With the war over, the British civil service rather optimistically wanted to reimpose the old colonial system. Burma's political landscape was unrecognisable from ten years previously and this was never going to be possible. Aung San was now an established figure and the momentum of his nationalist movement was irresistible at the end of the war. It had become a well-organised political and military force.

More about Aung San

Mountbatten saw that the Burmese National Army had to be recognised and he made it a part of the regular army. However, Aung San kept back nearly half the old BNA force to form a paramilitary nationalist army. Under Aung San's leadership, not for the first time most left-wing nationalist parties united and this time formed the Anti-Fascist People's Freedom League (AFPFL), an expanded AFO. Despite internal squabbles, in particular with the Communist Party, the formation of the AFPFL gave additional impetus to the independence movement.

Assassination of Aung San

In September 1946, Aung San and several AFPFL leaders were allowed to form what was in essence a provisional government. Five months on in January 1947, after further talks in London, he signed an agreement with British Prime Minister Attlee conferring full independence within a year. In the meantime, a constitution was to be drafted and the ethnic minorities could decide for themselves whether they wished to join the Burmese state.

Aung San met with the ethnic leaders, guaranteed them equality, and succeeded in winning most of them over. When the time came to elect a Constituent Assembly only the Karen (and the Communist Party, which believed in armed revolution) refused to participate.

The new federal constitution contained important anomalies

In July 1947, Aung San and six leading members of the AFPFL pre-independence cabinet, veterans of the independence struggle to a man, were gunned down at a cabinet meeting. The loss of these experienced politicians on the eve of independence was a great tragedy for Burma. Indeed, the consequences of that fatal day still reverberate about the country.

Despite Aung San's death, Burma became independent as planned on January 4 1948. AFPFL vice-president and former student leader U Nu became the first Prime Minister. But Aung San was sorely missed: by the age of 32, he had come to be revered as a unifier, as a politician who could realise the aspirations of the people and as a leader who had both the support of the army and the trust of many of the ethnic minorities.

The assassins had been engaged by U Saw, the leading right-wing contender for the presidency. U Saw was executed for the murders. This though brought scant consolation.