When the soldiers of the Burma Independence Army, led by the Thirty Comrades, infiltrated Burma from neighboring Thailand in a brave action to oust the British, the modern history of the Burmese armed forces was born. The fragile, inexperienced and ill-equipped army had faced many ups and downs in Burma’s often turbulent political history.

The country descended into turmoil and civil war. The legendary Thirty Comrades were also divided, dominated by two political factions. Gen Ne Win led and united the army, while his comrades went into hiding in the jungle, joining “multi-color insurgent groups” aiming to topple the government.

Ne Win, also a prominent member of the Thirty Comrades, o­nce proudly said that the Burmese army was founded by farmers, workers and other people of Burma, not by mercenaries. But he later fell victim of his own words, when he quelled street protests and dissent in the country by ordering troops to shoot and kill just to prolong his rule. So it’s no surprise to hear Burmese people saying that the armed forces were Ne Win’s pocket army.

When the country was rocked by nationwide protests in 1988, Ne Win warned the nation in a state television address: “If in future there are mob disturbances, if the army shoots, it hits—there is no firing into the air to scare.”

Historians note that Ne Win and Aung San had entirely different views o­n the army, with the latter wanting to steer it away from politics. Thus, throughout the history of the army, we have learned that things are not black and white.

There are military leaders who adhered to the wishes of the people and sided with them. Burmese will definitely remember and admire them. In this issue, we have singled out a number of the country’s fine, professional soldiers who were admired by the people.

There are many more unnamed and unknown heroes who sacrificed themselves for the country and its people—too many for us to name all. We have also chosen some military leaders who have stubbornly stuck to their guns, driving the country into limbo. They definitely fall into the category of the villainous.

However, all in all, we hope you will enjoy this special feature, marking the 62nd anniversary of Burma’s Resistance Day, now officially called Armed Forces Day.

—The Editor

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My Hero
Gen Aung San (1915-1947)

Aung San worked very hard and with great insight to implement the seemingly impossible mission of gaining independence from Britain. He knew that, to fight against a powerful enemy, an army was needed, and so he founded the Burma Independence Army with some 30 men under his leadership. Within just a few months, the army had tens of thousands of recruits. This is Aung San’s great contribution to his country. After founding the army, he worked towards modernizing the force by opening military training schools and academies. It is Aung San who created the military institutions of today’s Tatmadaw, the Burmese armed forces. Aung San’s guiding principle, however, was that the future army should stay out of politics.

On the political front, Aung San was able to unite all the disparate forces in Burma and create a single voice. He was also able to persuade the upper stratum of intellectuals and those from powerful families to join the revolution. Throughout each stage of the struggle, he was able to maintain a united front that included both leftist and rightist thinkers. His masterpiece was in founding the Anti-Fascist People’s Freedom League to create a united political front in the fight against Japanese occupiers during World War II. Another particular merit was Aung San’s ability to organize all of Burma’s nationalities to stand alongside him and demand Burma’s independence together.

It was surprising to me that within a short period of 12 years (1935 to 1947) a student leader could become such an accomplished national leader who was able to unite the entire country. Aung San had all the qualities needed to be a great leader. Indeed, he was the best leader I have ever met. His working style was very efficient; when he called meetings he always had a full agenda prepared and presided over the meeting systematically without wasting any time. When the meetings were over, everyone was well-informed as to the duties expected of them.

Last but not least, Aung San was an ardent patriot with great integrity; he was incorruptible. We Burmese people, together with our ethnic brothers, miss him dearly.

—Brig-Gen Kyaw Zaw,  o­ne of two surviving members of the Thirty Comrades, lives in exile in Kunming, China

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A True Patriot 
Brig-Gen Let Ya (1911-1978)

In the 1930s, Let Ya joined the Thakin movement, a nationalist student group that began organizing anti-British protests in the early 1920s (members addressed themselves as thakin, or master, a term more commonly used when speaking to the British colonial rulers). Let Ya accompanied Aung San o­n the first mission to China to seek foreign assistance for Burma’s independence struggle. When the two comrades lost contact with their messenger and were stranded in China, it was Let Ya who was able to find the funds necessary to complete the mission.

Let Ya was among the founding members of Do Bamar Asi-ayone (the “We Burman Association”), a group of young radicals and respected intellectuals opposed to British rule. He was also a senior member of the Communist Party of Burma, in which he had great faith.

After Let Ya completed his military training under the Japanese, he was given an assignment to enter Burma via Thailand and instigate villagers to join the resistance movement. He and his troops crossed the Thai border into Burma and worked to organize villagers and recruit further troops in the southern part of the country.

As the BIA’s deputy chief of staff, Let Ya was the second in command after Aung San. Colleagues knew that Aung San wanted Let Ya to replace him as head of the army, and he was always careful to protect Let Ya’s position against any political rivalry. This created much tension between Let Ya and Gen Ne Win, who later became the army’s commander in chief in 1949.

After Aung San’s assassination in July 1947, Let Ya did not stay long in the army. Later that year, he was appointed deputy prime minister and minister of defense. He signed the 1947 Let Ya-Freeman Defense Agreement with the British as an annex to the main Nu-Atlee Treaty. The Let Ya-Freeman agreement provided the British with access to Burma and made arrangements for training the Burmese armed forces. For his part in these negotiations, Let Ya was accused of being pro-British. The accusations against him continued. In 1948, Let Ya resigned from the army after he was accused of being too sympathetic to the Karen leaders who had begun fighting for independence from Burma.

Let Ya later joined the Anti-Fascist People’s Freedom League and became involved in party politics. In the 1950s, he launched a career as a successful businessman with the Let Ya Company and the Martaban Company, which exported seafood. Both he and his wealthy family members were prominent and influential figures in Burmese political and business circles.

Let Ya was a supporter of former prime minister U Nu, who was ousted by Ne Win in 1962. In the 1960s, Let Ya left Burma and joined U Nu’s movement-in-exile, becoming a commander of the Patriotic Liberation Army. Based o­n the Thai border and beset by conflicts with the Karen, the army never had the opportunity to march o­n Rangoon and unseat Ne Win.

In November 1978, Let Ya was killed in action during a skirmish with Karen troops near the Thai border. 

—Aung Zaw

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A Living Comrade 
Brig-Gen Kyaw Zaw (1919- )

Kyaw Zaw distinguished himself in the Battle of Insein in 1949, during which he repelled an attack by Karen rebels who had captured the northern suburbs of Rangoon. He described the more than three-month campaign in his autobiography as “unforgettable—the longest fight of my military career,” and “the most difficult, exhausting and dangerous” battle he had ever experienced. His former officers and soldiers in the battle remembered him as a brave commander who always fought alongside his troops.

After Burma gained independence in 1948, Kyaw Zaw became a household name for his leadership in fending off invading Chinese Kuomintang forces in Shan State. His exploits along the Thai-Burmese border have passed into legend. He is said to have secured an agreement from a Thai general, who was swindled in an opium deal with the KMT, to allow his troops, artillery and air support to pursue the KMT across the Thai border.

While preparing his attack o­n Doi Tung, the KMT’s mountainous stronghold near the Thai-Burmese border, Kyaw Zaw was asked by a Thai liaison officer friendly with the Chinese forces how long it would take to capture the base. “If we attack at 8 a.m., our flag will fly over their base no later than 4 p.m.,” he replied. More than 10,000 spectators are said to have gathered o­n the Thai side of the border to watch the attack, with some even wagering money o­n the outcome. Kyaw Zaw kept his word, and the Burmese flag flew by 4 p.m.

In April 1957, Kyaw Zaw’s luck turned. He was forced to retire after documents recovered from raids at a CPB stronghold in central Burma showed that he may have provided information about Burmese troop movements to the communist insurgents. After retirement, he actively supported the People’s Peace Committee, which called for an end to civil war in Burma. To escape surveillance by the government, he went to CPB-controlled territory in 1976 and rejoined the party as a member of the central committee and military commission. When internal rivalries divided the party in 1989, he fled to China.

Now 88 years old, the veteran commander lives in exile in Kunming, China. In an interview with The Irrawaddy, he described today’s Tatmadaw as “a professional mercenary army.” He said that, unlike himself and military leaders of his generation who fought solely for their country, “The o­nly aim of today’s army leaders is to protect and maintain the military dictatorship.”

—Yeni

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The ‘Four-foot Colonel’
Gen Smith Dun (1906-1979)

The diminutive colonel—an ethnic Karen—received his training at the Indian Military Academy, where he won the first Sword of Honor (given to the best cadet in each year’s intake), and later helmed a contingent of Karen guerrilla forces from the Irrawaddy delta during World War II.

Smith Dun played a key role in the early years of Burma’s independence. He was appointed head of Burma’s armed forces and promoted to the rank of general in a move agreed to by ethnic parties and Burmese nationalists to foster confidence in a future Burmese union that would include all ethnic minority groups.

That confidence was shaken in 1949 when the Karen began their war for independence from Burma. Smith Dun was sacked, along with his fellow Karen troops, and replaced by a man who would later have a dramatic and lingering impact o­n the nation: Gen Ne Win.

Despite a strong sense of his Karen ethnicity, Smith Dun had always been a loyal and professional leader of the Burmese army. As its commander, he kept his Karen soldiers sharp and disciplined. Suspicion of his ethnic roots, however, lingered even after his dismissal. The government kept him under surveillance until his death in 1979.

Smith Dun spent his final years in Kalaw, Shan State, where he devoted most of his time to gardening, reading and writing. His book, “Memoirs of the Four-Foot Colonel,” was completed shortly before his death and published a year later by Cornell University’s Southeast Asia Program.

—Yeni

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A Model Soldier
Col Ba Htoo (unknown-1945)

In 1943, Ba Htoo was promoted to major and led a battalion assigned to secure land supply routes in northern Burma. When the BIA was reformed and renamed under Japanese rule, Ba Htoo became a commander of the Northwest Command headquartered in Mandalay. He joined Gen Aung San and other army leaders in January 1945 at a secret meeting in Rangoon to plan a national uprising against Japanese forces scheduled for March 27.

Ba Htoo then returned to Mandalay and launched his own military campaign almost three weeks before the agreed date, declaring war against Japanese forces o­n March 8. Ba Htoo’s motives, however, were strategic; knowing that the Japanese were suspicious of Aung San and his comrades, Ba Htoo distanced himself from Aung San to draw attention away from the resistance movement. When he announced that he and his troops would no longer follow orders from Aung San, the Japanese concentrated their attention o­n Ba Htoo. With the spotlight focused elsewhere, Aung San and his colleagues were able to launch the campaign against Japanese troops as planned o­n March 27, a date that would later become known in Burma as Armed Forces Day.

Ba Htoo’s actions brought additional benefits. Thanks to his initiative, Allied forces arriving in Burma from India were able to enter Mandalay and upper Burma. Ba Htoo took up positions behind the Japanese and simultaneously attacked supply routes. His troops later supported the Allies in recapturing Maymyo.

Aung San praised Ba Htoo’s bravery and initiative, and elevated him to the rank of colonel. The devoted soldier never lived to accept the promotion, nor did he return to the family he left behind in Tavoy. He died of malaria in a small village in southern Shan State in June 1945.

Aung San later wrote that Ba Htoo was an “upright, intelligent, brave and industrious” military leader. In November 1953, the Tatmadaw built an army town in Yaksauk, southern Shan State, to honor Ba Htoo. Named “Ba Htoo Tatmyo” (Fort Ba Htoo), the town was designed to house military families and provide training for army officers.

—Yeni

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‘A Veteran Jailbird’
Col Kyi Maung (1919-2004)

Kyi Maung entered politics as a young student at Rangoon University when he took part in the third Rangoon University student boycott against the British government o­n December 20, 1938. While hoisting the student union flag in the frontline of the demonstration, he sustained head wounds when severely beaten by the British police. 

In a clear and public gesture of his political sympathies, Kyi Maung refused to attend a mass rally organized by Ne Win after the 1962 coup. He was retired a year later from the helm of Southwest Command.

In 1988, Kyi Maung joined the democratic movement and became o­ne of the founding leaders of the National League for Democracy. Following the arrest of NLD colleagues Tin Oo and Aung San Suu Kyi in July 1989, Kyi Maung guided the party to a landslide victory in the 1990 general elections.

When asked by a foreign journalist if the NLD would require putting the military o­n trial for past crimes, Kyi Maung said: “Here in Burma, we do not need any Nuremberg-style tribunal.” Then Military Intelligence Chief Lt-Gen Khin Nyunt took exception to the remark. Kyi Maung was arrested and sentenced to 17 years in prison. 

After his early release in 1995, Kyi Maung characterized his approach to politics in this way: “Look, it’s a game, and we’re players in the game. So, let’s play it without so much ego and without nonsense.” He retired from the NLD two years later, but remained active in politics and conducted research o­n the Burmese military for the rest of his life. He died at his home o­n August 19, 2004, at age 85.

—Htet Aung

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A People’s General
Gen Thura Tin Oo (1927- )

Now in his 80s, Tin Oo was just 16 when he joined the Burma Independence Army in 1943. His courage and leadership in fighting against invading Kuomintang troops made him a role model for his fellow soldiers and earned him the trust of Ne Win, who gave him command of the military in 1974 and later appointed him minister of defense.

The decorated general also won the admiration of university students, who chanted “Long live Tin Oo” during demonstrations at former UN secretary-general U Thant’s funeral in 1974. Indeed, Tin Oo’s widespread popularity contributed more, perhaps, to his dismissal from the military two years later than the charges of high treason. In 1976, he was sentenced to seven years in Insein Prison, but was released two years early.

Once out of prison, Tin Oo kept a low profile until 1988, when he addressed thousands of demonstrators outside Rangoon General Hospital. That year, he also became vice chairman of the NLD and sharply criticized the ruling junta’s oppression of the people.

In 1989, Tin Oo was arrested again, this time for sedition. During the secret military tribunal that sentenced him, the former commander-in-chief turned to the officers witnessing the trial and said: “I love the army, but I love the people more than the army.” He served six more years in Insein Prison.

Tin Oo was released in 1995 and resumed his political activities, often accompanying NLD leader Aung San Suu Kyi o­n her trips around the Burmese countryside. In 2003, he was injured when junta-backed thugs attacked the NLD motorcade in Depayin, Sagaing Division. After the incident, he was put under house arrest, where he remains today.

—Htet Aung

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Villains

Gen Ne Win (c. 1911-2002)

Ne Win initiated Burma’s march toward militarism in 1962 and held absolute power for the next 26 years. Rangoon University’s historic Student Union was razed o­n July 7, 1962, and many pro-democracy students were killed under a bloody policy that promised to match “sword with sword, spear with spear.” His most enduring contribution, however, was to transform Burma from a resource-rich country to an isolated beggar-state.  

Ne Win relinquished his throne amid nationwide protests and spent his final years under house arrest after a son-in-law and three grandsons were imprisoned o­n charges of inciting a coup in 2002. That same year, Ne Win—a former member of the Thirty Comrades and the most powerful man in Burma for more than a quarter century—died in disgrace at his lakeside villa, a captive of the military regime he helped create.

Brig-Gen Sein Lwin (1924-2004)

Sein Lwin joined the army in 1943 and served in Gen Ne Win’s 4th Burma Rifles in 1944. When Ne Win seized power in 1962, Sein Lwin became o­ne of his principal henchmen. He assumed the presidency of the socialist government when Ne Win stepped down in 1988, amid nationwide pro-democracy demonstrations.

During his 17-day reign, Sein Lwin ordered the brutal killings of thousands of demonstrators across the country, perhaps most memorably a group of demonstrators outside City Hall o­n August 8, 1988—remembered now as 8-8-88. For his brief but vicious rule of Burma, he was widely reviled, with many in the country demanding his beheading. 

Snr-Gen Saw Maung (1928-1997)

Saw Maung also held relatively free and fair general elections in 1990 and promised that the Tatmadaw, or armed forces, would subsequently return to the barracks. But when the National League for Democracy won the elections in a landslide, he refused to acknowledge the results.

Saw Maung joined the military in 1949 and made his way through the ranks. He assumed the role of head of state in 1988. He resigned for health reasons seven years later and died from a heart attack in July 1997.

Gen Khin Nyunt (1939- )

Burma’s spymaster became head of the Directorate of Defense Services Intelligence after an assassination attempt o­n visiting South Korean President Choon Doo Hwan in 1983, in which 21 people were killed. Much-feared and powerful, Khin Nyunt brokered several ceasefire agreements with ethnic opposition forces and drug lords.

On October 19, 2004, Khin Nyunt was arrested o­n charges of corruption. o­nce Burma’s “Prince of Evil,” Khin Nyunt now lives under house arrest, having received a suspended sentence of 44 years in prison.

Snr-Gen ThanShwe (c. 1933- )

Than Shwe strongly identifies with Burma’s past monarchs, three statues of whom tower over the parade grounds in the new capital Naypyidaw. He rules the country like an absolute monarch, and now in his 70s shows little signs of letting up, despite a much-debated hospital stay in Singapore in December 2006.

The postal clerk-turned-tyrant joined the military in 1953 and rose to the rank of brigadier general and vice chief of staff by 1985. Three years later, he was named vice chairman of the State Law and Order Restoration Council. Following Saw Maung’s resignation in 1992, he took over as head of state.

Compiled by Htet Aung