In defense of buddhists

[tun@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]

Dear Coban,

Please send ths information to the Burma net.  It is my duty to save my
brother monk.  The news is spreading that some reporters wrote that the
conflict between the Buddhists and Christians was based upon the Buddhist
spies.  These reports give negative consequences to my brother, the monk, U
Thanwara.  Let me explain abouth his past activities.

        His name was U Aung Nu and he is a karen Buddhist.  When General
Linn Htin from KNDO laid down his arms and came to the so called legal
fold, young karen Aung Nu visited General Linn Htin house because they know
each other he respect him.  After that General Linn Htin found out that the
Burmese general cheated upon him, so he tried to returned to the rebel base
and he was killed.  Also Ne win regime marked all the people who visited
Linn Htin house and consequencly most karens who visited Linn Htin were put
in jail.  Among then was Aung Nu.  He served three years without trial and
was eventually released.
         When he was released he found out that his wife run away with a
man whom he gave a shelter for him.  He was very shameful and felt
insulted.  He tried to find the couple and one day he met them in front of
their house.  He was smaller than this man but he fought him with great
anger.  He bite his enemy chest and swolled a piece of skin, they both were
slightly injured but the man shouted and screamed for help.  He was very
satisfied by doing like this and returned back.  His enemy was deeply shock
and became mentally ill.  One year later his enemy died.  U Aung Nu is this
type of individual.  If he believes that he is right he will never
compromise.  He believes in Buddhism and with the agreement of the KNU, he
built a Zedi (small pagoda) with the help of the international Buddhist
organizations, especially from Buddhist Relief Mission from Japan who
strongly supporting the democracy movement and strongly opposing the
Burmese military regime.
        U Aung Nu adventure is not only this , in June 6, 1974 the labour
strike broke out . He emerged as a Jute mill factory workers' leader.  The
labour strike was brutally suppressed by the army which killed several
workers and innocent civiians.  All the leaders were sent to the military
tribunal and were sentenced 9 to 17 years in prison with hard labour.  U
Aung Nu received maximum jail term 17 years.  Thats why we met in the
prison and trusted each other. He taught me how to fight with traditional
karen boxing.
        I was so impressed with him because he openly challenged the
workers who  were the informers.  Most of the workers were married people
and thery were very poor and their salary were not sufficient for their
families because of sky rocketing commodities prices.  As a results they
joined the labour strike and demanded for better salary.  The dictator's
responsed was killed and captured the workers and their leaders. Some
workers betrayed their fellow prisoners in exchange for their freedom.
This was because their families were starving outside the prison, so they
wanted to cooperate with the governement.  But U Aung Nu never wanted to
cooperate with the government and he kicked and beat up the person whom he
found was a government informer.
        The second thing is that when the government announced that they
were no longer political prisoners in the prisoner and all the prisoners
were criminials, we protested to the jailors.  All the woker leaders kept
quiet and stayed away from us, the students.  But U Aung Nu jumped out from
his group and joined the students, having announced that the students were
right.  U Aung Nu did not stay away from us like other workers,who acted
like cowards.  Later the criminals and wardens opened the hall rooms and
beat the people who protested.  As a result, all the protesters were badly
injuried; some became crippled and never recovered.  U Aung Nu had head
injuries and the next day his face was swollen.  I hardly recognized him
because of his swollen face.  My head was injuried too; I had one cut on he
back of my head.
        In 1980, we were released from the prison because of the general
amnesty.  U Aung Nu became a monk and his title was U Thanwara.
        I undersatnd the intense situation between the Buddhists and the
Christians. SLORC is very clever and cunning.  In Manaplaw the majority of
people are Christian.  Most of the high ranking Karen officers including Bo
Mya are Christian.  The real problem is that the village Karens do not want
the pagoda in their village.  And they have made attempts to stop the
pagoda project.
        General Bo Mya is an honest individual with integrity.  I respect
his honesty but,  I think,  he, in this case, was informed rather later
when the conflict is getting out of hand.  I think junior Karen Christian
officers tried to stop the pagoda project with no reasonable explanation.
They even wanted to stop the Ordination House called Thein  in Burmese.
The Ordination House is not as high and visible as the pagoda Zedi.  Thein
is the very important place in Buddhism since it is in Thein where the
laymen are to be ordained.
        At the same time, inside Burma, SLORC favors Buddhist monks and
encourages animists to convert into Buddhism because after 1990 elections,
many monks boycotted the SLORC.  That prompted the SLORC to detain more
than four hundreds monks.  Monks were disrobed and thrown into jail where
they were tortured.  Now the SLORC is trying to win the monks onto their
side.  But there is no need to compare what the SLORC is doing inside the
country with what is happening in the border: they are entirely two
different issues.  SLORC now tries to appease the Buddhist monks because
they had insulted the latter in their attempt to hold on to power.  The
insult inflicted upon Buddhist monks caused tremendous anger among the
Buddhist lay people, who make up the great majority of the total populace
in Burma.
        U Thanwara's case is different becasue he believed in Buddhism and
hisduty as a monk is to teach Buddhist lay people Buddhism and promulgate
his Buddhist belief.  I think everybody will agree that "everyone has the
right to belief in any religion".  U Thanwara is a devout Buddhist monk
with a strong belief in human rights.  Accordingly he has been active in
human rights issues and is much respected by the ABSDF students and
Buddhist Karens.
        I hope General Bo Mya will find a way to resolve the conflict
between Karen and Burmese brothers in a peaceful manner.  We need to be
reminded that the SLORC has never hesitated to seize any opportunity to sow
bad blood among democratic forces.  Now the SLORC is spreading the news
that they believe in Buddhism and they are willing to help the Buddhists in
the jungle who are being oppressed by the Christian Karens.  They alas are
trying to kill two brids with one stone.
        The issue that confronts the community at Manaplaw is the religious
one.  Everybody involved should be more tolerant to others' religious
beliefs as there are Muslims besides the two Buddhist and Christian Karen
groups.
        I hope that the KUN should not practice the kind of religious
favoritism of the SLORC although in this case favoritism toward Christian
Karens while trying to oppress the Buddhist Karens.  At the moment Manaplaw
is  being attacked by the SLORC and their troops approaching the ABSDF
headquarters, the internal disunity among a major democratic force such as
KNU can lead to the destruction of the KNU itself as well as other
democratic forces (like the ABSDF).  As a former leader of the ABSDF, I am
greatly worried about the implications of the current conflict between the
Buddhist and Christian Karens.  I offer to act as a mediator beteen the two
conflicting parties.

Htun Aung Gyaw
Former Chairman
All Burma Students' Democratic Front (ABSDF)

Chairman
Freedom Fighters of Burma