What Lessons do we get from Georgia in the Burmese Context?
Aug 16th, 2008
By Prof. Kanbawza Win
[Prof Kanbawza Win aka Dr Ba Thann Win is a Burmese Academic Activist from the Simon Fraser University, School of International Studies, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, Harbour Campus; is one of the founders of the only Burmese University in Diaspora, AEIOU, in Chiang Mai.]
Now that the world media is highlighted by the Beijing Olympics and the conflict in Georgia, and as a teacher of the history of Imperialism may I take this opportunity to highlight some of the facts and figures of the Georgia crisis especially to the pro ethno democratic forces and draw lessons as we can no longer afford the trial and error method. A country living under the shadow of the evil Chinese empire must be able to see things clearly and visualise all the trappings for the future of Union of Burma.
Washington is no innocent bystander in this bloody struggle, which provoked a response by Russia that now dominates the news. Long before Aug. 8, Georgia, a country in the Caucasus Mountains south of Russia, attacked a small autonomous region known as South Ossetia. Georgia’s military assaulted the city of Tskhinvali the capital of Ossetia destroying the parliament building, the university and the main hospital. According to AP interviews with survivors, there was hardly a single building left undamaged. Eduard Kokoity, the South Ossetian leader, estimated that more than 1,400 civilians were killed in the assault (Reuters, Aug. 8). Russian military forces then struck back at Georgia’s military bases, airfields and the main Black Sea port of Poti. Most news coverage in the West, however, is slanted to give the impression that Russia initiated the conflict with Georgia.
Of course Washington does not claim credit for the invasion of South Ossetia ordered by Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili, especially now that his forces have been routed. But the White House made clear its political support for Saakashvili and had sent Condoleezza Rice, the Secretary of State. Georgia has been closely allied with the U.S. military in its war in Iraq.
Everybody knows the U.S. and NATO have heavily armed and trained the Georgian military. There are U.S. military “advisers” in Georgia today. A thousand U.S. Marines from the Third Battalion, 25th Marine Regiment just finished three weeks of joint manoeuvres there called “Operation Immediate Response.” In the period leading up to Georgia’s attack on South Ossetia, the Pentagon had supplied Georgia with hundreds of tanks, armoured vehicles, artillery weapons, rocket launchers and dozens of combat helicopters and anti-aircraft missile systems. Hundreds of other weapons systems have poured in from other NATO members and from Israel. (Interfax, Aug. 7) In exchange Georgia had provided the third-largest military force in the U.S. occupation of Iraq. But on Aug. 10 the U.S. began ferrying the 2,000 Georgian troops out of Iraq to the war zone in Georgia. Along with the “advisers” and U.S. troops sent for manoeuvres, U.S.-origin mercenaries and privatized military trainers function in Georgia. Tens of thousands of “civil society” operatives, international consultants, policy experts and technical assistants operate in Georgia, Ukraine and other former Soviet Republics.
Now in the Burmese context, Prof. Dr Khin Mg Kyi has said we are but in name, that Burma is an autonomous region of China, the Generals has secretly sell the country long ago to the Chinese in return to support the Junta to maintain in power. Hence if we were to take the covert support from the West, particularly form the US, to make a coup de grace which I have highlighted in my previous article, what will China do is food for thought? The country under the occupation of the Chinese army will be worst that the marauding Burmese Generals. Shall we jump out of the frying pan into the fire? But this does not mean that we have to accept the status quo.
The media’s war reporting on Georgia’s invasion of South Ossetia has echoed the kind of misinformation that characterized the reporting on the U.S. invasion of Iraq. One must know that Georgia is at the centre of U.S. imperialism’s moves to control the oil-rich Caspian Sea region. Georgia is the energy highway for Europe, with at least two major pipelines passing though it. These pipelines are emerging to rival the Russian oil pipelines that have been Europe’s primary source for natural gas and oil. Until 2005, the only pipeline from the Caspian oil centre of Baku in Azerbaijan was through Russia. In 2005, the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) oil pipeline opened. Owned by British Petroleum and Unocal, this pipeline goes through Georgia to the Turkish port city of Ceyhan. The BP consortium also owns the Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum pipeline, which opened in 2007. Another pipeline, named Western Early, goes through Georgia passing the border of South Ossetia to the Georgia port city of Supsa. Hence s the oil that was once the most valuable resource of the former Soviet Union is now going to market through facilities controlled by U.S. and its allies.
With Iraq’s oil resources conquered, and Iran’s under threat of blockade or bombardment, the U.S. is determined to also control the Caspian oil fields. By removing Russian control over these oil fields, the U.S. would deliver a major blow to the possible emergence of Russia as a capitalist power. For all its flowery words of democracy and freedom, the U.S. ruling class has no intention of freeing Burma or allowing Russia to become an imperialist rival, like Europe and Japan. The U.S. has been working covertly and overtly to break up Russia and the states that were formerly part of the Soviet Union, concentrating on the states around the Caspian oil fields. The Caspian Sea has two huge oil fields. One is east of Baku. The other is the Tengiz oilfield, on the Caspian’s northwest shore in Kazakhstan. In addition there are massive reserves of natural gas throughout the Caspian region. It is the primary supplier of natural gas to Europe.
The known reserves of Caspian oil are larger than the oil fields of Nigeria or Libya, putting the Caspian oil fields in the same league as the fields of Iran or Kuwait.
A consortium of 11 major oil corporations set up outposts on the Caspian. Atlantic Richfield, Chevron, Exxon, Mobil, Pennzoil, Philips Petroleum, Texaco and BP Amoco spent billions of dollars buying up Soviet-era oil interests and drilling rights. But the Caspian Sea is landlocked. The oil must be transported out of the region by pipeline. Whoever controls the pipelines will ultimately control the oil. South Ossetia is but one of the targets.
Within the United Nations Security Council, U.S. and British representatives blocked a Russian-drafted resolution calling on Georgia and South Ossetia to immediately put down their weapons. The U.S. rejected the three-sentence statement that would have required both sides “to renounce the use of force.” It was a clear confirmation of U.S. support for Georgia’s continued “use of force” against the small Ossetian nationality. However, Russia succeeded in repelling Georgia’s invasion of South Ossetia. So as of Aug. 13, Georgia and Russia agreed to a “peace plan” brokered by French President Nicolas Sarkozy.
This is the true story, at least from my humble perspective. The point which I am driving it is that will the Chinese stand by now that the construction of the oil pipe line from Arakan to Kunming is being implemented? With the current situation in Burma, it will not be so much of a problem to deliver a coup de grace to the Burmese Junta. But after that what? Has the ethnics and the pro democracy group has come to a broad understanding? The ethnics have their own fighting force whereas the pro democracy has the masses. Have they ever made an attempt to thrash out their different perspective for a common good of the country?
The Burmese resistance (including the ethnics) have lacked the most important factor and the joke, that if two Burmese were put into the cell they will form three political parties captures a shameful truth. In other words these numerous resistance group actions are indicating that they would prefer the Burmese military Junta then come to agreement with each other. Every resistance leader knows that once they become a united political force under one umbrella then the Junta will fall and yet they would not lift a finger to help that unity.
Until and unless these two groups have an understanding of each other, I don’t see any bright future for the Union of Burma. We must present to the international community that we are the better alternative than the Junta. If the Maha Bama drives it to the position prior to 1962, surely the ethnic will not join and there is the danger of Balkanization. On the other hand the Chinese will give credence to the Maha Bama headed by the Junta and the Burmese revolution will be driven back for a couple of decades and the people will continue to suffer. I think Burmese democracy starts in our hearts and if we don’t agreed and compromise with each other after more than half a century Burma will set up a record of being a century under the heels of the military. It is far better to reach a sort of understanding an agreement than relying on the imperialistic power or the evil empires or the cutthroat neighbouring countries as the example of Georgia unfold before our eyes.
August 17th, 2008 at 4:49 pm
1411 Duel between Burma and China
In the Burmese lunar year 774, the Christian year 1411, Shans from Mawtone Mawkel invaded the town of Myedu in upper Burma. King Mingaung of Ava sent an army of eleven corps led by the Crown Price Minyekyawzwa to repel the Shans. The huge army consisted of three hundred war elephants, four thousand strong cavalry, and eighty thousand strong infantry. Once Minyekywzwa reached Myedu he immediately attacked and destroyed the smaller army of Mawtone Mawkel brothers. As the brothers fled on horseback to China, Minyekyawzwa brought their families, elephants, horses, and many prisoners of war back to Ava.
A few months after Myedu war Minyekyawzwa marched down into Lower Burma and attacked Pegu. Riding the Pegu King Yarzardayit’s own war elephant called Bagamat, Thameinbayan, a son-in-law of Mon king, came out of Pegu and had a duel with Minyekyawzwa. But he was defeated and taken prisoner together with his elephant Bagamat. Minyekyawzwa then marched farther to Bassein and laid siege to the town. But Bassein was too strong to be taken. So the Burmese army marched to nearby Myaungmya and laid siege to the town. During the long siege, Minyekyawzwa took Thameinbayan and more than twenty high-ranking Mon prisoners of war back to Ava in eight fast boats along the River Irrawaddy. The upstream trip took eleven days. Minyekyawzwa stayed for only seven days in Ava and came back down to Lower Burma. The return trip downstream to the town of Dala across the river from Dagon (Rangoon) took only four nights and five days. His army then laid siege to the towns of Dagon and nearby Syriam.
Meanwhile, the fleeing Mawtone Mawkel brothers had reached China, where they begged the Chinese Emperor Uteebwa to help them to rescue their captured families now in Burmese hands. Chinese sent their General Erawaka with an army of two hundred war elephants, two thousand strong cavalry, and forty thousand strong infantry into Burma and reached Ava, then the royal capital of Burma. The Burmese army led by Minyekyawzwa then was waging a protracted war of attrition against Yarzardayit led Mons near Pegu in Lower Burma and couldn’t come back to relieve the capital Ava. The invading Chinese surrounded Ava and sent in an ultimatum demanding that Burmese either release the captured families of Mawtone Mawkel brothers or come out and fight them outside. Burmese had refused and the Chinese laid siege to Ava, and after a month the Chinese army had run out of food and so they sent another ultimatum into the besieged city.
This time the Chinese had challenged the Burmese to a duel on horseback and if their man was defeated they would end the siege and withdraw, but if their man won Burmese had to release the families of Mawtone Mawkel brothers. In a court gathering King Mingaung asked for anyone who dared to take the Chinese challenge, but none there dared as all the Burmese warriors and most of the Burmese lords were with Minyekyawzwa in Lower Burma. Then the lord of Paungde told the King about the Mon prisoner Thameinbayan, and advised him to ask Thameinbayan to take the challenge as he was the bravest Mon warrior who even dared to fight Minyekyawzwa in an elephant duel. So King Mingaung ordered and Thameinbayan in leg Irons was brought to him.
King Mingaung asked Thameinbayan if he was brave enough and willing to face the Chinese warrior, and the Mon lord Thameinbayan answered that he wasn’t afraid of anyone on this surface of the earth, face to face, sword to sword, shield to shield, either on an elephant, or on a horse. So the Burmese king released him and let the princesses wash his hair and give him a feast good enough for a king. After that King Mingaung promised him a reward better than from his own Mon king if he defeated the Chinese warrior, Garmani. Thameinbayan bowed to the king and guaranteed the favourable outcome for the Burmese, his captors.
King Mingaung then showed Thameinbayan every single horse in Ava to choose, but he didn’t find the horse of his liking. Only later Thameinbayan saw and liked a mare in the colour of tamarind seed grazing by the moat and took it as his horse. He then told Burmese he needed seven days to know the horse well, and he would then face the China’s Garmani on the seventh day from then. Once Burmese told the Chinese the date for the duel their hero Garmani spent that seven days drinking and eating and boasting to kill Thameinbayan horribly on the day they meet.
On the appointed day King Mingaung looked at Thameinbayan and liked what saw and said that the Mon lord was strong and brave and calm as his name had preceded him. He then gave Thameinbayan his own ruby crusted royal sword and said, “My son, do not to lose my sword!”, and Thameinbayan replied, “We will win, Leave it to me.” He then asked, “I have a basket with me tied to the saddle. Once Garmani is speared, I will cut his head and put it in the basket to bring back. I need a hook to pick his head up from the ground. Please give me a hook?”
So King Mingaung gave him a goading hook used in plodding an elephant behind its ear, but many Burmese lords laughed at Thameinbayan and said that our Mon hero was already looking for a lemon to cook the rabbit even before he had a rabbit in hand. Thameinbayan just bowed to the King and rode out of the besieged city towards the Chinese army. He was followed by a few people who could speak Chinese. All the people of Ava including the Buddhist monks climbed up the city wall to watch the duel ground from above as Garmani also rode out from Chinese army’s camp to meet Thameinbayan once he saw him coming out.
In a full body armour with a ruby crusted enormous sword in his huge right hand, seven foot tall Garmani rode a giant red horse with a gold saddle. His face was painted black and he also carried a gold-plated long spear. Under a helmet of seven steps, he looked like a Chinese demon straight out of their folklore. He met Thameinbayan near the water-filled moat. Through the interpreters Thameinbayan said to him that they both were the lords and warriors, and so they should show the people watching from both sides what they were capable of on the horseback. Garmani agreed.
Thameinbayan leaned forward and made himself as small as possible on the horse and then rode real fast. Garmani copied him masterly and rode even faster. Thameinbayan then stood up on the saddle and rode away from him. Garmani copied him again and rode faster again. Then Thamenibayan stretched both hands and rode again while still standing on the horseback. Garmani copied him again and rode faster again. While he rode past him on his left Thameinbayan saw the thread tying the two armour plates covering his right underarm was cut and loose.
Immediately Thameinbayan yelled out to Garmani that they had ridden three times and now was the time to fight. Holding the short spear in right hand behind his back and stretching the left hand by his side, he rode away from Garmani. Garmani chased him immediately. As Garmani reached near him, Thameinbayan wheeled his horse around to the right and faced him. After stopping in his track Garmani immediately raised his enormous sword and tried to strike down Thameinbayan with a mighty stroke.
In the process the thread holding his underarm plates broke exposing his flesh through a gap of at least four fingers width, and Thameinbayan, expecting that perfect opportunity, swiftly sent his spear thrust through the gap. The spear went in at Garmani’s right underarm, through the body, and came out at left underarm, killing Garmani on the spot. He then cut his head with a single stroke of his sword and picked the still rolling head up from the ground with the goading hook and placed it in the basket tied to his saddle. He then rode back and entered Ava while the mass of people on the wall cheered. Even the Chinese were amazed by the short and decisive fight and they said that Thameinbayan was not a man but a demon from hell.
Hugely satisfied King Mingaung gave him rewards and married him to his youngest daughter Talokeyarzathu. The Burmese king also gave Thameinbayan the town of Legai. The people of Ava also gave him many rewards. As promised the Chinese army folded their camp and withdrew back to China.
(A direct translation from U Kala Mahayazawindawgyi, — original in Burmese — courtesy of John Fernquest.)
August 18th, 2008 at 1:04 pm
Ossetians are the last of the Scythians. The Sakya or Sake (as the Persians call them) are another group of Scythians., who settled in India. The Burmese Kings are supposed to be descended from Sakya race, same as Buddha (sakyamuni!). In Burmese one says “thaki wunmyo” but “th” is a burmese corruption of “s” in Pali ( e.g. thamma thambuddhatha for samma sambuddhassa).
They are the last of the noble race of Scythians and they don’t really want to be part of Georgia. Free Scythia !
In fact the burmese custom of drinking blood together, like the 30 comrades (thweihauk) to “bond” for loyalty is a Scythian custom (I read it in the ancient Greek book “Histories” by Herodotus), so if you are of burmese royal blood you should be supporting the Ossetians
I am an idealist and believe in John Lennon’s song “Imagine” where ther are no boundaries no race etc., because as long as people classify themselves racially there will always be discrimination and conflicts. The Han Chinese view all the minorities as barbarians (just check the way they write names of ethnic groups in Chinese) and perhaps that’s what some “Maha Bamas” might think of “Chins, Kayins, …”, what some “Shans” might think of “Palaungs, Akhas, …” and of course the lowest level are the “salone” and the “negritos” of the Andaman islands. In burmese legends they are known as “Balus” (that’s why the island near Moulmein is called Balukyun!). We all came out of Africa anyway. (Pondaung primate, which slorc likes to talk about, does not prove anything about human origins) Unfortunately most human beings are stupid and hang on to silly ideas like “ethnic pride”, which this is very often politically exploited. Look how the Chinese react to the injury of their hurdler today!