Martyrs' Day (, ) is a Burmese national holiday observed on 19 July to commemorate Gen. Aung San and seven other leaders of the pre-independence interim government, and one bodyguard — Thakin Mya, Ba Cho, Abdul Razak, Ba Win, Mahn Ba Khaing, Sao San Tun,

Ohn Maung Ohn Maung ( ; 2 February 1913 – 19 July 1947) was a Burmese civil servant who served as the Permanent secretary of Transport in Burma's pre-independence government. He, along with seven other cabinet ministers (including Prime Ministe ...

and Ko Htwe—all of whom were assassinated on that day in 1947. It is customary for high-ranking government officials to visit the Martyrs' Mausoleum in

Yangon Yangon, formerly romanized as Rangoon, is the capital of the Yangon Region and the largest city of Myanmar. Yangon was the List of capitals of Myanmar, capital of Myanmar until 2005 and served as such until 2006, when the State Peace and Dev ...

in the morning of that day to pay respects. Myoma U Than Kywe led the ceremony of the First Burmese Martyrs' Day on 19 July 1947 in Rangoon.

History

On 19 July 1947, at approximately 10:37 a.m., BST, several of

Burma Myanmar, officially the Republic of the Union of Myanmar; and also referred to as Burma (the official English name until 1989), is a country in northwest Southeast Asia. It is the largest country by area in Mainland Southeast Asia and ha ...

's independence leaders were gunned down by a group of armed men in uniform while they were holding a cabinet meeting at the Secretariat in downtown

. The assassinations were planned by a rival political group, and the leader and alleged mastermind of that group ''Galon'' U Saw, together with the perpetrators, were tried and convicted by a special tribunal presided by Kyaw Myint with two other Barristers-at-law, Aung Thar Gyaw and Si Bu. In a judgment given on 30 December 1947 the tribunal sentenced U Saw and a few others to death and the rest were given prison sentences. Appeals to the High Court of Burma by U Saw and his accomplices were rejected on 8 March 1948. In a judgment written by

Supreme Court In most legal jurisdictions, a supreme court, also known as a court of last resort, apex court, high (or final) court of appeal, and court of final appeal, is the highest court within the hierarchy of courts. Broadly speaking, the decisions of ...

Justice E Maung (1898–1977) on 27 April 1948, the Supreme Court refused leave to appeal against the original judgment. All the judgments of the tribunal, the High Court, and the Supreme Court were written in English.The judgment of the tribunal can be read in ''A Trial in Burma'' by Dr Maung Maung (Martinus Nijhoff, 1963), and the judgment of the High Court and Supreme Court can be read in the 1948 Burma Law Reports. Then- President of Burma Sao Shwe Thaik refused to pardon or commute the sentences of most of those who were sentenced to death, and U Saw was hanged inside Rangoon's Insein jail on 8 May 1948. A number of perpetrators met the same fate, while minor players, who were sentenced to various terms of imprisonment, also spent several years in prison. The assassinated people were: # Aung San, Prime Minister # Ba Cho, Minister of Information # Mahn Ba Khaing, Minister of Industry and Labor # Ba Win, Minister of Trade # Thakin Mya, Minister Without Portfolio, unofficially considered as Deputy Prime Minister of Burma # Abdul Razak, Minister of Education and National Planning # Sao San Tun, Minister of Hills Regions #

, Secretary of State Transport # Ko Htwe, Razak's bodyguard Tin Tut, Minister of Finance, and Kyaw Nyein, Minister of Home Affairs, were not present at the meeting. Additionally, one of the assassins, Ba Nyunt, went to the office of

Chamber of Deputies The chamber of deputies is the lower house in many bicameral legislatures and the sole house in some unicameral legislatures. Description Historically, French Chamber of Deputies was the lower house of the French Parliament during the Bourb ...

Speaker

U Nu Nu (; ; 25 May 1907 – 14 February 1995), commonly known as Burmese names#Honorifics, U Nu and also by the honorific name Thakin Nu, was a prominent Burmese people, Burmese statesman and the first Prime Minister of Union of Burma. He was ...

, who was not present because of a leave of absence due to minor illness. Ba Nyunt could not find U Nu. Later Ba Nyunt became the government witness in the trial process. Many Burmese believe that the British were somehow involved in the assassination plot; two British officers were also arrested at the time and one of them charged and convicted for supplying an agent of U Saw with arms and munitions. A large part of the stockpile, which was enough to equip a small army, was recovered from a lake next to U Saw's house in the immediate aftermath of the shooting. Soon after the assassinations, Major General Sir

Hubert Rance Major-General Sir Hubert Elvin Rance, (17 July 1898 – 24 January 1974) was a British politician who was the last Governor of British Burma between 1946 and 1948, during the transition from Japanese to British colonial administration. Later h ...

, the last British Governor of Burma, appointed

to head an interim administration and when Burma became independent on 4 January 1948, Nu became the first Prime Minister of Burma. 19 July was designated a public holiday known as Martyrs' Day.

Commemorations

Poem for Martyr's Day

Notes

References

External links

Who Really Killed Aung San?

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documentary on

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