| By AUNG ZAW | JUNE, 2002 - VOLUME 10 NO.5 |
The recently published memoirs of former Karen leader Gen Bo Mya offer a glimpse into the inner workings of Burma’s longest-running insurgent struggle. Gen Bo Mya is known as a no-nonsense Karen freedom fighter. His straightforwardness and ruthlessness have earned him both respect and fear among Karen soldiers and leaders alike. With more than 40 years of battle experience under his belt, fighting against a host of foes—the Japanese, the British and later the Burmese—the 75-year-old Karen leader has also won the respect of many Burman leaders now taking refuge in exile. These days, Bo Mya is able to give speeches and interviews in Burmese, the language of his enemies. According to his aides, he learned how to lash out at the Rangoon generals in their own language from democracy activists who fled the country after 1988. Now, Bo Mya has written a book to detail his memorable career as Asia’s longest-serving rebel leader, entitled simply, "Memoirs on [sic] my true past experiences that I wish to disclose". One would expect a book on a career that has spanned more than half a century to be quite lengthy; but this one is a mere 137 pages in the English edition. (The book has also been published in Karen and Burmese.) But this does not prevent the former leader of the Karen National Union (KNU), possibly the world’s oldest surviving insurgent group, from offering an intriguing, if one-sided, glimpse into the history of the Karen struggle. Like many who have opposed successive Burmese regimes over the years, Bo Mya does not hesitate to blame the rulers in Rangoon for just about everything that’s wrong with Burma. But in some revealing passages, he also targets some of his own people. His anger towards members of the KNU’s Central Committee is particularly strong. A Test of Wills Born in the village of Htee Moo Kee in Papun District in 1927, Bo Mya has witnessed—and participated in—many of modern Burma’s conflicts. Prior to independence in 1948, Bo Mya served under both the Japanese and the British authorities ruling Burma at different times. Before joining the Karen struggle, he also enlisted in the Union Military Police (UMP), formed by the post-independence ruling party, the Anti-Fascist Peoples’ Freedom League (AFPFL). Later, however, he came to believe that the Karen people had been abandoned, and laments that although his people helped the British with "all our hearts and souls, … we Karens simply do not expect anything for the future of Karen people." When civil war broke out in Burma soon after independence, Bo Mya joined the rebel Salween Battalion in Nyaunglebin District. He became a Karen revolutionary fighter. He defined revolution in very simple terms: "I understand that a revolution means opposing the wrong and constructing the right thing…. Our revolution is one that must fight against evil and all the wrongs. We must never go against the masses of the country." As with any revolution, however, a large part of the struggle involved dealing with "the enemy within". This he did with an unflinching sense of righteousness: "I took serious firm and effective action against those who trespass upon the law and harm the people. If I should execute and give them capital punishment, I did it." Bo Mya’s clear-cut sense of right and wrong made any compromise extremely unlikely. However, on one occasion in 1953, he briefly crossed the enemy lines to join the "legal fold", only to reverse his stance after a test of wills. At the time, a number of Karen rebels had surrendered to advancing Burmese troops and joined them in the fight against the anti-Rangoon forces. A Burmese commander, sensing that he had the upper hand, invited Bo Mya to cooperate with the government forces. The Burmese commander wrote in a letter to Bo Mya, "Now the Karen State has been granted. However, there exist no troops to guard and protect the State. Please therefore come back and cooperate with us and we shall give you the responsibility to take charge of the security of the State." Bo Mya and his soldiers decided to take the Burmese commander up on his offer, but only, according to his account, to test the enemy’s honesty. The Burmese army officers were surprised to see Bo Mya and more than 150 of his men show up at their camp. To mark the occasion, they urged him to take part in a surrendering ceremony. When Bo Mya refused, an officer pleaded with him to cooperate, insisting it would only be a photo opportunity. "After that we shall return your weapons," the officer explained. Bo Mya eventually complied, and gave a speech that pleased the Burmese military officers. But a few days later, he was back in the jungle, more convinced than ever that he could not trust the Burmese. A Man of Many Enemies Not surprisingly, Bo Mya has been the target of assassination attempts by his enemies in Rangoon. More shocking, perhaps, is the fact that fellow Karen leaders have also made attempts on his life. In his book, Bo Mya describes how the well-known Karen rebel Bo Lin Htin, under orders from a corrupt superior officer named Taw Meh Pah, attempted to kill him. Bo Lin Htin, who earned notoriety in 1960 when he briefly seized control of the Thai border town of Mae Sot over a dispute with his Thai arms dealers, invited Bo Mya to his place for a drink. As it became dark, Bo Lin Htin lit a candle, and then suddenly extinguished the flame by shooting at it with a revolver. He then invited Bo Mya to shoot him. Bo Mya declined the offer, but became increasingly wary of this erratic behavior. When Bo Lin Htin said, "If you don’t shoot me, I will shoot you," Bo Mya tried to grab the weapon from him, and the two men began to struggle for control of the gun. Knocking over a lamp, they scuffled in complete darkness. Finally, Bo Mya, who had his finger on the gun’s trigger, fired off all its shots. Bo Lin Htin fled, and after a brief pursuit, Bo Mya also ran away, narrowly escaping from Bo Lin Htin’s men. Bo Mya portrays himself as a man who has never shied away from conflict or confrontation when his principles were at stake. As a staunch anti-communist, he long enjoyed the backing of both Thailand and the United States. But he also occasionally found himself on a collision course with fellow Karens who were influenced by communist ideology. To demonstrate just how strongly he felt about this matter, he describes an incident in which he asked a respected Karen leader point blank if he was a communist. The leader was Mahn Ba Zan, who at the time controlled one of two major rival Karen factions. Bo Mya was blunt with him: "Moo Hso Kaw Kasa [Mahn Ba Zan’s rival] told me you are communist. If you are communist, I will not follow you. However, if you are not a communist, I will go along with you," he declared. Bo Mya was pleased with Mahn Ba Zan’s answer: "Oh, Moo Hso Kaw Kasa purposely says things to discredit me. I am not a communist, I always say my prayers." In another incident not recorded in the book, Bo Mya detained student leader Moe Thee Zun in the early 1990s because he was known as a "leftist". Moe Thee Zun and several leading members of his faction who were arrested along with him were released only after the BBC’s Burmese-language service reported the incident. Bo Mya’s ire was not reserved for those who espoused ideologies he did not like. He has also taken strong action against Karen rivals and troops accused of committing atrocities against both Karen and Burman civilians, including such crimes as robbery, extortion, murder, rape and kidnapping. In one particular case, Bo Mya ordered the execution of some Karen soldiers whom he accused of banditry and gang-raping local women. He ordered these "evil men" to come for a "meeting", where they were promptly arrested. Bo Mya wrote: "Because those people are guilty of their crimes … we gave them capital punishment…. We must never do evil things, we must punish them." To demonstrate how strongly he felt about this issue, Bo Mya bayoneted one of the offending Karen soldiers as an example. A photograph of this gruesome execution is still used by the Burmese government whenever it wants to discredit Bo Mya and the KNU. The Fall of Manerplaw The nadir of Bo Mya’s years as the Karen leader came in 1995, when the KNU lost its fortified headquarters at Manerplaw to the Burmese. While Bo Mya blamed younger Karen leaders for sowing the disunity that led to this decisive loss, many observers believe that he himself was largely responsible for creating division among the Karen. As a firm believer in the Christian faith, Bo Mya was often accused of discriminating against Karen Buddhists. The Burmese junta happily exploited this growing dissatisfaction to its advantage. In particular, it is believed to have used a Buddhist monk known as Myaing Gyi Ngu Sayadaw to divide the Karen. The role of the Karen Buddhists in enabling the Burmese to overrun Manerplaw was confirmed in 1996, when Bo Mya personally met two high-ranking Burmese military intelligence officers who admitted that without the help of disgruntled Buddhists, they would never have reached Manerplaw. Rather than admit to any personal responsibility for this situation, however, Bo Mya blames younger leaders, including Gen Shwe Hseng and Padoh Mahn Sha—both currently serving as top-ranking KNU officials—for weakening Karen unity in a bid to take power from the aging KNU leadership. "It was due to the disobedience of the Central Committee members that Manerplaw has to fall into the hands of enemy," he writes in his memoirs. Bo Mya finally lost his preeminent position among the Karen rebel leadership in 2000, when the KNU held a congress at its jungle hideout. Saw Ba Thin Sein took over the chairman position, while Bo Mya was re-elected as vice president of the KNU. According to Central Committee members, Bo Mya is still bitter about this. Bo Mya’s memoirs were in fact written in 2000, partly in response to changes within the KNU leadership that effectively stripped him of much of his former power. According to KNU sources who spoke to The Irrawaddy, Bo Mya was persuaded to think twice before publishing his book. Some even asked him to water it down for the sake of the revolution, while others pointed out that it contains factual inaccuracies and presents a very one-sided view of modern Karen history. This slim book undoubtedly offers a very limited perspective on the complex and often perplexing nature of Karen politics. But as the work of one of the most forceful personalities among Burma’s many ethnic leaders, it warrants at least some attention for the insights it gives into the inner workings of the Karen struggle.