Mahn Ba Zan & the Karen Revolution

President Mahn Ba Zan and the Insein Battle

Before the armed conflict of the Karen Revolution began, the KNU Central Organization members were Saw Ba U Gyi, Saw Pu, Saya Tha Htoh, Mahn James Tun Aung, Mahn Ba Khin, Mahn Ba Zan, Saw Tha Din, Saw Hunter Tha Hmway, Saw Sankey, Saw Aung Win, S’Gaw Maw Lay, U Zan, Saw Belley, and Mrs. Loo Nee.
As soon as the armed conflict began, these Central Organization members were scattered.
Saw Ba U Gyi, Mahn James Tun Aung, Mahn Ba Zan, Saw Sankey, S’Gaw Maw Lay, U Zan, and Saw Belley were in Insein. Saya Tha Htoh was in Ahlone-Sann Chaung, and was arrested. Saw Tha Din was in Moulmein and was arrested along with Saw Po Chit.
Saw Hunter Tha Hmway was in Maubin. Saw Pu was in Myaungmya and negotiated with the AFPFL and joined the government.

After the Karen armed resistance movements started, the heaviest engagements were those of Insein and NyaungLayBin. The Karens had been able to occupy Insein and NyaungLayBin. Before the Insein battle took place, the combined forces of Insein, Thamaing and Gyogon, together with Captain Tha Aye Gyaw’s UMP (Union Military Police) unit, amounted to more than two hundred.
At that time, in Insein town and in the Thamaing road junction areas, the AFPFL deployed more than two thousand troops. They were stationed there to disarm the Karens living in their enclaves in Insein and Thamaing. Over in Mingaladon, there were two artillery companies comprising former infantry soldiers under the command of Major Aung Sein. Furthermore, there were some Burma Army Karen Signals and Communication troops. Just before January 31st of 1949, there was a Section of the Second Karen Rifles in the Thamaing Karen Quarter (village), who came down from Prome to draw supplies and rations from the Army depot.

At 6.00 AM on the morning of January 31st, 1959, AFPFL troops from the Thamaing road junction began to attack the Thamaing Kawehgyan area. That was the beginning of the Insein battle. The attack that day was repulsed by the Kawehgyan KNDO troops, the enemy sustained heavy losses, and withdrew. After the information was obtained about the attack on the Insein-Thamaing Quarter by the enemy, the entire artillery unit from Mingaladon, commanded by Major Aung Sein, arrived in Insein to join the KNDO troops and entered the battle. That evening, these artillery and the KNDO troops made a combined raid on the army supplies depot at Mingaladon and returned with weapons. They returned with quite a large amount of mainly small arms and ammunition, and on their way back to Insein, they were joined by the Karen NCO’s and other ranks of Burma Signals Corps stationed in Mingaladon. As the enemy reached Kawehgyan, civilians from Kawehgyan and Thamaing evacuated to Insein. Just before the Insein battle began, Karen students and coeds of the Rangoon University also came over to Insein. These students, along with the Insein Seminary students as well as civilians were armed with the weapons from the Mingaladon depot. At that point, the Insein Karens bearing arms numbered nearly a thousand.

With the arrival of the Thamaing civilians and the increase in population in the Insein area, the problem of food supplies was encountered. To obtain these supplies, the Insein town would have to be occupied. There were two thousand enemy troops in the Insein city area, deployed there to fight the Karens of Insein. In order to have the supplies, plans were made to attack and occupy Insein. After having decided to attack at 5.00 AM on February the 1st, the Insein leaders, preachers, and elders gathered to pray for success. At 5AM, in accordance with the plan, the erstwhile artillery troops, now turned infantry soldiers, led by Major Aung Sein penetrated the middle defense of the enemy and began attacking them from the rear.

Simultaneously, other Insein troops took surprise frontal offensives and with the enclosing tactics set upon them, the enemy units suffered heavy losses, many of them dead and wounded, some simply retreated in chaos, and were completely defeated. The Insein bazaar was burned down. By 8:00 AM, all the enemy troops were cleared and the fighting ceased. Insein town was occupied. Because Insein fell, 8 rice mills and 10 rice warehouses came under our occupation. In those 10 warehouses, there were more than fifty thousand bags of rice and an almost unlimited supply of “Bo Case” bean, a variety of red bean (introduced into Burma by Brayton Case, an American agricultural missionary who started the Pyinmana Agricultural School in 1923, and became a great success.). With the acquisition of the rice warehouses, the Insein troops and civilians were able to use much of the content. A large amount of supplies was obtained. As soon as we gained possession of Insein town, Rangoon became a city under siege. At that point, the town of Twante was occupied by our troops. And since we occupied Insein at that point, land and riverine routes to and from Rangoon city were severed. The AFPFL government had lost contact with outsiders at that point in time, and hence was derogatorily referred to as the 7-mile square government (or a government with real estate of only 7 miles in diameter). The enemy began to attack Insein. In about a week’s time, Bo Maung Nyunt came over from Thaton to join the Insein Karen troops with a reinforcement of two hundred soldiers under his command. Insein town by that time had the strength of approximately more than fifteen hundred armed men.

We had defended Insein, the battle having lasted during 1949 from January 31st to May 21st, for a total of 111 days. During that time, the enemy had to get reinforcements from the districts to fight and reoccupy Insein. There were heavy as well as light engagements practically every day. The enemy had on its side the battalions of 1st Chin Rifles, the 5th Burma Rifles, UMP (Union of Burma Military Police), Levys, Rangoon University student Volunteers, etc., along with Naval vessels, Air Force fighters and bombers, armored vehicles, and artillery troops. We resisted for 111 days and withdrew from the town. In the Insein battle, the enemy lost more than five thousand of dead and wounded. On our side, there were approximately over one hundred and eighty deaths of combined combatants and civilians, and more than 800 wounded.

The Experience that I had in the Insein Battle

The following are what I have encountered during my Insein Battle experience.

At first, we had to do combat with an enemy that was infinitely more powerful than we were. The enemy’s strength was such that it could annihilate our armed power. Our own faith convinced us that God was with us. In the Insein battle, the enemy was on the offensive and we were on the defensive position. We were surrounded. The enemy had the advantage in easy transport of their reinforcements, supplies and ammunition. We were able to repel their offensive moves, inflicting them with heavy casualties. In the engagements, the enemy managed to expend enormous amounts of ammunition. From our side, we could use only very limited small arm rounds.

The battles were those of close combat. By the usual fighting standards, from our side we were severely hurting the enemy. At that beginning stage, if only the enemy managed to regain the Insein area, the fate of the Karens who were in Insein would have been horrific beyond description. Because the Lord our God was staying on our side, we were spared this terrible consequence. After Insein was attacked, the Karen artillery troops arrived as reinforcement. Should they have failed to arrive in the nick of time, the situation for the Karens would really have changed for the worst.

Because of the offensive actions by the enemy, all the civilians from Thamaing-Gyogon evacuated to Insein. Enormous predicaments in food supplies were encountered. If only we were unable to have succeeded in occupying the entire Insein town, there might have been great difficulty in food problems and the situation would have taken a new turn. The enemy might have maintained their own way in dealing with us. And it was because we were able to take over the Insein town, there was sufficient food supplies, and we could have defended ourselves from the enemy for a total of 111 days, and not fallen into dire conditions. With the battle having lasted so long, the situation came to the point where our ammunition was almost exhausted.

However, with the help of the Lord God, cases of ammunition that had been buried a few years earlier were unearthed. This was surplus ammunition that had been buried by the British shortly after World War II. It was an Indian who gave the information about these buried ammunition dumps. In addition to acquiring the ammunition, the occupation of Insein also included the hospital, Karen doctors, Karen medical students, medicine, and other weaponry, all sufficiently available at the time.

With the acquisition of weapons, we were able to organize defensive forces in a systematic manner. Infantry units, medical corps, signals and communication, intelligence, mess support for frontline troops, transportation, etc., were all systematically established. Major Aung Sein was put in charge of these, and when problems arose I took over from Maj. Aung Sein and continued the battle. During the 111 days, quite a lot of difficulties had to be confronted. This was extended fighting, and with the increase of tedious and dangerous defensive days, the morale of the armed troops began to run low, and some of them were ready to desert their posts and leave Insein town.

To boost their morale and get them to return to their perimeter postings, I, Saw Ba U Gyi and Major Maung GaLay had to rally and encourage them, to bring them under control. There were also problematic instances of trespassing regulations, moral deterioration and antagonism among the civilian population, which had to be solved. Misunderstanding and distrust between frontline troops and supporting noncombatant units were also to be taken care of. For me, the Insein battle had yielded immense experiences. It enabled me to endure the revolution. It gained me the experience of how to solve problems. It furnished me with the ability to manage the troops and civilians for 111 days. The myriad vicissitudes encountered in the Insein battle have gained me the experience and given me the ability to continue in the leadership of the revolution.