Sectets of Commune 4828

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Secrets of Commune 4828

Secrets of Commune 4828 Aung Zaw, The Irrawaddy, August 2008

http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=13757&page=1

How communists played a shadowy role in Burmas 1988 pro-democracy uprising

FIRST, you must be faithful to the party, said my colleague softly and in the kind of toneadopted in a State of the Union address.

Second, you have to swear on oath never to betray the proletariat and poor peasantry. Igasped, he pausedand then went on: Third, you must believe in armed struggle.

I was 19 and astonished to hearthese words from somebody I hadknown for three years. He was one ofa group of writers and intellectuals, inhis 50s, and he ran a small shopselling secondhand books, where I

regularly hung out. He and others in his group represented Burmas world of letters and werewidely respected and well-known. They were poorbut rich in intellectual thought.

I was in his shop on this occasion not to buy books but to ask for a copy of the first edition ofAryoon-Oo(or Dawn), an underground newsletter published by the Communist Party ofBurma (CPB).

He parted with the copy only after I had agreed to the three conditions. I hesitated at first, butI was dying to read the newsletter and finally nodded to his conditions.

I stowed the newsletter away in my bag and stole nervously out of the shop, well aware that ifI were caught with it I could be charged with high treason. Safely at home, I unfolded thepublication and found it full of battle news, anti-government pronouncements and communistpropaganda.

It was my first contact with an underground communist cell. But I never became a CommunistParty membernor did I stick to the three conditions I had assented to in the bookshop.

The yearwas 1988,and Burma

washeadingrapidlytowardscrisis. The26-yearregime ofNe Wins

nominally socialist government was in a shambles, and the people were looking desperatelyfor an alternative.

(Illustrations: Harn Lay / The Irrawaddy)

Public dissent had already surfaced in 1987, with Ne Wins unpopular demonetization of theBurmese currency.
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Many thought the time was ripe for revolution. The communists, who had established anunderground network of cells throughout the country, foresaw troublebut also opportunity.The launch of Aryoon-Oowas among the first offensives of their anti-government campaign.

Long before the uprising in 1988, communists had decided to regroup in Burmas heartlandeven after losing their headquarters in the Burmese army assault on Pegu Yoma, near

Rangoon, in 1973-74. At the third party congress, held in Panghsang, at that time the CPBheadquarters on the Sino-Burmese border, it was decided to step up underground activitiesinside Burma.

I belonged at the time to a small literary group, later known as Insein Sarpay Wine, whichhad been established in the Rangoon suburb of Insein.

Many respected literary gurus were invited to address weekly discussions on Burmese andinternational literature. Although we carefully avoided political topics, the gatherings wereillegal and we were worried about the possibility of regime agents monitoring our activities.

I remember an energetic young writer and physician, Dr Zaw Min, who took part in our weekly

meetings. He loved the writings of Franz Kafka and had translated some of the Czechauthors short stories into Burmese, which were then published.

The last time I met him was at Rangoon General Hospital in September 1988 during the dailystreet protests. He was no longer the Kafka-reading intellectual but clearly a leading activist inthe uprising. As soon as he saw me, he gave me instructions to take to leaders of theprotests. Go and see them, tell them I sent you.

The following year, on August 5, 1989, Zaw Mins name cropped up at a marathon pressconference given by the then intelligence chief, Maj-Gen Khin Nyunt. He was described thereas a leading underground communist.

Zaw Min worked for the CPBs student section and was a member of the 4828 undergroundnetworka coded number referring to the start of the communist uprising on March 28, 1948.

In his six-hour speech at the press conference in August 1989, Khin Nyunt charged thatcommunist cells and underground networks intended to destabilize the government.

Communists were behind the 1988 pro-democracy uprising, he claimed.

Twenty years later, many opposition sources admitted there was some truth in what KhinNyunt had to say.

Zaw Min was answerable to four leaders of 4828, who were known simply as A.1, A.2, A.3and A.4. All four were arrested following the 1988 uprising, and A.1, identified as

Maung Ko, aka U Lay Gyi, died under torture in Mandalay interrogation center. He wasreportedly determined to die a martyr, and is said to have told his interrogators: I was in thebusiness of revolution but not to cooperate with you.

The remaining three leaders were each sentenced to 20 years imprisonment, and one, KyawMya, the groups A.3, remains in jail after his sentence, which expired in 2005, was extendedafter a riot involving political prisoners.

A.2s nameThet Khaing, aka Ko Lattfeatured prominently at the Khin Nyunt pressconference.


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He was married to the daughter of Maj-Gen Kyaw Zaw, one of the Thirty Comrades whofought for independence alongside Gen Aung San. Kyaw Zaw joined the CPB in the 1970safter serving in the Burmese army and now lives in China.

A.4 was Tin Aung, aka Uncle Gyi, who worked with Thet Khaing on editing Aryoon-Oonewsletters.

Thet Khaing moved freely in and out of Rangoon for several years, even helping to arrangefor Kyaw Zaws wife and family members, who had remained in the capital, to join the generalat CPB headquarters in the late 1970s.

After his arrest in July 1989, Thet Khaings colleagues suspected that he had discloseddetails of the network to his captors, basing their fears on a series of raids launchedsimultaneously the same month against more than 200 activists, mainly in Rangoon, theIrrawaddy delta and Mandalay.

The four As came under the command of CPB central committee member Kyin Maung, akaYebaw Htay, who lived on the Sino-Burmese border after moving in 1985 from Panghsang to

Mongko, an area closer to Upper Burma and convenient for communicating with undergroundmembers operating inside the country.

In the 1980s, the CPB was expecting political upheaval because of deteriorating economicconditions, and at the third party congress it urged Gen Ne Win to hold multiparty democraticelections.

According to former political prisoners who worked with 4828 members, the CPB cells beganto operate inside Burma as early as 1986, targeting Mandalay and Rangoon, cities with manycommunist sympathizers and former party members.

Tin Aye, aka Khin Maung Yi, Burmas top chess player, who was imprisoned from 1989 until2005, told me: They (communists) were not looking for me. I was looking for them. I knewthat they were around.

He was not alone. Many students and civil servants who were dissatisfied with the way NeWin was running the country were searching for opposition forces and assistance tooverthrow the regime, no matter whether they were communists or capitalists.

Ne Win himself, in a speech to the UN in 1987, confirmed that Burma was in trouble,admitting that his regime had made mistakes.

With resistance to the regime on the rise, Ne Wins intelligence service stepped up itsactivities, monitoring the movements of communist sympathizers and their popular hangouts.

Leftwing activists and former communists were known to have opened bookshops, tuitioncenters and teashops, regarded by the regime as breeding grounds for new recruits, placeswhere they could establish study groups and plot an anti-government campaign.

It was a cat and mouse game in which the regime spooks often suffered embarrassingsetbacks.

Aye Win, publisher of Aryoon-Ooand a former member of the 4828 research department,who now lives in the US, told me: They (intelligence officers) thought Thet Khaing was sellingsecondhand books, so they monitored old book shops in downtown Rangoon, but we actedbourgeois and opened a grocery store in Bogyoke market.

In this way, dodging the attentions of the secret police, Aye Win and Thet Khaing increasedthe circulation of Aryoon-Ooand other underground papers and leaflets.


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The 4828 group also grew stronger and even infiltrated the inner circles of government. MinZin, a prominent former student activist and a regular contributor to The Irrawaddy, said Thecommunists had a big network [inside Burma] and could reach many of societys intellectualsand educated people.

Recruits were also drawn from the armed forces and the police, and they provided classified

information and logistical support to the hardcore 4828 members.

Htay Nyunt, a sub-inspector in the special branch of the police, was one such sympathizer,providing the party not only with information about the armed forces and the defense ministrybut also passing on the monthly reports of the police department.

There were many others who were able to pass on important information to the party.

Dr Maw Zin, who held a major position in one of the armys two Rangoon hospitals, was a keyactivist in 1988.

Win Kyi, the nephew of then deputy prime minister Thura Tun Tin, provided the CPB with

classified materials while serving in the Industrial Planning Department and then as Ministerof Industry 1.

When the crackdown intensified in 1989, Aye Win moved his offset printing machine to thepremises of the government-owned Mazda jeep factory, owned by a friend of his So noone would suspect us.

Looking back at those years, many former activists who worked with the 4828 network nowsay grave mistakes were made in 1988 and 1989. By forming political parties to contest the1990 general election, several veteran communists exposed themselves and their networks tothe regime.

The 4828 group targeted mainly idealistic students who were angry with the regime, and TinAye claimed that the student union set up in August 1988 was, in fact, controlled by 4828.

Prominent student leaders such as Ko Ko Gyi, Moe Thee Zun and Nyo Tunbut not Min KoNaingknew Thet Khaing and Zaw Min. But not all were communists. Thet Khaing met KoKo Gyi several times in 1988 but failed to persuade him to join the communist movement,some activists have now revealed.

Apart from recruiting students, 4828 also returned to its roots, establishing contacts withformer CPB members and their sympathizers.

Among prominent activists was Kyi Kyi, wife of Thakin Zin, who led the CPB in the 1970s afterthe death of Thakin Than Tun. Thakin Zin was killed in the government attack on Pegu Yomain 1973-74, while Kyi Kyi was captured.

Kyi Kyi eventually returned to Rangoon to live with her family, but she remained undersurveillance and in 1989 she was arrested on suspicion of supporting the CPB financially.

The CPB also targeted some prominent veteran politicians and their family members,including Khin Kyi, the widow of independence hero Gen Aung San and mother of detainedNobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi. The CPB chairman at that time, Ba Thein Tin,corresponded with both Khin Kyi and Suu Kyi.

Khin Kyi suffered a stroke and took no part in the pro-democracy movement. Her daughterSuu Kyi nursed her and then turned to politics. Although Suu Kyi carefully avoided any

connection with the CPB, the regime accused her of being a communist.


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Anyone who opposed the regime could be accused of communist sympathies, of course, andthis became a convenient political tool of the present junta.

Although many hardcore former communists are free today, Suu Kyis close party colleague,Win Tin, 79, formerly chief editor of the Hanthawaddynewspaper, remains behind bars.

Win Tin helped edit several underground student newsletters in 1988. Ironically, in the yearsprior to 1988, Ne Win called on Win Tin for political consultations whenever he visitedMandalay and even allowed him to produce a newspaperprompting Tin Aye to askfacetiously: Was Ne Win a part of 4828?

Kyaw Zaws son Aung Kyaw Zaw, who lives on the Sino-Burmese border, has acknowledgedthe role that 4828 played in the 1988 uprising, although he says it was limited. The partycould do little, he has said.

Aung Kyaw Zaw is critical of the CPBs political stand in those years, saying that although itcalled for multiparty democracy in Burma, its true aim was absolute power.

Min Zin has said: They [the communists] were not ready to embrace liberal thought and[were not] open for change. They themselves are radical, very commanding and afraid ofcompromise.

Tin Aye agrees. They are very dogmatic, says the man who spent time in prison with someleading 4828 members.

Behind prison walls, the debate over communist ideals continued, fuelled by world-shakingevents, such as Soviet Communist Party leader Mikhail Gorbachevs glasnost policy, the fallof the Berlin Wall and the Soviet empire and the end of Marxist and Maoist doctrines.

Tough prison conditions also took their toll. Thet Khaing reportedly attempted suicide in 1994

because of depression. He was subsequently released but did not return to the CPB fold andnow lives in Mandalay. Tin Aung was released in 2005 and returned to his family.

Zaw Min, also freed in 2005, still suffers from psychological trauma. He once applied for CPBmembership but no longer believes in communism, according to Tin Aye.

Zaw Mins former comrade, Htay Thein, a 31-year-old Rangoon University tutor in 1988, isfree, but reportedly suffers from mental illness.

The big irony in the story of Burmese communism is that many of those CPB leaders whohoped to overthrow the Ne Win regime, and who faced serious mutiny in 1989, fled to China,the country that now nurtures good neighborly relations with the junta in Burma.

Nearly 20 years later, the original longing for a democratic Burma remains unchanged.Communists might have played a role in pushing for change, but by and large the uprising in1988 was a genuinely all-inclusive eventthe Burmese people as a whole wanted change.

They financed the campaign and many parted with more than moneydying for the cause.To describe them sweepingly as communists would insult their memory.

Communism as such certainly served a purpose. As Zay Latt, a former political prisoner nowliving in exile, put it: We had to find a stick to beat [the enemy], so we found it [the CPB].

Aung Zaw, The Irrawaddy, August 2008
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Sectets of Commune 4828