Lwin Lwin Myint, sister of Ashin
Gambira, one of the now-imprisoned organizers of the 2007 Saffron
Revolution, speaks about how the aftermath of the brutal crackdown on
the monk-led protest has affected her family. She is currently living in
Nu Po Refugee Camp in Thailand with her husband and her baby daughter.
We arrived in Mae Sot on 4 August 2008. My husband was working
together with my brother, Ashin Gambira. We visited my brother in prison
whenever possible. In this way, we were involved in politics. When
Cyclone Nargis hit Burma in 2008 we wanted to help the people. So we
continued to do work with the underground political movement. The
authorities were watching us, and came quite close to our place. That is
why we could not live there any longer. We had to flee to Thailand.We had been under surveillance all the time. After I got married, we continued to live in Rangoon and visited my brother in prison quite often. My brother was a leader in the Saffron Revolution. Even though what he did was for the benefit of the people in Burma, he was arrested and sentenced to 68 years in prison.
The crackdown on the Saffron Revolution greatly affected my family. My elder brother, my younger brother, my brother-in-law, and my brother, Ashin Gambira, were all sent to prison. In November 2007 they also arrested my father. For one month we did not know where he was, we had no contact. He was released on 4 December of the same year.
It also affected the businesses and livelihood of our family. We
had a small shop in our house that had to be closed. My brothers had a
car wash shop, and it also had to be closed. We had to close the shops
because the authorities spread the rumor that my brother, the monk Ashin
Gambira, had been hiding weapons in our house. Many people believed it,
and stopped coming to our house and shop. People believed these rumors
because they are uneducated. They have no honest newspapers or
newsletters, so they cannot find out any other than what the authorities
tell them. Even though my father, my brother, and Ashin Gambira all did
good things for the people, we were excluded from society.We were living in an industrial zone. And even though NLD members have visited our home, our neighbors still believe the rumors until today. My father is very old now, so this makes me feel very sad and unhappy.
I now live in Nu Po Refugee Camp. It is difficult to live here in the camp. We do not have enough medical care. There is no doctor here. We have been living here for three years. We also lived for six months in Mae Sot. It is better living there. We rarely went outside in Mae Sot, so I felt safe there. We had a home in a safe area.
What is your hope for the future?
If I think about myself and the people, I have to consider my family first. I want to resettle in a third country to be able to help my family. I want to support them so they can go and make prison visits. I know there will be very difficult times for my brother Ashin Gambira, so I want to support my family. My mother is more than 60 years old, and my father is 74. I don’t want my parents to suffer from worry and depression any more. I want my parents to be able to live with all of their loved ones together again.
The last time when my mother visited my brother in prison there was an accident because of water. Everything in the prison got damaged because the river had flooded. It coincided with my brother’s hunger strike. The authorities were putting strong pressure on him at that time. Because of that, my brother looked very sad.
I want my brother, Ashin Gambira, my younger brother, and my brother-in-law to be released from prison. I want Burma to get real democracy. If the situation in Burma changes, we will all reunite as a family again, and that would be very good.
http://www.thebestfriend.org/2011/09/20/%E2%80%9Ci-don%E2%80%99t-want-my-parents-to-suffer-from-worry-and-depression-any-more%E2%80%9D/#more-10038
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