Military Junta

Chile's dictator, Gen. Augusto Pinochet, thrives on the long nightmare of violence that his rule unleashed on his country, and he may even survive it. But Chile will have a hard time surviving it. Pinochet lived through a highway ambush this week that left him slightly wounded and five members of his official convoy dead.

Your editorial (Jan. 15) justification of Bill Clinton's hypocritical reversal of his position on Haitain refugees is lamentable. Along with Clinton you neglect to mention that continuing a policy of intercepting these refugees on the high seas is a violation of international law. Moreover, whatever supposed sympathy is expressed by Clinton and the editorial in the perilous flight by Haitians in unsafe vessels and the ensuing tragedy of capsized boats...

Lt. Gen. Daniel Schroeder, deputy commander of the U.S. Army in Europe, was named Tuesday to command a 6,000-member U.N. mission that will replace the U.S.-led multinational force now in Haiti. Last summer, he headed a U.S. humanitarian mission in civil-war-torn Rwanda. Schroeder's appointment, which requires confirmation by the U.S. Senate, was announced by U.N. Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali during a brief visit to Haiti.

A coalition of Thai political parties Sunday named the country's supreme military commander as the next prime minister after a week of embarrassing revelations that their first candidate had been denied a U.S. visa because of allegations of involvement with the illegal drug trade. The selection of Gen. Suchinda Kraprayoon may prove equally controversial, since he is a leader of the military junta that overthrew the last elected government in February, 1991.

While it is tragic that men like Benigno Aquino Jr. of the Philippines and Kim Dae Jung of South Korea have to make great sacrifices to illustrate the oppression in their countries, it is good that the U.S. government can see a glimmer of what dictatorships are all about. Lulled by the security of their own democratic system, American leaders support dictatorships--or what they call "friendly governments"--believing that they are doing America and those other countries good. Instead, propping up these dictatorships creates Frankenstein monsters--power-hungry, tyrannical, and unpopular rulers.

Twelve years ago the military junta known as the Dergue hauled the old Lion of Judah, Haile Selassie, off from his palace in a Volkswagen. Acting in the name of the "broad masses" without even any of the classic communist rituals of rigged elections or "people's congresses," the Dergue began turning Ethiopia into a communist state. Lt. Col.

The nations of the Western Hemisphere agreed late Wednesday at an emergency meeting of the Organization of American States to send a high-level delegation to Haiti to warn the island's military junta that it faces an array of economic and diplomatic sanctions if the democratic government is not restored. Earlier, the Pentagon ordered a contingent of Marines to fly to the U.S. Navy base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, for possible duty in evacuating U.S. citizens from Haiti.

As a Filipino, I agree with Benedict J. Tria Kerkvliet's analysis about the current situation in the Philippines as presented in his article (Editorial Pages, Dec. 4), "America Should Adopt Hands-Off Policy in Philippines." Short of sending in the U.S. Marines, the United States has very limited leverage with President Ferdinand Marcos. However, as Kerkvliet has suggested, the United States ought to exercise the limited options it has, such as stopping the flow of arms and whatever limited economic aid it has been giving to the Philippines.

Having recently returned from a cruise on the Irrawaddy River in Myanmar, I feel compelled to respond to "By Riverboat to Age-Old Asia" [March 14] and the remarks by a passenger that the people that she encountered were suffering from an oppressive military government, massacres and forced labor. She could not have witnessed such activity on her tour. I advise her to read newspapers before she selects her tours and not visit countries that she is predisposed against. Although it is true that Myanmar is administered by a military junta, I could not detect any unhappiness in the populace and saw no evidence of a military presence.

Surrounded by some of the world's most forbidding jungle, outnumbered guerrillas of Asia's oldest continuing insurgency are battling troops of the Burmese military government for control of a mountaintop called Sleeping Dog Hill. It is a battle that opponents of the military junta that rules Myanmar, formerly Burma, say could determine the future of not only the 43-year-old Karen ethnic rebellion, but the country's beleaguered democracy movement as well.