Kyaw Zaw - Unfinished Business

Unfinished Business

Kyaw Zaw, after nearly ten years in exile in 1998, now aged 78, called for a meaningful political dialogue between the ruling junta — the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) — and Burmese opposition groups, including the National League for Democracy (NLD) led by Aung San Suu Kyi. He believed the Burmese people's struggle for a government they deserved had not finished yet and that they would have to "struggle for themselves courageously, ceaselessly and collectively". The military regime's move to Pyinmana as the capital of the country, he commented, indicated not so much the fear of invasion by the United States as the fear of another popular uprising in future.

Kyaw Zaw was then only one of two surviving Thirty Comrades. The Thirty Comrades were a group of Burmese men who secretly left Burma in 1941, and were trained by the Japanese on Hainan Island and returned to Burma with the invading Japanese Army in early to mid-1942. In a house in Bangkok on December 26, 1941, most of the Thirty Comrades had their blood drawn (in syringes) and poured into a silver bowl from which each of them drank (thway thauk in time-honoured tradition) and pledged "eternal loyalty" to each other and to the cause of Burmese independence. Among the Thirty Comrades were Thakin Aung San who took the nom de guerre Bo Tayza, Thakin Shu Maung who became Bo Ne Win and Thakin Shwe who became Bo Kyaw Zaw. Kyaw Zaw was one of the youngest of the Thirty Comrades. The sole surviving member of the Thirty Comrades today is Bo Yè Htut who is believed to be living in Pyinmana. Bo Ye Htut, like Bo Zeya (killed in action in 1968) and Bo Yan Aung (killed in the CPB purge of 1967), was one of the Communist members of the Thirty Comrades who led the Army rebellion in 1948 when Bo Kyaw Zaw decided to remain in the Army. Kyaw Zaw had also stated that he always believed the British were behind the assassination of Aung San one way or another.

The memoirs of Kyaw Zaw written in Burmese can be accessed at the CPB web site. It was published outside Burma in 2007 titled "From Hsaisu to Menghai". He was regarded by some as one of only three military leaders in Burma's history that enjoyed the status of teacher in the heart of ordinary soldiers; the other two were Aung San and Tin Oo.