24 July 1997 Edition
Television: British assasination in Burma revealed
Imagine how dreadful it must be, every day, for those in the South who support the British. Filled with self-loathing, trying desperately to be something that ceased to exist in the 1930s, having one's ideological position shackled to Ulster Unionists, whose supremacy is so obviously doomed, and whose culture of bigotry, misogyny and ridiculous garments evokes mirth rather than pity in the rest of Europe.
But difficult as life has become for these unfortunates - especially now that there is a ceasefire and they no longer have that ecstatic rush of ritual condemnation - they can still usually rely on broadcasting organisations to back their central argument, that Britain is the peacemaker, preventing the `two sides' from killing one another. Which must make last Saturday's extended edition of `East' (BBC2, various times) all the more distressing. Because it demonstrated how British intelligence - the same people running the loyalist death squads here - murdered a prime minister in someone else's country. Presented by a hyper-ventilating Fergal Keane, who at least knows a story when he sees one, the programme opened with the 1988 street protests in Burma.
``The demonstrators believed that if they carried pictures of Aung San, no soldier would harm them. But they were wrong,'' he said.
In the bloody slaughter that followed, 10,000 people were killed. From the ashes of this, arose Aung San Suu Kyi, the daughter of Aung San, who would win the Nobel Prize for peace in 1991.
Aung San is Burma's greatest hero. He formed the country's anti-British resistance movement in the 1930s, then did a deal with the Japanese to train and arm him and his colleagues.
The safari-suited colonial regime back in Rangoon eventually discovered what was going on, and reacted in the best of British traditions. ``When the British heard about us, they sentenced us to death in our absence. We changed our names, and after that the British didn't know who was who,'' said Bohmu Aung, one of Aung San's colleagues. The Japanese eventually invaded Burma, and thousands of nationalists assisted them in turfing out the British. But Aung San, now in charge of the country, learned soon enough that his newfound friends weren't much different to the old rulers. As the tide of war turned, he did a deal with the Allies.
With the British back in Rangoon, the Americans dropped the atom bomb. Aung San saw in an instant that the war was over, and called a monster rally in the centre of town. He passed a resolution by popular decree, that a civil government should be formed, and that it should be made up of members of the resistance movement. This was unacceptable to the Governor-General, Sir Reginald Dormen-Smith (this really was his name!), who wanted his old toady, U Sau, back as prime minister. There was stalemate, with Sir Reginald trying to have Aung San arrested on a trumped-up murder charge. Then Labour took power in Britain, and Sir Reginald was recalled. In January 1947, Aung San went to London to seek independence for his country. To the dismay of the Conservatives and British intelligence, the new prime minister Clement Attley agreed to grant his request within a year. Sir Reginald and his cronies immediately set up a shadowy group, based in London, to work against Aung San. In July, armed men booted down the door of the cabinet office and opened up on Aung San with a machine-gun. U Sau, Sir Reginald's old chum, was found guilty of the crime, and hanged. Near his house, a large stockpile of Bren guns and ammunition was discovered. It looked like he had been planning a coup d'etat. Before he went to the gallows, he sent out an increasingly urgent series of messages to various British diplomats, but they were deaf to his pleadings.
A British army officer, Capt David Vivian, was later discovered to have provided the arms cache. Another, Major Henry Young, supplied the guns that killed Aung San.
``The British government killed Aung San. It was their plot,'' said Chau Zau, one of Aung San's colleagues, now exiled in China. ``Aung San was the leader who could unite the whole country. They supposed they could handle Burma more easily if they removed Aung San.''
British policemen like Carlyle Seppings, were told not to question any British officers about the crime.
``This has got too big for both you and me,'' he was warned by his boss. ``And if you dig deeper, you're going to tread on some very important corns.''
A secret telegram sent by the British ambassador in Rangoon to Whitehall, and only declassified for the programme, quotes the British chief of police in the Burmese capital: ``We're now virtually convinced that there was British connivance in the assassination.'' He cited Sir Reginald as a suspect.
``I think if my father had lived, democracy would have worked, and it would have lasted,'' said Aung San Suu Kyi. ``When we lost him, we lost our chance to build a happy, democratic Burma. But of course, second chances always come, and we have to grab them while we can.''
By Michael Kennedy
But difficult as life has become for these unfortunates - especially now that there is a ceasefire and they no longer have that ecstatic rush of ritual condemnation - they can still usually rely on broadcasting organisations to back their central argument, that Britain is the peacemaker, preventing the `two sides' from killing one another. Which must make last Saturday's extended edition of `East' (BBC2, various times) all the more distressing. Because it demonstrated how British intelligence - the same people running the loyalist death squads here - murdered a prime minister in someone else's country. Presented by a hyper-ventilating Fergal Keane, who at least knows a story when he sees one, the programme opened with the 1988 street protests in Burma.
``The demonstrators believed that if they carried pictures of Aung San, no soldier would harm them. But they were wrong,'' he said.
In the bloody slaughter that followed, 10,000 people were killed. From the ashes of this, arose Aung San Suu Kyi, the daughter of Aung San, who would win the Nobel Prize for peace in 1991.
Aung San is Burma's greatest hero. He formed the country's anti-British resistance movement in the 1930s, then did a deal with the Japanese to train and arm him and his colleagues.
The safari-suited colonial regime back in Rangoon eventually discovered what was going on, and reacted in the best of British traditions. ``When the British heard about us, they sentenced us to death in our absence. We changed our names, and after that the British didn't know who was who,'' said Bohmu Aung, one of Aung San's colleagues. The Japanese eventually invaded Burma, and thousands of nationalists assisted them in turfing out the British. But Aung San, now in charge of the country, learned soon enough that his newfound friends weren't much different to the old rulers. As the tide of war turned, he did a deal with the Allies.
With the British back in Rangoon, the Americans dropped the atom bomb. Aung San saw in an instant that the war was over, and called a monster rally in the centre of town. He passed a resolution by popular decree, that a civil government should be formed, and that it should be made up of members of the resistance movement. This was unacceptable to the Governor-General, Sir Reginald Dormen-Smith (this really was his name!), who wanted his old toady, U Sau, back as prime minister. There was stalemate, with Sir Reginald trying to have Aung San arrested on a trumped-up murder charge. Then Labour took power in Britain, and Sir Reginald was recalled. In January 1947, Aung San went to London to seek independence for his country. To the dismay of the Conservatives and British intelligence, the new prime minister Clement Attley agreed to grant his request within a year. Sir Reginald and his cronies immediately set up a shadowy group, based in London, to work against Aung San. In July, armed men booted down the door of the cabinet office and opened up on Aung San with a machine-gun. U Sau, Sir Reginald's old chum, was found guilty of the crime, and hanged. Near his house, a large stockpile of Bren guns and ammunition was discovered. It looked like he had been planning a coup d'etat. Before he went to the gallows, he sent out an increasingly urgent series of messages to various British diplomats, but they were deaf to his pleadings.
A British army officer, Capt David Vivian, was later discovered to have provided the arms cache. Another, Major Henry Young, supplied the guns that killed Aung San.
``The British government killed Aung San. It was their plot,'' said Chau Zau, one of Aung San's colleagues, now exiled in China. ``Aung San was the leader who could unite the whole country. They supposed they could handle Burma more easily if they removed Aung San.''
British policemen like Carlyle Seppings, were told not to question any British officers about the crime.
``This has got too big for both you and me,'' he was warned by his boss. ``And if you dig deeper, you're going to tread on some very important corns.''
A secret telegram sent by the British ambassador in Rangoon to Whitehall, and only declassified for the programme, quotes the British chief of police in the Burmese capital: ``We're now virtually convinced that there was British connivance in the assassination.'' He cited Sir Reginald as a suspect.
``I think if my father had lived, democracy would have worked, and it would have lasted,'' said Aung San Suu Kyi. ``When we lost him, we lost our chance to build a happy, democratic Burma. But of course, second chances always come, and we have to grab them while we can.''
By Michael Kennedy