Maj-Gen Soe Win, the Burmese military junta's Northern Military Command commander is spending sleepless nights over the movement unleashed by student activists. Try as he might, he has been unable to stop the poster movement launched by students in his area of control, sources in Kachin State in northern Burma said.
Gen Soe Win has been desperately trying to stop the anti-junta poster movement by underground Kachin University Students in Myitkyina, the capital of Kachin State by deploying different security agencies such as Burmese Army soldiers, police, Special-Branch police, Military Affairs Security Unit (Sa-Ya-Pha) and local members of junta-sponsored Union Solidarity and Development Association (USDA). But till date no student activist could be detained, according to Myitkyina residents.
As a retaliatory measure and to check activists, former Principal of Officer Training School in Pyi Oo Lwin (Maymyo) in Mandalay Division turned commander of Northern Command (Kachin State) Maj-Gen Soe Win imposed 'tough night curfew' on September 18, the day underground members of All Kachin Students Union (AKSU) pasted about 400 anti-junta posters on A-4 size papers in the heart of the township, said a student activist.
The night curfew in the township makes it mandatory for all night markets, roadside shops, stores, commercial movie houses, English Premier League Football Video rooms to close by 10 pm local time. People are not allowed on the roads in Myitkyina during curfew hours, locals said.
Civilian flouting curfew orders have been threatened with imprisonment in No. 1 and No. 2 police stations in the township. They will also be fined heavily by security agents on duty such as the police, locals added.
Because of the unrest prevailing among the student community, the new Kachin State Commander Maj-Gen Soe Win has been unable to sleep well ever since he was transferred to Kachin State in late June, said sources close to the commander.
Currently, Maj-Gen Soe Win has been checking the Myitkyina University campus in Shatapru Quarter with his personal assistants or in a military convoy, said eyewitnesses in Shatapru.
