(Based on Myanmar Media posts from 2022 to 2024-Nov.)
Pyu-saw-htee was a legendary king of Pagan Dynasty of
Burma (Myanmar), who according to the Burmese chronicles supposedly reigned
from 167 to 242 CE. The chronicles down to the 18th century had reported that
Pyusawhti, a descendant of a solar spirit and a dragon princess, was the
founder of Pagan—hence, Burmese monarchy.
However Mhan-nan Yazawin-dawgyi, the Royal Chronicle
of Kone-baung Dynasty proclaimed in 1832 that he was actually a scion of Tagaung
Kingdom and traced his lineage all the way to Maha Sammata, the first king of
the world in Buddhist mythology.
Scholarship conjectures that Pyusawhti the historical figure likely existed in the mid-to-late 8th century, who perhaps came over from the Nanzhao Kingdom as part of the Nanzhao raids of the Irrawaddy valley during the period.
Pyu-saw-htee was considered by the Burmese populace
as a mythical superhero from the ancient history of Burma. And during the 1950s
and 60s the ruling AFPLF (Pha-Sa-Pa-La) Government’s civilian militia was
called the Pyu-saw-htee Militia.
They were mostly the local thugs armed and paid to
become the pocket army of ruling party’s elected MP, and they were brutal and
their atrocities against the local populace during that period were never
forgotten nowadays, even after more than seven decades.
My Childhood Pyu-saw-htee Encounters (Early 1960s)
I basically grew up in a small town called Mawgyun
in the Irrawaddy Delta of Lower Burma. During the late fifties and early
sixties my family and most of my relatives were the active members or the
sympathisers of Burmese Communist Party. One of my older uncles was the feared
boss of the local party branch.
But as the rebels, they controlled only the
surrounding villages, not the town itself. In our rural Delta region, the
majority of the villages were Burmese with a considerable number of Karen
villages dotted among. Communists then controlled the Burmese villages and
Karen villages were ruled by the KNDO. The town itself was controlled by an
army company permanently stationed on the outskirts of our town.
But the real lord of the town was the local politician,
and the leader of the pro-government Pyu-saw-htee militia. His name was
Bo-Koon, a half-Burmese half-Karen. He was big and tall and ugly with a pistol
in his belt always. If we children saw him on the street coming in our
direction we turned round and ran away from him as fast as we could.
I still remembered him as we children used to be
dead scared of him. He had many regular trips with his bands of militiamen to
the nearby villages and they always brought back heads of communists or Karen
rebels he and his men had killed. He then stuck the heads on the bamboo stalks
and put them up right in front of his house, just to frighten the townfolks.
Sometimes he brought the captured rebels alive and
ransomed them for large amounts of money from the fearful relatives. I still
remembered seeing the tortured men bound and lying on the ground at his house.
One day he captured one of my young uncles and
brought him back to the town for ransom. He sent for my old aunty, and we had
to rush there with a bundle of money and some jewellery to get my uncle back.
My wounded uncle was hogtied on the ground and Bo-Koon was standing beside,
holding the rope around his neck like a leash and waiting for his money, with a
grin on his twisted face.
But that day was hated Bo-Koon’s last day on earth.
That evening my other uncle sent three armed-men into town and they walked up
to his lounge-room where he was having a dinner with his young family. They
killed the whole family- yes, including his young wife and two young children
and a baby still in a cradle- and took his head back to the villages just to
show it around so that people knew he was dead.
Resurrection of Pyu-saw-htee Militia (2022)
Now after the 2021 military coup, Myanmar Army has
resurrected that universally-hated para-military by forming local Pyu-saw-htee
units all over the country especially the Burmese Heartland of Middle Burma.
Among the most notorious Pyu-saw-htee leaders, many are extremist-Buddhist
monks, was Thidar Yuman, a rare woman leader so brutal and so notorious that
every Burmese and his or her dog nowadays know her.
Thidar has been the popular common first name for
Burmese females. Adapted and Burmanized from the Indian Classic Ramayana,
Thidar was the Burmese name of King Rama’s wife Sita. I have so many aunties
and cousins named Thidar back in Burma. One of my ex-girlfriends was Thidar
too.
Following was one pro-military-media’s description
of her in their propaganda news release on August-27, 2024:
The People’s Militia of Myingyan Town is
led by an esteemed lady in her 40s named Daw Thida Yu Mon. Daw Thida Yu Mon, a
married woman living with her family in the normal life before, now,
participates in charity activities for her township and donates necessary
foodstuffs to the poor. She becomes well-known and famous as an inspired lady
in Myingyan after she organizes the town’s safeguarding armed forces – the
People’s Militia.
Reports stated that she is a member of the
Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP). After the electoral fraud in
2020 Election and the emergence of terroristic acts in 2021, she decided to
take a step to protect the country and started forming the People’s Militia.
She proposed to develop a local People’s Militia to the Tatmadaw.
“I wanted to take a new step to support
the Tatmadaw in counter-terrorism and to protect my country until my last
breath. All efforts I’m doing are for the stability of my town and my country,”
said Daw Thida Yu Mon in an interview with a local media.
When developing the People’s Militia led
by her, she kept low profile in the early days and conducted security measures
in and around Myingyan. However, due to the misinformation and fake news
circulated by subversive media, she recently had to come out and show up on the
social sites reporting on-ground situations.
The Myingyan People’s Militia led by Daw
Thida Yu Mon is now conducting security and counter-terrorism measures as she
allied with the Tatmadaw from which she already gained the mutual trust.
Ordinary civilians in Myingyan who do not support and condemn the terroristic
acts of PDF and NUG elect her as the leader of the Myingyan People’s Militia to
guard the town.
NLD Members Murdered by Pyu-saw-htee in Myingyan
Myanmar junta troops and their militia allies,
Thidar Yumon’s Myingyan Pyu-saw-htee units, arrested and killed eight
residents, including six National League for Democracy (NLD) members, in Myingyan
District on Tuesday, according to activist groups.
Junta soldiers and allied Pyu Saw Htee militia
members raided Min Ywar village in Natogyi Township. U Aung Myint, 55, was
arrested and his 17-year-old son Maung Kaung Sat Naing was killed. “They were
shot dead in the village after coming out of their house to see what was
happening. Then they seized NLD members,” said a villager.
U Aung Myint was a member of the military-proxy
Union Solidarity and Development Party and was a village administrator before
the NLD took power, the villager said. Their bodies were returned to their
families on Tuesday, according to the Natogyi People’s Committee.
The abducted NLD members were U Kyaw Saung, 63, U
Khin Maung Sein, 63, U Min Zaw, 40, and U Han Tin, 42. The two other murdered
villagers were Ko Soe Paing, 37, and Ko Aung Ko Min, 17, according to the
People’s Committee in Taung Tha. “It is a brutal crime against civilians. The
Pyu Saw Htee group led by Thida Yumon from Myingyan Township killed six
people,” said a committee member.
The junta forces had a list of villagers to arrest,
residents said. Six villagers were taken between Min Ywar and Ku Kone villages
and shot in the head, according to residents. “We found the bodies on Wednesday
morning. It is very sad for their families,” said a villager. According to
activist groups, at least 20 residents have been killed by junta forces in
Natogyi in the previous two months.
“Pyu Saw Htee and Thway Thout militias organized by
the junta are targeting NLD members in Mandalay Region. A Thway Thout militia
in Myingyan Township says it wants to kill more NLD members,” said a Taung Tha
committee member.
