By Nandita Haksar
Mizzima News – For the lawyers practicing at the city sessions court in Kolkata, the capital of West Bengal Thursday, November 12th, 2009 was just another busy day. They passed by the court of Ms Kalpana Dey without as much as a second look. For them the scene was familiar – lawyers dressed in their black gowns, the court clerks sitting at the table and the judge dictating to the stenographer.
The curiosity of some lawyers was aroused when they heard some passionate arguments and they may have drifted into the room in the hope of hearing some interesting point of law. The Public Prosecutor was telling the Judge that foreigners could not be allowed to depose without proper summons. He argued that summons for foreigners had to be served in accordance with the proper procedure laid down under the Code of Criminal Procedure.
A look at the large wooden cage at the back of the airy courtroom held 34 men.
Most of them were too tired to stand and were squatting on the cold stone floor. In any case they could not understand English or the intricacies of the legal points being debated. There were, however, some men who were holding the bars straining to listen to the arguments. Anxiety writ large on their faces.
On the last of the three rows of chairs in the large court room sat two men, looking calm and unperturbed, but listening carefully.
Finally the lawyer for the 34 men inside the wooden cage had persuaded the judge to allow him to call his witness. The lawyer informed the Judge that the first defence witness was Mr Harn Yawnghwe.
Mr Yawnghwe stood up and walked to the witness box. The other person sitting next to him was requested to go out of the court. The rules did not allow the defence witnesses to listen to each other before they themselves had deposed.
Harn Yawnghwe stepped into the rickety wooden witness box and was told to take oath and was ready to depose. The men in the wooden cage could not hear him but his dignified presence and his calm demeanor commanded respect. The Bengali stenographer‘s struggle with Burmese names and unfamiliar accent lent a slightly comic air.
Harn Yawnghwe was born in Burma 62 years ago. Both his parents came from Shan aristocracy and that was evident in his bearing. In quiet, measured words he told the Court that his father had been the first President of the Union of Burma in 1948. However, when Gen Ne Win staged a coup his father was imprisoned and died in jail. His older brother was executed by Gen Ne Win. These tragic circumstances had forced his family to take refuge in neighbouring Thailand and after that Harn got asylum in Canada and was a Canadian citizen.
It was not only his parentage but his professional qualifications that were impressive. He was a trained mining engineer and financial analyst, living in Canada. But all his life he had been involved in the movement for the restoration of democracy in Burma.
Harn Yawnghwe had traveled all the way from Canada to testify in the court. He told the Judge that the 34 Burmese being held inside the wooden cage at the back of the court were genuine freedom fighters. He also told the court that he was now the executive director of the Euro Burma Office with its headquarters at Brussels. The Euro Burma Office had released funds for the costs of the trial. There was no way that such funding could be given if there was even a suspicion that the 34 were gun runners involved in violating Indian security interests.
(Submitted by Harsh Kapoor)