Win Maw Oo

Win Maw Oo (September 19, 1988/ 16 yrs old/ S.H.S 2, Latha)
Win Maw Oo was a high-school student who was shot dead by Burmese
soldiers during the 1988 student protests. She was one of the hundreds of
protestors killed in Rangoon after the military coup of the 18th of September,
1988. “I got a phone call from the hospital. She was still conscious at
the time,” Win Maw Oo’s father, Win Kyu, recounted how he learnt of his
daughter’s fate. “She gave them the names of her father and mother, and
home address and telephone number. At the hospital, after the operations,
she was put in the intensive-care room. She was unconscious. I had to go to
retrieve her body from a doctor. I asked the cause of her death. The doctor
told me it was due to shrapnel wounds. Only then was I able to retrieve her
body. I was told to bury her within 24 hours. I also had to sign a pledge saying
that she was not involved in [political] activities. Her younger sisters and
brothers weren’t able to see her when we buried her. At the funeral, there
were only 25 people at most. We had to do it behind locked doors.”
“I still miss my daughter every day,” says Win Maw Oo’s mother, Khin
Htay Htay Win. “Today, I want to cry the way my daughter cried. They said
that they shot in the air, but they aimed straight at her. That’s why she died
straight away. In my heart, I know my daughter did it for her country; she
gave up her life for the country.”
(Source: http://hamarashakespeare.com/personalities.html)
(Photo: dvb.no, Burma’s Revolution of the Spirit)