Back then I was a tenth-grade student
at State High School No-3 (SHS-3) in Thin-gan-gyung township in Rangoon. Our
school was on the laneway from BOC Bend near former Irrawaddy cinema to
Thin-gan-gyun train-station. The local people there were mostly Kalars (Muslims
and Hindus).
On 8-8-88 there were mass protests in
the city. But we didn’t hear anything about soldiers’ shooting to disperse the
crowd then. The whole thing started from a fight between a small group of RIT
students and the local youths from the Kyo-gone ward at a teashop where the
violent argument broke out on which songs the shop should play.
Later two RIT students Phone Maw and
Soe Naing were shot dead in the RIT campus by the security-police trying to
quell the students’ protest demanding the arrest of the culprits who had
attacked the RIT students in the teashop brawl earlier.
And that was the trigger for the
general strike labelled as 8-8-88 Uprising. A lousy teashop brawl and two dead
students from RIT – Rangoon Institute of Technology!
Before going ahead with this memoir I
would like to remind my young readers that I would not exaggerate or
sensationalize the true stories and I would not omit any facts knowingly or
intentionally. I would write the factual stories exactly as I had witnessed.
Because writing about politics is confusingly complex and brutally manipulative
and most writers have their own agendas.
August 8, 1988
Well before that day so many
provocative letters from the agitators (various strike committees) reached our
high school. Mainly about how the brutal Socialist government was arresting and
torturing and killing the students. Just to provoke us with anger and hatred
towards the government and the army.
But our old headmistress was in tears
and begging us not to involve in any protest whether violent or non-violent. So
we young students were pulled between her and the agitators. We were confused
and didn’t know what to decide. But the final letter from the agitators or the
8-8-88 strikers made us really angry.
The letter said, “Your school is so quiet just because your school has so many Muslim
Kalars. Are you guys little rabbits or dangerous snakes? If you guys are
rabbits just stay still in the bush and don’t come out.”
It hurt our pride and we angrily
decided to join the general strike on 8-8-1988.
Student protesters from Myoma High school. |
By then Bogyoke Sein Lwin was the president
after Ne Win resigned and he was ready to use brute force against the
protesters.
We reached the BOC Bend near our school
and then SHS-1 Thin-gan-gyun. Once we were there most students came out of
their classrooms and joined us. By then our marching crowd were nearly 5,000
including the local civilians from Thin-gan-gyun.
Food was plenty as so many families
came out of their houses and giving us water and milk and foodstuff they had.
We were basically marching from SHS-1 to SHS-2 at the 16th Bend and
we were expecting army blockage just before that high-school. So we started
yelling our slogans.
“Getting Democracy ……. Our Affairs, Our Affairs!”
“People Soldiers ……. Our Soldiers!”
“Martial-education From Bogyoke Aung San ……… Not For Killing Your Own
People!”
Once we passed 16th Bend we
saw them soldiers on the road ahead. They had blocked the road with
barbwire-barricades. Right in front of the barricades were about ten soldiers
on kneeling position with their G3 automatic-assault-rifles and 12-gauge shot
guns aimed and ready to fire at us. Right behind the barricades was a huge tank
and behind the tank were at least five army trucks filled with armed-soldiers.
At the point of our column were mostly
young girls and once we saw the soldiers we boys moved up and form a protective
human-wall around them. We were so close to the gun-toting soldiers by then.
Only about 4-5 yards.
We didn’t really think soldiers would
brutally shoot us young boys and girls and even if they did shoot we would take
their bullets. How stupid and naïve we were then.
Shootings Starts
First an army officer with loudspeaker
warned us repeatedly to disperse and go home. We refused and the big tank fired
three times. “Bong, bong, bong”. But
we knew the shells were blanks just to scare us youngsters with loud noises.
We yelled to each other, “Don’t run, don’t run, they aren’t really
shooting, don’t run”. And so we stood our ground and didn’t run. Suddnely
the soldiers at the barricades started shooting at us as they were given the
firing order by their officer.
Most were hit but the bullets killed
only one young boy right at the front. The soldiers were not using real lethal
bullets but rubber pallets from their shotguns. There were so many pallet holes
like meshes in peoples’ shirts but they could pick out the match-head size
rubber pallets from their bruised and bloodied flesh.
Once the real shooting started the huge
crowd collapsed and ran back for their lives. I immediately dived onto the
ground first and once the stampede began I crawled behind a rubbish mound so
that I wouldn’t get trampled over by the madly-fleeing crowd.
But I still knew I wasn’t safe. So I
got up and ran into the laneway nearby. Before I ran I looked back and saw a
soldier with a smirk on his face stared at me and then aimed his rifle at me. But
he didn’t shoot. Anyway I ran as fast as I could as if my life depended on
getting away as far as I could from them shooting soldiers.
When I was really exhausted and had to
stop running I found myself in an unfamiliar neighbourhood. I was still in my
school uniform of white short-sleeve shirt and green sarong and I had no
slippers as I’d lost them in running for my life.
People seeing me from their houses were
so concerned of my safety they called me up to change cloths and get new
slipper from them. They knew the soldiers were searching the young students to
arrest or shoot. But I still refused and kept walking away aimlessly. Finally I
rediscovered my bearings as I saw familiar places like our
private-tution-halls.
Once I regained my bearings I tried to
walk through a cemetery which was a shortcut to my house. The cemetery was near
the Kyaik-ka-san Pagoda. Nowadays it is the Thin-gan-gyun’s Model Hospital
since the government demolished that old cemetery and built the hospital on the
cemetery ground.
Running Into the Soldiers Again
Once in the cemetery I met two of my
classmates there and we three came back home together. Out of the cemetery we
crossed the Thin-gan-gyun Road and then walked into the government bank’s
housing estate for the employees of government banks. It was our regular
shortcut.
Inside the estate I sort of lost my tow
friends as I was a slow-walker behind them. Suddenly I saw them running back to
me and then went up into the nearest apartment block and disappeared. I was
really surprised and still staring at their backs when three soldiers chasing
them confronted me standing alone on the narrow laneway.
“Phyoung, phyoung, phyoung,” they cocked their G3s and pointed at
me as if they were gonna shoot me right there. Then I heard people from the
apartment blocks yelling at the soldiers, “Don’t
shoot, don’t shoot, we won’t let you live if you men shoot the boy!” I also
heard the sounds of a few people coming down from their flats.
Somehow I didn’t try to run as I became
almost fearless. I knew if I ran they would surely cut me down. I just stood
there staring back at three soldiers with their big guns. Then I saw their
officer with pistol ready in his hand appeared behind them.
The bank-estate had a high brick wall
around it and he might have been left behind at outside by his soldiers. He didn’t
like what he saw and yelled out at his men. “What
the hell you guys doing here? Fucking idiots, I told you guys only to shoot up
when you confront a group!” At least he was there before people from
upstairs arrived.
Anyway to make the story short they
went on their way and I also came home my way. But my troubles were not over
yet. I was almost at my house when the army truck filled with armed-soldiers and
fitted with loudspeakers warning people not to protest came into our street.
They drove past me and when I tried to
look up at their faces they all avoided my stares as if they felt bad doing
what they were doing that day. I understood their feelings as not all soldiers
were ruthless killers and they must also be torn by to follow the orders and shoot
the kids their brothers and sisters age.
Complete Anarchy and Brutal Mob Killings all over Rangoon
The mass protests grew bigger and more
violent everyday as the army had stopped shooting and the soldiers had
disappeared back into their compounds. And the government changed the president.
Sein Lwin the Butcher of Rangoon was replaced by soft-spoken Dr. Maung Maung.
But he still couldn’t bend the people’s rebellious will.
The government was completely shut down
and ruthless mobs violently ruled every city and town and village. Every police
station in Rangoon except the Thu-wa-na Station was raided by the students-led
mob and the policemen brutally tortured and killed.
In North-Oakkalapa the police-station not far from our place was taken
and the chief-of-police there was burned alive in a huge bonfire. Later some
students cut his roasted flesh and consumed with home-made liquor.
In South-Oakkalapa a long-haired thug called
“Yaung-gyee-bway” was most notorious. He and his group of thugs accused the
people they didn’t like of being MI (Military Intelligent) agents and chopped
their heads off in public and huge crowds went and watched all these
public-beheadings. Anarchy and lawlessness is absolutely horrifying.
Failed Attempts On Thu-wa-na Police Station
But that police-station was in the
middle of empty paddy-fields and the police there positioned a sniper with
rifle on the tall Koke-ko tree. The sniper was so good he could kill one
attacker with one single shot. I still remember one morning I saw seven deaths
with their heads blown off by .303 bullets from the night before.
One night a young policeman who was an
alcoholic from that joint sneaked out and crossed the Nga-moe-yeik Creek to
Thar-kay-ta to drink home-made hard-liquor there. Unfortunately when he came
back drunk he was caught by a students-patrol on the creek bank.
The students stabbed him with bamboo
shafts and bashed him with rocks and bricks. And they tied his legs with
barbed-wires and dragged him like a dead dog on the streets all over our ward. Poor
policeman wouldn’t die and screaming and weeping the whole night till next
morning.
During those times we couldn’t sleep
well at all at nights. The students were telling us all sort of lies like that
Thar-kay-ta thug Yaung-gyee-bway and hundreds of his men were now in Thu-wa-na,
and once they finished with Thu-wa-na that mob would come to our Thin-gan-gyun.
So every man and boy had to arm and
defend their wards. So I even armed myself with a huge machete and joined the
mob on the streets. Then they told us that to separate the Thar-kay-ta mob from
us we were to be topless and any man with his shirt on was to be killed on the
spot. I ended up pacing in front of our house topless and carrying a huge
machete shaking with fear.
We didn’t see the actual beheadings but
we saw the headless bodies and their chopped-heads on the ground at the scene.
Some people who did witness the beheading told me later that the beheadings were done one by one. After the first head was chopped-off the students showed
the chopped-head to the rest of the seven and not a one them made a sound.
And the students took it as the sign of
being guilty and chopped their heads off one after another. But I now believe
those six poor victims were so overwhelmed by fear and didn’t dare to make a
sound. Those times were utterly horrible. I just pray that something like
8-8-88 will never happen again in our country.
Rumours of Our Saviour (Min-laung)
ASSK's failed attempt to form unified government. |
Then one day everybody was talking
about the sudden appearance of our saviour. Who was that, who was that?
Everybody asking everybody and it turned out our saviour was Aung San Oo. The
only son of our national hero Bogyoke Aung San was coming back to lead us to
democracy and heaven. We were all happy.
Then about two days later the surprise correction
came out. It wasn’t Aung San Oo the son of our Bogyoke Aung San. It was the
Bogyoke’s daughter Aung San Suu Kyi. And she became the leader of democracy
instantly.
Within few days after Aung San Su Kyi was raised onto the political
stage the army staged a bloody coup and martial law was declared and the
soldiers started shootings at the students-led mobs again. And the horrible 8-8-88
Uprising was over.
Captured thug Young-gyee-bway of Thar-kay-ta. |
Mob's beheading in Hlaing Township. |
Mobs' attacks on police-stations all over Rangoon. |
Mob attack on Myinthar veterans' quarters. |
Every ward in Rangoon had self-barricaded during the months-long lawless anarchy in late 1988. |
Aung San Suu Kyi's criticism of U Nu forming a parallel government on 9 September 1988. |
Burmese politicians' failed attempt to form a unified-caretaker-government on 13 September 1988. |
Half-insane U Nu declaring to resume his long-lost prime-minister-ship of Burma. |