Meet the Lahu A tribute

Meet the Lahu A tribute

"Training is a lifetime job to put it to good to use for just a few short span of time", said the grizzled 78 year old elder of the local Lahu community told the participants of a self-improvement program.

Lawjaw, still full of fires despite his age, left China after he lost his fight against the communists in 1958. Four years later, the Burmese army took the reins of government in Burma with a call for socialism that triggered his decision to move out again in disgust from the Shan State where he had been making his new home. "Socialism is communism and communism's socialism", he said. "What's the difference?" 

He told S.H.A.N. he was still ready to fight for a good cause, and S.H.A.N. believed him. 

Lahu, better known as Muser (Hunters) or "Murn Surh" (Like Tigers) according to Japhet a.k.a. Jakui, General Secretary of the Lahu Democratic Front, are a warlike people of the Lolo stock who are found in the rectangle area of China's Yunnan, Burma's Shan State, northern Thailand and Laos. 

There are 200,000 Lahu living in the Shan State: 53% animists, 44% Christians, 2% Buddhists and 1% other faiths, according to the LDF. 

"Lahu love to fight and they love guns. There is a saying, 'A Lahuman will rather lose his wife than his gun'", he said. 
Lahu are also credited as great guerrilla fighters, but when it comes to conventional military formations, they straggle poorly behind other races. "There was an attempt to form a regular Lahu unit after the War", he said. "But there were so many desertions and breaches of discipline that it had to be disbanded soon". 

Still their fighting skills and cooperation are greatly appreciated both by the Burma Army and the United Wa State Army, both of which have been doing their best to woo the Lahu into their ranks. "Many Lahu militia units are being formed under the Burma Army", said he. "On the Wa side, one of their commanders is Jalaw-bo, a known Lahu fighter". 

However, the Lahu are not without troubles in their dealings with the occupying Burmese army. "They have been employing all available means to persuade the animists to become Buddhists promising them freedom from forced labor and all kinds of taxation and freedom to set up independent militia units with their full support", he said. "As a result, Buddhist militia forces have sprung up in Kunhing (west of the Salween), Mongpiang (east of the Salween, west of Kengtung) and the Highland Five Tracts of Kengtung itself. The leader of the latter, Hsay Kuang Jak, has been especially difficult to deal with letting most Lahu to believe the Burmese are trying to form a Lahu DKBA against the Christian Lahu". 

DKBA, short for Democratic Karen Buddhist Army, a splinter group from the Christian-dominated Karen National Union, led the Burma Army to victory in 1995 in its campaign against the then KNU headquarters at Manerplaw. 

With regards to the Shan, he said, "It's up to the Shans (to prove their sincerity). We had been loyal followers and supporters of the late Shan prince of Kengtung, who was a just ruler. Do you know that while the Shans (Tais) of Yunnan hold the peacock as their national symbol, we hold it as a pledge of friendship between Shans and Lahu, who according to our folklore presented to the Shan prince as a token of amity?" 

Japhet, 54, was born on 7 June 1947 in Nawnghpa, Kengtung State of the then Federated Shan States, of parents Samuel and Janmwe. A younger brother to Benjamin Ja-oo, the Lahu leader who died last year, he joined his brother two years ago to work under him. He was elected as the new general secretary of the LDF two months ago. 

Losing his left leg during his fight against the communists in 1984 had not stopped him from either hunting or fighting. "It won't stop me from working for the good of our people either", he said. "I'm not a politician, but I aim to do my best".