On January 31st, 1949, at noon, Saw Ba U Gyi, President of the KNU (Karen National Union) and Thakin
Nu[later U Nu] Prime Minister of the brand new,barely one year old, independent Union of Burma,were
to meet for resolving the rapidly deteriorating situation between the Karens and Burmans, in general,
and the KNDOs (Karen National Defense Organization, the armed wing of the KNU) and the Levies or
'Sit-wun-tan' troops (roughly, irregular armed units of the ruling AFPFL party of the government)as well
as Burman Police and UMP (Union Military Police) forces, in particular.3 The night before, the Karen
village atThamaing, the southern suburb of Insein town, was fired upon by the Levies and intermittent
gunfire into this Karen quarter continued for the entire nocturnal hours.Early on the 31st morning, the
Levies practically surrounded the Thamaing Karen quarter and started firing into it in earnest. Attempts
to contact U Nu, the PM, by phone were unsuccessful.This meant that communication between Insein,
where the KNU Headquarters had moved to some time earlier, and Rangoon, a bare eight miles to the
south, was completely severed.The meeting between Saw Ba U Gyi and U Nu never took place.
...
As January 31st dawned, Saw Ba U Gyi was in Insein, by this time married to a daughter of U Zan, a
retired Karen official of the Burma Civil Service. Ba U Gyi evidently failed to get hold of his erstwhile
friend, U Nu, by telephone.The day fighting started in Insein, regular Chin troops were ordered to
search the Rangoon Karen quarters at Ahlone and were able to confiscate five shotguns, legally
licensed and two Army rifles, unlicensed.4 That very night of January 31st, that Ahlone Karen quarter,
also known as Th'taygon village, was attacked and torched by irregular Burman troops, killing a few
people in the process. According to U Nu, he, Brig.
...
By the end of WW II, the KCAB was renamed the Karen Central Organization (KCO) with Saw Tha Din
as President and Treasurer, Mahn Ba Khin, Secretary, Saw Tha Htoe, Associate Secretary, and
Executive Members of Saw Ba U Gyi, Saw San Po Thin, Saw Myat Thein, Mahn James Tun Aung, Mahn
Shwe Tun Kya, Saw Ba Maung, James Tahpa, and Sidney Loo Nee.9 With the Burmese leadership
under General Aung San trying to win independence of Burma from Britain, the Karens felt that they
needed to remind the British of their help during the latter's reign in Burma, and also the possibility of
their being mistreated by the Burmans once independence was won.
...
The KCO therefore sent a Good Will Mission represented by Saw Tha Din, Saw Ba U Gyi, Saw Po Chit
and Sidney Loo Nee, to the United Kingdom in July-August, 1946, to discuss the Karen people's situa-
tion in post-war Burma, and also look into a provision for a Karen State.10
...
The first President of the KNU was Saw San Po Thin, and the Central Executive Members included Saw
Tha Din, Saw Ba U Gyi, Mahn Ba Khaing, Mahn Win Maung (later to become the last President of the
Union of Burma government of constitutional democracy), Mahn Ba Zan, Saw Hunter Tha Hmway, Saw
Sankey, and Saw Aung Win.
...
Major grievances for the Karens were that, although two prominent Karens, Mahn Ba Khaing as Minister
of Labor and Industry, and Saw Ba U Gyi, as Minister of Information, were representatives in the British
governor's ruling Council, not only that a Karen leader was not included to present the Karen's cause
and aspiration during the London negotiations for Burma's independence, there was also no mention in
the Aung San-Atlee Agreement (January 27, 1947) of the establishment of a separate Karen State that
had been contemplated for quite a while already.
...
Having failed to receive any reply from the British PM by March 31st, as previously agreed upon, Saw Ba
U Gyi resigned his Information Minister position.Unfortunately, with Ba U Gyi's resignation, Saw San Po
Thin, the KNU President, together with other KYO members of Mahn Win Maung, Mahn Ba Khaing, Mahn
Kyaw Sein and Saw Sein Tin, left the KNU organization.On April 10th, the KNU convened an emergency
meeting of Central Executive Committee members and elected Saw Ba U Gyi as the new President, Mahn
Saw Bu as Vice President, Thra Tha Htoh as Secretary, and Saw Tha Din became Treasurer.12 It is this
superseded KNU that was later to be described as 'a most anti-Burman organization' by U (ex-Army Brig.
Gen.) Maung Maung.13
...
The BIA invasion of Myaungmya, culminating in the massacre of Saw Ba U Gyi's cousin, Saw Pe Tha, a
Cabinet Minister in Colonial Burma, his British wife and all but one of their children, was a blow to the
Karens.
...
Sir Ba U who headed the committee to look into the creation of a Karen State had, by this time, agreed,
in principle, that the Karens should have a state within the Union of Burma.
...
They issued bulletins that Ba U Gyi, in fact, went to contact one Bo Gamanni, a PVO (People's Volunteer
Organization) commander who was then still in revolt against the government.
...
Whether Ba U Gyi was actually to meet with Gamanni or moved his headquarters to a safer place is
unclear.
...
Among the top leaders and advisors to Saw Ba U Gyi were U Zan, his then father-in-law, Mahn Ba Zan,
Mahn James Tun Aung, Saw Bellay, and Saw Hunter Tha Hmwe.According to Mahn Ba Zan, after the
evacuation of Insein, Mahn James Tun Aung, Saw Bellay and U Zan became disenchanted with the
Karen cause and left the KNU.29 Top leaders who left Insein and met at Kya-Inn-Haung village of Tant-
abin Township in Insein District comprised Saw Ba U Gyi, Mahn Ba Zan,Saw Sankey, Saw Hunter Tha
Hmwe and Skaw Maw Lay.
...
It was decided that Saw Ba U Gyi, Saw Sankey and Skaw Maw Lay were to proceed to Toungoo and set
up the KNU Central Headquarters there.
...
Saw Ba U Gyi arrived in Toungoo in early June and called a meeting on the 14th of that month, attended
by KNU delegates from Thaton, Nyaunglebin and Toungoo.
...
Following the meeting, the Free Karen radio station at Toungoo broadcast an announcement to the wor-
ld about the establishment of a provisional Kawthoolei government with Saw Ba U Gyi as the first Prime
Minister.
...
Once at Papun, Saw Ba U Gyi, the KNU President, educated in England with a law degree and in his late
thirties, began to draw up plans for restructuring the KNU. A full KNU Congress was convened on July
17, 1950 in Papun.
...
Attending as observers were Mrs. Ba U Gyi (U Zan's Daughter), P'doh (meaning government Official)
U Tauk, Wareegyaw, Colonel Tahkapaw.
...
In his opening statement, Saw Ba U Gyi pointed out that for the Karens, this would be the first and last
revolution.He also emphasized that the Karen revolutionaries could never expect to all travel to Rangoon
and slit the throats of the enemies.
...
This one and only KNU Congress that Ba U Gyi led ended inconclusively and although no substantial dec-
isions and achievements were made during the meetings, the three ways of gaining a Karen autonom-
ous state advocated in his opening speech were discussed and adopted; these were: (1) voluntary gift
of what was rightfully deserved that would never happen,(2) to fight for it, and (3) to obtain it by means
of prevailing or surrounding circumstances.
...
General Saw Sankey was also appointed as P.A.(Personal Assistant) with the formal designation of
Private Secretary to Ba U Gyi, the KNU President.43 Also adopted were what have since become known
as Saw Ba U Gyi's "Four Principles of the Karen Revolution", which are:
...
In early August, Ba U Gyi and Saw Sankey with a small party set out to the Moulmein area, purportedly
to reorganize the KNU and improve on the revolution activities.45 According to another source, the Co-
ngress minutes show that Saw Ba Gyi's last words were, "I am now going to pull a political stunt."46
There was speculation that Ba U Gyi might have been on his way to Thailand to meet a foreign contact.
...
Ba U Gyi and party also stayed more than one night at that emergency camp waiting for the rains to
stop. In the early hours of August 12th, 1950, the rains still pouring down, a young Burman lieutenant
(or captain - said to be Sein Lwin, the same man who became General Sein Lwin, or Butcher Sein Lwin,
as he was later known when he ordered the killing of several hundred students and civilians on 8-8-88)
and his troops crept up on the camp before dawn, surrounded it and demanded Saw Ba U Gyi and his
party to surrender.Of course there was no surrender, and Ba U Gyi,
Published on: 9/28/1998
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