The Odyssey of Saw Kayti

I asked the Thai helmsman whether we are in Burmese or Indian waters and he replied we were in Indian waters and Burmese Navy couldn't come in.

Five minutes later, Maj Saw Tun and Lt Yan Naing of the NUPA arrived on a small speedboat. I informed them I heard the Burmese Navy on my radio.

One of them—I don’t remember who—took my radio and called Soe Naing who was onshore. He said, “Soe Naing, Soe Naing, do you hear me?”

There was no reply from the other side. Then, we tried to contact Padoh Moo Lwae's radio, but no reply. Maj Saw Tun asked me to drive into the bay. As we approached the shore, we saw our people laying down on the shore and the situation there seemed unusual. They were being arrested.

Later, they arrested Major Saw Tun. They tied our hands behind our backs, covered our eyes and kicked us down to a lifeboat and took us to the shore. We couldn't see a thing as our eyes are covered. They dragged us onto the shore and forced us lie on the ground.

They dragged Maung Naing, a private, and asked him something. Since he didn't understand their language, they beat him with their guns till his ribs broke. They arrested us without saying a word.

We couldn't talk to each other. When we did, they hit us on the face. Later, they sent us to a prison in Port Blair. We didn't know it was called Port Blair at that time.

There, we did not know which date it was. One evening, Grewal came to us and told us our leaders were guilty and India already punished them. At that moment, we didn't know what he meant, and I was not sure if they killed Padoh Moo Lwae and the other leaders.

I realized we were being arrested when I heard gun shots, over 30 shots from my boat, just before they captured me. We made the connection between the incidents as our leaders disappeared and we believe that they were shot dead by the Indians.

Grewal and some officials said there was a gunfight between our leaders and the Indian military, so our leaders were shot. We don't believe that because our leaders didn't possess any weapons at the time.

I feel very sad for my leaders. But what can I do? They were good people, working for our country and for our people. For Padoh Moo Lwae [who also died], he was my brother, my teacher, my leader. I respect him and am proud of him.

Q: How did you all manage to get help and to contact lawyers?

A: A human rights lawyer named Henry came to us. At first, the authorities did not allow us to meet him. Later, they allowed Henry to meet with one person for a short time. We could do nothing. They thought that we were terrorists.

Later, a lawyer, Nandita Haksar, handled our case, and she has had to struggle much.

Q: What were your experiences while you were in Port Blair?

A: We stayed in the Port Blair prison for 20 months. They [the officials at the Port Blair prison] seemed to understand our situation a bit.

There, Danya Linn taught English to a young person in his spare time. We occasionally were visited by the Karen who had lived in Port Blair since colonial times.

Later, they put us in a three-story building like we were under house arrest. We had to cook for ourselves. We were accompanied while we went out to buy things.

The house was an old building on the brink of collapse. Luckily, some weeks before the 2004 tsunami [which took place during Saw Kayti’s detainment], we were moved to another building as the first building was not safe. During the tsunami, that three-story building collapsed. Had we not moved, we all would have died under a pile of old bricks.
 
As the earthquake hit the island, I was standing, was jolted, and fell on the ground. I shouted, “What happened? What happened?” Somebody shouted, “Go outside! Go outside!”

It was quite strong. So strong, we could barely stand. We crawled on all fours to get out of the building. We fell down even though we were crawling. We never experienced this kind of earthquake before. We all were swaying and felt dizzy.

Q: How did you get to Kolkata prison?

A: In Port Blair, they did not investigate our case or bring it to trial. Our lawyers told the authorities it was not worth the effort of pursuing a case against us, but the Indian authorities indicted us.

Later, our lawyer arranged to send us to Kolkata where we could be in touch with the Burmese community in New Delhi, and so that the lawyers could have easy access to us.

On arriving at Kolkata prison, the prison authorities thought that we were terrorists and treated us poorly by putting three people in a small cell meant for one person.

There, we faced many difficulties.