U Saw

U Saw, also known as Galon U Saw ( or , lit. Garuda U Saw, ; 16 March 1900 – 8 May 1948), was a leading Burmese politician who served as Prime Minister of British Burma during the colonial era before the Second World War. He is also known for his role in the assassination of Burma's national hero Aung San and other independence leaders in July 1947, only months before Burma gained independence from Britain in January 1948. He and five others were executed by hanging for the assassination.

Early life and education

U Saw was born on 16 March 1900 in Okpho, Tharrawaddy District, British Burma. He was the second of four sons of the landowner Phoe Kyuu and Daw Pann. He was educated at a Roman Catholic missionary school in Gyobingauk. In 1927, he became a senior lawyer. He was married to Than Khin.

Political career

A lawyer by training, U Saw first made his name by defending Saya San, a former monk and medicine man, who became the leader of the Galon Peasant Rebellion (1930–32), at his trial by the British colonial government, and came to be known as Galon U Saw. In 1935, he purchased the Thuriya (Sun) newspaper and turned it into a device to promote himself and his political interests. He was elected to the Legislative Council in the 1936 general elections as a member of the United GCBA. Two years later he formed the Patriot's Party, and from 1940 until 1942, he served as the third Prime Minister of Burma. In November 1941, he travelled to London in an unsuccessful attempt to gain a promise from Winston Churchill that Burma be granted Dominion status after the Second World War, citing principles expressed by Churchill and Franklin D. Roosevelt in the Atlantic Charter. U Saw also spent several weeks in Washington D.C., seeking to convince Roosevelt to pressure Churchill into granting Burma independence. At the last hour, the death sentences of the accmplices of U Saw were commuted to life in prison, effectively 20 years under Burmese law.

U Saw and three of his accomplices were executed by hanging at Insein Prison on May 8, 1948. The same day, the two other accomplices were hanged at Rangoon Central Jail. U Saw was buried, according to custom, in an unmarked grave within the prison.

Many mysteries still surround the assassination. There were rumours of a conspiracy involving the British — a variation on this theory was given new life in a documentary broadcast by the BBC on the 50th anniversary of the assassination in 1997. What did emerge in the course of the investigations at the time of the trial, however, was that several low-ranking British officers had sold guns to a number of Burmese politicians, including U Saw. Shortly after U Saw's conviction, Captain David Vivian, a British Army officer, was sentenced to five years imprisonment for supplying U Saw with weapons. Captain Vivian escaped from prison during the Karen uprising in Insein in early 1949. Little information about his motives was revealed during his trial or after the trial.