28, monk
ETHNICITY: Burman
BIRTHPLACE: Kyaukpadaung Township, Mandalay Division, Burma
INTERVIEWED IN: Utica & Brookyn, New York, USA
U Agga is an activist monk whom we first met in Utica, New York, where he lived with three other Burmese monks in exile. Several months later, he welcomed us to the Brooklyn brownstone to which he and the other monks had moved, in order to be closer to the network of people working for human rights in Burma. The brownstone was simply furnished, and now serves as a monastery as well as an office for the All Burma Monks’ Alliance. The monks, wearing their traditional saffron-colored robes, were busily walking in and out of the house and meeting with friends, in preparation for their monastery’s opening ceremony later that week.
In 2007, U Agga marched in the Saffron Revolution, a monk-led uprising against the policies and oppression of the SPDC. The marches were the largest anti-government demonstrations in Burma in almost twenty years. When protests intensified in Rangoon, with tens of thousands of people marching, U Agga found himself in the middle of the military government’s brutal crackdown.
The first time I marched in protests was in the uprising in 1988. I was six years old. Almost the whole country came onto the streets to march. Even in small villages, they went to see the march, to make demands of Burma’s military regime.
I was with some other kids in my village, and we saw some students and adults holding up the portrait of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi wearing a farmer’s hat. We tried to find out who she was, and we wanted to learn the political slogans they were saying. Some students explained to us that she was the daughter of General Aung San, the revolutionary who freed Burma from the British. The protests first started after the government made some currency notes worthless. People got very upset and took to the streets, and they started to demand democracy.
My older brothers, who were eighteen and twenty-five years old, got in a truck to go to the demonstrations in Kyaukpadaung town, which was very close to our village. Some student leaders had come to our village in trucks to take villagers to the demonstrations in town. But my brothers didn’t allow me to go with them—so I waited and got in the next truck with some of my young friends. My parents didn’t know.
I was originally marching with university and high school students, and then other ordinary civilians—all kinds of people—marched in the protests. I was so happy to march with everyone; it was fun, and I was happy to see all the people and monks marching harmoniously in the streets. At the time, I didn’t know the meaning of democracy, but I knew about the brutality of the military dictatorship.
But then many people were killed in cities like Rangoon or Mandalay, because the army just started shooting people with their guns. Thousands of people died from the shootings in the 1988 uprising. Not so many people died in my hometown. When they started shooting, we all ran to hide in the houses. All the students were running away, and some people took me to a house to rescue me. I was very afraid.
There’s no justice or freedom in Burma. Even when I was very young, I knew the government ruled the people very brutally. I saw the military regime make people in my village do forced labor to build a railroad. If they couldn’t do forced labor, they had to pay money. I would also listen during student meetings at the monastery—they talked to each other about the brutality of the military regime and how it oppresses the people. They talked about people who were arrested for writing about politics or human rights. They also talked about Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and the 1990 elections. The NLD—Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s party—was the most popular party, but after they won the national election, the military government didn’t allow the elected people to hold office. It was listening to people talk about the 1990 elections that first got me interested in politics.
I WANTED TO TRAVEL OUTSIDE BURMA AND SEE OTHER PARTS OF THE WORLD ONE DAY
I became a novice monk in 1992, when I was ten years old and living in my hometown, a small village in Kyaukpadaung Township. After the popular uprising in 1988, the government closed all of the schools and universities throughout Burma, so I decided at the time to go to the monastery to study Buddhist religion and writing. When I first moved to the monastery when I was ten, I only intended to live in the monastery for about a week or ten days or so. But after a week, I changed my mind and decided to stay there for longer so that I could study Buddhism and meditation.
I stayed in my village at the monastery for three years as a novice. After I left my village I moved to a monastery in the region to study Buddhism and Sanskrit scriptures. My routine there was to wake up early in the morning, at about four o’clock, and then to pray, meditate, and chant with all of the other monks—sending our loving-kindness prayers.11 After that we would all eat breakfast together, and then we’d study the scriptures. I was fully ordained as a monk when I was twenty.
After I lived in that monastery for seven years, I moved to Rangoon so that I could study English—it’s the best place in Burma to be educated in other languages. I had realized that English is the universal language, and I wanted to be able to communicate with many different kinds of people. I wanted to travel outside of Burma and see other parts of the world one day. In Burma, most monks cannot speak English or are very weak in it because their monasteries don’t allow them to learn it—they say it takes time away from the monks’ study of Sanskrit and Buddhist scriptures. This is why it took me a really long time to find a monastery that would allow me to focus on the English language.
I studied English in a monastery that was a language center. The monastery taught seven languages—English, Chinese, Japanese, German, Italian, Thai, and Korean. Students could study whichever language they wanted, so I chose English. English is the most popular one these days. There were 100 monks in the monastery—they came from different small villages and cities in all of the different states of Burma. In truth, it was very difficult for us all to get along in the very beginning because we were from many different parts of Burma, but after only five days, we were all friendly with each other.
Living in Rangoon, I would usually go to Shwedagon Pagoda on Saturdays and Sundays. On those days I would practice my English with foreign tourists. Shwedagon Pagoda is the most important religious site in Burma. Many people go there after they finish working for the day to relax, pray, visit with their friends or family, things like that. It is a very peaceful place, and it is very quiet. It is also an interesting place to go and see many different kinds of people together at once.
It was a risk to talk about politics and human rights abuses with the tourists in Burma, but whenever I met tourists who were interested, I tried to talk to them. Young students were especially interested in learning about Burma. The tourists would show me what their guidebooks said about Aung San Suu Kyi, and I would be really interested in speaking with them about her. I’d explain more about her and about my country’s political situation.
The tourists were surprised that I talked about politics with them; they didn’t know anyone else who would talk about politics in Burma in public. But I could not control myself—sometimes, if people wanted to hear even more, I would take them to places where there were no people and talk to them secretly.
WE CANNOT JUST WATCH
In our country, there are not even basic human rights. The military regime oppresses the people as they wish, and there is no rule of law. We cannot express our own views, so that’s why I work with other monks, trying to get democracy for Burma, trying to change our government.
Monks are normal civilians, but I think they have a very special status in our country since most people are Buddhist. The monks are revered by the people. On a regular day, most monks go from house to house collecting alms—the laypeople treat the monks well, offering rice and dishes of food. If the monks need clothing or funding for their education, the people will support them. Most monks have to rely on the laypeople in Burma, so when the people are experiencing hardship, the monks cannot just watch. When the students took to the streets before the Saffron Revolution, many of them were arrested and put in jail.22 When the monks heard about these brutalities, we could not ignore it—that’s why we decided to march against the military regime.
Monks have influence on the people because many people respect the monks, and throughout many generations, monks have become involved in politics. So if we want to organize politically, for example, it’s easier for us than for laypeople to organize the people and the students.
Our organization is the All Burma Monks’ Alliance. During the Saffron Revolution in 2007, we organized and inspired students and laypeople to join the demonstrations together. We had to travel to many different cities and organize many monks to become involved in the Saffron Revolution. Then we had to send out many letters and organize students from different universities. In our country, it is very dangerous to work in politics, so we have to do political work very carefully. Anybody who is involved in politics can be arrested and harassed at any time. The Saffron Revolution was my first time doing a big protest; well, my first time was in 1988, but I was a kid and I didn’t understand very well what was happening. But when the Saffron Revolution broke out in 2007, I understood our country’s terrible situation and the brutal regime very well. By then, I had already been a monk for about thirteen years.
The Saffron Revolution started because the military regime heavily increased the price of fuel and basic commodities in August of 2007. The military regime sells our natural gas to countries like China, India, and Thailand, so fuel is very expensive in Burma, even though we have a lot of natural gas. Most people in Burma cannot pay such high prices. Most people cannot even get enough electricity—in most cities, even big cities like Rangoon, the electricity goes out almost every day. People get electricity for just a few hours each day—sometimes the lights come on in the early morning, or when people are sleeping, but after maybe three hours, they go out again. People living in the countryside can’t get any electricity at all. It’s difficult for people to work with the electricity shortage, and most people were very angry about the situation in 2007.
Another reason for the Saffron Revolution was that the military regime was spending a lot of money to build their new capital, Naypyidaw. They built so many buildings for no reason. They didn’t need to build a new capital. We already had a capital—Rangoon. When they built this new capital, they took a lot of land from farmers without giving them compensation.33 A lot of the farmers were in trouble because they lost their livelihood. The construction of Naypyidaw also made the prices of fuel and basic commodities become much higher than before. So one of our demands in the peaceful protest was to decrease fuel prices.
Another way the government oppresses the people is by making it difficult to get cell phones. Most people in Burma don’t have cell phones because they’re very expensive and very difficult to get. Even if someone can afford it, it’s very complicated to submit an application for cellular service to the government. It’s especially difficult for political activists to get cell phones because the military government is worried it will make it easier for them to organize a political movement. The government especially watches former political prisoners. That’s why most former political prisoners decide to leave Burma, because it’s like they’re still in prison. They have to report everything they do and they are watched all the time.
The government only spends money to expand its army. They’re spending the money just for warfare and for their own families. They’re also trying to build a nuclear reactor because they have connections with North Korea.44 The military dictatorship bullies the people because they don’t care about them.
Because of the high fuel and commodity prices, about 500 monks in Pakokku decided to do a peaceful march, chanting loving-kindness. But military soldiers brutally cracked down on all those monks who were marching peacefully. When we heard this news, the All Burma Monks’ Alliance issued a statement calling for all monks in Burma to march peacefully. Burmese monks made four demands: number one, the regime must apologize for cracking down on the monks; number two, all political prisoners, including Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, must be released;55 number three, the price of fuel and basic commodities must be lowered; and number four, the regime must have dialogue with Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, our national leader, and the rest of the democratic opposition. But the military didn’t comply with our demands.66
SEPTEMBER 20 AND 21
Some monks began marching on September 18, 2007, but there was heavy rain on the 18th and 19th, so I could not get to the protests because of flooding. I was also finishing an exam at my monastery, but my mind was on the protests—I was eager to go. I joined on September 20. We marched in our saffron-colored robes, holding the alms bowls upside-down, which meant we were excommunicating the Burmese military regime from Buddhism. If someone is removed from the Buddhist religion, it’s a very strong symbol. That’s why when the monks held the alms bowls upside down to excommunicate the Tatmadaw, it was a very serious message.77 The students and civilians encouraged us while we were marching—they were clapping, shouting, and paying their respects to the monks, and they offered us water, medicine, candy, and some donations of money.
Many students and civilians joined us, and some watched from their apartments or from the sidewalk. The students wore white shirts and longyis while they marched alongside us. Although we marched all day, we were not tired; the students and civilians inspired us to keep marching for justice in Burma. I had never seen so many monks outside—I think there were at least 50,000 monks marching in Rangoon.88 It was a very good opportunity for the monks and students to march together in harmony. Monks have a very close relationship with students, because whenever we do peaceful protests, we organize with each other—not only in 2007, but throughout history.
Some monks brought religious flags from their pagodas. The religious flag represented the unity of Burmese monks. We were just chanting the Metta Sutra, loving-kindness, chanting and singing along the way. We didn’t recite any political slogan as we marched, we were just praying: May all human beings be free and happy; may all human beings be free from danger; may all human beings be free from physical suffering and mental suffering; may all human beings be free from fear and anger.
We marched with all the monks together in the middle and the students and civilians surrounding us. The students and civilians marched in two lines on either side of us, to protect the monks in case the security forces attacked us. In the beginning, not so many people joined, but after about two days, we kept marching and it built up more and more. It became very crowded—the streets and sidewalks were full of people. It was especially crowded when we made a speech near Sule Pagoda, in the area by City Hall.99
SEPTEMBER 22
Before I left my monastery to continue marching on September 22, I heard that monks and students would march in front of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s house that day. I was confused and I thought it must be just a rumor, because it’s very dangerous for monks or students to march in front of her house—there are always many security forces there. I didn’t think they would allow us to march there, because the military government never allows anyone to meet with Daw Aung San Suu Kyi. But after we marched to Shwedagon Pagoda that day, we all decided to march in front of her house.
The military government is so afraid of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, because she is powerful. Her party won the 1990 election, and most people love her as the true leader of Burma. If someone wears a T-shirt with her photo on it, that person will be watched and probably arrested. The military government tries to make the people forget her, they try to cut her off from the people, but she is always in their hearts.
When we arrived near Aung San Suu Kyi’s house, the soldiers and riot police would not allow us to continue. Some of the monk leaders tried to negotiate with the soldiers, and then one soldier went to speak with a senior general to get permission for us to march. The monks promised the soldiers that we would not do anything violent, that we would just march and pray and chant the Metta Sutra. After we negotiated with them, they decided to let us march in front of her house.
It was drizzling that day. When we began to march by her house, most of the monks and students began chanting more loudly. We were praying for her, praying that she would be well and happy and have a long life. I think Aung San Suu Kyi heard our chanting, because she came out to the street and stood at the gate of her house. She put her palms together and paid respect to the monks at the gate of her house. Many students bowed to show their respect for her. The leading monks tried to speak with her, but they weren’t able to because there were many soldiers surrounding her. I couldn’t see her very clearly because the riot police were standing around her, but I could see her face and hands very clearly.
I felt sad when I saw her, because she has been under house arrest for such a long time without having committed any crime. We stayed for about ten minutes to chant and pray in front of her house. Seeing Aung San Suu Kyi that day is the most wonderful memory I have. Since 1988, I had heard so many students and people talk about her reputation, about how she sacrifices her life for the people of Burma. I had learned about her in the foreign media, and I heard that she won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991. I had seen Aung San Suu Kyi’s photo before—I remember in 1988 when the students were demanding democracy and they held up her portrait. But it’s very rare to see a photo of her. Because of all of these things, I was always interested to know more about her. So when I saw her in person for the first time, I was so surprised and happy; I was so emotional. Not only me—most of the monks felt the same way. When we returned to our monastery after marching that whole day, we weren’t even tired; we talked to each other about how we felt when we saw Daw Aung San Suu Kyi.
IT WAS DIFFICULT TO KNOW FOR SURE IF SOMEONE WAS MILITARY INTELLIGENCE
I didn’t see journalists during the first few days of the marches, but then I saw a lot of them around September 23, 24, and 25. In the beginning, the monks didn’t allow journalists to take photos or video, because they were worried about military intelligence. But then they decided it was important to let the world know why they were marching, so they allowed journalists to document the marches.
I saw many Burmese and foreign photographers and journalists when I was marching. At first they were shooting video covertly, but after a few days they were shooting more openly. Toward the last days of our protest, I was even interviewed by a video journalist and a photographer from the U.S. It seemed like they were looking for a monk who could speak English, so I talked with them a bit about my experience and feelings during our protest. They also asked for my address, but I couldn’t give it to them because it would have been a security risk—it was difficult to know for sure if someone was military intelligence, or was connected to them.
It was easy for journalists to take photos during that time, but it became very dangerous for them when the crackdown began—this happened after almost a week of peaceful protests.
SEPTEMBER 26
The military regime imposed a curfew on the night of September 25. They announced on the state-run television station that they would arrest or shoot anyone who marched anywhere in the city. They said they would take action on anyone gathered in groups of five or more. They also made the announcement that night from military truck loudspeakers going through the streets of Rangoon. But even though they imposed the curfew, more and more monks and students came out the next day.
On the morning of September 26, I went with many monks to Shwedagon Pagoda. The pagoda looks like a big golden mountain. As well as being the most important religious site in Burma, it is also the most famous place for political rallies, because in 1988 Aung San Suu Kyi made a speech to a big crowd at the west gate of Shwedagon Pagoda. Her father, General Aung San, also made a speech at Shwedagon Pagoda when he was struggling for independence.
We arrived at Shwedagon Pagoda around 10:30 a.m. When we arrived at the east gate, I saw the soldiers there, pointing their guns at the protesters. There were soldiers stationed everywhere around the pagoda. Many rows of soldiers were blocking the main road to the pagoda, and they had weapons. About two hundred soldiers stood in front of a blockade made of iron and wood, as well as a fence made of tin. When I saw the military blockades, I felt that things would be very tense—I thought they were ready to crack down. At the time, there were probably around 250 monks, and about 500 students and civilians were standing and sitting behind us.
When we reached the military soldiers, they said that nobody could go to the pagoda and nobody could march that day because a curfew had been put into effect. When we confronted the soldiers, they told us they already had the order to shoot anyone who marched that day. We responded, “We came here just to pray and chant very peacefully. We will not harm anybody. We will just go and pray in this pagoda. We are not breaking any laws; we have the right to pray.”
Then they asked us, “Will you go back to the monastery or will you go to prison?”
“We will not go back to the monastery and we will not go to prison,” we said. “If you want to shoot, you can shoot, but we will not go back to our monastery.” And then they started getting very aggressive with us. We tried to negotiate with them for nearly forty minutes, to convince them not to crack down on the march. Many students and people were surrounding the monks, so I didn’t feel scared when I was talking with the soldiers and police officers. Actually, I felt very happy that we could talk directly with them, to tell them that the reason we went there was to develop our country—I was happy to try to solve this in a peaceful way.
I spoke to the soldiers with other monks, including U Gawsita, who is now my friend; we requested that they didn’t use violence. We said, “In our country, all people—including soldiers like you—have many problems. There are people with political problems, or people with economic problems. Our people are oppressed by this military regime in many ways. People are starving, there’s the economic crisis and many other kinds of problems. This is because of the military dictatorship system.” Some of the soldiers were listening to us, and they seemed to accept this explanation. However, they could not avoid their orders from the senior military leaders. If the soldiers didn’t obey their orders, I’m sure they would also be imprisoned or punished.
The students and civilians were sitting around the monks while we were trying to negotiate. While someone was explaining why we were there, an officer from the security force came and said, “No, don’t talk politics, don’t talk politics!” We said, “We are not talking politics, we are telling the truth about what will happen in our country.” But we couldn’t negotiate with them. “If you do not go back to your monastery, we will have to take you to prison or the detention center,” they said. At that time, some monks were asking the students and civilians not to react to the soldiers violently—we were worried for their security.
Some of the monks from my monastery tried to negotiate by sitting down in front of the soldiers and praying. We thought that if we sat and prayed in front of them, they would not crack down; we wanted to show loving kindness for the welfare of the people, and we expected it could help solve the problem in a peaceful way. While we sat in front of the soldiers, some leaders from different monasteries were trying to talk with the soldiers, and other leaders tried to enter Shwedagon Pagoda through a different way. But then the soldiers started to crack down, and we were trapped between two groups of soldiers.
The soldiers brutally cracked down on our group. They used so much tear gas to disperse the crowd that I couldn’t see Shwedagon Pagoda. It hurt our skin, especially our faces—it burned. After the tear gas, the soldiers started beating the protesters. Many of the monks were in the middle of the crowd when they started to crack down, but I climbed over the monastery wall. I could clearly see soldiers beating the monks with bamboo sticks and batons—they were beating their backs, their hands, their legs, and especially their heads. The civilians were so angry and upset because they’d never seen anyone beat a monk before. They were shouting loudly and angrily at the soldiers, and some people were throwing stones at them. At that moment I thought about how brutal the military leaders are, and how they are not real Buddhists—they are only Buddhists for name’s sake, to get support from the people—they’re just pretending. If they were real Buddhists, they would not beat or arrest monks. The military regime is overwhelmed by their power.
I saw many monks who were wounded—some were bleeding from their heads—but we couldn’t take them to the hospital. The military regime had ordered the hospitals not to treat any monks or students who were wounded during the protests. Soldiers were dragging monks through the streets and arresting them. I saw them taking monks and putting them into a military truck—I saw about seventy monks and students being put into trucks that day.
I was hiding for about twenty or thirty minutes after they cracked down with beatings and tear gas, and then a group of us—monks and students who escaped from the crackdown—gathered near Kandawgyi Lake to prepare to march in the downtown city center of Rangoon.1010 At Kandawgyi Lake, people gave us drinking water to wash our faces because the tear gas made our faces sting. Five or six people also brought us masks to protect us from tear gas, in case the soldiers dispersed us again. They were ordinary masks, like the kind people use to protect themselves from pollution.
We rallied outside of Kandawgi Lake, in a street near a bus stop. There were so many monks and students that cars couldn’t pass. We discussed where we would march and how we would avoid the military soldiers and the tear gas. Since all the monks and students had come out that day, we were not willing to go back home or back to the monastery without marching; everyone was willing to march for the whole day. We also discussed how we would respond if the soldiers shot at us. Then our group marched to the downtown area, near Sule Pagoda. Even more monks and students came out to join us after the crackdown. They came by bus and truck, more and more of them. I was not scared to march again, although we were worried that more monks would be arrested. We wore the masks to protect us from the tear gas, and we gave the students some masks too. The soldiers tried to block us while we were marching, but the crowd was too big for them to block us. If they blocked one way, we would march another way to avoid them.
We marched near Shwedagon Pagoda again after the crackdown, and some soldiers started shooting up toward the buildings, to threaten the protesters. They didn’t shoot directly at the protesters that day, but the next day they started shooting directly at the crowds. I was already in hiding that day—not many monks were out on the 27th, because the military had already started raiding monasteries. By that time, it was mostly students and civilians marching in the streets.
THEY COULDN’T AVOID ORDERS
I think some of the soldiers didn’t want to crack down on the protesters, but they had to obey the orders from the senior officer or else they would be punished and maybe even sent to prison. When I looked at some of their faces, they seemed sad. They knew it was a bad deed to hurt a monk. But I saw the senior officers ordering the young soldiers to crack down. One of my monk friends was trying to talk to a soldier before the crackdown, and the soldier said he didn’t want to do it but he couldn’t avoid the general’s orders.
Not enough people are joining the army, so the army doesn’t allow soldiers to leave until they are very old. The army also uses many child soldiers—some of them are very young. If they didn’t recruit children, the army would become very weak. It’s very difficult for a soldier to leave the army, but some soldiers do manage to run away to Thailand and other countries.
Most of the soldiers involved in the crackdown were from rural areas. Many people saw military trucks coming from outside of the city into Rangoon at midnight during the protests. Many of these trucks were near Shwedagon Pagoda and Sule Pagoda, and also blocking other main streets. The military arranged for these military trucks to come from remote areas for the crackdown. Even if soldiers are stationed in other areas, it is their duty to go to Rangoon to crack down on any protest breaking out. When we confronted the soldiers in front of Shwedagon Pagoda, some of them couldn’t speak Burmese, because they’re from different ethnic groups.
THEY RAIDED THE MONASTERIES
After the crackdown on September 26, I went back to my monastery. I had already expected that the soldiers might arrest or even shoot the monks, but I didn’t expect that they would raid the monasteries in the middle of the night. About one week after we first started marching in the peaceful protests, the SPDC soldiers started to raid monasteries in Rangoon every night. Many of the monks in Rangoon couldn’t sleep—they stayed up in fear every night. The military soldiers targeted the bigger monasteries, where many monks live.
At midnight on September 26, they raided my friend’s monastery, the Ngwe Kyar Yan monastery in South Okkalapa Township, Rangoon. He was a friend from my village. The soldiers left their truck far away from the monastery and approached by foot so that the engine wouldn’t wake up the monks.
During the raid, people were woken up by the sound of monks shouting and screaming for help. But even though people wanted to go to the monastery, they had to stay inside their houses because of the curfew. After the soldiers raided my friend’s monastery, the news spread throughout the whole city.
As soon as I heard, I went to my friend’s monastery to see if he was okay. I wanted to find out if he had escaped or not. But when I got there, I couldn’t enter because there were many soldiers surrounding the monastery. There were many civilians nearby too—a lot of people were looking angrily at the soldiers. There were no monks inside. I returned to my monastery and discussed with my monk friends where we could run or hide. There were many trucks patrolling around Rangoon, and we didn’t know if they would raid our monastery or not.
Someone from my friend’s monastery later told me that soldiers had arrested and imprisoned many of the two hundred monks there, and that some of them had been tortured and killed. People had gone inside the monastery and seen a lot of blood and bamboo sticks left by the soldiers. The military targeted monks who were leaders in organizing the protests, and they tortured them. Some monks escaped from the monastery that night by climbing over the wall, but I never found out what happened to my friend that night.
The next day, on September 27, people living near the monastery told us our monastery would be raided that night. They told us as soon as they saw the military trucks in the area. The army left the military trucks far away from the monastery because they didn’t want us to find out about the mission and run away. All the people around my monastery were worried that the monks would be arrested. Many of these people invited us to hide in their houses, but we refused their invitations because we were worried they would get in trouble just because of us. So the people told us to run away or to hide in a safe place. Some monks went to hide in the bushes and in a big tree near my monastery. Other monks hid in the ceiling of the monastery or on the roof.
As for me, I was hiding with four other monks in the bushes near my monastery for the whole night. I couldn’t sleep. It was a very full moon that night, so I saw the soldiers coming very clearly. There were about twenty of them, and we were about 100 monks. I was so scared that the soldiers would find me, because nobody would witness if we were arrested or tortured, or taken away.
I could clearly see the soldiers patrolling around the monastery. I was so scared and so focused on the soldiers that night that I didn’t notice the mosquitoes biting me or the leeches on my legs until the morning. They searched our monastery for about twenty-five minutes. They didn’t find any monks, so I think they thought we had all left the city.
The military did monastery raids at nighttime, around midnight. They never came to arrest and do raids during the day, because there would be many witnesses to the torture and arrest of the monks. So when they raided the monasteries at night, nobody could witness it or tell the international community. When we marched in the Saffron Revolution, many people would see what happened, so we were not afraid to confront the security forces and the soldiers. But when they tried to raid our monasteries, all the monks were afraid.
I KNEW I COULDN’T GO BACK
The morning after I hid in the bushes, I had to prepare to run away. No monks could stay at our monastery anymore, so I went into hiding around Rangoon. I realized it wasn’t safe to hide there for a long time, so some people helped me change into civilian clothes, because the soldiers would interrogate any monk they saw. I hid for several nights in people’s houses, and then after about one week, I decided to run away to a small village in Kayin State.1111 I hid there for one month.
I stayed in the monastery of one of my friends who is from Kayin State. We had lived in the same monastery before the Saffron Revolution, and now he was living at the monastery in his village. Even when I was hiding there, I couldn’t go anywhere in the daytime, so I stayed inside the monastery. If I heard a dog barking when I was asleep at night, I would feel a little scared. I didn’t have any family in Kayin State—my family was in central Burma. I tried to wait until the situation for monks in Burma got better, but it just got worse and worse, and I couldn’t go back to my monastery in Rangoon or to my village. One of my monk friends in Kayin State told me it would be better in Mae Sot, Thailand, a town on the border with Burma. He and many of his friends often went there, and he knew about the refugee camps there. He said I would be safer there, so I decided to run away to Mae Sot.1212
I took a bus to a village in Myawaddy Township, then I crossed over the river and into Thailand on a raft. We couldn’t cross the border using the Friendship Bridge, so I crossed with other people by raft.1313 We each had to pay 1,000 kyats.1414 It was three o’clock in the afternoon when I crossed, and I was worried about getting caught.
After crossing the river, I took a small bus with about fifteen other people from the bridge to the Mae Sot market. I met some Burmese monks who were visiting from the refugee camps, so I asked them about how I could go to the camp. But after I talked to them about that, I met a Burmese lady who knew a lot about Mae Sot and all the political groups there, and she told me not to go to the refugee camps because they had bad living conditions. She told me to stay at a safehouse in Mae Sot, because they helped all of the monks and students who had fled to Mae Sot after the Saffron Revolution. A Burmese reporter took me to live at a safehouse, where I stayed for a month with two other monks and about fifteen students who’d also escaped. When I first arrived in Thailand, I felt hopeless for my future because we had to live in Thailand illegally, so we couldn’t just go anywhere as we wished. After one month staying there, I moved to a Thai monastery.
One of my friends, another monk named U Gawsita whom I met at the protests in Burma, also fled from Burma and had been hiding in the forest near his village for over one month. After a month, he decided to flee to Mae Sot as well, but he encountered many difficulties along the way. He crossed over from Burma to Thailand in a boat, and just about five or ten minutes after he crossed, he was arrested by the Thai police because he had no passport or other documents to show.
U Gawsita arrived just after we had started a monk group in Mae Sot. At the time there were eight monks in our group, and we just called ourselves the Saffron Revolution Monks. When we heard that U Gawsita had been arrested by the Thai police, we tried to find a way to save him. We spoke with many Burmese reporters to ask them for advice on how we could rescue U Gawsita. The reporters are very skillful in dealing with the Thai police, so they went to arrange for his release. After two days, we collected enough money to help pay for his release.
If we had been unable to rescue U Gawsita from the Thai police, it would have meant a death sentence for him for sure. U Gawsita is a very well-known leader from the Saffron Revolution. You can see his face and his picture everywhere in the media—the picture is of him holding a megaphone in front of the group of monks marching. It would be very bad if he was deported to Burma, and we were very worried for him. U Gawsita was very worried too; while he was in detention, he decided that if he was going to be deported back to Burma he would jump in front of a train rather than go back. Thankfully, we were able to have him released.1515
When I decided to go to Mae Sot, I expected that I wouldn’t return to Burma until we got freedom. As soon as I arrived in Thailand, many big media groups came to interview me, and I told them everything I saw during the protests. I understood that I definitely wouldn’t be able to go back to Burma after interviewing with those big media groups, because the regime already had my information and had seen my face. But I knew I couldn’t go back to Burma anyway, because they were trying to arrest any monk who had been involved in the protests. That’s why I decided to do interviews about what I saw—because I knew I couldn’t go back.
Then some congressmen came from America, and they were interested in learning more about our Saffron Revolution. They invited me and the monks I was living with to testify to a delegation of congressmen. After we testified, we were determined to be refugees and were soon told that we would be resettled to the United States. But I had to stay in Mae Sot for ten more months because I found out that I had tuberculosis, so I didn’t pass my medical tests.1616 I was sad to stay in Mae Sot longer. U Gawsita and one other monk arrived in Utica, New York in March, and one other monk was sent to California.
I was happy that I found out about the tuberculosis early, because it was easy to treat. I didn’t even feel bad at the time, I actually felt healthy. I had to take medicine for six months, and then I left for the U.S. ten months after the other monks. I didn’t know much about the U.S., but I was interested in living there, learning more English, and also studying there.
I HAD NEVER SEEN SNOW IN MY COUNTRY
I arrived in America in January 2009; it was a very long journey. It was my first time on a plane, so I was very excited. Some staff from the International Organization for Migration were at the Bangkok airport to show me where I had to go, and then two more IOM staff members were at the airport in South Korea to help me change planes.1717 I arrived in New York City and some IOM staff were waiting at JFK Airport to help me. At JFK, I transferred to another plane and flew to the Syracuse airport. I spoke to the lady who sat next me on the flight; she was a traveler from Syracuse. When we got off the plane, she was joking with me and saying I wasn’t wearing good enough shoes—she said I needed to buy snow boots in Utica. I was just in simple sandals, and I was surprised to see many people wearing big snow boots when I got off the airplane!
I was surprised to feel the very cold weather and to see the snow. I’d never seen snow in my country. When I arrived in Syracuse, my monk friends were at the airport and we drove directly to Utica. I was so happy to see them and to be with them again.
The first difference I noticed was the really cold weather. I was really afraid to go outside in the winter; I wanted to stay inside all the time. But I had to go to English class every day, and some people helped me get warm clothes and snow boots.
My daily routine when I lived in Utica was to wake up at about five o’clock to pray and meditate for about forty-five minutes. Then I studied English and listened to public radio in English to practice my listening skills. I would go to my ESL class at the refugee center from eighty-thirty a.m. to 11 a.m., and then come back home for lunch. I would go back to my ESL class, then come back home to study again. The other students were also refugees—they were from Burma, Somalia, Kenya, and many other countries. It was difficult for me to understand them because we spoke with different accents.
I lived with three other monks in Utica. I talked with some American people in my neighborhood about our country, our political situation, and the military dictatorship.
There were some Burmese families who had been living in Utica for maybe five years already, so we had a small community here. Even though we were living in America, we still lived Burmese-style—we had Burmese celebrations and we celebrated Buddhist ceremonies like in Burma.
WE ARE STILL HOPING
We moved to Brooklyn on August 9, 2010. The main reason we moved here was for work, because in Utica there weren’t so many Burma activists. Here, there is much more political activity, so it’s much easier to meet with many different political activists and work with the movement.
Brooklyn is much busier and more crowded than Utica. So far, I like it here. I’m still learning how to take the subway. We are renting this house to use as our monastery for a very cheap price from our friend’s family. Our friend’s wife is from Burma, and they helped us move here. We are also supported by the Burmese community here. This won’t be our permanent place; we intend to reside here for two years, and then we will find a permanent place either in New York or in Washington, D.C.
We get invited to talk about Burma at many different universities, such as Columbia, American University, and UCLA. It’s usually the students who invite us to educate them about our country, so we talk about justice and our country’s human rights abuses, about the military that rules our country, and about how they oppress the people. We tell the students about our experiences. Some students ask about the current situation inside Burma, or about U.S. policy. Some students also ask what kind of results we got from the 2007 Saffron Revolution. I tell them I feel our peaceful protest was successful because many people in the international community are now much more aware of the Burmese military regime’s brutality. I also tell them we are not so satisfied with U.S. policy. We’re frustrated because their engagement policy doesn’t work.1818 When the students ask us what they can do, we tell them to contact our organization, the All Burma Monks’ Alliance, to find out how they can help.
I’m used to speaking now, so it’s not difficult. It’s important to raise awareness about our country, because many people don’t know about Burma. It’s also important that we do what we can for our country while we’re living in exile. I need to keep working for democracy until our country’s government changes.
If Aung San Suu Kyi had the chance to run in the 2010 elections, the government would change for sure. She would have a resounding win. But the military is not allowing her to run—it’s just a fake election, and the military leaders will arrange the results as they wish. Actually, Aung San Suu Kyi’s NLD Party already won an election in 1990, but the junta ignored the results of that election and they didn’t hand over their power. The military regime knows that she would win if she ran in the 2010 election, so that’s why they keep finding reasons to keep her under house arrest.
The American government should increase the sanctions as long as the military regime does not release Aung San Suu Kyi and the other political prisoners.1919 They should pressure the military regime and give them a timeframe for releasing Aung San Suu Kyi and the political prisoners. I really hope Burma will become free and that we will get democracy. Even though the military regime is trying to hold a sham election, we are still hoping.
I still think about going back to Thailand and Burma. When our government changes, when we get democracy—then I’ll go back to my country. I really hope I can go back to Burma because I get very homesick. I haven’t had contact with my family since I left Burma. My family lives in a small village that, like most villages in Burma, has no phone or Internet, so it’s very difficult to contact them. Even if I got the chance to contact them, it would be hard to talk because the military government might find out they talked to me, and then they might punish my family.
One of my American friends whom I met in 2006 at Shwedagon Pagoda went back to Burma last April. He visited my family to explain my situation and gave them a photo of me. That’s the hardest thing for me about being here—being so far away from my family and having difficulty contacting them. They don’t know about what is happening with me, and I don’t know how they’re doing. What I also really miss about Burma is the New Year water festival, which is so popular in Burma. So when it’s that time of year, we try to listen to Burmese New Year songs here and whatever we can to celebrate.
I like being in America. I’m trying to learn English right now, and I intend to study political science. I’d like to study at a university in the future. Now that I’m outside of Burma, I try to read as much as I can about history and politics. I would also like to study Buddhism in English. Right now I prefer to continue living as a monk, but I don’t know how it will be in the future. I can’t see the future yet.
So far, I haven’t found anything I don’t like in America. Here, we can express our own views and talk about politics. We can talk anywhere. It’s surprising for me to have freedom of speech, and to write and talk openly about our experiences. We feel free.
1 From the Theravada Buddhist Metta Sutra, chanting loving-kindness is a form of meditation directed toward others.
2 On August 19, student activists from the ’88 Generation Student group led a protest in Rangoon against the regime’s removal of fuel subsidies. It was one of the protests that started the nationwide Saffron Revolution.
3 Approximately 7,000 square km of land were confiscated from landowners to create Naypyidaw. In 2005, the International Labor Organization received 2,800 reports of cases of forced labor in the construction of the new city.
4 Defectors from Burma’s military state that the regime turned to North Korea to build nuclear facilities in the Naung Laing Mountains of central Burma.
5 As of November 2010, it was estimated by the Association for the Assistance of Political Prisoners (Burma) that around 2,203 political prisoners are held in jails throughout Burma.
6 For more on this, see the Saffron Revolution section of the appendix, pages 468.
7 Burma’s armed forces, the Tatmadaw, was founded by General Aung San to fight the British. Since 1962 Burma has been ruled by its military.
8 Estimates for the final days of the demonstrations range as high as 100,000 protesters.
9 Sule Pagoda is located in the center of Rangoon and was used as a central rallying point for both the ’88 demonstrations and 2007 Saffron Revolution.
10 Kandawgi Lake is located just east of Shwedagon Pagoda in southern Rangoon.
11 Kayin State (or Karen State) is a state in southwestern Burma that borders Thailand.
12 Mae Sot is a town on the Thailand–Burma border, across from the Burmese town of Myawaddy. Mae Sot is known as a hub for political and social organizations working for change in Burma as well as working to help the refugees and migrant workers in Thailand.
13 Located in a “special economic zone” between Burma and Thailand, the Friendship Bridge connects the two countries with an overpass across the Moei Tributary. It is the official entry point, but people who do not want to or cannot cross officially find other ways.
14 Approximately US$1.
15 U Gawsita currently lives with U Agga in Brooklyn, NY.
16 As mandated by the Centers for Disease Control, refugees testing positive for communicable diseases such as tuberculosis must be treated in their country of temporary refuge before entering the United States. Ailments or diseases sometimes delay the resettlement process but do not necessarily exclude a refugee from leaving the country.
17 The International Organization for Migration is an intergovernmental organization that helps organize the travel of migrants, including refugees, across borders.
18 Under the Obama Administration, U.S. foreign policy with Burma was expanded to include senior-level dialogue with Burmese officials while upholding sanctions. This was part of a wider attempt to shift U.S. foreign policy.
19 The U.S. has implemented three rounds of sanctions, in 1997, 2003, and 2010, banning imports, new investment, and travel for military generals, and extended the U.S.A. Patriot Act powers to implement financial sanctions.