Ba Myo Thein

BA MYO THEIN, U FIRST CLIP My name is Ba Myo Thein. I have different names. Some call me Ko Ba, others Ba Gyi and at home Ko Myo. My father's name is U Aung Thein and he died in 1980. My mother is Daw Mya Kywe and died in 2002. I was still in The Yet prison when she died. I learned about her death only about 1 ½ - two months later. My mother, according to her experience, did not like my father being involved in politics. She did not like either Uncle Than, her brother-in-law or us getting involved in politics. The reason why she did not like was she was afraid something bad might happen. And then my brothers did not want to support much. Because at that time they knew as I said earlier someone might end up in prison or in jungle or one way or another for being engaged in politics. Even though they did not support, I have 5 brothers and I am the eldest, I kept on being involved in politics on my own decision and my own interest. My family was not keen to support. At that time I was a government employee at Myanmar Agriculture department as a deputy supervisor. I joined 88 general uprising. During that time we discussed together with friends whether to join party politics or to contact armed organizations. There were only two ways. If we had to choose only one out of two, it was not possible for us to choose party politics due to our status. Colleagues at office were surprised to learn that I got arrested and imprisoned. They were not aware of what I was doing. They realized my involvement only when I was arrested. I was doing discreetly. I was arrested in 1990. On 27 october 1990. It was the time we had to be very careful. Because some friends and acquaintances in our surroundings who got contact with AB (ABSDF) got arrested. It was in the news very often. We heard and read in the news how they got connected, even for simple acts like receiving friends overnight stay at home. People got rounded up for small, simple acts. So we got to be super cautious. Despite of being cautious it was early morning on 27 october, by that time I was living at my cousin house at the corner of Bo Aung Kyaw and Merchant streets. He was running computer courses there. I was living together with his family. They came early morning upon information they got, along with people in neighborhood and arrested me around 6 am early in the morning.