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History's Hinge - 'Ain Jalut

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A British 1825 lithograph of Shwedagon Pagoda reveals early British occupation in Burma during the First Anglo-Burmese War

Colonial era (1886�1948)

To stimulate trade and facilitate changes, the British brought in Indians and Chinese who quickly displaced the Burmese in urban areas. To this day Yangon and Mandalay have large ethnic Indian populations. Railroads and schools were built, as well as a large number of prisons including the infamous Insein Jail, then as now used for political prisoners. Burmese resentment was strong and was vented in violent riots that paralyzed Yangon on occasion all the way until the 1930s.[1] Much of the discontent was caused by a perceived disrespect for Burman culture and traditions, for example, what the British termed the Shoe Question: the colonisers� refusal to remove their shoes upon entering Buddhist temples or other holy places. In October 1919, Eindawya Pagoda in Mandalay was the scene of violence when tempers flared after scandalised Buddhist monks attempted to physically expel a group of shoe-wearing British visitors. The leader of the monks was later sentenced to life imprisonment for attempted murder. Such incidents inspired the Burmese resistance to use Buddhism as a rallying point for their cause. Buddhist monks became the vanguards of the independence movement, and many died while protesting. One monk-turned-martyr was U Wisara, who died in prison after a 163-day hunger strike to protest a rule that forbade him from wearing his Buddhist robes while imprisoned.[2] Kipling�s poem 'Mandalay' is now all that most people in Britain remember of Myanmar�s difficult and often brutal colonisation.

On 1 April 1937, Myanmar became a separately administered territory, independent of the Indian administration. The vote for keeping Myanmar in India, or as a separate colony �khwe-yay-twe-yay� divided the populace, and laid the ground work for the insurgencies to come after independence. In the 1940s, the Thirty Comrades, commanded by Aung San, founded the Burma Independence Army.[3] The Thirty Comrades received training in Japan.[3]

During World War II, Burma became a major frontline in the Southeast Asian Theatre. The British administration collapsed ahead of the advancing Japanese troops, jails and asylums were opened and Rangoon was deserted except for the many Anglo-Burmese and Indians who remained at their posts. A stream of some 300,000 refugees fled across the jungles into India; known as 'The Trek', all but 30,000 of those 300,000 arrived in India. Initially the Japanese-led Burma Campaign succeeded and the British were expelled from most of Myanmar, but the British counter-attacked using primarily troops of British Indian Army. By July 1945, the British had retaken the country. Although many Burmese fought initially for the Japanese, some Burmese also served in the British Burma Army. In 1943, the Chin Levies and Kachin Levies were formed in the border districts of Burma still under British occupation. The Burma Rifles fought as part of the Chindits under General Orde Wingate from 1943�1945. Later in the war, the Americans created American-Kachin Rangers who also fought for the occupiers. Many other Burmese fought with the British Special Operations Executive. The Burma Independence Army under the command of Aung San and the Arakan National Army fought with the Japanese from 1942�1944, but switched allegiance to the Allied side in 1945.

In 1947, Aung San became Deputy Chairman of the Executive Council of Burma, a transitional government. But in July 1947, political rivals assassinated Aung San and several cabinet members.[3]

Democratic Republic (1948�1962)

On 4 January 1948, the nation became an independent republic, named the Union of Burma, with Sao Shwe Thaik as its first President and U Nu as its first Prime Minister. Unlike most other former British occupied territories, it did not become a member of the Commonwealth. A bicameral parliament was formed, consisting of a Chamber of Deputies and a Chamber of Nationalities.[4]

The geographical area Burma encompasses today can be traced to the Panglong Agreement, which combined Burma Proper, which consisted of Lower Burma and Upper Burma, and the Frontier Areas, which had been administered separately by the British.[5]

In 1961, U Thant, then Burma�s Permanent Representative to the United Nations and former Secretary to the Prime Minister, was elected Secretary-General of the United Nations; he was the first non-Westerner to head any international organization and would serve as UN Secretary-General for ten years.[6] Among the Burmese to work at the UN when he was Secretary-General was a young Aung San Suu Kyi.

Notes
  1. Collis, Maurice (1945). Trials in Burma.
  2. Bechert, Heinz (1984). The World of Buddhism-Buddhist Monks and Nuns in Society and Culture. ISBN 978-0871969828.
  3. a b c Houtman, Gustaaf (1999). Mental Culture in Burmese Crisis Politics: Aung San Suu Kyi and the National League for Democracy. ISBN 4-87297-748-3.
  4. The Constitution of the Union of Burma. DVB (1947). Retrieved on 7 July 2006.
  5. Smith, Martin (1991). Burma -Insurgency and the Politics of Ethnicity. London and New Jersey: Zed Books, 42-43.
  6. Aung Zaw. Can Another Asian Fill U Thant�s Shoes?. The Irrawaddy Sep 2006. Retrieved on 12 September 2006.


Who really killed Aung San? Vol 1

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Aung San

General Aung San (Bogyoke Aung San in Burmese) (Burmese: Image:BogyokeAungSan.png; MLCTS: buil hkyup aung hcan:; IPA: [b�ʊdʒoʊʔ �ʊn sʰ�n]); 13 February 1915 � 19 July 1947) was a Burmese revolutionary, nationalist, general, and politician. He was instrumental in bringing about Burma's independence, but was assassinated six months before its final achievement.

He is the father of Nobel Peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi.

World War II period

Whilst in Japan, the Blue Print for a Free Burma was drafted which has been widely, but mistakenly, been attributed to Aung San.[3] In February, 1941, Aung San returned to Burma, with an offer of arms and financial support from the Fumimaro Konoe government. He returned briefly to Japan to receive more military training, along with the first batch of the Thirty Comrades.[2] In December, with the help of the Minami Kikan, a secret intelligence unit formed to close the Burma Road and to support a national uprising and headed by Colonel Suzuki, he founded the Burma Independence Army (BIA) in Bangkok, Thailand (under Japanese occupation at the time).[2] He became chief of staff, and took on the rank of Major-General.[1]

The capital of Burma, Rangoon, fell to the Japanese in March 1942 (as part of the Burma Campaign in World War II), and the Japanese military administration took over the country. In July, Aung San re-organized the BIA as the Burma Defense Army (BDA). He remained its commander in chief�this time as Colonel Aung San.[1] In March 1943, he was once again promoted to the rank of Major-General. Soon afterwards, he was invited to Japan, and was presented with the Order of the Rising Sun by the Emperor.[1]

On 1 August 1943, the Japanese declared Burma to be an independent nation. Aung San was appointed War Minister, and his army was again renamed, this time as the Burma National Army (BNA).[1] His cooperation with the Japanese authorities was to be short-lived: Aung San became skeptical of their promises of true independence and was displeased with their treatment of the Burmese people. He made secret plans to drive the Japanese out of Burma and made contact with the British authorities in India, with the help of Communist leaders Thakin Than Tun and Thakin Soe who had anticipated and warned the independence movement of the more urgent threat of fascism before the Japanese invasion. On 27 March 1945 he led the BNA in a revolt against the Japanese occupiers and helped the Allies defeat the Japanese.[2] March 27 came to be commemorated as 'Resistance Day' until the military regime later renamed it 'Tatmadaw (Armed Forces) Day'.

Post-World War II

After the return of the British who had established a military administration, the Anti-Fascist Organisation (AFO), formed in August 1944, was transformed into a united front, comprising the BNA, the Communists and the Socialists, and renamed the Anti-Fascist People's Freedom League (AFPFL). The Burma National Army was renamed the Patriotic Burmese Forces (PBF), and then gradually disarmed by the British as the Japanese were driven out of various parts of the country. The Patriotic Burmese Forces, while disbanded, were offered positions in the Burma Army under British command according to the Kandy conference agreement with Lord Mountbatten in Ceylon in September 1945.[2] Some of the veterans had been formed into the Pyithu y�baw tat (People's Volunteer Organisation or PVO) under Aung San, a paramilitary force in uniform and openly drilling in public, which may have overcome the initial reluctance on the part of the British authorities. Aung San was offered the rank of Deputy Inspector General of the Burma Army, but he declined it in favor of becoming a civilian political leader.[2]

In January 1946, Aung San became the President of the AFPFL following the return of civil government to Burma the previous October. In September, he was appointed Deputy Chairman of the Executive Council of Burma by the new British Governor Sir Hubert Rance, and was made responsible for defence and external affairs.[2] Rance and Mountbatten took a very different view from the former British Governor Sir Reginald Dorman-Smith, and also Winston Churchill who had called Aung San a 'traitor rebel leader'.[2] A rift had already developed inside the AFPFL between the Communists and Aung San leading the nationalists and Socialists, which came to a head when Aung San and others accepted seats on the Executive Council, culminating in the expulsion of Thakin Than Tun and the CPB from the AFPFL.[2][1]

Aung San was to all intents and purposes Prime Minister, although he was still subject to a British veto. On 27 January 1947, Aung San and the British Prime Minister Clement Attlee signed an agreement in London guaranteeing Burma's independence within a year - he had been responsible for its negotiation.[2] During the stopover in Delhi at a press conference, he stated that the Burmese wanted 'complete independence' not dominion status and that they had 'no inhibitions of any kind' about 'contemplating a violent or non-violent struggle or both' in order to achieve this, and concluded that he hoped for the best but he was prepared for the worst.[1] He is also believed to have been responsible, in part, for the persecution of the Karen people, based on their loyalty to the British and having fought the Japanese and the BIA.[2] Dorman-Smith had in fact rejected a request for an AFPFL delegation to visit London and tried to bring Aung San to trial for his role in the execution of a village headman during the war.[2]

Two weeks later, on 12 February 1947, Aung San signed an agreement at the Panglong Conference, with leaders from other national groups, expressing solidarity and support for a united Burma.[2][4] In April, the AFPFL won 196 of 202 seats in the election for a constituent assembly. In July, Aung San convened a series of conferences at the Sorrenta Villa in Rangoon to discuss the rehabilitation of Burma.

Assassination

On 19 July 1947 around 10:37 AM, a gang of armed paramilitaries broke into the Secretariat Building in downtown Rangoon during a meeting of the Executive Council (the shadow government established by the British in preparation for the transfer of power) and assassinated Aung San and six of his cabinet ministers, including his older brother Ba Win. A cabinet secretary and a bodyguard were also killed. The assassination was supposedly carried out on the orders of U Saw, a rival politician, who subsequently was tried and hanged.

However there are aspects of U Saw's trial that give rise to doubt.[5] There were rumours of a conspiracy involving the British - a variation on this theory was given new life in an influential, but sensationalist, documentary broadcast by the BBC on the 50th anniversary of the assassination in 1997.

Family

While he was Minister of Defence in 1942, Aung San met and married Khin Kyi, and around the same time her sister met and married Thakin Than Tun, the communist leader. General Aung San and Daw Khin Kyi has three children. Aung San's youngest daughter, Aung San Suu Kyi, is a Nobel Peace Prize laureate and leader of the Burmese pro-democracy party, the National League for Democracy(NLD), which is opposed to the current military regime. His second son, Aung San Lin, died at age eight, when he drowned in an ornamental lake in the grounds of the house. The eldest, Aung San Oo, is an engineer working in the United States and opposed to his sister's political activities. Aung San's wife, Khin Kyi, the mother of his children, died on 27 December 1988.

References

   1. a b c d e f g h i Aung San Suu Kyi (1984). Aung San of Burma. Edinburgh: Kiscadale 1991, 1,10,14,17,20,22,26,27,41,44.
   2. a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Martin Smith (1991). Burma - Insurgency and the Politics of Ethnicity. London and New Jersey: Zed Books, 90,54,56,57,58,59,60,65,69,66,68,62-63,65,77,78,6.
   3. [http://ghoutman.googlepages.com/houtmanAung-sanslan-zintheblueprinta.pdf Aung San�s lan-zin, the Blue Print and the Japanese occupation of Burma by Gustaaf Houtman. In Kei Nemoto (ed) 2007 Reconsidering the Japanese military occupation in Burma (1942-45). Research Institute for Languages and Cultures of Asia and Africa (ILCAA). Tokyo: Tokyo University of Foreign Studies. ISBN978-4-87297, pp 179-227.] May 30, 2007
   4. The Panglong Agreement, 1947. Online Burma/Myanmar Library.
   5. Who Killed Aung San? - an interview with Gen. Kyaw Zaw. The Irrawaddy (August 1997). Retrieved on 29 October 2006.


Who really killed Aung San? Vol 2

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Aung San Suu Kyi

Aung San Suu Kyi (Burmese: Image:AungSanSuuKyi1.png; MLCTS: aung hcan: cu. krany; IPA: [�uɴ sʰ�ɴ sṵ tʃ�]); born 19 June 1945 in Yangon (Rangoon), is a pro-democracy activist and leader of the National League for Democracy in Myanmar, and a noted prisoner of conscience and advocate of nonviolent resistance. A Buddhist, Suu Kyi won the Rafto Prize and the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought in 1990 and in 1991 was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for her peaceful and non-violent struggle under a military dictatorship. She is currently under detention, with the Myanmar government repeatedly extending her detention. According to the results of the 1990 general election, Suu Kyi is Prime Minister elect of Myanmar, as leader of the winning National League for Democracy party, but her detention by the military junta has so far prevented her from assuming her elected role.

She is frequently called Daw Aung San Suu Kyi; Daw is not part of her name, but an honorific similar to madam for older, revered women, literally meaning "aunt".[1]

Personal Life

Aung San Suu Kyi was born on 19 June 1945. Her father, Aung San, negotiated Burma's independence from the United Kingdom in 1947, and was assassinated by his rivals in the same year. She grew up with her mother, Khin Kyi, and two brothers, Aung San Lin and Aung San U in Rangoon. Aung San Lin drowned in a pool accident when Suu Kyi was eight. Suu Kyi was educated in English Catholic schools for much of her childhood in Burma.

Khin Kyi (Ma Khin Kyi) gained prominence as a political figure in the newly-formed Burmese government. Ma Khin Kyi was appointed as Burmese ambassador to India in 1960, and Aung San Suu Kyi followed her there, graduating from Lady Shri Ram College in New Delhi in 1964.[2]

She continued her education at St Hugh's College, Oxford, obtaining a B.A. degree in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics in 1969 and a PhD at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London in 1985. She also worked for the government of the Union of Myanmar. In 1972, Aung San Suu Kyi married Dr. Michael Aris, a scholar of Tibetan culture, living abroad in Bhutan. The following year she gave birth to her first son, Alexander, in London; and in 1977 she had her second son, Kim.

Political beginnings

Aung San Suu Kyi returned to Burma in 1988 to take care of her ailing mother. By coincidence, in that year, the long-time leader of the socialist ruling party, General Ne Win, stepped down, leading to mass demonstrations for democratisation on 8 August 1988 (8-8-88, a day seen as favorable), which were violently suppressed. A new military junta took power.

Heavily influenced by Mahatma Gandhi's philosophy of non-violence[3][4] , Aung San Suu Kyi entered politics to work for democratisation, helped found the National League for Democracy on 27 September 1988, and was put under house arrest on 20 July 1989. She was offered freedom if she would leave the country, but she refused.

One of her most famous speeches is the "Freedom From Fear" speech, which begins:
�It is not power that corrupts but fear. Fear of losing power corrupts those who wield it and fear of the scourge of power corrupts those who are subject to it."

Detention in Myanmar

In 1990, the military junta called a general election, which the National League for Democracy won decisively. Being the NLD's candidate, Aung San Suu Kyi under normal circumstances would have assumed the office of Prime Minister.[5] Instead, the results were nullified, and the military refused to hand over power. This resulted in an international outcry.

Aung San Suu Kyi was placed under house arrest. During her arrest, she was awarded the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought in 1990, and the Nobel Peace Prize the year after. Her sons Alexander and Kim accepted the Nobel Peace Prize on her behalf. Aung San Suu Kyi used the Nobel Peace Prize's 1.3 million USD prize money to establish a health and education trust for the Burmese people.

The military government released Aung San Suu Kyi from house arrest in July 1995 but made it clear that if she left the country to visit her family in the United Kingdom, it would not allow her return. When her husband, Michael Aris, a British citizen, was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 1997, the Burmese government denied him an entry visa. Aung San Suu Kyi remained in Burma, and never again saw her husband, who died in March 1999. She remains separated from her children, who live in the United Kingdom.[6]

The junta continually prevented Aung San Suu Kyi from meeting with her party supporters or international visitors. In 1998, academic and journalist Maurizio Giuliano, after holding several meetings with her, was asked to leave the country and not allowed to enter again.[7] In September 2000, the junta put her under house arrest again. On 6 May 2002, following secret confidence-building negotiations led by the United Nations, the government released her; a government spokesman said that she was free to move "because we are confident that we can trust each other". Aung San Suu Kyi proclaimed "a new dawn for the country". However on 30 May 2003, a government-sponsored mob attacked her caravan in the northern village of Depayin, murdering and wounding many of her supporters.[8] Aung San Suu Kyi fled the scene with the help of her driver, Ko Kyaw Soe Lin, but was arrested upon reaching Ye-U. The government imprisoned her at Insein Prison in Yangon. After she underwent a hysterectomy in September 2003,[9] the government again placed her under house arrest in Yangon.

In March 2004, Razali Ismail, UN special envoy to Myanmar, met with Aung San Suu Kyi. Ismail resigned from his post the following year, partly because he was denied re-entry to Myanmar on several occasions.[10]

On 28 May 2004, the United Nations Working Group for Arbitrary Detention rendered an Opinion (No. 9 of 2004) that her deprivation of liberty was arbitrary, as being in contravention of Article 9 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights 1948, and requested that the authorities in Burma set her free, but the authorities have so far ignored this request.[11]

On 28 November 2005, the National League for Democracy confirmed that Suu Kyi's house arrest would be extended for yet another year. Many Western countries, as well as the United Nations, have expressed their disapproval of this latest extension.

On 20 May 2006, Ibrahim Gambari, UN Undersecretary-General (USG) of Department of Political Affairs, met with Aung San Suu Kyi, the first visit by a foreign official since 2004.[12] Suu Kyi's house arrest term was set to expire 27 May 2006, but the Burmese government extended it for another year,[13] flouting a direct appeal from U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan to Than Shwe. Suu Kyi continues to be imprisoned under the 1975 State Protection Act (Article 10 b), which grants the government the power to imprison persons for up to five years without a trial.[14]

On 9 June 2006, Suu Kyi was hospitalised with severe diarrhea and weakness, as reported by a UN representative for National Coalition Government of the Union of Burma.[15] Such claims were rejected by Major-General Khin Yi, the national police chief of Myanmar.

On 11 November 2006, USG Gambari, who was undertaking a mission to Myanmar for four days to encourage greater respect for human rights there, met with Suu Kyi. According to Gambari, Suu Kyi seems in good health but she wishes to meet her doctor more regularly.[16] UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has urged the Burmese government to release Aung San Suu Kyi, as it released 2,831 prisoners, including 40 political prisoners, on 1 January 2007.[17]

On 18 January 2007, the state-run paper The New Light of Myanmar accused Suu Kyi of tax evasion for spending her Nobel Prize money outside of the country. The accusation followed the defeat of a US-sponsored United Nations Security Council resolution condemning Myanmar as a threat to international security.[18]

On 25 May 2007, Myanmar extended Suu Kyi's detention for yet another year which would keep her confined to her residence for a fifth straight year.[19]

References

   1. Myanmar Family Roles and Social Relationships. Government of Myanmar. Retrieved on 24 September 2007.
   2. Aung San Suu Kyi � Biography. Nobel Foundation. Retrieved on 4 May, 2006.
   3. Profile: Aung San Suu Kyi. BBC News Online (25 May 2006). Retrieved on 26 May 2007.
   4. The Nobel Peace Prize 1991 Presentation Speech. Nobel Foundation. Retrieved on 26 May 2007.
   5. Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, Burma�s Icon of Democracy, Hope and Grace Under Pressure.
   6. "Obituary: A courageous and patient man", BBC News, 1999-03-27. Retrieved on 4 July 2006.
   7. Maurizio Giuliano denied entry to Burma after meetings with Aung San Suu Kyi.
   8. The Depayin Massacre 2 Years On, Justice Denied (PDF). ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Myanmar Caucus (2005-05-30). Retrieved on 4 February 2007.
   9. "Suu Kyi has 'major' operation", BBC News, 2003-09-19. Retrieved on 4 July 2006.
  10. "Annan expresses sadness for the resignation of his envoy for Burma", Democratic Voice of Burma, 2006-01-10. Retrieved on 4 July 2006.
  11. Daw Aung San Suu Kyi v. Myanmar, Working Group on Arbitrary Detention,. United Nations. University of Minnesota Human Rights Library (2004-05-28). Retrieved on 4 July 2006.
  12. After meeting Aung San Suu Kyi, UN envoy leaves Myanmar. United Nations (20 May 2006). Retrieved on 22 May, 2006.
  13. "Burma extends Suu Kyi detention", Bangkok Post, 2006, May 27.
  14. The Irrawaddy. "Opposition Condemns Extension of Suu Kyi�s Detention", The Irrawaddy, 27 May 2006. Retrieved on 27 May 2006.
  15. Wadhams, Nick. "Myanmar's Suu Kyi Hospitalized", The Associated Press, Washington Post, 9 June 2006. Retrieved on 9 June 2006.
  16. Rare visite (HTML) (French). Radio-Canada. Soci�t� Radio-Canada (2007-01-08). Retrieved on 12 January 2007.
  17. Ban Ki-moon calls on Myanmar to release all political prisoners (HTML). UN News Centre. United Nations (2007-01-08). Retrieved on 12 January 2007.
  18. "Burmese Daily at Odds With Democracy Advocate", New York Times, 2007-01-18. Retrieved on 19 January 2007.
  19. "Myanmar mercifully extends Suu Kyi detention", CNN.com, 2007-05-25. Retrieved on 25 May 2007.


Who really killed Aung San? Vol 3

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A recent release of classified documents from British Foreign office regarding the assasination of Aung San has prompted an investigation by BBC. BBC reported that the assasination plot was far more complicated then previously thought. It was suggested that the involvement of high ranking British government officials were hidden by British Foreign office until 1997. BBC traced back some links between Sir Reginald Dorman-Smith (an ex governer of Burma) and U Saw - the convicted assassin.


Who really killed Aung San? Vol 4


Who really killed Aung San? Vol 5