YANGON, Myanmar — A group of World War II veterans from Myanmar’s ethnic Karen minority, most in their 90s, prayed and sang a poignant hymn Saturday at the graveside of a legendary British officer who sacrificed his life for an ethnic group for whom the war’s end 70 years ago led to the world’s longest-running insurgency.
The gathering of the old warriors at the grave of Maj. Hugh Paul Seagrim — whom the Karen call “Grandfather Longlegs” — was part of a ceremony to mark Victory over Japan Day, which ended the savage combat that devastated Burma, as the country was then known.
“He loved the Karen people. He gave his life (for us),” 92-year-old Saw Berny said of Seagrim, who led a highly effective Karen guerrilla force deep behind Japanese lines.
When Japanese began to torture and kill Karen civilians and threatened more retribution if Seagrim did not surrender, he gave himself up to be executed with seven of his Karen comrades.
While fighting with the Karen, many of them Christians, the towering British officer — regarded as a maverick but outstanding guerrilla chief — wore their native dress, shared their food and helped till fields.
Also meeting Saturday at Yangon’s Commonwealth War Cemetery were Chin, Kachin and members of other ethnic minorities who had fought bravely alongside Allied forces against the Japanese. After Burma’s independence from Britain in 1948, a welter of ethnic insurgent groups, hoping for greater autonomy from the central government, rose up in rebellion.
Sporadic fighting continues in some parts of the country, but Myanmar’s military-backed government is trying to forge a comprehensive peace agreement with the Kachin, Karen and others before general elections later this year.
