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The U Thant Disturbances in Burma, December 1974 Andrew Selth

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The U Thant Disturbances in Burma, December 1974 Andrew Selth i Griffith Asia Institute Research Paper Death of a hero: The U Thant disturbances in Burma, December 1974 Andrew Selth ii About the Griffith Asia Institute The Griffith Asia Institute produces relevant, interdisciplinary research on key developments in the politics, security and economies of the Asia-Pacific. By promoting knowledge of Australia’s changing region and its importance to our future, the Griffith Asia Institute seeks to inform and foster academic scholarship, public awareness and considered and responsive policy making. The Institute’s work builds on a long Griffith University tradition of providing multidisciplinary research on issues of contemporary significance in the region. Griffith was the first University in the country to offer Asian Studies to undergraduate students and remains a pioneer in this field. This strong history means that today’s Institute can draw on the expertise of some 50 Asia–Pacific focused academics from many disciplines across the university. The Griffith Asia Institute’s ‘Research Papers’ publish the institute’s policy-relevant research on Australia and its regional environment. The texts of published papers and the titles of upcoming publications can be found on the Institute’s website: www.griffith.edu.au/asiainstitute ‘Death of a hero: The U Thant disturbances in Burma, December 1974’ July 2018 iii About the Author Andrew Selth Andrew Selth is an Adjunct Associate Professor at the Griffith Asia Institute. He has been studying international security issues and Asian affairs for 45 years, as a diplomat, strategic intelligence analyst and research scholar. During this time, he has been an Adjunct Associate Professor in the Coral Bell School of Asia Pacific Affairs at the Australian National University (ANU), a Visiting Fellow at the ANU’s Strategic and Defence Studies Centre, a Chevening Scholar at St Antony’s College, Oxford University, an Australian Research Council Fellow at Griffith University and a Harold White Fellow at the National Library of Australia. Dr Selth has published seven books and more than 50 peer-reviewed works, most of them about Myanmar (Burma) and related subjects. He has also contributed to the public debate on Myanmar through numerous articles in newspapers, magazines and online fora, notably the Lowy Institute’s Interpreter and the ANU’s New Mandala blogs. iv Contents Preface to the Third Edition ............................................................................................................................................................. vi Foreword ................................................................................................................................................................................................ xi 1. Introduction .......................................................................................................................................................................................1 2. The Setting ........................................................................................................................................................................................2 3. The Secretary-General ..................................................................................................................................................................5 4. The Abduction ..................................................................................................................................................................................7 5. The Response.................................................................................................................................................................................10 6. The Riots..........................................................................................................................................................................................12 7. The Assessment ............................................................................................................................................................................15 8. The Postscript................................................................................................................................................................................18 Note on Sources ................................................................................................................................................................................19 Bibliography .........................................................................................................................................................................................20 Notes .....................................................................................................................................................................................................21 v Preface to the Third Edition In January 1974, I was posted as Third Secretary to the Australian Embassy in Rangoon, then the administrative capital of the Socialist Republic of the Union of Burma.1 In those days, the usual length of such assignments was two years but, at my request, mine was extended by eight months. I returned to Australia in August 1976. During my time in Burma, the country and its people made an indelible impression on me and have remained abiding interests ever since. Casting my mind back to those early days, I have many strong memories, but one episode in particular stands out. That is the protests which took place in Rangoon in December 1974, after the return to Burma of the remains of U Thant, the Secretary-General of the United Nations (UN) from 1961 to 1971, and Burma’s most respected international statesman. Before U Thant’s casket arrived back in Rangoon, there was considerable discussion among the resident diplomatic community about how it should respond to these developments. Uppermost in the minds of most ambassadors and representatives of international NGOs in the country was the possible reaction of the leader of Burma’s military-dominated government, former General Ne Win.2 It was widely believed that he had always resented U Thant’s personal and professional closeness to former Prime Minister U Nu, who Ne Win had overthrown in a coup in March 1962. It was also the accepted wisdom that Ne Win later became envious of the UN Secretary-General’s international status and reputation. This apparently made most diplomats in Rangoon wary of doing anything that might provoke the wrath of the notoriously volatile president. As protocol demanded, the three resident UN representatives went out to Mingaladon Airport to meet the casket, when it arrived on a Burma Airways Corporation plane provided by the government.3 However, of the national representatives based in Rangoon, only the Australian ambassador, Garry Woodard, was prepared to risk official disfavour and join them. Woodard judged that if there was any temporary unpleasantness it would be contained by the good bilateral relationship that existed between Australia and Burma, which had been confirmed by the reciprocal visits of the Australian prime minister and the Burmese president earlier that year.4 I was too junior an officer to play any part in these events. However, after U Thant’s coffin was seized by students and Buddhist monks on Thursday 5 December 1974, and taken back to the campus of the Rangoon Arts and Sciences University (RASU), I was anxious to learn more. On the Saturday evening, without informing any of my colleagues, I made my way to the campus, where I was welcomed by the students guarding the university gates. They invited me inside and directed me to a large gathering then being held in the RASU Convocation Hall. My limited grasp of the Burmese language made it difficult for me to understand everything being said, but the atmosphere in the hall was electric. Everyone around me, young and old, were full of hope. They felt that they were at a critical turning point in the history of modern Burma. I was asked by many of those present to tell the outside world that they would no longer be denied a democratic government. I could not help being infected by their optimism, such was the atmosphere in the Convocation Hall that night. However, I also felt that the students and their many supporters had underestimated Ne Win’s determination to hold on to power, and the support that he still commanded among the security forces. And so it proved. After the RASU campus was stormed by army and police units in the early hours of 11 December, and protesters filled the streets, martial law was declared in Rangoon. Troops and armoured vehicles were deployed throughout the city. The first indication the Australian embassy had of this development was the sight (and sound) of two of the Burma Army’s vintage Comet tanks rumbling down Strand Road. The civil unrest and martial law regulations (including a night-time curfew) made travel around Rangoon difficult.5 However, for both personal and professional reasons, I was keen to know what was happening. Walking around the city centre that week, I witnessed a squad of armed and obviously battle-hardened soldiers stopping a bus and ordering several young men to get off. They were then made to kneel on the footpath while the soldiers cut their long hair with bayonets. I can still remember the look I was given by one of the boys being assaulted. At the same time, the Australian Defence Attache and his assistant were being driven around Rangoon, taking
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