The Funeral of General Saw Bo Mya

Narinjara News
12/27/2006

Aung Mirm Oo (Maesod)

General Saw Bo Mya, who passed away on 24 December 2006, was buried yesterday at Battalion No. 202, on of the Karen Liberated Areas on the Thai-Burma border. Approximately 10,000 people, including SPDC representatives Myat Htun Oo and Min Chit Oo attended the funeral.

Hundreds of funeral wreaths and statements from the different ethnic nationalities and alliance organizations of the KNU were received.

A Karen activist said, "I have never seen a funeral that received more wreaths than this.”

He said that the death of General Saw Bo Mya was a big loss not only to the KNU but also to all revolutionary and democratic forces of Burma. He died fighting for the benefit of his people and the liberation of his state. In fact, he fought against all successive military juntas not only for the oppressed Karen and self-determination for his people, but for all oppressed ethnic people in alliance with other opposition forces.

When he was 18 years old, he began to fight against the fascist Japanese who oppressed all the people of Burma. He entered the Karen national liberation struggle when Karen leaders took up arms in 1949, a few months after Burma gained her independence through the intensive efforts of all the ethnic people under the leadership of General Aung San. Since then, he fought all the successive despotic Burmese regimes for the liberation of the Karen people - until the day he died.

General Saw Bo Mya is not only one of the greatest leaders of the Karen people, but also of all the ethnic people of Burma. All ethnic people who have national and revolutionary spirits should remember and admire him and his self-sacrifice for the revolution and for democratic change in Burma.

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