Maung Zarni

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Dr. Maung Zarni has a been prominent figure in activism for Burmese democracy. He lived in the United States where he founded in 1995 the Free Burma Coalition, which quickly became the largest Burmese democracy group in the United States. The Free Burma Coalition adopted the existing boycott of Pepsi originally started by a group of Canadian activists. Owing largely to Zarni's indefatigable organizing and charismatic leadership, the Free Burma Coalition became one of the largest and most effective human rights campaigns in the world, linking groups and individuals in 28 countries at its height and using the boycott of Pepsi to highlighting corporate complicity in human rights abuses by the military regime in Burma.

On April 26th, 1996, USA Today published a cover story about the Free Burma Coalition with a front page picture of Zarni . Ralph Nader dubbed the Free Burma Coalition a "model citizens' activist movement."

Free Burma Coalition activists ramped up the pressure on PepsiCo until 1997 when the company completely severed its remaining business ties in Burma. The Free Burma Coalition also campaigned successfully against nearly 100 corporations in Burma, including several oil companies, such as Arco, Unocal, and Texaco. Zarni, then a graduate student at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, became a poster boy for the Free Burma movement worldwide.

In 2003, Dr. Zarni started to express publicly his deep disillusionment with Aung San Suu Kyi's leadership abilities and her policy of sanctions and boycotts. He also attacked what he viewed as the "self-serving ways" of many of his former fellow activists in the Free Burma movement.

Zarni and a group of Western-educated Burmese dissidents explored alternatives to what they termed as "the sanctions and boycott orthodoxy." They came to the conclusion that economic sanctions and political pressure by Western countries on Burma was counter-productive and futile as long as China, India, Thailand and other Asian countries continued to do business with and provide political support to the ruling regime. Dr. Zarni and his Burmese colleagues renounced their long-standing pro-sanctions and pro-boycott policy in 2003.

During the aftermath of the Burmese junta's bloody ambush against Aung San Suu Kyi and her motorcade during an up country tour in May 2003, Dr. Zarni explored radical measures, including reviving and strengthening armed resistance in the country. According to Dr. Zarni, he was tasked by General Saw Bo Mya, the leader of the Karen National Union and the Chair of the National Council of the Union of Burma based in the Thai-Burmese border, with a secret mission to lead a small team of Burmese dissidents whose mission was to seek support from Western governments for the dissidents' armed resistance. Zarni stated later that the effort failed because of what he described as a leak within the Burmese dissident community.

Six months after the secret mission was folded, General Saw Bo Mya flew to Rangoon in January 2004 where he made a highly publicized ceasefire deal with the Head of the Burmese Military Intelligence and negotiator General Khin Nyunt.

Meanwhile, Dr. Zarni and came into contact with what he described as the moderate elements within the military's inner circle. He launched a diplomacy initiative with a 100-page report "Common Problems, Shared Responsibilities: A Burmese Citizens' Initiative for National Reconciliation."

Following Zarni's change in policy, the staff and virtually all the group's supporters and funders left the Free Burma Coalition and founded the U.S. Campaign for Burma, which maintains the Free Burma Coalition's original mission and policies. The Free Burma Coalition is now largely moribund.

In March of 2004, Dr. Zarni made a confidential one-day trip to Rangoon to meet with deputies of the Prime Minister Khun Nyunt, including Brigadier General Than Tun, government spokesperson Colonel Hla Min, and Colonel Tin Oo. Zarni sought discussions on how to create political space and build confidence between moderate military officers and moderate dissidents in exile. Unfortunately, Prime Minister Khin Nyunt and the entire moderate camp was later purged by military regime hardliners deeply opposed to Aung San Suu Kyi and the Burmese democracy movement.

Zarni eventually renounced his political asylum in the United States and returned to Burma in October 2005 with the hope of building ties with members the ruling military regime to help open up the country. He described his position as one of "principled and strategic engagement" with the Burmese military junta.

Dr. Zarni's critique of Aung San Suu Kyi's policies has earned him notoriety. Most Burmese exiles and the democracy movement activists inside Burma maintain that economic sanctions and political pressure on the Burmese military regime remain the only feasible policy to achieve a restoration of democracy and human rights in Burma.

Many have questioned Zarni's motives and his change of position to one of engaging the Burmese military junta. In 2006, Zarni was amongst the members of the military junta and junta supporters who were listed as "enemies of the democracy movement" in a publication circulated inside Burma.

Despite this criticism, Dr. Zarni continues to espouse his views within academic and policy circles. He has been extensively quoted in and has widely written for the international print and broadcast media.

Dr. Zarni now resides in Great Britain where he is a Visiting Research Fellow (2006-2009) at the Department of International Development at Queen Elizabeth House with the University of Oxford.

He holds a PhD from the University of Wisconsin at Madison, with a thesis entitled "Power, Knowledge and Control: The Politics of Education in Burma under Military Rule (1962-88)" under the supervision of the leading neo-Marxist sociologist of education Michael W. Apple. In addition, he was educated at the University of California at Davis, the University of Washington, the University of Mandalay, and St Peter's Boys School in Mandalay. He is a member of the International Institute for Strategic Affairs. He has also participated in the prestigious Georgetown Leadership Seminar (2004) and has served as a fellow in the Rockefeller Foundation Next Generation Leadership Program (2001-2003).