British complicity in murder of Burma’s national hero Aung San raises issues for wider investigation of British crimes in colonial era
– by Shenali Waduge –
Mr. David Cameron, British Prime Minister, has vowed to give Sri Lanka lessons
British complicity in murder of Burma’s national hero Aung San raises issues for wider investigation of British crimes in colonial era
– by Shenali Waduge –
Mr. David Cameron, British Prime Minister, has vowed to give Sri Lanka lessons on human rights when he attends the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Sri Lanka in November 2013.
It is an astonishing statement coming from a head of a country that once ran an Empire not so long ago, on which it was said that ‘the Sun never sets’. At its peak the British Empire was the largest empire the world had ever known. Closely associated with Empire Rule was the term ‘White Man’s Burden’ coined by Rudyard Kipling in a poem (1899) drawing attention to the presumed responsibility of white people to govern and impart their culture to nonwhite people, which was often advanced by the Western countries as a justification for European colonialism.
We are no longer living in the colonial era. Sri Lanka is a now free country having liberated ourselves from the manacles of terrorism not so long ago. We are today a sovereign country with a citizenry proud of its achievements in the past, both distant and recent, and of our manifest destiny. Being such people, we are not the type of people that need lessons on human rights, particularly unsolicited ones coming from people who have a lot to answer regarding their conduct in this very country over a period of 150 years.
At the same time, we are also polite and kind hearted people. As a matter of politeness and courtesy we will be happy to lend our ears to whatever that Mr. Cameron chooses to speak on without any interruption on our part.
If Mr. Cameron intends to use the occasion of CHOGM to air human rights concerns with a sense of grievance, it would be a great irresponsibility on the part of Mr. Cameron to assume that countries that his forbears ruled as part of the British Empire have lost their sense of grievance or have closed that dark chapter for good.
With Power comes responsibilities and moral obligations. To use the simple words ‘We are sorry’ at the beginning will go a long way to heal the wounds stemming from colonial atrocities and misrule.
We are no longer prepared to accept without protest global legal systems that have been established by the West largely for the benefit and protection of the people of the west and its appointees to ensure the people from western colonial countries escape having to answer for all crimes committed.
Where is the justice when not a single colonial official has stood trial for crimes committed in the colonial era?
Yet, Third World nations are once more being hounded on issues of “accountability” in UN fora totally ignoring the scale of crimes committed by the accusers. We illustrate here as an example the colonial crime in Burma where British complicity ended the life of Burma’s national hero Aung San.
Murder of General Aung San
The incident took place on Saturday 19th July 1947 in Rangoon. The time was 10:40a.m., Aung San the Deputy Chairman of the Burmese interim government was conducting a meeting of the Executive Council on the 2nd floor of the Secretariat Building in Rangoon preparing for the transfer of power from Britain to Burma. Four youths dressed in army uniform carrying Sten and Tommy guns dashed upstairs and unloaded their weapons spraying the entire room with blood killing Aung San, six of Aung San’s cabinet ministers including his older brother, a cabinet secretary and bodyguard. In a matter of moments the entire youthful leadership of post-independence Burma was mercilessly wiped out. So how was Britain involved in the murder of Aung San?
U Saw the former premier was convicted of the murder of Aung San as the weapons found close to his residence revealed that these were the same weapons used in the murder that had been stolen from the British army Depot and supplied to him by Major Henry Young and Capt David Vivien. David Vivien was sentenced to 5 years in prison but he “escaped” and ended up in the UK. U Saw while in prison before hanging sent a series of letters to Capt Vivien threatening to disclose all and demanding money from British Council officer Stuart Bingley who used diplomatic immunity to evade questioning and was quickly packed off to UK.
His death in 1979 sealed any information of his involvement. U Saw’s personal ties with the British Governor Dorman-Smith and several discussions with the British to upstage Aung San further accent