Fred Hiatt ["Victims of a Stalled Revolution," op-ed, March 7] was right to excoriate the tyranny of Burma's military rulers.
But he was wrong to suggest that any regime "ruthless enough to threaten and torture not only activists but their relatives" cannot be toppled by people power alone.
Chile's Augusto Pinochet, South Africa's apartheid regime and Serbia's Slobodan Milosevic were often indiscriminate in their killing, but they were brought down by civilian-based resistance. At the time, observers refused to believe that these regimes could fall except to a stronger military power.
Now, as then, no regime is monolithic. Neither does it have infinite capacity for repression. Its military, security services, bureaucracies and business elites are not uniformly loyal forever.
Historically, aggressive but nonviolent tactics such as mass protests, strikes and boycotts delegitimize regimes. Even the Burmese oppressors are not exempt from such pressures.
But people power requires a unified opposition, careful planning and nonviolent discipline. It hasn't worked everywhere because it hasn't been guided by an astute strategy everywhere.
PETER ACKERMAN
Chair
International Center
on Nonviolent Conflict
Washington
