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Excerpts From The "All Wars Are Dirty" by PHIL THORNTON
Excerpts From The "All Wars Are Dirty" by PHIL THORNTON
spies had successfully infiltrated the ABSDF, your group led by Shanis staged a coup, arrested, tortured and killed the fellow student rebels. If you had a sound and reasonable mind, you should understand or see through that propaganda warfare. No government nor any enemy would just easily declare that their spies had successfully infiltrated the opposing enemy and risks the exposures of their valued informants.
Organization (KIO) supplied us with food, but it was difficult to survive, and many died. The Kachin didn't completely trust us, as we were Burmans. They gave us a region to make money from jade mining and tax. It was 8,000 feet high, rocky, and difficult to grow rice or crops. We depended on supplies "In the rainy season the Burmese army attacked our positions, destroying our stores. We went without rice and salt for ten days. We became weak and those who got malaria died. I lost many friends, some only eighteen years old. Each of us got fifty kyat a month to live on. We existed by trapping and eating monkeys, rats, and porcupines . . . anything. "I was shocked to see people blown up and dead bodies. I had no battle experience, but I did fight. In 1990 we fought for forty days. I took command after our chief-ofstaff was injured. We got weapons from the KIO and what we took from dead enemy soldiers. "At this time I was elected general secretary. I was in charge of our underground network. We used it to recruit students inside Burma. We began to notice we were able to go back and forth through enemy lines without problems, but we found we had recruited students who had family connections with Military Intelligence. Our numbers quickly grew to more than 800. We suspected our network had been infiltrated by MI. Reports from the front line indicated we were losing battles in suspicious circumstances. Our soldiers noticed knife marks had been cut in trees that could have led Burmese soldiers to our positions. "We started to watch some people. We arrested four or five and, after interrogation, we had a small list. The list included members of our central committee. We found out the National Intelligence Bureau had trained some of these as spies, and others were just used as informers. I think some were motivated by ultra-nationalistic visions of a Burman master race. "It was very difficult for us to know what to do. I panicked. We knew nothing about human rights, or, more to the point, we didn't understand. We asked the KIO to help us to interrogate. By now we had a list of eighty spies. We made videotapes in case no one believed us. We chained the spies and locked them in the barracks. A Northern ABSDF central committee decided fifteen spies would be given the death penalty. We were at war, in armed struggle with the Burmese regime. Our constitution and law said we could give spies the death penalty. Many of our comrades had been killed because of these spies. Some members called for the death penalty for the entire eighty. We debated, argued, and finally agreed to fifteen. The sentences were determined by what the spies had done and how important they
were to the [Burmese] military. Aung Naing was distressed by his memories and having to replay the events leading up to the executions. I upset him further when I asked him how the death sentences were carried out. Some of them were shot and some were beheaded. They were shot at close range by pistol by our officers. We thought the guns caused more suffering, so we thought if we switched to machetes it would be less. But they were not cleanly beheaded, even though the spinal cords were severed. I watched . . . it was done in front of all ABSDF soldiers. We would have liked to free all of thembut if we had, it would have sent a message that we welcomed spies. It was a hard decision to make, and before we made it we approached, through the KIO, Amnesty International and the ICRC [International Committee of the Red Cross]. We needed help; we wanted to hand the prisoners 164 over to them. They said they couldnt do anything, as they could not reach us on the Burma-China border. It was the hardest thing Ive ever done. But we felt we had no choice. It was not uncommon for armed opposition groups in Burma to execute spies. The Burmese army just killed anyone they caught on the spot without a trial. Aung Naing left the room to throw up. He came back and swallowed hard before he continued. When life is peaceful, its easy to draw moral lines, but in war its different. In the jungle the only way to conduct politics is with armed struggle. It was said that the killings were politically motivated, but nobody gained any political advantage. We had no internal splits, none of us gained anything. Before the executions we ate fish paste, and after the executions we ate fish paste. It could have been eighty instead of fifteen. It is understandable the families are upset. We asked the parents to come and talk with us. The people who betrayed us were our friends. My friend, Htun Aung Kyaw [ABSDF chairman at the time], was executed. He was like my older brother. We were very close. He didnt admit he was involved, but evidence showed that he was. The fighting was hard. War is a different reality. We were isolated and had no connection with human rights groups. We had no opportunity to learn about democracy or human rights. If we had, it may have been different. I believed I
needed to take responsibility and resolve the problem. There should be an investigation like South Africas Truth Commission. People need to know what really happened. The problem will be to get MI to hand over their files. We thought we were emulating our hero Aung San by going to the jungle to fight to free our country. We didnt even know Burma was freed because of the Second World War. I was 24. I thought I was old enough, but after this experience I knew I was too young to be a leader. Im glad Im out of politics. During lunch with Aung Naing in Mae Hong Son a few days after the interview, I pointed my spoon at a pungent dish in a wok. Aung Naing laughed and said that it was monkey intestine. Filed under: Burma, UNHCR, Universal Declaration of Human Rights, UNSC, UNSG, War Crimes Tagged: | ABSDF, All Burma Students Democratic Front (ABSDF), Aung Naing, Dr Aung Naing, Execution, Killing fields, Torture, War Crimes