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Karen National Martyrs' Day:Justice



Subject: Karen National Martyrs' Day:Justice for the oppressed.

When Students are Called to be Soldiers: What has been going wrong, Burma?

By- Naw May Oo
San Francisco State University, California, USA

	The following essay is to honor the Karen National Martyrs? Day which is on
August 12, 1997.  I solely dedicate this smallest contribution of mine to Saw
John and Saw Hsa Tu Baw , the two students from Ah Moe Mission High School
who were killed by State Law and Order Restoration Council?s troops while
bravely defending their beloved land, village, school, teachers, and friends
in the Ah Moe/ Htee Kee battle in Tennaserim division on the Southern
Burma-Thai border.
	
	One morning, I received a phone call from Kanchanaburi, Thailand.  The voice
on the other side of the phone was trembling and the vibration was
immeasurable.  What I was told was: 
		?What should I do?  I didn?t want to fight, and yet I fought.  Then I could
barely make my way out here.  I thought my life was finished in the darkness
of the jungle.  Did you hear anything about us?? He was one of my old fellow
students and his name was Saw Ner Soe.  I told him to calm down and take a
deep breath, and then tell me what was going on. I was not sure if he was
crying or not.  But I cried as I listened to what he told me.  He said ,?I
lost control when I saw my friend shot to death on the spot.... He was my
friend!?  I completely understood how he would feel to see the death of a
friend.  He continued, ?I don?t know what to do anymore, and I can?t get rid
of seeing what I have seen.  That makes me sick.?  Again this is completely
understandable. The question exists: how can young students like Saw Ner Soe,
who have witnessed the bloody death of their friends, ever be free from
memories of such an ugly and painful past?  Saw Ner Soe is just one account
that I bring up, but there are many such students suffering from the effect
of those sights and experiences.  I am so deeply concerned because it is
happening in Burma, my country, and the people are suffering.  What has been
going wrong in Burma?

	When things went wrong in Ancient Greece, in the days of Oedipus, the people
came to the King and listened to the oracle the gods and goddesses gave to
him.  And then they found solution for whatever was wrong in their country
and fixed it.  However, this is not an oracle that is read by or heard by a
King.  This is the reality that the young students perceive and experience.
 I hope there will also be solutions to whatever they are facing.  A poem has
been born in to this myth-like world of the reality, and it is as followed:

Oracle: The Lost and Found
I see ....
Grayish sky on the reddish land
Whose hands paint this portrait of my men?
Presenting their unspoken agony
The stinking plantations tell the story ..
?come find your friends here,
for they?ve been lying as several dead deer.?
And they say ....
when the wind starts speaking
It?s louder than ten children crying
And when the bushes try to cover things up
It?s the air refusing to let them be covered.
I think .... (to myself)
One need not be an artist
To paint such a terrible pit ....
Then .... (I wake up)
Thank goodness!  Was it an oracle? Or was it a dream?
Thinking where my lost friends must have been ....
O Lord ... Please let it... let it be untrue
You know ?Oedipus?* once had been a fool
For that oracle for him did come true.
	
	Besides for the two students who gave up their lives defending the land they
were born and raised in, this is also for the young students like Saw Ner Soe
who have been victimized by such terrible effects of war, and for all the
freedom fighters who have been contributing their energy, strength, nobility,
and love to the struggle for a new Burma, a land that would be filled with
peace, justice, and prosperity.  I would like to call them martyrs, for they
are extraordinarily brave and selfless in defending the land they inherited
by birth, and my words come out of love not only for the land, but for all
mankind and justice.
This is the reality of life in Burma?s war zone.
How are we going to solve our terrible problems?  

Note:  In commemoration of the Karen National Martyrs? Day, August 12, 1997. 
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