Bearing Witness: The Struggle for Democracy in Burma
Tin Maung Htoo in front of flag used in democratic uprising.
VOLUME 30, NUMBER 3, SEPTEMBER 2008
When floodlights from armoured cars blinded sixteen-year-old Tin Maung Htoo and the hundreds of other demonstrators, they sat down in unison still singing protest songs. Tin heard automatic rifle fire and closed his eyes, “because I knew we were going to die.”
It was the evening of August 8th, 1988, and the democracy demonstrators were exhausted from fourteen hours of marching through the city of Rangoon. When they realized that the guns were being fired in the air, they stood again. They rose despite the fact that soldiers were now poised, guns aimed, knees bent. The demonstrators sang: we want full democracy, that’s what we want!
Suddenly Tin saw people collapse in front of him, and everything blurred with confusion and panic.
Unlike the recent events in September of 2007, most of the world remained unaware as thousands took to the streets of Burma in 1988 to demand democracy. No one knows how many people were killed that August twenty years ago; conservative estimates start at three thousand. Since 1988, the power and control of Burma’s military regime has tightened, with a steady increase in the systematic abuse of human rights throughout the country.
Tin Maung Htoo remained in Rangoon for two months after the August crackdown but he became frustrated. “I felt like we couldn’t do anything from inside the country, I wanted to leave to campaign internationally for change.” Like thousands of other pro-democracy activists, he fled to the border with Thailand, travelling at night by foot and boat for eleven days through mountains and jungle. For several years, he lived in border communities where activists forged alliances with ethnic resistance movements.
In 1993, Tin took a course in Bangkok on non-violent action for change. He learned about the construction of a gas pipeline in southern Burma and several proposed dams. It was clear that these projects would generate substantial revenue for the regime, while massive forced labour and displacement and other human rights violations were already being reported. Thai authorities raided the training session and all participants were arrested. Tin was held in a Bangkok prison under the Thai National Security Act for three years. He was eventually released on condition that he seek asylum in Canada.
Tin completed high school in London, Ontario and earned a double degree in political science and economics from the University of Western Ontario. He remained active within the Burmese community, and in 2005 became the Executive Director of the Canadian Friends of Burma (CFOB).
CFOB, with which Inter Pares has worked since its foundation in 1991, brings together people and organizations from across the country who believe Canada can play a constructive role in the struggle for democracy in Burma. When Tin joined CFOB, Parliament had just passed a motion identifying ways to promote democracy in Burma. Implementation of the motion is now the central focus of CFOB’s work.
In 2006, CFOB was instrumental in founding the Parliamentary Friends of Burma (PFOB), a large multi-party group of Members of Parliament and Senators. PFOB raises awareness in the House of Commons and Senate and promotes Canadian action to support democracy in Burma. In 2007, CFOB launched an online campaign to bestow honorary Canadian citizenship to Burma’s democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi. The campaign generated public support and was quickly adopted by PFOB. The federal government announced honourary citizenship for Aung San Suu Kyi in its October 2007 Speech from the Throne. Less than three months later, Canada imposed targeted economic sanctions against the regime.
This past March, Tin Maung Htoo returned to Thailand for the first time since his release from prison. Hosted by Inter Pares, he travelled to Thailand’s border with Burma to see firsthand how resources from Canada support the work of refugees, human rights documenters, health service providers, women’s rights organizations and local media groups. For Tin Maung Htoo, the journey that began in 1988 had come full circle.
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| Reviewed August 23, 2008 |  |
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