Saw Ba U Gyi

Saw Ba U Gyi was born in 1905 to a wealthy land-owning Karen family in Burma. After he completed his degree at Rangoon University in 1925, he went to London, studied at Cambridge University and became a lawyer. He passed the English bar in 1927. In 1937 he returned to Burma and joined the government of Ba Maw as Minister of Revenue.[4]

Later, he joined the pre-independence cabinet and became Information Minister of Burma. During this time, he began to work to gain independence for the Karen people. In September 1945, he was one of the leaders of the Karen Central Organization. He and the KCO asked the British that they be granted their own homeland. On 25 August 1946, he and other Karen leaders arrived in London to get Karen their homeland. At this time, the British controlled Karen land and he went to Great Britain in an effort to regain control of the land for his people, but the British refused and did not give it back to them. Instead the British gave it to Burma. On 27 January 1947, the British agreed with Aung San-Attlee, the Burmese president, and gave him and the Anti-Fascist People's Freedom League (AFPFL) rule over Burma. Saw Ba U Gyi had joined the AFPFL in 1944 which was struggling for Burmese independence. He disagreed with the AFPFL political line and resigned to lead the Karen National Union.[4]

According to Paul Keenan of the Karen History and Culture Preservation Society, "The Aung San-Attlee agreement gave no provisions for Karen aspirations for their own land." To form their case, between 5 and 7 February 1947, 700 members of the Karen Norberg Associates( KNA), Baptist KNA, Buddhist Karen National Association (BKNA), Karen Central Organization (KCO) and its youth branch the Karen Youth Organization (KYO) which had been formed in October 1945, met at Vinton Memorial Hall in Rangoon and formed the Karen National Union. That union asked for representation in government. They also asked for a seaboard on their own land. Not only that, they asked for all Karen units in the armed forces. The British ignored the KNU.[4]

After the negotiations with the AFPFL government for the benefit of the Karen nation were not successful, Saw Ba U Gyi led an armed rebellion as commander of the Karen National Liberation Army (KNDO) in 1949. He was killed on 12 August 1950 at a small village near Moulmein, 170 miles from Rangoon, with other Karen leaders and an English major who were imprisoned for supplying arms.[5] His corpse was apparently transported four miles out to sea where it was thrown overboard, thus ensuring there would be no martyr's grave for him.[4]

After Saw Ba U Gyi died, the Karen people started celebrating Karen Martyr Day which is on 12 August, the day Saw Ba U Gyi was gunned down by the Burmese government forces, becoming a martyr to his people who are Karen.[6][7] Martyr Day pays tribute to all of Karen fallen soldiers.[6]