakokku in August 2007 and saffron revolution in September 2007.

The 100-page report includes five chapters which details the USDA's involvement in various fields including education, economics and government departments. The report says USDA members are used to organize sham mass rallies, mass meetings against opposition groups, and in support of the junta's plans.

The NDD said the report was compiled on the information based on interviews with 20 USDA members and first had accounts of former USDA members, who fled to the Thai-Burmese border.

"We present in this report how the USDA is preparing for the ensuing constitutional referendum and gearing up for holding the general elections in 2010," Htay Aung said.

The Burmese military regime inaugurated the national convention for the first time on January 9, 1993. The USDA was formed within two weeks of the inauguration of national convention and was registered as a social organization, not a political one.

The NDD further said that facts reveal that in the past 15 years the USDA has been used as a tool by the junta for the perpetuation of its power despite the claim of being just a national organization.