U Sandawbartha, commonly known by his pseudonym of U Gambira, (born 19 June 1979), is an imprisoned leader of the All-Burma Monks' Alliance, a group which helped lead the 2007 Burmese anti-government protests.[1]
U Gambira started his schooling at age five, but this schooling was interrupted following the 1988 pro-democracy protests. According to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, he ran away from home at age 12 and was recruited as a child soldier by a military unit in Yangon.[2] Once his parents located him, they removed him from the unit and returned to their home of Pauk Township. When the authorities came to investigate, U Gambira's parents enrolled him in a local monastery, fearing for his continued safety.
U Gambira first became well known in August 2007, when high fuel and commodity prices in Yangon, Burma sparked a series of city-wide protests. The city's Buddhist monks took on a leadership role in these demonstrations, forming the All-Burma Monks' Alliance and lending the uprising its nickname of "the Saffron Revolution", after the color of the monks' robes.[3] U Gambira, a 29-year-old monk, became one of the new organization's leaders.[1]
Following the protests, he went into hiding. His brother Aung Kyaw Kyaw was arrested on 17 October, on what the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners believes to be an attempt by the government to force U Gambira out of hiding.[2] On 4 November, he published editorials in the Washington Post[4] and The Guardian[5] calling for the international community to continue sanctions against Burma's leadership, for Russia and China to cease supporting the SPDC on the United Nations Security Council, and for Burma's people to continue to peacefully protest against the military rulers. "The regime's use of mass arrests, murder, torture and imprisonment has failed to extinguish our desire for the freedom that was stolen from us so many years ago. We have taken their best punch", he wrote in the Post.[4]
The same day, he was arrested in Sagaing Region; his father was arrested as well and held for one month in Mandalay prison.[6] Human Rights Watch reports that U Gambira was stripped of his robes and "badly tortured" following his arrest.[6]
In April 2008, U Gambira's sister reported that he was leading a mettā chanting campaign among other imprisoned monks of Insein Prison to protest against their being issued "layperson" identification cards for the upcoming constitutional referendum.[7] In October 2008, U Gambira's lawyer, Aung Thein, resigned from his case, saying that the military government would not allow him the materials to prepare an adequate defense.[8] On one occasion, U Gambira refused to appear in court himself, stating that the trial of a forcibly-disrobed monk is disrespectful to Buddhism.[9] In November, U Gambira was sentenced to 68 years in prison, at least 12 years of which will be hard labor; other charges against him are still pending.[9] In early 2009, his sentence was reduced to 63 years.[6] His sentence was protested by Human Rights Watch,[10] and Amnesty International considers him a prisoner of conscience.[11] Both groups have called for his immediate release.
U Gambira is believed to be currently in a labor camp in Sagaing Region.[6] When his mother visited him in early 2009, she reported that he was on hunger strike in protest of the conditions of his confinement.[6] Amnesty International reports that he suffers from nervous tension and is in generally ill health.[9] On 31 October 2011, the organization issued an urgent action stating that U Gambira was being denied necessary hospitalization to treat complications from being tortured at Hkamti prison in April 2009.[12]
U Gambira won the 2008 Bindmans Law and Campaigning Award in absentia at the 2008 Index on Censorship Freedom of Expression Awards.[13]