The Irrawaddy News Magazine [Covering Burma and Southeast Asia]

OCMI-related Businesses Closed
By KYAW ZWA MOE Friday, October 22, 2004

A number of businesses linked to Burma’s Office of the Chief of Military Intelligence, or OCMI, and its former boss Gen Khin Nyunt, the prime minister that was ousted in a palace coup on Monday, have been closed down or taken over.

 

Bagan Cybertech, the internet service provider run by Ye Naing Win, the younger son of Khin Nyint, has been commandeered by the Burma Army, according to a staffer at the firm’s headquarters at Rangoon University’s Hlaing Campus contacted by telephone on Friday. She spoke on condition of anonymity.

 

The ISP, which employs about 300 people, is still operating. Bagan Cybertech was launched in 2002 and operates a satellite-platformed internet service provider that leases transponder capacity from Shin Satellite Plc, a company controlled by the family of Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra.

 

Apart from Bagan Cybertech, Ye Naing Win runs other business including caf?s and fashion shops. His Aroma Caf? chain is still opening, according to sources in Rangoon.

 

Other businesses believed associated with OCMI or the former PM have reportedly been closed in recent days, including Say Ta Man Music Production. About 30 Burmese journals and magazines publishing under licenses issued by OCMI have been shut, journalists and editors said in Rangoon.

 

The Myanmar Times did not publish its Burmese-vernacular edition this week. But staff at the weekly newspaper said that was because they were busy moving office.

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