By WAI MOE | The United Nations Postal Administration (UNPA) will in February issue commemorative stamps marking the 100th anniversary of U Thant’s birth, according to the UNPA website.
U Thant, the secretary-general of the UN from 1961 to 1971, was born in Pantanaw, in the Irrawaddy delta in Burma on January 22, 1909.
During his younger years, he mainly wrote commentaries and editorials for newspapers and magazines in Burma.
After Burma’s independence in 1948 he was appointed Director of Broadcasting by then Prime Minister U Nu. From 1957 to 1961 he represented Burma at the UN, before he was unanimously appointed UN secretary-general.
He was the first Asian to hold the position, the only other being current UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon who is from South Korea.
During his two-term tenure as UN chief, U Thant was widely recognized by the international community for resolving the Cuban Missile Crisis and the civil war in the Congo.
He was the founder of many UN development and environmental agencies, funds and programs, including the UN Development Program (UNDP), the UN University, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR) and the UN Environmental Program.
He died on November 25, 1974. His funeral marked a significant page in Burma’s history. The ceremony turned into an uprising known as the “U Thant Affair.” in Burma.
Tens of thousands of protesters were angry because the then Burmese regime, headed by late dictator Ne Win, failed to honor the great diplomat’s final journey.
On the day of his funeral, December 5, 1974, thousands of Burmese students overturned the government’s plan to bury U Thant at an ordinary cemetery in Rangoon. The students snatched the coffin and carried it to the University of Rangoon and buried him there.
On December 11, security forces brutally stormed the university campus and removed U Thant's coffin from the campus. During the raid, dozens of protesters are believed to have been killed.
Burma’s state-run media have not as yet made any mention of the honor bestowed on U Thant and the country by the UN. However, a Rangoon-based weekly, Biweekly Eleven, reported the news on its front page this week.
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