internal chaos the country had seen yet, they were going to mount one.
IN THE late summer of 1948, Karen police stopped helping the government keep the peace and started attacking government stations after Burmese paramilitary police assaulted one of the headquarters of the Karenni, an ethnic cousin to the Karen. On Christmas Eve, Burmese soldiers killed dozens of Karen in church and hundreds of others in surrounding villages, and weeks later a Karen village was attacked by Burmese military police, who killed 150 civilians. The armed wing of the Karen National Union stormed the Burmese treasury. Led by Major General Ne Win, a Burmese army battalion burned down an American Baptist mission school for Karen. On January 30, Karen settlements in Rangoon were shelled with machine guns and mortars.
On January 31, 1949, Karen and Burmese fighters battled in the streets just outside Rangoon. Karen forces set up a siege from the suburb of Insein and came within four miles of the capital. The country had been independent for barely a year, and several other insurgent groups were already at war with the government. Now the KNU was
officially at war, too. Karen Lieutenant General (Mr.) Smith (Goes to Washington) Dun was replaced with Ne Win as commander in chief of the Burma army, while Karen villagers were mobbed. The three Karen battalions that made up a third of the Burma army revolted, turning their British training and leftover British weapons on the government. They took Mandalay with the help of Kachin soldiers. They took Toungoo and Henzada. They might have taken the capital—and the government—if they’d really gone for it. They didn’t, though, not hard or fast enough.
Hundreds were killed in the siege from Insein, which lasted 112 days. It was a disorganized smattering of battles. Rangoon movie theaters still ran several shows a day, civilians could pay a couple of rupees to take a tour bus to the front line and shoot at Karen fighters, and neither the Karen nor the Burmese won any decisive victories. Instead, they began a lifetime of war, the same war that led Ta Mla to enlist as a KNU soldier in 2000, that brought Ta Mla and me together in the Mae Sot house, a war older than the both of us combined. “Ba U Gyi was no terrorist,” the former British governor of Burma had told the Times of London back in those beginning days. “I, for one, cannot picture him enjoying the miseries and hardships of a rebellion. There must have been some deep impelling reason for his continued resistance.”
However complicated the history and politics of it, though, and whether or not the Karen were erstwhile allies and all-around stand-up guys, United States law put my country and my new roommate on opposing sides of the fight. Burma’s government, after all, was internationally recognized, a member of the United Nations. And that landed the Karen National Union, which was waging an insurgency against that government, squarely inside the United States Department of State’s designation of third-tier terrorists.
There are lists, of course, of groups that are specifically designated as terrorist organizations. The KNU wasn’t on them. But the USA PATRIOT Act of 2001 added another, very inclusive dimension
of terrorism, the third tier, to the lawbooks, classifying as terrorist “an organization that is a group of two or more individuals, whether organized or not, which engages in” any terrorist activity. Which includes, per clause (iii) of section 1182 of Title 8 of the US Code, even “the use of any . . . explosive, firearm, or other weapon or dangerous device (other than for mere personal monetary gain 10 ), with intent to endanger, directly or indirectly, the safety of one or more individuals or to cause substantial damage to property.” Which certainly includes the KNU.
The title of section 1182 of Title 8 is “Inadmissible aliens.” Also banned from the United States at the time, besides Ta Mla: Htan Dah. Though
IN THE late summer of 1948, Karen police stopped helping the government keep the peace and started attacking government stations after Burmese paramilitary police assaulted one of the headquarters of the Karenni, an ethnic cousin to the Karen. On Christmas Eve, Burmese soldiers killed dozens of Karen in church and hundreds of others in surrounding villages, and weeks later a Karen village was attacked by Burmese military police, who killed 150 civilians. The armed wing of the Karen National Union stormed the Burmese treasury. Led by Major General Ne Win, a Burmese army battalion burned down an American Baptist mission school for Karen. On January 30, Karen settlements in Rangoon were shelled with machine guns and mortars.
On January 31, 1949, Karen and Burmese fighters battled in the streets just outside Rangoon. Karen forces set up a siege from the suburb of Insein and came within four miles of the capital. The country had been independent for barely a year, and several other insurgent groups were already at war with the government. Now the KNU was
officially at war, too. Karen Lieutenant General (Mr.) Smith (Goes to Washington) Dun was replaced with Ne Win as commander in chief of the Burma army, while Karen villagers were mobbed. The three Karen battalions that made up a third of the Burma army revolted, turning their British training and leftover British weapons on the government. They took Mandalay with the help of Kachin soldiers. They took Toungoo and Henzada. They might have taken the capital—and the government—if they’d really gone for it. They didn’t, though, not hard or fast enough.
Hundreds were killed in the siege from Insein, which lasted 112 days. It was a disorganized smattering of battles. Rangoon movie theaters still ran several shows a day, civilians could pay a couple of rupees to take a tour bus to the front line and shoot at Karen fighters, and neither the Karen nor the Burmese won any decisive victories. Instead, they began a lifetime of war, the same war that led Ta Mla to enlist as a KNU soldier in 2000, that brought Ta Mla and me together in the Mae Sot house, a war older than the both of us combined. “Ba U Gyi was no terrorist,” the former British governor of Burma had told the Times of London back in those beginning days. “I, for one, cannot picture him enjoying the miseries and hardships of a rebellion. There must have been some deep impelling reason for his continued resistance.”
However complicated the history and politics of it, though, and whether or not the Karen were erstwhile allies and all-around stand-up guys, United States law put my country and my new roommate on opposing sides of the fight. Burma’s government, after all, was internationally recognized, a member of the United Nations. And that landed the Karen National Union, which was waging an insurgency against that government, squarely inside the United States Department of State’s designation of third-tier terrorists.
There are lists, of course, of groups that are specifically designated as terrorist organizations. The KNU wasn’t on them. But the USA PATRIOT Act of 2001 added another, very inclusive dimension
of terrorism, the third tier, to the lawbooks, classifying as terrorist “an organization that is a group of two or more individuals, whether organized or not, which engages in” any terrorist activity. Which includes, per clause (iii) of section 1182 of Title 8 of the US Code, even “the use of any . . . explosive, firearm, or other weapon or dangerous device (other than for mere personal monetary gain 10 ), with intent to endanger, directly or indirectly, the safety of one or more individuals or to cause substantial damage to property.” Which certainly includes the KNU.
The title of section 1182 of Title 8 is “Inadmissible aliens.” Also banned from the United States at the time, besides Ta Mla: Htan Dah. Though
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