PEACE  ELUDES  U  THANT, part 2

(U Thant of Burma was United Nation’s Secretary General during 1964 to 1974)

 True Story written by former leader of Student Movements in Burma, Henry Soe Win

On December 7th, U THANT's relatives invited representatives from students and monks for a meeting. There were seven student’s representatives, two monks, U THANT's younger brother U THAUNG, and U THANT's son-in-law, Dr. TIN MYINT OO. During the meeting, U THANT's brother produced a letter from the Government agreeing to provide an alternative site for U THANT' mausoleum. The site was to be at the Cantonment Garden, near the famed Shwe Dagon Pagoda. He also said that the Government had agreed not to take any reprisals against the students. However there was no mention of the demand made by the students for a state funeral for U THANT. U THAUNG also urged that funeral rites should begin next day at noon. U THANT's son-in-law said that he had already drawn plans for a mausoleum and asked for co-operation from students. 

The participants then agreed to decide by a majority decision on two alternative courses of action:-

1. Whether to intern U THANT's remains at the Cantonment Garden after a temporary lying-in-state at the Peace Mausoleum,

2. Whether to go ahead with the internment at the peace Mausoleum which was nearing completion. 

From the meeting, it transpired that; out of eleven participants, seven of them, including U THANT's relatives, two monks' representatives and three student’s representatives had agreed to the first point. Therefore the majority decision prevailed, and the Government announced that U THANT's remains would be interned at the Cantonment Garden. 

The four dissenting students felt that the wish of the majority of students and people were for the second proposal and, jading from later events, they apparently felt the pulse of the people and students correctly.  

At 12 noon on December 8, tens of thousands of people converged on the university campus and thousands more lined the route leading to the Cantonment Garden. However there were other developments taking place on the campus.   

As agreed, U THANT’s casket was taken from the Convocation Hall to the Peace Mausoleum where U THANT’s relatives and the general public paid their last tribute. After this an announcement was made over a loudspeaker that the casket would be escorted to the Cantonment Garden for burial. Immediately this was announced, a loud roar comes from the student body enjoining: “Please do not remove U THANT’s remains from the campus.” Then, from the public side, came an equally response concurring with the wishes of the students.

As a result, U THANT’s remains were interned at the Peace Mausoleum and a large UN flag was draped over it. At this a deafening cheer erupted from everyone present and the cry: “Victory, Victory “echoed across the campus.

That night, the state-owned Burma Broadcasting Service denounced the students for reneging on their agreement and declared that the students had gone against the wishes of U THANT’s relatives. Further, it charged that the students had illegally used the government’s construction materials and that the People’s Construction Corporation had lodged a complaint with the police and asked the government to take action against the students. Furthermore, the radio said, the university authorities had also lodged a complaint against the unauthorized use of the University site to build the mausoleum. Thus, the legal groundwork was laid for government action in the language of an authoritarian regime; this means nothing less than the use of battle-hardened soldiers, machine guns, armoured cars and bayonets.

After the radio announcement, the students tightened their vigilance Student suicide squads keep vigil near the mausoleum. They were joined by Buddhist monks, male and female university students and member of the public who where ready to sacrifice their lives and waited for the Doomsday. But it never came…..at least for the next two days. Thus, the weariness and exhaustion during the past four hectic days made them relax their vigilance and produced an illusion that things were going will in their favour. But unknown to them, Ne Win’s forces were surreptitiously and systematically at work for a bloody reprisal.

There was a two-day lull and during this time state-owned news papers and the radio kept up a constant barrage of denunciations against the students. More ominously, the military and its intelligence arms, the Military Intelligence Service, quietly and systematically cordoned off the area around the campus but out of sight of the students. No one was allowed to enter4 the area and everyone trying to leave the area was intercepted and questioned.

Doomsday arrived at 2 a.m. on December 11^th. A huge road building machine ( some witnesses described it as an excavator ) smashed the university’s massive iron gate and battle-ready troops and police stormed onto the campus with bayonets bared and lobbing canisters of tear gas. With the monster machine serving as a juggernaut, a detachment of troops made their way to the mausoleum while the rest the army personnel used force to round up each and every found on the campus.

The scene at the mausoleum was even more violent and tragic. The soldiers bayoneted everyone who stood in the way trying to prevent the giant machine from smashing the mausoleum to exhume U THANT’s remains. Some brave hearts, including girl students, clung to the tomb as the flowed freely around the tomb of this gentle, soft-spoken man who had abhorred violence and who had devoted so much of his life to the prevention and cessation of violence.

Fleets of army trucks were brought in and the dead and wounded students, monks and laymen alike were flung callously onto the trucks and carted away. Those not injured, were herded onto the coverless trucks and made to squat on their stood at each corner of the truck, their machine guns pointing at the hapless prisoners in a scene reminiscent of war movies. The scene lasted until eight o’clock in the morning when the last of the detainees were taken away to the Insein Jail, six miles from the scene of carnage.

The same day, as word spread around Rangoon of the massacre and the desecration of the mausoleum, emotions ran wild among the populace spawning violence and destruction in its wake. The people, who had lived in an atmosphere of frustration and subdued anger, gave vent to their feelings and violence spread across the length and breadth of Rangoon. Their first targets were, naturally, the Burma Socialist Programme Party (BSPP) unit offices, which were the symbols of the much-hated regime. Next to this came other state-owned buildings, such as cinemas, police stations, a confectionery, and other state-owned buildings. All were smashed up or put to the torch.

As expected, retaliation came swift and sure, and with predictable savagery. The sound of G-3 machine gun fire echoed across the city as thousands of soldiers, mostly from minority indigenous races, were unleashed on the defenseless public.

10Rangoon was transformed into a war zone as tanks and armoured personnel carries rumbled through the streets and scores of people were mowed down by the machine guns. The dead were carted off in army trucks and thousands of people were rounded up. Martial law was declared and dusk-to-dawn curfew clamped on the city. Summary trials were held and many were sentenced from 3 to 5 years on charges of destruction of public property.

But it did not end right there. The government must have its revenge. The much-dreaded and hated Military Intelligence Service (MIS) swooped on the homes of suspected students and people. Even young high school students were not spared. Many fled their homes and families to go into hiding. Some had joined the anti-government forces in the jungles and some had sought refuge in the neighbouring countries even at the risk of being arrested as illegal immigrants and thrown back into the lion’s jaws. For these youths, all the years they had devoted to their studies, and all the money their parents had spent on their education had come to nought.

If the future seems bleak and uncertain for these young men and women, what of those who are languishing in jails? How long could their comrades stand by with folded arms and remain silent, especially when the people look forward to them as the last resort to help save the country from rack and ruin? That is why there will always be recurring protests, and bloodsheds as long as there is misery, poverty, injustice and oppression. This, indeed, is what is happening at the moment. As recently as June 5, 1775 thousands of students, workers and monks took to the streets again, demanding that their comrades and other people be released from incarceration, and that the government do something to alleviate the deteriorating  living conditions of the people.

Knowing very well that violent means would again be  employed to suppress  them, they sought safety in the hallowed sanctuary of Burma’s harm’s way. Tanks, armoured personnel carriers and soldiers were again brought out and the protest was brought go a swift and bloody end. More arrests followed.

Before concluding this article, I should like to make one point clear to the readers in order to dispel any misunderstanding regarding the motives behind the U THANT incident.

The first point is that it was not due to any political machinations. It was wholly motivated by a sense of patriotism that honour should be accorded to those to whom honour is due. If a government under a parliamentary democracy had treated U THANT’ remains likewise, the students had taken such a serious turn was entirely due to the regime’s attitude to defy the popular will of the people.

Another factor, is that the mismanagement of the country for more than a decade, has reduced the country’s economy to shambles and millions of people are suffering from countless hardships and miseries which they were never accustomed to. There is a perennial shortage of even basic necessities of life, like rice, meat, sugar, clothing, etc.

Whatever is available is being sold by black-marketeers at exorbitant prices. Unemployment is rife and those who are fortunate enough to get a job earn a measly 12 baths a day. Old and weed-blackened buildings are a common sight and rubbish littered the street. Only a trickle of tourists visits Burma.

The third factor is the suspension of the democratic freedom of speech, assembly, criticism, etc. some would call it a suspension of human rights. No criticism, etc. Some would call it a suspension of human rights. No criticism against the regime’s ideology, economic policy or other important matters is tolerated. All media are under state ownership and even these are subject to censorship. All forms of dissent, violent or peaceful, are mercilessly crushed by the power of the gun.

Given these conditions, one may ask how long can the regime suppress the recurring popular discontent, and how many citizens must die and thousands more languish in jails before Rangoon really becomes the City of the “end of strife “, which is what Rangoon (or Yangon) means in Burmese.

Indeed, one may well wonder4, when will Burma with all its rice, teak, gold, diamonds and other precious stones and minerals, and more importantly, oil: the black gold which has recently been found in abundant quantities on and off Burma’s coast; the magnificent sceneries and historical sites; when will these ever be rationally utilized and exploited to bring back the lost prosperity to the country and smiles on the faces of the happy, and-go-lucky people of Burma?

Henry Soe Win

Please read Part 1 of this article on http://www.tayzathuria.org.uk/bd/2006/1/22/4.htm