ONSOB & ABBESU
OVERSEAS NATIONAL STUDENTS' ORGANIZATION OF BURMA
ALL BURMA BASIC EDUCATION STUDENTS' UNION ( THAILAND )
Statement on 10th anniversary of arresting a student leader, Min Ko Naing
Date : 23rd/ Mar/ 99.
All students and political activists in Burma have been arrested and sentence for many years imprisonment since after bloody coup in 1988 September 18.
Min Ko Naing is the one of the prominent student leaders in the 1988 General Uprising in Burma, in which more than 20,000 of students and other activists were killed and more than 5,000 students and activists were arrested and sentenced for many years.
Min Ko Nai is a symbol of arrested students and political activists in Burma. Now-a-day, more than 3,000 political prisoners are in the notorious Burmese Jails and some of them are dying and some were force to work in the forced labour camps, from which only 10 can be survived. At that time he was sentenced for longest years for imprisonment, 20 years.
Burmese military regime has been accelerating their Human Rights violations and increasing years to serve in the prison. Last year, another students, who is working for under ground movements, were arrested and sentenced for 52 years imprisonment.
Today is the 10th anniversary of the day Min Ko Naing was arrested in the Burma.
In this occasion, we demand Burmese Government to stop that unacceptable Human Rights violation as follow;
Overseas National Students' Organization of Burma (ONSOB)
All Burma Basic Education Students Union. (ABBESU)
MIN KO NAING - A short biography
Introduction:
The name "Min Ko Naing", meaning Conqueror of Kings, is
one of the main public figureheads in Burma's struggle for
democracy and human rights, and a former chaiman of the All Burma
Federation of Student Unions (ABFSU). Originally, the name was
associated with a tight group of a few main student leaders who
all used the same pseudonym on leaflets that were distributed
during the mass upraising in 1988. But, quickly, Min Ko
Naing became the name of one of these student leaders, a 3rd year
universitystudent at the Rangoon Arts and Science University
(RASU), Paw Oo Tun.
Min Ko Naing became one of most prominent student leaders in
Burma's country-wide pro-democracy uprising in 1988, because he
managed to go beyond fighting merely for issues concerned with
students, to become a proponent of the fight for human rights for
the people of Burma as well. More than any other student leader
at the time, Min Ko Naing managed to calm down the crowds in
tense situations, to organise people for mass activities. His
willingness to sacrifice himself in the struggle was, and still
is, a vital moral boost for the students.
In March 1989, Min Ko Naing was arrested and sentenced to 20
years imprisonment for his role in the pro democracy movement.
Since then, he has been in solitary confinement in Burma's most
notorious prison, Insein Jail
in Rangoon. He has become one of Burma's longest serving
political prisoner and a legend for the Burmese struggle.
Although he is reported to be in very bad health, his fighting
spirit is still strong.
Burmese students in exile as well as inside Burma have been
fighting for years for his release as a part of their struggle to
restore democracy and human rights in their home country. In
March, 1999, they will be campaigning
again to highlight the 10 years that Min Ko Naing will have spent
in prison. Min Ko Naing remains a main symbol of Burmese
students' struggle against the country's military dictators in
1988.
Biography:
Paw Oo Tun was born in October 1962 in Rangoon as the third of
five children of U Tun Lwin and Daw Hla Kyi.
Paw Oo Tun grew up in a family interested in arts and politics,
and he inherited both of these interests. His father experienced
Burma's long struggle to get independence from British colonial
rule and the 20 years of
parliamentary democracy under U Nu as well as the military coup
staged by Gen. Ne Win in 1962 and the following years of
one-party rule by the BSPP. The family kept themselves apart from
the BSPP as a sign of defiance against
military rule. His family lived in South Okkalapa in Rangoon
where they were running a small store.
Paw Oo Tun's father was a painter and a musician, who played the
violin and the harp. He used to teach arts and painting to all
those who were interested, and would sell his own paintings at
home.
Since Paw Oo Tun was very young, he used to have a lot of friend
around him. He would sometimes disappoint his father, who thought
his son spent too much time with his friends, and too little for
his studies. Later, Paw Oo Tun's
home became a well-known gathering place among his friends and
colleagues.
Paw Oo Tun was a student at the Thin Kan Gyun BEHS 2 (Basic
Education High School) from first level to 10th standard (the
year of the matriculation exam in Burma ). After passing his
matriculation in 1984-85, he joined the
Botataung Regional College in Rangoon, where he took a major in
zoology. He then went to the RASU/ main campus (Rangoon Arts and
Science University), where he was a 3rd year student in 1988, the
year he became Min Ko Naing and led the students in the
countrywide pro-democracy movement that ended 26 years of
military-backed one party rule by the BSPP (Burma Socialist
Programme Party).
His friends and colleagues describe Paw Oo Tun (a) Min Ko Naing
as the most charismatic of the student leaders to emerge in Burma
during 1988, with a significant sense of humor. They describe him
as naturally kind and
generous, flexible and broad-minded. Among his friends, he was
known as the "Kala" ("the Indian", usually a
derogatory term in Burma) because of his brown, wavy hair, his
slight moustache and his beard.
Min Ko Naing inherited a noticeable artistic talent from his
father, and he was a member of the arts organisation at RASU. He
loved reading and writing poems, and translated several novels.
His most famous poem is called
"Thitsa" (Faith). Some of his poems were published by
different magazines. Min Ko Naing was also very found of painting
and used to draw humorist pictures. One year, for Thingyan (the
Burmese New Year water festival, an
occasion that traditionally has been used to criticise and make
fun of the rulers), he wrote the jokes of a satire group called
"Saik Pasat Nat Myet Si" (Goat Mouth and Nat Eyes) for
a satire contest in Rangoon, and won one
of the prices. He would also involve in the performance himself,
particularly in the comedies. Usually, his satire stories were
highly political, and consisted of political jokes against the
ruling BSPP authorities.
Min Ko Naing combined an acute perception of what was wrong in
his society with a deep sense of attachment to it. He rarely went
to the cinema, and he never dressed in trousers, always using the
traditional Burmese longyi.
Political activities in
1988-1989, in chronological order:
1988:
Since its inception in March 1988, Min Ko Naing appeared as a
main leader of the student movement.
March 1988:
The first main event where he appeared was on March 16th, 1988,
when he gave a speech in front of 3,000 students at the Taung Gu
hall in the campus of the RASU. On this occasion, he called on
the students of RASU to defy the
oppression of the BSPP regime and join with the students who were
already gathering in the RIT (Rangoon Institute of Technology)
campus to protest against the killing on March 13th of two RIT
students (the first killings of
students by the police in 1988). He recalled the history of past
student movements in Burma, and the role the students have played
historically in initiating political movements. He urged them to
end 26 years of the
military ruling the country and the people through threats and
fear. During these 26 years, the military had turned what was
once a country rich in natural resources into one of the poorest
countries in the world, marred by
crisis in the economic sector, in the health sector, in social
affairs and in education. He also urged the gathering students to
be committed and dedicated, united and disciplined for the cause.
The students supported him
and cheered his speech.
The students then marched to the Convocation hall where other
student leaders also gave speeches. Min Ko Naing pointed out how
the students in Burma have been more severely oppressed than
other countries, and how they
had to fight for their rights to be respected, and concluded that
"previous generations made sacrifices like us in the past,
for the same cause as ours, but they were only met with violence,
with bullets, with killing and
arrests. Presently, it is time to overcome the military regime,
so let's march". His speech was instrumental in activating
and encouraging the crowd thus bringing the students out of the
RASU campus in order to join with
students from RIT.
However, there were massive troops deployments on Prome Road,
with 3 rows of barbed wires and 7 soldiers standing by each row.
Two armoured tanks were positioned behind the barbed wire and
there were 3 military trucks full of soldiers in the back. Min Ko
Naing called on the students to sing the national anthem, to
mourn Gen. Aung San (Burma's national hero, father of Aung San
Suu Kyi and founder of the Burma Army) and Bo Aung Gyaw (the
first student to be killed during the struggle for independence
from British colonial rule). He encouraged the students to
convince the soldiers to join them.
He, himself, walked up with other two students
to the first row of barbed wire to negotiate with the major
leading the troops. Min Ko Naing stressed the good relationship
between the soldiers and the people, and, and asked
for a free passage for the students. The situation seemed to calm
down, but meanwhile cars with riot police rushed from the other
side of the students. There was the sound of a whistle, and the
riot-police entered the area and
started beating up the students. The students ran away, but
hundreds were beaten and detained on that day.
June 1988
The second stage of the student movement in 1988 occurred in
June. Within a week after the reopening of the universities, the
students were setting up their student unions in the campus
again. The joyful mood of the first
strikes was gone, and the students were preoccupied by their
friends who had been killed and arrested during the March
affairs.
Min Ko Naing drew a 2 ft-square poster of a female student with
hair down to her wrist, dressed in the traditional Burmese school
uniform (a white shirt and a green longyi). Her head and body
were soaked with blood, running down on her onto the street,
where her bags, slippers, pens, books and flowers were scattered
beside her while some students were falling down or running as
the riot police was beating her and the others. The caption told
the
students not to forget what had happened on March 16th, and the
blood that had been shed because of the regime. It urged the
students to carry on in their fight for the truth, and warned
that if the present generation was too
afraid and gave up the struggle, there would be more brutal
rulers in the future.
On June 12th, 1988, two of these posters were put up one the
brick wall between the university stadium and the university tea
shops. Many students gathered around the posters, and gradually,
the scene turned into a
gathering and the students began to give speeches there. These
speech-giving gatherings went on peacefully for one week between
June 12-19, because of the posters drawn by Min Ko Naing.
At this stage, other student leaders had also
started to come forward, people such as Maung Maung Kyaw and Moe
Thee Zun. They demanded the release of those students that had
been arrested and that students who had been
expelled because of their participation in the March movement be
allowed back into the classrooms. At the time, Min Ko Naing
already had to be careful as the MI had started looking for him.
The universities were closed
down again indefinitely, so Min Ko Naing went underground and
started gathering his supporters and organise trips for them all
over the country in order to carry on the struggle.
Most of the students arrested during March and
June were released on July 7th, 1998. For a number of students,
this was victory enough, and they were quite satisfied. But the
army trucks were still patrolling the streets, so
Min Ko Naing issued four statements targeting different sectors
in Burmese society and urged them not to forget how they were
suffering under military oppression. In these statements, Paw Oo
Tun took the name Conqueror of
Kings, "Min Ko Naing", an auspicious name in the fight
against General Ne Win, a bad "king" of Burma. The
statements were widely spread, and recopied by those who received
them, until they had been spread all over the country.
8.7.88 - Min Ko Naing's first statement was issued to call on the
people to continue their fight against military regime and to
tell about the hardships that they had been facing during 26
years of military oppression.
14.7.88- The second statement was distributed
in response to the BSPP's July 12th announcement of the convening
of an emergency congress of the party on July 23rd to look into
the unstable situation in the country. The statement
denounced the congress and likened it to a magic show intended to
divert people's attention away from the BSPP. The statement urged
people to continue fighting for their rights instead of waiting
for any good deeds of
those ruling the country, and pointed to how people had been
suffering after the demonetisation in 1987, despite having
previously been promised that the farmers would be given full
freedom to sell their crops. Min Ko Naing
predicted that the emergency congress would wield the same
result. During the emergency congress later that month, Ne Win
and (8) other senior BSPP officials resigned while Sein Lwin was
appointed successor to Ne Win as
president of the country. In August 1988, Sein Lwin would earn
the nickname "The Butcher" because of his role in
ordering the mass killing of students.
21/7/88- Min Ko Naing's third statement was issued in response to
the BSPP reporting about religious riots involving Buddhist monks
and Muslims in Taungyi, the capital of Shan State. According to
the BSPP announcement, a Muslim had insulted a monk while he was
receiving donations from the people.
Min Ko Naing's statement called on the people to be tolerant
towards different religions and to overcome all attempts by the
BSPP to use religious conflicts to divert their attention from
the political situation
in the country. Min Ko Naing referred specifically to the riots
in Sittwe in 1967, that later turned into riots directed towards
the Chinese community in Burma, and led to a bloodshed, thus
giving the military a reason to step in
and crack down.
24/7/88 - Min Ko Naing's fourth statement urged military
personnel to side with the people and recalled how the founder of
the Burma army, Gen. Aung San, had told the military that its
role is to protect the people and the
country from foreign invasion but not to fight against the people
to defend the interests of a handful of people.
These statements made the name "Min Ko Naing"
well-known to most people, but, still, nobody knew who he was at
the time. The statements had been written in consultation with
other members of the All Burma Federation of
Students Unions (ABFSU). Many people and activists from different
groups were curious about the time, and some guessed that it was
the nom de guerre of one of the student activists. Military
intelligence (MI) also started
looking for him, but Paw Oo Tun continued working in secret. Many
UG networks had already been set up throughout the country and he
started organising these different UG networks, particularly
writers, experienced
politicians and singers, in order to focus on the distribution of
information. He also consulted with different leaders to find a
D-day when they would call for a general strike involving all the
people.
The work that Min Ko Naing did to prepare for a mass movement was
of crucial importance to make people ready for the 8888 movement.
August 1988
On August 8, 1988, at 1:30 p.m. , there was a
slight rain when Min Ko Naing gave a speech in front of the US
embassy to a crowd comprising thousands of people from different
areas in Rangoon. He get on a table taken from a
road-side tea shop nearby and started speaking: "We, the
people of Burma, have had to live without human dignity for 26
years under oppressive rule, very much like animals. We have to
end this system through the power of the
people. This is not only our fight, but it is also happening in
other countries. Ours is a universal truth... Burma has become
one of the poorest country in the world, and her dignity has been
deteriorating. The worst
thing is that our character has been totally broken down. If we
want to enjoy the same rights as people in other countries, we
have to be disciplined, united and brave enough to face brutal
oppression. Let's
explore our suffering. Nothing is going to stop our great
struggle for peace and justice. The most important thing is that
our spirit and morale are strong enough". It was a 35
minutes speech which also included stories about
past student activists sacrificing themselves for the same cause.
The next day, on August 9th, he led a crowd from Thin Gan Kyun,
together with the other student leaders. They all met on Kaba Aye
road, and the crowds had swelled by the time they reached
Shwegondaing road. At that
point, hundreds of soldiers suddenly rushed in and started
shooting desperately at the crowd. Hundreds of people were
arrested, and later secretly taken to Insein jail during late
night. The majority of them were
released again on August 21st, 1988.
On August 23rd, Miin Ko Naing gave another speech in front of the
Rangoon General Hospital (RGH) together with other student
leaders like Moe Thee Zun and U Tin Oo, a former general who was
later to become one of the main leaders of the National League
for Democracy (NLD) together with Aung San Suu Kyi. On this
occasion, he said: "I'm proud of the people's unwavering and
brave resistance against the military rule. We have to continue.
Nobody can overcome people's strength. World history have shown
that people with strong spirit, unity, courage and discipline can
topple authoritarian regimes. We rely on and we believe in people
power. Without the people's
participation, no political or social system in any country can
succeed. History has shown us many examples of how people power
can topple the dictators. Our victory is not so far away, but,
although the emergency military curfew that was imposed on July
21st has been revoked, we have to be cautious about their plans
to crack down on us. They are working on developing such a brutal
plan right now. Ours must be a peaceful struggle
for democracy."
By that time, the military had lost almost total control of
several sectors of Burmese society, and people from all walks of
life except the military were joining the demonstrators. Civil
servants had stopped working. Police
stations, schools, universities, government buildings except the
banks and the BBS (Burma Broadcast Service) radio station, all
had become venues for different pro-democracy organisations.
Transportation and communication
failed, and the MI was trying to cause anarchy and chaos by
opening the prisons and releasing the criminals. In such a
situation, Min Ko Naing led the ABFSU based in RGH and the Latha
(2) high school into taking over many
of the government functions that had broken down. 374 different
organisations contacted the ABFSU during this period to receive
instructions from them, and Min Ko Naing worked hard in order to
deal with all the issues
that were relating to people's daily lives. He visited schools,
universities, and different organisations on organising trips.
When the people started facing food shortages, the ABFSU would
distribute rice. ABFSU also provided financial assistance to the
poor and to the people who had just been released from prison in
order to avoid that stores and factories be raided. The ABFSU
also reorganised communication and encouraged people to take
charge of their own security by forming units together with the
monks and the students.
September 1988
On September 4th, Min Ko Naing met with US congressman Stephen
Solas, in-charge of Asia-Pacific Affairs. In other meetings, he
also met with Dr. Maung Maung, who had been appointed president
of the country after Sein
Lwin, and prime minister Thura U Htun Tin. In all these meetings,
Min Ko Naing talked about the current political situation. He
explained how the people were asking for the formation of an
interim government in a
disciplined and peaceful manner. He stressed how the students had
been making the same demands as the people and how they all
together represented a strong force. But, he also added, how, so
far, the military had not
responded to the people's demands and had been keeping quiet
while preparing to crack down on the movement. Min Ko Naing
warned that it would depend solely on the military which options
they would choose to respond to the people's demands, and
promised that he would work for people of Burma until
victory.
On September 9th, 1988, Min Ko Naing started organising the
different student union leaders in order to ensure that they all
would co-operate together under the leadership of the ABFSU. 117
students leaders attended
this meeting.
On September 11th, 1988, military personnel from the Army, the
Navy and the Airforce started joining with the people in opposing
the government. They were welcomed by Min Ko Naing, who thus
played an important part in getting the military involved in the
struggle.
September 12th, 1988 Although the demonstrations were still going
on in a peaceful way, the military was trying to distort the
demonstration by encouraging criminals to raid the factories with
knifes and sticks. This happened at a biscuit factory in South
Okkalapa, but the people there realised that the raids had been
initiated by the MI, and a clash was imminent between them and
the looters. Min Ko Naing intervened and his presence was enough
to call down and disperse the angry mob. By this time, he had
become a well-known figure all over the country.
On September 16th, a crowd numbering 20,000 people
gathered in front of the War Office in Rangoon to ask for the
formation of an interim government. The situation grew tense, and
people were ready to take the War Office by force while the
military was telling them to disperse. When Min Ko Naing arrived
to that scene, he urged the people to refrain from using
violence, and he managed to calm down the crowd. Gradually,
people dispersed.
On September 17th, 1988, a similar situation occurred again, this
time in front of the Trade Union building on Strand Road in
Rangoon. This time, Min Ko Naing arrived together with U Aung Gyi
and U Tin Oo (these people later set up the NLD). Again, he
managed to calm down the people and prevent violence from taking
place between the military and people.
At 4:00 p.m., on September 18th, 1988, the military staged a coup
d'Etat and a new junta took power, calling itself the state Law
and Order Restoration Council (SLORC).
Daw Khin Kyi's funeral
In December 1988, Daw Khin Kyi, the wife of
Gen. Aung San and mother of Aung San Suu Kyi, passed away. About
200,000 people gathered for her funeral. The SLORC expected that
there would be a riot, but Aung San Suu Kyi convinced people to
remain calm and ensure that the ceremony was peaceful. When the
military trucks arrived on Prome Road while people were marching
behind Daw Khin Kyi's coffin, this caused a lot of anger and
disgust among the people, and they were ready to respond. At that
time, Min Ko Naing suddenly appeared in the middle of the crowd.
He started appealing to the military troops, asking them to let
the people mourn freely and to allow them to pay the last tribute
to the mother of the country without disturbing or bothering
them.
He also told the crowd to reamin peaceful while mourning Daw Khin
Kyi. The troops withdrew form the scence, and the funeral went on
peacefully.
In 1989, Min Ko Naing gave up his low-profile activities and
joined with Moe Thee Zun in the Democratic Party for New Society
(DPNS) and travelled along with him on organising trips, until he
was arrested in March, 1989. He also kept in close contact with
Aung San Suu Kyi and supported the NLD's activities through his
student wing. Most of his speeches were urging people not to
forget the 8888 movement, to keep the 8888 spirit alive and to
cooperate in order to continue the unfinished fight for
democracy.
13 March, 1989: First anniversary of Phone Maw's death on 13 March, 1989, marked the first anniversary of the killing of the first student victim in 1989. Min Ko Naing was the speaker at the ceremony held in the RIT campus in Rangoon. Leaders from various political organisations, people like Aung San Suu Kyi from the NLD, the former Prime Minister ousted by the military coup in 1962, U Nu, Moe Thee Zun from the DPNS as well as. 3000 other people. His speech received a lot of attention from the crowd, more than the other speakers, and Min Ko Naing was broadly seen as a disinterested and genuine speaker for the people's rights.
16 March, 1989: First
anniversary of the "Red Bridge Day"
Min Ko Naing was also the speaker for the ceremony marking the first anniversary of "the Massacre on the Red Bridge". As with the ceremony on March, 13th, most political leaders were also present, and Min Ko Naing's speeches attracted crowds numbering thousands of people.
Arrest:
In the eyes of the people of Burma, Min Ko
Naing made himself worth of his name through his activities. His
mere presence would attract crowds of thousands of people, and
when he joined with other opposition leaders on their campaigns
throughout the country, this would usually have a noticeable
significance on how the public would perceive that particular
leader. This is also the reason why the military arrested him on
March 23rd, 1989, as the
first of the main opposition leaders. Arresting Min Ko Nain was
an important signal to other leaders that nobody would be safe
from arrest and imprisonment. Min Ko Naing was charged under the
article 5(j) of the 1950
Emergency Provisions Act for having delivered anti-government
speeches and agitating unrest. He was sentenced to 20 years
imprisonment, and so far, he has served 10 years in solitary
confinement.
Inside the prison:
Min Ko Naing has been brutally tortured several times during his
long stay in prison. According to one report, during
interrogation, he was forced to stand in water for two weeks
until, finally, he collapsed. His left foot
became totally numb after the interrogation period. He was not
allowed to meet with anybody, and was put in a special cell. Even
his family members were not allowed to see him.
For a while, he lived in the cell next to U Win Htein, Aung San
Suu Kyi's personal assistant. U Win Htein tried to pass on some
information to him that he had been asking for, but they were
caught by the authorities and Min
Ko Naing was moved to another cell. When U Win Htein was released
in February, 1995, he reported that Min Ko Naing's fighting
spirit is still strong. More recent reports have stated that he
is suffering from gastric
ulcer, and there has been rumours that he has paased away. His
mother is also reported to be have been seriously ill several
times due to stress related to her son's situation Min Ko Naing
has spent nearly 10 years in solitary confinement. It is
difficult to know what his present situation is like, but some
people think he has been transferred to Sittwe Prison. Once, he
managed to pass out information to the students and he asked them
what they were doing at the present stage. He told them not to
bring him food, but news, that would tell him that the students
are still active in their struggle. Now, his request is becoming
the core of the present campaign asing for his releases.
Meetings with diplomats:
While staying in Insein Jail, Min Ko Naing was able to meet with US congressmn Bill Richardson in February, 1994, with 2 former US diplomats and with the UN special rapporteur on Burma, Yozo Yokota. During these vists, he asked them to convince the military junta to allow him to have access to religious books in the prison. He also had one message for his colleagues in Burma and abroad, asking them not to give up the struggle.
Conclusion
Min Ko Naing played a crucial part in the events in 1988 and
beginning of 1989. Today, despite having been looked in by the
military junta for almost 10 years, Min Ko Naing remains a potent
symbol for the students and the
people in Burma. His name is still central to the struggle, and
his voice has not been silenced.
Attachments:
1)Asiaweek article about Min Ko Naing from October, 1988
2)Article from the Dawn bulletin of the ABSDF
3) Article from The Nation article written by Aung Zaw.