August 2006 Former Top Spook Refused Passport A senior intelligence officer who worked under former prime minister and military intelligence chief Gen Khin Nyunt has been denied a passport, a well-informed source told The Former Maj-Gen Kyaw Win, number two man in the disbanded Office of the Chief of Military Intelligence, told close friends that he and his family applied for passports at the Home Affairs Ministry but were told that permission to leave the country could not be granted. Kyaw Win, formerly deputy chief of the OCMI, worked closely with Khin Nyunt, who was toppled in 2004 and is now under house arrest. The bespectacled officer joined military intelligence in the early 1990s and was actively involved in ceasefire negotiations with ethnic insurgents. He was also known to be one of the chief negotiators between opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi and government leaders. Analysts believe that junta leader Than Shwe and senior government officers might suspect that Kyaw Win will seek political asylum if he leaves the country. Since the removal of Khin Nyunt and the dismantling of his OCMI, some military intelligence officers and low ranking officials have quietly left The soft-spoken and intellectual Kyaw Win has written several essays and articles under different pseudonyms and has published a book of his photographic work. He enjoyed close and cordial relations with Than Shwe and escaped the 2004 purge. Immediately after the 2004 shakeup he is believed to have arranged safe passage out of the country for close associates and a former girlfriend, all of whom were able to apply for asylum in the west.
Shan Rebels Come in from the Cold Press reports in Moengzuen is said to have surrendered with 848 comrades, and to have turned over a large cache of arms, including heavy weapons, after “realizing the national development endeavors and sincerity of the government, the entire people and the Tatmadaw [armed forces].” SSA-S officials were quick to dispute the numbers reported in state-run The New Light of Myanmar. Last April, Moengzuen threw his support behind a “ According to sources in SSA-S leaders refused to acknowledge any exiled government, and after more than a year of lobbying unsuccessfully for its adoption, Moengzuen is thought to have allied himself with
Than Shwe’s Daughter Profits from Marriage In It’s reliably reported by marriage watchers in Not that the Than Shwe family, or bridegroom Maj Zaw Phyo Win— a deputy director at the Ministry of Commerce—were themselves out of pocket at all on the deal. The wedding bill is said by Wedding gifts are said to include diamonds, cars and real estate. It’s not clear who shelled out the most, but bets are on Tay Za as the chief provider. The boss of the Htoo Trading Company is rumored to have picked up the bill for part of the social celebrations and paid $300,000 or so for diamond jewelry from Lo Hsing-han, head of Asia World Co Ltd, and something of a drug trafficker, kindly picked up the catering tab. Diamonds seem to have topped the bride’s gift suggestions list—and thereby driven up the price of sparklers in Doubtless the big spenders will be looking for a little payback down the line from Than Shwe. The wedding’s net profit balance seems to have pleased the bride’s mother as much as Thandar Shwe, a diplomat last heard of in the role of Second Secretary at |
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