OCC Professor Leads Struggle for Peace in Homeland of Burma

Amid large wall maps of his homeland, bookshelves sagging with Burmese texts and a desk cluttered with academic journals and newspaper clippings, Orange Coast College psychology professor U Kyaw Win strives to stay in touch with daily events in his native land.

“There isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t think of Burma,” Win said in a recent interview at his home in Laguna Hills. “I love my country. It’s in my heart. That’s why I want peace to end 40 years of civil war.”

Win and a handful of other Burmese expatriates are carrying on a desperate battle of words that they hope will help to lift their homeland out of poverty and restore peace to border areas now plagued by guerrilla warfare. Under the banner of the Foundation for Democracy, based in Falls Church, Va., they have lobbied U.S. congressional leaders and met with rebel leaders in Thailand as part of their efforts.

For years, Mons, Karens, Kachins and other native ethnic groups have fought in outlying areas of Burma against the ethnic Burmese, who conquered the fertile Irrawaddy Valley in the 11th Century and who control most of the country today. Win’s foundation is waging a campaign of education and lobbying that he hopes will somehow lead the combatants to the negotiating table.

Since January, when Win was chosen president of the foundation, he has logged thousands of miles of travel as its emissary.

“We’re trying to influence public opinion so people in the United States will be more aware, and hopefully lawmakers will try to influence the Burmese government’s Gen. Ne Win to try to negotiate for peace,” said the 53-year-old college professor, whose heritage is a mixture of Burmese and Karen, a tribe that migrated from the hills of Burma to the plains. “At least try to get Ne Win to loosen up, to sit down with ethnic minority leaders.”

One recent whirlwind trip to Washington was representative of U Kyaw Win’s wide-ranging efforts. During that trip, he and other members of the foundation met with representatives of U.S. Sen. Alan Cranston (D-Calif.); Rep. Stephen Solarz (D-N.Y.), who is chairman of the House subcommittee on Asian and Pacific Affairs, and Joseph Sisco, a former assistant secretary of state, and spoke at the Institute for Religion and Peace at American University.

“We telephone ahead and arrange meetings with as many people as we can,” Win said. “We go here and there to see if they will listen to us.”

Forty years ago, Burma was a British colony. It was not until 1948, 14 years after Win was born, that Burma won its independence. “Actually, the British gave it to us right after India won independence because the British always considered us an appendage of India,” Win said.

At the time, his country was rich in rice, timber, minerals and gems, Win said. It was this image of Burma that he took with him when he left to get an education in the United States in 1952.

When he returned after college, Win said, he found a nation torn between the new Burmese government and rebels in the mountain regions and other isolated areas. In 1962, two years after Win returned to the United States for an advanced degree, Gen. Ne Win seized control of the country, ousting Prime Minister U Nu. The military strongman’s rule has been tumultuous, by most accounts.

Said a spokesman with the State Department in Washington, “There have been political imprisonments by Ne Win. There have been allegations of torture, although it hasn’t been widespread. It’s an authoritarian government, and opposition is not allowed.”

Unusually High Profile

The State Department spokesman, who spoke on the condition that he not be identified, said the Foundation of Democracy’s high profile and the outspokenness of its leaders are extremely unusual in the Burmese expatriate community in the United States.

Josef Silverstein, professor of political science at Rutgers University and a member of the foundation’s advisory board, agreed. “Most Burmese emigres tend to just live their lives in the United States in a quiet way. But many are resentful of former Gen. Ne Win’s control of the country, although they don’t tend to do anything about it,” he said.

“(U Kyaw) Win is different and, of course, he’s taking a chance. It’s a dictatorship in Burma, and there’s always a possibility that Win’s relatives who remain in Burma may be in some danger,” Silverstein said.

Still, Win remains undaunted.

“We are hoping that within the country and outside the country, enough noise will be made so the present government will feel uncomfortable and may lean toward a peace conference,” he said. “Our proposal is to push for a truce first. Stop shooting. Skirmishes between government troops and the Mons, Karens and Kachins occur daily,” he said.

“We’ve got to have a truce, get both sides talking in a conference where we can have a serious discussion with an agenda to end the civil war. The next step is to try to form a constitution that will include states’ rights with a federal government patterned after the United States’.

“We proposed the conference for Rangoon, the nation’s capital, but ethnic leaders who feared reprisal rejected it. We’re trying to push for a conference in a neutral country now. It’s not going to be solved overnight, but this will at least start the process.”

Burma has about 10 different ethnic minorities, some with very distinct cultures and languages. Win’s greatest fear, he said, is that some of the ethnic minorities will sever all ties to the Burmese union and succeed in seceding, a possibility that some Burmese leaders have discussed for years.

‘From different origins’

“Ethnically, the minorities are from different origins, although mostly they are from China. Racially they all have brown skin, like me. See?” he said as his dark fingers rubbed his arm.

Their struggles against the government in Rangoon have made Burma’s border areas “a lawless” region, he said, recalling his recent trip to Thailand. “Over there, it’s the rule of the gun.”

During his trip, Win met with five rebel leaders in Bangkok and Chiang Mai, Thailand’s second largest city. Among them, he said, were Col. Vau Seng of the Kachins and Saw Maw Reh, who heads the Karenni (or Red Karens) rebel group and is president of the National Democratic Front, an umbrella group for the rebels.

Win said they told him they need help to stop the civil war raging in Burma.

“They told me they’re tired of fighting and any help, even from outsiders, to help stop it is appreciated by them. I explained the foundation’s interests, that we seek the same thing, the same goals, as the leaders.”

Win, who has taught at Orange Coast College since 1968, is married to Indonesian-born Gandasari Win, a political science professor at Golden West College in Huntington Beach.

He was born near Rangoon. His father was a minister and a strong influence in his life, he said. His mother, whom he recalled in reverential tones, was the one who introduced him to the philosophy of Mohandas K. Gandhi. A large drawing of the Mahatma is among the treasured keepsakes inside Win’s office at home.

When Win left his homeland, he attended Arizona State and American University before returning to Burma in 1959. About a year later, he returned to the United States to work toward a doctorate in education, which he earned at the University of Southern California.

He has two children, a son, Zali, 24, who graduated from Kenyon College in Ohio and is now a stockbroker in Boston, and a daughter, Dewi, 22, who attended Bryn Mawr and now lives in Boulder, Colo.

Win said his efforts for Burma’s future are tied to a strong commitment to freedom in his homeland.

“My blood,” he said, “is still there.”