ANDREW DRUMMOND recently delivered, some 40 years late, a DSM to a
Karen guerrilla leader who had fought with the British against the
Japanese in the Second World War. Here he tells the fascinating story of
the tribe who have been confronting the Burmese Government in the
decades since and who cherish the memory of their wartime British
officers.
Wangka, Thailand
GUERRILLA fighters living in the jungle in Eastern Burma have just
held an extraordinary ceremony honouring one Englishman and two Scotsmen
who died more than 40 years ago when they were leaders of this rebel
army.
Soldiers of the Karen National Liberation bowed their heads for two
minutes in remembrance of Major Hugh Seagrim, Major Jimmy Nimmo, and
Captain Eric ''Mac'' McCrindle, who died leading these people on
sabotage missions behind Japanese lines. And they held a guard of honour
as their own Major Aaron Po Yin finally received his Distinguished
Service Medal -- 44 years after he won the award.
The Karen are one of several rebel armies fighting the Burmese
military Government. In the Second World War they were led by British
officers to strike the Japanese, who were backed by the Burmese, in the
rear. They thought they would be rewarded with their own independent
State when the British left Burma. But it was not to be. And they have
been fighting the Burmese ever since.
At several points along the Burmese Thai border here, opposite the
Thai town of Mae Sot, Karen troops face Burmese army units in trench
positions less than 100 yards apart. The ceremony to which I was invited
was held during a lull in the fighting brought on by the tropical
monsoon.
Major Hugh Seagrim, from Norfolk, was nicknamed ''Grandfather
Longlegs'' by the Karen (the Japanese were known as shortlegs). He won
the George Cross posthumously in 1945. After leading the Karen for two
years he heroically gave himself up for execution by the Japanese to
spare reprisals against Karen hill villages.
Falkirk-born and Fettes-educated Major Jimmy Nimmo and Captain
McCrindle, from Helensburgh, both led Karen Force 136 SOE units in these
hills before being killed in action. The Karen tend Nimmo's grave 20
miles north of here. The body of McCrindle was never recovered after a
Japanese ambush.
The Karen were left to fend for themselves after the British left
Burma in 1947. After an incident in which one of their villages was
burned down and the civilians raped and shot by Burmese Socialist
troops, they took up arms in 1949 and have been fighting the Burmese
ever since. Curiously, despite being left by the British at the mercy of
their traditional enemies, the Burmese, they still keep an attachment to
their former masters.
Many of their officers have English names: Majors Robert, David,
Richard -- even a Major Marvel. And their President Bo Mya has sent
several delegations to London to ask the British ''not to forget their
Karen friends.''
Major Aaron was a wireless operator/ bren gunner. He trained with
McCrindle and Nimmo in Poona and Rawalpindi before they parachuted
together into Burma in 1943. Their pilot was Squadron Leader Jimmy King,
a red-headed Scot from Paisley who won the DSO and DFC for his flying
actions over Burma. Aaron escaped from the ambush near the town of
Papun, Eastern Burma, in which McCrindle died and continued to fight the
Japanese until their final defeat.
The DSM which I took to Major Aaron last month was awarded for
''bravery in numerous ambushes and small actions behind Japanese lines
between 1943 and 1945.'' Aaron himself still suffers from wounds
received while attacking Japanese forces in 1945 and qualifies now for
40 years' back pay of a disability pension. If he gets it it will make
him the richest pensioner in Burma, outside the military regime -- and
certainly one of the richest terrorists.
Meanwhile, however, he and all the Karen officers face execution if
caught by Burmese Government troops. This is a dirty war. Amnesty
International has published a report saying that Burmese Government
soldiers have indiscriminately looted, executed, and raped Karen
civilians. And reports reaching the border area here suggest that as
many as 500 civilians may have been force-marched to death carrying
heavy equipment through the hills for the Burmese army.
Pitted against the Karen 6th and 101st battalians is the Burmese 22nd
Light Infantry division which earned notoriety in Rangoon a year ago
when it fired on student demonstrators in the capital.
While this war continues on the border, the Burmese Government and its
State Law and Order Restoration Committees continue to tighten their
control over the population. Recently 12 students were sentenced to
death for taking part in last year's riots, and arrests of dissidents
continue. Aung San Suu Kyi the strongest opposition voice in the
country, who is married to Oxford don Michael Aris, continues to remain
under house arrest in Rangoon.
Two thousand students have joined the Karen army here. Said Major
Aaron, 66, a registered Chelsea pensioner: ''We have been fighting the
Burmese socialist Government for 40 years. We can fight for another
40.''
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