Window on Burma #13

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BINA  -- The Burma Independent News Agency  --  

Window on Burma  #13  
  
(From Mojo #5, August 1999)


A VICTIM'S VIEW OF THE SPDC CRIMINAL COURT 

[Editor's Note: The gentle and soft-spoken Ko Way Tun was a member of a
student
democracy group on the Thai border from 1992 to 1996.  He then spent three
years in Moulmein prison (1996-99).  After completing his sentence, he escaped
back to the Thai border and rejoined the revolutionary democracy forces.  This
is the story of Ko Way Tun's "day in SPDC court", as told to MOJO.]

I was caught by Military Intelligence agents on the 30th of January 1996, near
Three Pagoda Pass at the Thai border.  There they put me in the local jail,
and
charged me with "Section 17/1", contact with rebel groups.  For about 10 days
the MI #5 interrogated me all day, then sent me back to the jail every night. 
They had me rewrite my statement 3 or 4 times, to see if I was lying.  After
that nothing happened for two months.  Maybe they had gotten bored with my
case.

There were several NLD members in jail with me.  One, U Kyin Thein, the MP
from
Kyar Inn Seik Kyi, was arrested because of his son.  The son threw paint on an
SPDC signboard.  When the police could not find the son, they arrested the
father.  He was sentenced to 7 years in jail.  

Another inmate was U Tin Kyi, Chairman of the Chaung Hsone Township NLD in Mon
State, who was jailed for 5 years.  Then there was Tay Za Lin, NLD Youth
member
from Ma U Bin Township in Irrawaddy.  Finally, U Maung Toe, NLD member from
Bee
Lin, was in for 3 years.  His crime was giving alms at his house on Martyr's
Day 1997.  The government claimed that this was an act of rebellion against
the
SPDC.

On Sunday, the 30th of March, early in the morning, Police Sub-Inspector Kyet
Kalay came to see me in my cell.  His name used to be Khin Maung Oo when he
was
looking after the chickens at the Police Inspector's house.  He said, "I came
to take you to the court."  

"Today is Sunday", I said.  I wondered why they finally decided to hear my
case
now.  Then I remembered that today the army trucks would be taking the
prisoners to Moulmein prison from Three Pagodas, and I would be left behind. 
So they had to decide my case today, and get me on the truck. 

 I followed Kyet Kalay as he went to see the judge U Aung Thin, who would hear
the case.  But he came back from the judge's house alone.  "The judge is
drinking whiskey," he said.  "We have to wait until afternoon."  He sent me
back to the jail to wait.

At about 1.00 pm, Kyet Kalay went to wake up the judge, and the three of us
went together to the empty courtroom.  When Township Police Chief Saw Than
Yin,
arrived, U Aung Thin said, "Okay, let's get started." 

"You sit down," he told me, so I sat on a vacant chair.  He was still wearing
his pajamas.  "You, Kyet Kalay, go and find a witness.  We have to have a
witness, or this will look like a children's game."  

Kyet Kalay was confused, unable to think of whom he could call as a witness. 
Then he had an idea, went off on his motorcycle, and returned in a few minutes
with Ko Than Lwin.

Ko Than Lwin is one of the SPDC's "student amnesty seekers", who was never
really a student but an SPDC informer.  He had earlier joined ABSDF Regiment
#207 under false pretenses, in order to get information for his military
masters, then he "defected" back to the government in 1994 at the Burmese
Embassy in Bangkok, during the SLORC's so-called "student amnesty" program.
 He
was rewarded with land and a house near Three Pagodas, provided that he
continue to supply information and "services" to the MI.  Khet Kalay was
right:
Than Lwin was the perfect "witness" for my case. We Burmese would call a
person
like Than Lwin "General Kneeling", because of his constant subservient
posture.

As soon as Kyet Kalay entered the room, he pointed to me and said to Than
Lwin,
"Do you know him?  Is he from the student camp?"  Than Lwin had never seen me,
but he said that he knew me, and that I was "from the student camp."  Saw Than
Yin gave Than Lwin a Buddhist scripture to swear on.  

Kyet Kalay asked the judge if he wanted to call a defense lawyer for me, but
Aung Thin said, "Never mind, we will manage it by ourselves.  I have a
headache, and this is taking a long time.  Let's go on to the sentencing."  

Kyet Kalay said, "Good idea, Your Honor."  On hearing this, Aung Thin
turned to
me and said, "I sentence you to three years in jail."

Then, pressing his thumb and middle finger to his head as if in pain, he left
with Saw Than Yin, saying, "OK, I will write the judgement when I go back
to my
office, and send it up."  Before he left, he told me, "It is not too long a
sentence, only three years in jail.  You are satisfied, aren't you?"

On the signboard hanging behind the judge's chair was written: "Correctly,
Precisely, Quickly".  It seemed to be laughing at me.  I said nothing. 
Opposite the signboard was the dock, where every defendant who has had to face
the dictator's court must stand.  I thought that if this dock could speak, it
would say, "Learn the meaning of chaos, all ye who enter here."  

This was my personal experience of in a court of law under the SPDC
government:
No lawyer assisted me, no competent witnesses were summoned, no interrogatory
took place.  The judge was drunk.  I was sentenced by edict, and not by
verdict, and summarily dispatched to prison.

Those of us who fight against unrighteousness  are we the offenders?  The
shameless ones who put me in jail so casually  was that a proper use of state
power?  Of course, not.  This is why their tyranny never makes me feel
inferior.  

In the colonial times, there was a saying, "Thakin Pauk Sa, Taung Kyauk La,"
which meant, "To be a new Thakin (master), 6 months in jail [are required]." 
But in "Peace and Development" times, at least 3 years in jail are required of
those who are ready and willing to evict the usurpers.  And many have already
spent more time in jail than I have.


***********

[WHAT IS MOJO?  MOJO means "Lightning" in Burmese.  MOJO is an independent
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social, political, and economic news from all over Burma, and its intended
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?Dialogue is inevitable.  We will not just sit and wait.  We will continue
doing what has to be done.?
NLD General Secretary Daw Aung San Suu Kyi]