When is Myanmar’s Martyr’s Day?
Myanmar’s Martyr’s day falls on July 19 and is a national holiday.
This year, July 19 is a Thursday.
What is Martyrs Day?
Myanmar’s Martyr’s Day commemorates the assassination of nine leaders of the pre-independence interim government on July 19, 1947.
Those killed were the Prime Minister Aung San (father of Aung San Suu Kyi, current 1st State Counsellor), Thakin Mya, Ba Cho, Abdul Razak, Ba Win, Mahn Ba Khaing, Sao San Tun, Ohn Maung and Ko Htwe.
The terrible event occurred in the morning, while the group were holding a cabinet meeting at the Secretariat building in downtown Yangon.
A group of armed men in uniform gunned them down.
The assassinations were allegedly planned by a rival political group, all of whom were tried and convicted by a special tribunal.
On December 30, 1947, the masterminds behind the killings were sentenced to death, while the accomplices received prison sentences.
Many in Myanmar believe the British had a hand in the assassination plot.
Two British officers were arrested after the killings, and one of them charged and convicted of supplying the perpetrators with arms and munitions.
Myanmar – then officially Burma – became independent from British rule on January 4, 1948.
The first Prime Minister was U Nu – the former Chamber of Deputies speaker who had been absent on the day of the murders.
It has been suggested the assassins searched for U Nu on the day of the killings, but he was home with a minor illness.
A poem for Martyr’s day was written in tribute to the slain Prime Minister:
Aung San Zarni
Born on 13 February was he
Born in 1915, son of Lawyer U Hpa
Of Natmauk, in Magwe District
Mother’s name was Daw Suu
The year 1947 died he
On 19 July everyone wept
He is the cause of our Independence
He is the father of this nation.
The blessings he had given us, the words he had uttered …
How can we ever take
those out of our minds …
This year marks 71 years since the atrocity took place.
A state ceremony will be held and the national flag flown at half-mast.
State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi will attend and lay a wreath at the tomb of her father and the others lost on that day.
At the exact moment of the assassinations, a siren will be sounded.