Mizzima News

The Young Monks Union (Middle Burma) is a monk association secretly formed on 11 February 2007 and led by U Eithariya. It was organized by U Gambira (Young Monks Union – Rangoon) and U Eithariya.  

Now many leading members of this saffron revolution are languishing in SPDC's prisons and we learnt that some of our secret movements have been exposed by SPDC's Special Branch (SB) of the police, according to court proceedings in some cases.  

Some of us are either still in the movement disguised as layman and some are still in priesthood and staying in monks learning institutes to continue the movement.  

Thus I'd like to record the various roles of our colleagues in this anti-dictatorship movement only for the sake of national interest and in honour of these brave people. And also I wish the people to study and sum up this experience filed in the period of the pre-saffron revolution which portrays a part of this revolution as our own experiences.  

(Exception) Some facts, names and addresses are as mentioned in the charge sheet at SPDC's courts by prosecution teams.  

Date and time: 25 – 01 - 2007, about 8 p.m.

U Eithiriya arrived at my monastery. At that time, all the student monks were in their study hall and learning their evening lessons. On that day, I was not feeling well so I took leave from the evening study time from my teachers and stayed alone in my room and read a religious text book of 'Thingyo' compiled by Maha Gandaryone Sayadaw from Amarapura.

U Eithiriya was very happy when he found me alone in my room. Then we had chit-chat on many issues such as the current political situation, crises and difficulties. At that time, U Eithiriya was staying at Yanmyo Aung meditation centre in Yenanchaung and he frequently visited our monastery and was friendly with all the student monks staying here.  

He was popular in Yenanchaung for his voluntary charity work in assisting and caring for HIV/AIDS patients. Some of the people called him Yenanchaung Sayadaw (abbot). I discussed with him very frankly on many practical future plans and told him what I believe.  

U Eithiriya said, "We have started our movement of the monks in our area and we have established 'Young Monks Union' (Middle Burma) and are now planning to hold a systematic movement. We are energetically striving to achieve this goal".  

Though I have not had such an experience in organizational movement before, I'd like to be incolved in such a unified organizational movement.  

Then I told him, "I'm very much interested in it. I pay my respect to all of those who are working for elimination of the evil military dictatorship in Burma. According to my experiences, I know well all of them are clever. They are not mediocre persons. So please let me know if you want any assistance from me. I'll do my best at any time to render my help to you". I encouraged him by saying these words.  

After which, U Eithiriya happily said, "OK, I feel very happy. I trust and expect very much from young monks like you. We have just started our Middle Burma young monk movement. Other young monks unions have been well established before in many areas such as Rangoon and Mandalay. We are too late. So we are pushing our people to start our movement as soon as possible to catch up with movements in other areas. You need to get involved in our organization too and I wish you to take part in our movement". He asked me to join their movement on that day.

"I have full of interest in your movement. But I think only the name of your organization 'Young Monks Union' (Middle Burma) is not enough for me. I need to know your policy, plan, constitution, organizational chart among others in detail. My policy is very simple and clear. In religion, I am a typical Theravada Buddhist. In politics, I am a true believer in democracy. I firmly believe only democracy can give us systematic development in our country. Since I'm studying Pali language and Buddhist scriptures in Pali, I cannot catch up with the current political situation and developments. So people like you need to explain all these situations to us. Only in this way, we can work together," I told him.  

"Don't worry about them. We have plans to do all these things. We are planning to hold systematic discussions on what we should do. But I have to weigh the pros and cons of holding such meetings as your examinations are drawing very close. These meetings will last only 3 to 4 days. A total of one week will be enough including travel time", he said.  

I was very much interested in these meetings. But our Pali religious exam was only two months away and the qualifying examination conducted by our monastery was only a few days away. Anyway, I told him, "I'll try my best to join your meetings and also I'll organize some other monks to join us too. Please let me know your meeting and travel schedule. Then U Eithiriya said, "You will have enough time until February 3. I have to proceed on my journey to Nyaung Oo and you will have enough time. But I cannot disclose to you the exact location of our venue. As you know, we have to keep it a secret. Anyway it will be around Rangoon". I feel unhappy when he said that.  

Then I organized U Than Wara from Shwetaung monastery and asked for leave from my senior abbot on the pretext of some urgent and important matter of my devotees, and left for Chauk to meet with U Wimala on the 26th. Then we found out U Wimala was no longer in Chauk and we had to proceed to Pwintphyu on next day in early in the morning. I made enquiries as to the whereabouts of U Wimala when I got there and finally could meet him. Then we talked with him for few hours and I asked him to attend the meeting and explain some of our plans.

U Wimala knows me well and understands about my political beliefs to some extent as he was at the same monastery with me.  

U Eithiriya arrived back in Yenanchaung on February 2 and came to me and told me of our travel plan. He said that his nom de guerre would be Ko Shwe Mei and the person who would pick up us in Rangoon would be Ko Hlaing Bwa. He told us that we must contact Ko Hlaing Bwa carefully as soon as we get there and gave us Ko Hlaing Bwa's contact number. Ko Hlaing Bwa is a monk like us and assumed this name for security reasons in this crucial time of the political movement, he explained to us. And also he suggested to us to assume a nom de guerre like them for security reasons. He also told us that two other monks would attend the same discussions but they would take another car for security reasons.  

We got to the Rangoon Aungmingalar bus terminal on February 5 at about 4 o'clock in the morning. We tried to find Seintaungtan's teashop and tried to contact Hlaing Bwa. At the teashop, we found two other monks who would attend the same meeting with us. They were U Khaymika and U Weiluriya. They told us that they had already contacted Hlaing Bwa and he was on the way now to pick us up. So we waited for him while having breakfast together at the teashop.

After a while, a monk in dirty Thai silk robes with a strongly built body and a face full of acne with a fair skin approached our table where we sat together. His hair was about one inch long. He carried a yellow and dirty shoulder bag full of stuff in it. He smiled at us and greeted us. He introduced himself and greeted us by asking about our health and journey while he was munching betel leaf slowly.  

First he was suspicious of us and then realized he was the one we were waiting for by guessing his gesture, noticing his friendly manner and showing respect to us. Then we exchanged a few friendly words.  

Then he excused himself and introduced himself to U Khaymika who was sitting at another table in the same shop and talked with them briefly. Then he came back to our table and talked to us again. He said 'the venue of the meeting was arranged in a town near Rangoon' when we asked him about it. We felt unhappy and suspected him for his incomplete information.

(Part one concluded)