The Rise and Fall of the Communist Party of Burma (CPB)

125 Pages·1990·48.656 MB·English

by  Bertil Lintner

Berti! Lintner
THE RISE AND FALL
OF THE
COMMUNIST PARTY
OF BURMA (CPB)

Bertil Lintner
THE RISE AND FALL
OF THE
COMMUNIST PARTY
OF BURMA (CPB)
Southeast Asia Program
120 Uris Hall
Cornell University, Ithaca, New York
1990
© 1990, Cornell Southeast Asia Program
ISBN 0-87727-123-2
Maps prepared by David K. Wyatt

CPB leaders at the 30th Anniversary, Panghsang, March 28, 1979.
Left to right, Tin Yee, Myo Myint, Thakin Pe Tint, Thakin Ba Thein Tin.
Photo: CPB Archives
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CONTENTS
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
A Brief History of the CPB 1939-1968 ............................................................... 3
The Northeastern Base Area 1968-1988 ............................................................. 25
The 1989 Mutiny ............................................................................................... 39
Some Concluding Observations.......................................................................... 47
Biographies..................................................................................................... 55
Appendix 1: Organization of the CPB prior to the 1989 mutiny.......................... 71
Appendix II: The CPB's base areas and guerrilla zones prior to the 1989 mutiny.. 75
Appendix III: Ethnic insurgent groups ................................................................ 105
Abbreviations .................................................................................................. 109
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ILLUSTRATIONS
CPB leaders at the 30th Anniversary, Panghsang, March 28, 1979...................... vi
Opium for sale in Panghsang market.. ............................................................... xii
Panghsang market ............................................................................................ xii
CPB-organized peasant rally in the late 1940s .................................................. 16
Thakin Than Tun, the first CPB chairman......................................................... 16
Portraits in Panghsang of Thakin Than Tun and Thakin Zin............................... 27
Thakin Soe (the Red Flag Communist leader) at the 1963 Peace Talks............... 27
Guizhou lao pings in China in the 1950s ............................................................ 33
Border bridge where the Burma Road crosses into China, Panghsai, November
1986 ........................................................................................................... 34
Kokang, December 1986. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
Third Party Congress, Panghsang, 1985 ............................................................. 42
The CPB attacks Hsi-Hsinwan, November 16, 1986 ........................................... 42
Bertil Lintner and Thakin Ba Thein Tin, Panghsang, January 1987 ..................... 48
Pegu Yoma survivors Aung Sein and Than Maung, plus Aung Htet (Thakin Ba
Thein Tin's personal assistant), Panghsang ................................................. 48
Thakin Ba Thein Tin, the CPB's last chairman................................................. 56
Chao Ngi Lai, the Wa leader who joined the mutiny........................................ 56
Khin Maung Gyi, secretary to the Central Committee........................................ 59
Kyaw Mya, the CPB leader from Arakan, now in China .................................... 59
Kyaw Zaw, ex-brigadier general of the Burmese Army who joined the CPB in
1976 ........................................................................................................... 61
Li Ziru, the Chinese "volunteer" who joined the mutiny.................................... 61
Michael Davies, alias Sao Khun Sa, Shan-Welsh rebel commander .................. 64
Sai Noom Pan.................................................................................................. 64
Thakin Pe Tint, last vice-chairman of the CPB ....... .. .. . .. .. .... .. .. . . ..... ......... ......... 65
Soe Thein, Political Commissar of the Northeastern Division........................... 65
The new Central Committee at the Third Party Congress, Panghsang,
September-October 1985............................................................................. 70
The monument in Mong Ko commemorating the CPB push into northeastern
Burma on January 1, 1968............................................................................. 74
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