US embassy cable - 03RANGOON1423

UNCLAS RANGOON 001423 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV, PHUM, SCUL, BM, Human Rights, Ethnics 
SUBJECT:  EVEN THE DEAD ARE OPPRESSED 
 
 
1.    SUMMARY:  The Burmese junta on November 1 ordered the 
demolition of a large Christian cemetery in a Karen 
neighborhood of Rangoon.  Graves not exhumed by family 
members of the deceased by December 2 will be bulldozed, as 
the regime plans to build a condominium on the site.  Emboff 
witnessed the macabre scene of scores of families grimly 
exhuming the bodies of loved ones during a visit to the 
cemetery.  END SUMMARY. 
 
2.  Sawbwagyigone cemetery, located in Insein 
Township, is a large, 100-year old cemetery containing the 
graves of over 5,000 people, mostly Karen and Shan 
Christians.  It is reportedly the largest Christian cemetery 
within Rangoon's city limits.  After the November 1 All 
Souls Day ceremony, the community was told by the Yangon 
Peace and Development Council about government plans to 
build a condo on the site and the December 2 deadline for 
removing the graves. 
 
3.  Emboff visited the cemetery with an FSN November 6. 
Scores of families were busy breaking open the graves of 
their relatives.  A typical grave includes a two-foot high 
brick and concrete structure over a coffin buried just below 
ground level.  Some people carried black garbage sacks to 
gather remains from decomposed coffins.  More recently 
buried coffins were being taken away intact.  Many Christian 
ministers were there with distraught families to offer 
prayers and solace.  The FSN showed Emboff the graves of his 
mother and sister and discussed his family's plans to dig up 
and move their remains.  A neighboring grave had already 
been exhumed, but for some reason the bare skull was left 
sitting on the remaining above-ground structure. 
 
4.  Municipal authorities told families the government would 
provide ground for re-burial in a distant, undeveloped area. 
One family member said, "but what if they want to use that 
land in five years; won't we just have to move the graves 
again?"  A Karen doctor has reportedly offered to buy the 
cemetery land from the GOB to prevent a condo from being 
built there, even though the cemetery must go.  The 
community backs this proposal, as the doctor would build a 
Karen cultural center there that could honor the memories of 
the twice departed. 
 
5.  Insein Township is populated largely by members of the 
Karen ethnic minority.  Emboff talked with an elderly Karen 
women at the cemetery who said she was 9 years old during 
the Karen uprising of 1949 and remembers government aircraft 
bombing Insein - at that time a Karen rebel stronghold.  She 
said her 16 year old brother died fighting the Burmese 
government in the revolt, another was still MIA, and that 
her cousin had been captured and imprisoned for years.  Many 
cars and vans of families gathered for the exhumations 
sported Karen flag bumper stickers or window decals. 
 
6.  The regime in 2000 ordered the obliteration of a Chinese 
Buddhist cemetery three miles down the road.  Today a still- 
unfinished garish municipal hall occupies that site.  Muslim 
and other cemeteries within the city limits have suffered 
similar fates. 
 
7.  COMMENT:  The families exhuming the remains of their 
loved ones were grim and forlorn, but Emboff heard no 
rumblings of outrage or dissent.  One wonders what it would 
take for the downtrodden, docile citizenry of Burma to mount 
even a symbolic protest.  Perhaps the old woman, who lost 
much of her family in 1949, feels she and her family have 
already paid too high a price for acting on their political 
convictions.  End Comment. 
MARTINEZ