Intelligence (August 2006)
covering burma and southeast asia
Thursday, March 28, 2024
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Intelligence (August 2006)


By THE IRRAWADDY AUGUST, 2006 - VOLUME 14 NO.8


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(Page 3 of 3)

Subsequent reports say that the defectors have also been given land, farming equipment and cash in return for their allegiance to the military government.

 

 

Than Shwe’s Daughter Profits from Marriage

 

In Rangoon’s profit and loss accounts for July, the wedding of Snr-Gen Than Shwe’s daughter Thandar Shwe can certainly count as a very profitable transaction.

 

It’s reliably reported by marriage watchers in Rangoon that although the nuptial celebrations early last month cost US$ 300,000, the value of gifts received totaled about $3 million.

 

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 Rangoon watchers to have been picked up by several wealthy businessmen close to junta boss Than Shwe.

 

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 Belgium.

 

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 Burma’s chief city.

 

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 Burma’s Beijing embassy. Kyaing Kyaing had let it be known before the nuptial knot was tied that she expected her daughter’s dowry to beat the $1 million worth of gifts rumored to have been given to the daughter of Vice Snr-Gen Maung Aye when she got married.

And so it was.


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