Cowed, Myanmar border town longs to join protests

By Biswajyoti Das

TAMU, Myanmar (Reuters) - In a small town everyone knows your name. So when pro-democracy activists tried to organize a protest rally on Myanmar's border with India last week, they were hardly surprised that only 30 people came forward.

"As you could see here people are scared of the military and the intelligence officers," said a leader of the National League for Democracy (NLD) in Tamu, who refused to be identified.

The protesters were dispersed by soldiers with a warning -- "turn out again and you will all go to jail".

The activist, wearing a white vest with a green sarong wrapped around his waist, sat in a small tea-shop in the town, speaking quietly and glancing around nervously as he spoke.

Senior officers have been going around town, reinforcing that threat, he said. So far it seems to have worked.

"I want to go and join the uprising but I'm scared they will come and kill my family if I do that," said Johan, a 44 year-old man, sitting on the wooden floor of his bamboo-walled and tin-roofed house in a tribal village outside Tamu.

"People support the movement for democracy but are terrified of the brutal military."

The internet has been cut in this town of 80,000 people, a few kilometers from the Indian border in northwest Myanmar, and locals said telephone landlines and mobiles were all being tapped.

Remarkably, though, satellite television is still allowed, and many residents have been glued to the Democratic Voice of Burma channel, transmitted from Norway, for news of protests led by monks against Myanmar's military regime.

Tamu is a relatively wealthy town by local standards, with paved roads and concrete buildings. Traders sell Chinese and Thai imports to Indians who cross the border, including alcohol, gold and precious stones.

Others make their money in the illegal trade in drugs and weapons, often in league with Indian insurgent groups who have camps in the jungles on this side of the border.

But trade has dried up and anger mounted with sky-rocketing fuel prices -- rises that sparked protests over the last few weeks in major cities and towns in Myanmar.

Shops in Tamu are open but largely empty, and food is increasingly scarce.

The town is almost deserted, with many homes shuttered. Soldiers are stationed in and around Tamu, police in plain clothes wander the streets carrying walkie-talkies.

Informers are everywhere.