Window on Burma #12

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BINA  -- The Burma Independent News Agency  --  

Window on Burma  #12  
  
(From ?The History of Burmese Democracy? (Special Insert), Mojo #5, August
1999)


Some Comments On 

THE HISTORY OF THE STUDENT MOVEMENT IN BURMA

( by HMINE SAT AUNG )

Nowadays, the members of the so-called ?State Peace and Development Council?
feel constrained on all sides by their failures, and by their growing problems
in the economy, politics, education, and social services.  Moreover, they have
the additional problem of their drug business to sort out.  They are
constantly
torn between their desire for personal benefit and the terrible
consequences of
their fruitless policies on the country.  Thus, they have split into factions
among themselves.  

Those who got the first chance to secure wealth took the opportunity.  These
ones are now nervous and panicking, anticipating the inevitable demonstrations
and mass uprisings.  Out of fear, they are foolishly trying to destroy the
genuine historical records and substitute false ones.  


The Case of Dr Thar Hla

The case of Dr Thar Hla is one example of this.  To justify their own useless
and corrupted policies of closing the universities, the SPDC are desperately
trying to tear out from the pages of History the actual words Dr Thar Hla
spoke
concerning the value of Education to the country.  So we must remind them of
what they want to forget.

After the assassination of General Aung San in 1947, and when the ethnic
groups
had finally been excluded from negotiations about the new government, the 1949
Karen revolution against the AFPFL began at Insein, near Rangoon
University.  U
Nu and and his government wanted to close down the University, claiming
that it
was too risky for the students to be near the battle with the Karen rebels.  

At that time, Dr Thar Hla was a member of the University Council, as well as
Head Professor at the University.  Dr Thar Hla argued that the university
ought
not to be closed down.  It would be a great mistake to do so, he claimed, as
there would be no way to recover the value of the education lost to the
nation.  

The Professor explained about his experience in Britain during the War with
Hitler.  The British had done all they could to keep the education system
going
on during the battles.  They said that, even if they should win the war, to
close the schools would severely damage the country.  To stop teaching made no

sense, and would bring great destruction of the people?s morale.  

Finally, Dr Thar Hla said, ?No rebel will shoot at the students in the
University.  I dare to stand guarantee for that.?  On hearing these words, the
members of the U Nu government felt a great pain in their hearts, as if they
had received a strong and unexpected blow.

Indeed, the rebels never did shoot at the students.  But later, in the years
under the Ne Win BSPP military dictatorship and its offspring SLORC and SPDC,
the Burmese Army itself tortured, killed, and blew up with mines hundreds and
thousands of students.


The Black Deeds of Ne Win?s BSPP

Because of the present fascist government, it is necessary, once again, for
those of us who remember, to recite the history of the Burmese student
movement.  Generation after generation the students have taken dramatic action
in the cause of truth and freedom.  

In 1920, the students, without a student union, conducted mass demonstrations
against the British colonial system, uniting on the basis of their common
understanding only.  On September 20th, 1930, they agreed, in the gymnasium of
Rangoon University, to form the University Students Union.  During the years
1935-36, the All-Burma Students Union was also born.  These two student unions
always took appropriate actions in the noble fight against colonialism and for
freedom and our national liberty.

After Ne Win seized power in 1962, he began to put an end to the University
Council.  On May 11th, he dismissed Head Professor Dr Thar Hla.  On May 17th,
he formed a new University Council, consisting of army cronies Brigadier Than
Pe, Brigadier San Tu, Colonel Than Sein, Colonel Tin Soe.  As the Head
Professor of the University, he appointed crony U Kar, who had been the
Education Minister in 1958 during U Nu?s caretaker government.  

So great was Ne Win?s fear of education that he then proceeded to close down
the private schools.  He also rejected the high school final examination in
Rangoon Division, so graduates could no longer find employment easily. 
Finally, he declared severe disciplinary measures against the university
students.   

On July 3rd, the students demonstrated, demanding to keep the student hostels
free of Ne Win?s control.  On July 6th, the Revolutionary Council military
dictatorship replied by creating the ?University Senate?, staffed it with Ne
Win cronies, and then chose new Committee Members for the student hostels.  

On July 7th, the university students held a meeting in response to the
government?s actions, and demonstrated in the university compound.  Such a
continuing expression of dissent was intolerable for Ne Win.  A police
security
group came to scatter the demonstrators with the tear gas, and arrested the
All-Burma Students Union Chairman, Ko Thet, as well as the University Students
Union Chairman, Ko Swe Lay.


Gen. Ne Win Slaughters Unarmed Burmese Youth

Then the abominations began.  At about 5:00 pm, two army trucks came into the
University compound.  The soldiers jumped out and began shooting down the
students.  Ne Win?s crony General Sein Lwin, who titled himself ?The Lion?,
led
this disgraceful terrorist operation against the unarmed, innocent students.


Infantry Unit #4 was given the order to shoot.  For three minutes, all you
could hear was shooting, shouting, screaming, glass breaking, people running,
bullets hitting the wall, and the wounded students moaning, as if the world
was
on fire.  Other students heard the gunfire and started to run away, but the
soldiers started shooting again, until the dead bodies began to pile up around
the compound.  Thus, the helpless Burmese students, running for their lives,
were grudgingly and cruelly shot down by their own army.  

Even at the great battle in front lines of war, those soldiers could not see
such a pile of dead and wounded enemies.  In this case, about 200 students
died.  But the government, ashamed, announced that only 15 students had died,
with 27 wounded.

On July 8th, to be sure that the students had gotten the message, the army
also
blew up the Student Union Building.  It came down with a loud explosion of
army
mines.  Along with the building, Ko Kyaw Win of Myaung Mya, who had been
hiding
himself in the building, died.
When the University was finally reopened, the students who lost arms or legs,
who were shot in the face or in the stomach, arrived at school with bandages
still covering their wounds.  Later these students were sent to other
universities, and we lost contact with many of them.  Some died from their
wounds.

The rest of the students soon regrouped, and they erected a temporary student
union building, a big wooden hut.  In memory and in honor of the hundreds of
students who died, they also put up a stone pillar, 2.0 meters in length and
1.6 meters in breadth, ?The Pillar of the Hundreds?.  

But in November 1963, during another student demonstration for an end to the
on-going civil war, Ne Win deployed the army again.  This time he destroyed
both the temporary student union building, as well as ?The Pillar of the
Hundreds?. 

Concerning the exploding of the Student Union Building, Ne Win tried to blame
his officer Aung Gyi.  But at the second attack to destroy the temporary
student union building, Aung Gyi was not even in his unit.  

Dropping all pretense, Ne Win, who had ordered the first shooting of unarmed
students, now made his famous speech to the students:  ?If you try to cause
conflict, we are ready to counter you, a dagger for a dagger, a spear for a
spear.  Moreover, I am going to use the army.  They will not shoot above you,
but directly at you.?  Thus spoke the bloodthirsty Chairman of the
Revolutionary Council, General Ne Win, to the unarmed Burmese youth.


The Flag of the Fighting Peacock will Always be Flying

This is the heritage Ne Win has given to the SPDC today.  

When the 8/8/88 uprising occurred, the army again killed monks, students, and
parents by the thousands, and put others into jails for many years.  Some will
be there forever.  Whom will we blame?  In the end, we will blame that
cold-blooded killer, the cunning Khin Nyunt.  This is certain.

The wheel that turns around will reach its inevitable political conclusion. 
You can still hear the echoing shouts and cries of those students, parents,
and
monks .  You can still see the letters written with blood on the walls of the

jails. 

In the uprising at the U Thant funeral (!973), and in the uprising at the
Hmine
Centennial (1976), many demonstrating students were thrown into the jail. Two
brothers, beaten bloody by the jailer and staffs, were shackled together.  On
the walls of their cell, using the blood running down from their heads, they
wrote, ?The evil spirit of Fascism must die,? and ?We shall never give up.? 
They believed in the revolution, and they knew that the people would
win.            
                       
?If you peel back the new tar road,
And examine what lies beneath,
You will find the true history 
Written in blood on the earth, 
And you will know 
Why they died.?

This poem by writer Saya Maung Lay Aung is in honor of student leader ?Bo?
Aung
Gyaw, who died at the hands of the military police.  And his mother cried,
saying, ?Aung Gyaw, I will never have another son like you.?

But now there are many sons like Bo Aung Gyaw, Ko Aung San, Ko Ba Heing, Ko
Hla
Shwe.  They will never die.  You can cut their bodies into pieces, but you can
never kill their revolutionary spirit.  There are many Min Ko Naings and Moe
Thee Zones to lead the forces, and we go on fighting without dismay.  The flag
of the Fighting Peacock will always be flying.

The army dictatorship is an unjust, deceitful, cunning, and crooked family. 
They will not have a good ending.  Their oppressive power will surely fall
upon
their own shoulders.  Sooner or later, the bloody and stinky shadows will
exact
a terrible retribution upon them.

***********

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?Dialogue is inevitable.  We will not just sit and wait.  We will continue
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