Saturday, 8 November 2008
Kalpesh Lathigra
Aung says: 'I saw a young girl murdered by the army as she begged for mercy. I will never forget that
Ko Aung was a student in Burma during the country's 8888 uprising, named after the date on which it began, 8 August 1988. Thousands of people, mostly Buddhist monks and students, were slaughtered by the country's armed forces. As head of a student movement protesting against the socialist government, Aung was arrested several times, held as a political prisoner for six years, and tortured.
I was born in 1963 in Rangoon, Burma's then capital, and enjoyed a normal upbringing. I was doing a course in industrial chemistry at Rangoon Art and Sciences University. The Burma Socialist Programme Party was in power and suddenly decided to ban all bank notes. At that point I began to get politically involved. The university was state-funded and already there were not enough text books to go around. It occurred to me that the country was getting cash from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) but little of that was filtering through.
It was then that I organised the students to burn bank notes in the canteen as a means of protest. The clashes between students and government continued; someone was shot outside Rangoon Institute of Technology. At the beginning of 1988 we marched. The army blocked our campus and then arrested hundreds of students. When I escaped, the police followed me to my parents' home and arrested me. I was detained for a month, had no food or drink for six days and was beaten. After I was released I rebuilt an underground network. We started to protest again within the university campus. It was closed down so we went further underground.
On 8 August 1988 people took to the streets. I saw a young girl murdered by the army after she begged for mercy. I will never forget that. After that I was one of the founders of the All Burma Federation of Student Unions. We continued protesting. In September of that year I was arrested. I was brutally tortured for six months in several different military intelligence centres. I was sentenced without trial to seven years in prison with hard labour.
In prison I kept fighting for more rights for the prisoners. So they put me in solitary confinement with leg irons three times. I was eventually released in 1994. I was asked to sign a confession that I was not involved in a political movement but I refused. So I had to flee the country. I used a fake passport to come to the UK.
I am now the executive committee member of the Burmese Democratic Movement Association UK. I am also training to be an immigration adviser. I will not give up the cause for freedom. I still support my comrades in Burma and financially support the underground movement as best I can. The events of 8888 will always be burned on my heart.
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