The Story of a Stethoscope

Zaw Tun had his own stethoscope—a new one given to him by a Japanese reporter who had earlier visited Three Pagodas Pass, where Zaw Htun was based. The generous reporter had given such stethoscopes to several medical students, telling them, “Now go and take care of the Burmese with my presents.”

“It was Litman brand and cost around US $250 in Burma during the 1970s,” Dr. Pa Cin said of the gift. As a doctor from a socialist country, he knew how much doctors valued good medical equipment.

Before the two bid each other farewell, Zaw Htun proposed that Dr. Pa Cin accept his new stethoscope because he had nothing else to give the doctor to as a parting gift. Dr. Pa Cin refused knowing that his old stethoscope was not worth as much as Zaw Htun’s. But Zaw Htun was adamant, so the good doctor obliged to make his “little brother” happy.

A year and a half later, towards the end of 1992, some officers from the Karen National Union (KNU) killed Zaw Htun, accusing him of being a communist. By the time he was killed, he was said to be distributing leftist materials in Manerplaw, the headquarters of the KNU and various armed ethnic and pro-democracy groups.

Zaw Htun was simple and dedicated. He believed in the need for purity in the revolution and did not like some of the leaders with a “political agenda.” His natural response to injustice led to his estrangement from his ABSDF commander, who thought his followers were favoring the young, up-and-coming and more idealistic Zaw Htun.

It was suspicious that the commander had a hand in asking the KNU to take action against Zaw Htun, accusing him of being a left-wing activist. The KNU was staunchly anti-communist, having had bitter experience with their own members who were sympathetic to the communists.

But an ABSDF leader who knew Zaw Htun saw only two copies of a leftist magazine in his hand. It was a time when any literature on politics was rare in the jungle. Everyone, especially the students, grabbed any kind of paper or magazine they could find to read, regardless of their ideology. It seems to me that Zaw Htun became the victim of the backstabbing politics of a power play.

Zaw Htun fully understood the negative outlook the ethnic minorities had on the ordinary Burmese due to actions of the Burmese troops in ethnic areas. He once told me about his visit to a Lahu village.

At the invitation of a Lahu elder, he visited a Lahu village in the conflict area. Upon his arrival, the elder announced to his household that he had brought a “Makalu” (Burmese) visitor. Upon hearing this, a young Lahu boy about 12 years of age immediately grabbed a rifle to attack Zaw Htun. The elder had to calm him down telling him that the Makalu he had brought was a good Makalu fighting the Burmese army. 

Before leaving for the Wa mission, Zaw Htun and Dr. Pa Cin stayed together. During this time, the doctor helped Zaw Htun’s work in searching for culturally appropriate and relevant words and phrases for his translation of Che’s “Guerilla Warfare” into Burmese. It was Zaw Htun’s contribution to the revolution. 

Dr. Pa Cin left Manerplaw for India in May 1991. Zaw Htun visited him before his departure. He told the doctor that he was going to the KNU’s 6th Brigade area. The doctor warned him to be careful. He told his little brother it was not a good idea to travel alone.

He had good reason to be worried. Both he and Zaw Htun had been openly accused of distributing the propaganda of the Communist Party of Burma (CPB). The accusation came from the top of the KNU hierarchy, the late Gen Bo Mya himself.

The late Phado Mahn Sha, the KNU Secretary General who was gunned down by unknown assassins in February 2008, was in a meeting in Manerplaw in which Gen Bo Mya spoke of the two who were accused of disseminating “CPB propaganda” in his headquarters. Knowing full well the danger the two faced, Phado Mahn Sha went to see Dr. Pa Cin and warned him not to distribute CPB papers.     

Zaw Htun seemed unaware of the danger, perhaps partly because he could not fully understand the depth of anti-communist sentiment in some of the key leaders within the KNU, including Gen Bo Mya himself.

The good doctor did not know Zaw Htun had been killed. Only after an ABSDF leader visited him in India in 1993 did he learn that his little brother was dead. He was devastated.

I was shocked and dismayed when I heard the news. We lost a good leader.  Later when I learned more about his siblings I felt even sadder. Zaw Htun was one of the five children who were all medical doctors. His eldest brother, Zaw Min, spent a long time in prison for his role in the struggle for democracy.

Many years later, Dr. Salai Pa Cin resettled in Australia.