Faces of 2007

However, the Burmese people heard from some of the leaders of the underground network when they gave telephone interviews to overseas radio stations. U Gambira, U Obhasa, U Khemeinda and U Zakada are now household names. All went into hiding when the crackdown began.

Unfortunately, in early November U Gambira was arrested at his hiding place in Kyaukse in central Burma. His brother and father were taken hostage in October in an exchange for U Gambira turning himself in. However, his brother and father have yet to be freed. The 29-year-old leading monk has been charged with treason by the Burmese junta, according to his family. The punishment for treason is a life sentence or death.

88 Generation Students Group

With Burma’s main opposition party, the National League for Democracy, in a crippled condition, and with its leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, still under house arrest, the junta appears now to regard the 88 Generation Students group as its greatest threat.

From the left: leaders of 88 Generation Students group Ko Ko Gyi, Min Ko Naing and Htay Kywe [Photo: AFP]

The group—led by outspoken activists like Min Ko Naing, Ko Ko Gyi and Min Zeya—is not a political party but a movement uniting the former students who were active in the mass uprising of 1988.

In the years since then, they have been harassed, imprisoned, tortured and denied a return to the studies so brutally interrupted in 1988. Yet their commitment to the task of creating a free and democratic society remains as strong as ever, to the anger of a regime determined to destroy their growing influence in Burmese life.

In the months leading up to the September demonstrations, they organized several popular civil rights campaigns that directly challenged military rule.

The September demonstrations grew from protests by members of the 88 Generation Students group and their supporters against sharp increases in the price of fuel and other essentials.

Min Ko Naing, Ko Ko Gyi and Min Zeya were arrested, and there were reports that they were suffering brutal interrogation in prison. Others fled—including Htay Kywe, Nilar Thein, Mie Mie and Tun Myint Aung—and carried on the struggle from their hiding places, encouraging the protesters through reports and interviews carried by international media.

A massive manhunt was launched by the authorities, and in October Htay Kywe and Mie Mie were seized. Human rights groups are concerrned about their fate.

Leading Activists

The September uprising was not a fight between Burman and Burman—it also involved ethnic people.

Zomi Chairman Cin Sian Thang
[Illustration: Harn Lay/The Irrawaddy]

The chairman of the Zomi National Congress, Cin Sian Thang, 69, and Tawng Kho Thang of the United Nationalities League for Democracy were arrested for taking part in the demonstrations and were detained for more than a month. Their colleague Aye Tha Aung, the joint-secretary of the Arakan League for Democracy, was warned by the authorities about speaking on behalf of the ethnic groups during the protests.

With little support from the leaders of the National League for Democracy, the September protests were mainly led by rank-and-file members of the NLD across the country. More than 200 NLD members were arrested nationwide, including elected representatives. Well-known women NLD members, Su Su Nway, Phyu Phyu Thin and Naw Ohn Hla played leading roles in the demonstrations.

The leader of the Myanmar [Burma] Development committee, Htin Kyaw, 44, was beaten by the military government’s hired thugs and arrested on August 25 after staging a protest in front of Theingyi Market in downtown Rangoon.