High Treason in Burma

Zin Linn
Mizzima News

4 June 2003: People were shocked at the news that pro-military gangs had assaulted Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and her party near Ye-Oo, a town in Sagaing Division. Although most people are disgusted by the military junta's outlaw regime, they had never expected that it could commit an extra-judicial massacre. But unfortunately this is what happened.

On 30 May 2003, 250 NLD party members accompanying party leaders Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and U Tin Oo on a tour of Upper Burma were reportedly attacked by members of the USDA, the police and military on the way to Ye-Oo at night around 8.30pm. The military junta has stated that four persons were killed and 50 injured after members of the NLD clashed with a crowd of thousands people demonstrating against the NLD at Ye-Oo on the road from Budalin to Depaeyin and that local authorities subsequently intervened and took control of the incident.

According to later reports by local residents, 250 NLD members traveling in a motorcade were attacked by a group of 500 soldiers, police, the USDA members and prisoners from Mandalay Prison, who reportedly shot at the tires of the motor-vehicles and launched an ambush assault. In the ensuing melee which lasted for about an hour, the attackers beat up NLD members, using bamboo-sticks and spears. Soldiers also opened fire, killing and wounding a large number of NLD members. The attack did not just constitute harassment but a well-planned massacre, said one of the incident's escapees. Eye-witnesses who fled the massacre reported that the number of casualties might be as high as 200.

Among the people who fled the incident, there were also some members of the military-backed Union Solidarity and Development Association(USDA). Those USDA members confessed to their relatives and neighbours that the incident had been a plot. At first they thought they were merely to cause some degree of harassment. But the situation turned out to involve a fierce ambush battle. According to some USDA members, some NLD members were killed by prisoners using bamboo-spears.

A NLD Mandalay township executive member who escaped from massacre reported that Win Mya Mya, executive of the NLD's Mandalay Division, was badly injured and had both her hands broken and that one member of parliament, U Tin Aung Aung, was killed.

U Tin Aung Aung was a member of the NLD Mandalay Division Organizing Committee after the ruling military junta released Daw Aung San Suu Kyi in May 2002 from 19 months of house arrest. He imprisoned under the Penal Code Article 122 (1) and sentenced to 25 years in 1990 after being arrested for attending meetings in Mandalay to form a provisional government. U Tin Aung Aung received a Bachelor of Engineering degree from Rangoon Institute of Technology (RIT). He served as an executive engineer of the Land Transportation Corporation from 1969-1988.

The fate of two other members of parliament, U Saw Hlaing of Inn-daw and U Myint Kyi of Ka-tha, is as yet unknown. A student from Mon-ywa Technical College named Min Zaw Oo was also shot dead. While his remains were carried to Mon-ywa by his friends, an armed group arrested the group.

According to local news-sources, a student demonstration held on 31 May 2003 in Monywa, Sagaing Division, in protest against the attack on 30 May 2003 was violently suppressed by the military who reportedly fired on and assaulted demonstrators, leading to the death of an abbot U Pannya Siri, a novice and two students.

Many NLD members, including senior leaders, are believed to be in detention and have reportedly had no access to their relatives. Most of the NLD members arrested were sent to Kham-tee prison, situated in a very remote area in north-western Burma. Vice-chairman U Tin Oo's fate is as yet unknown as are his where-abouts.

NLD offices across the country have been reportedly closed down, and authorities indefinitely closed high schools and universities as well on 2 June.

Maj Gen Soe Win, SPDC Secretary-2, was reportedly in command of the well-planned massacre on 30 May 30. The Northwest Military Command was used as the operation's headquarter.

The closure of NLD offices and the arrest of NLD senior executives and township level officials by the SPDC are all aimed at covering up the massacre and the brutal crackdown which got out of hand.

On 3 June, the Burmese military authorities denied reports that opposition leader and the Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi had been hurt in the clash between her supporters and pro-junta protesters but declined to disclose her whereabouts for "security reasons", diplomats said.

Deputy Foreign Minister Khin Maung Win told diplomats in a closed-door briefing that the Nobel Peace Prize laureate had been taken to a secure place but declined to reveal further details about her location or condition.

"Khin Maung Win reiterated that foreign media reports about Suu Kyi being injured during the violence were not true. He said she was not hurt at all," said a diplomat who attended the briefing, which lasted more than an hour.

The minister did not say how long Suu Kyi would remain in custody or where she was being kept.

As one diplomat said it was "bizarre" that she had been taken to a guesthouse instead of her own home where she has spent years under house arrest in the past. "They have chosen the option of the most complete confinement, and this could make us think that she has been hurt," he said. But Suu Kyi's status could become clearer later this week when U.N. special envoy Razali Ismail visits Rangoon.

Meanwhile, a rumor has spread across the country that the military authorities have done away with all the criminal prisoners who obeyed and participated as butchers in the massacre in order to cover up plot which was a very systematic and well-planned attack against Suu Kyi's entourage.

However, in minds of Burmese people Aung San Suu Kyi and the NLD is their favorite choice for government while the junta is an illegitimate dacoit-liked regime. For that reason, the 30 May massacre plot must be thought of as a kind of conspiracy or treason, and the generals have to be put on trial in front of an international court in the near future. The international community should seriously consider forming an international board to inquire into the massacre. This board of inquiry should also take responsibility for drawing up a list of persons missing or dead in the wake of the incident.