Aung Shwe

Brigadier General Aung Shwe (Burmese: အောင်ရွှေ; 19 May 1919 – 13 August 2017) was a Burmese politician and a member of General Ne Win's Burma Rifles rising to Brigadier General. He was one of the founders and former President of the National League for Democracy who took charge of the party when Aung San Suu Kyi and Tin Oo were under house arrest in the early 1990s and 2000s.[2][3][4][5]

Brigadier General Thray Sithu[1]
Aung Shwe
အောင်ရွှေ
President of the National League for Democracy
In office
22 December 1990 – 2010[2]
LeaderAung San Suu Kyi
Preceded byTin Oo
Succeeded byAung San Suu Kyi
Commander of Southern Command
In office
1954–1962
Commander of Northern Command
In office
1957–?
Member-elect of Pyithu Hluttaw (1990)
Preceded byConstituency established
Succeeded byConstituency abolished
ConstituencyMayangon Township № 1
Majority66.62%
Personal details
Born(1919-05-19)19 May 1919
Rangoon, British Burma
Died13 August 2017(2017-08-13) (aged 98)
Yangon, Myanmar
Political partyBurma Socialist Party (before 1962)
Patriotic Old Comrades' League (1988-?)
National League for Democracy (1988–2010)
SpouseTin Tin Shwe
Childrenthree sons and three daughters
Parent(s)Phoe Con (father)
Thein Tin (mother)
Military service
Allegiance Burma
Branch/serviceMyanmar Army
Years of service1946–1962
Rank Brigadier General

Early life and education

Aung Shwe was born in Rangoon, British Burma to Phoe Con and Daw Thein. He graduated in arts from Rangoon University in 1940. From 1942 to 1945, he served under the leadership of General Aung San's Burma Independence Army, Burma Defence Army and Patriotic Burmese Forces during the Japanese occupation of Burma. Aung Shwe joined the Burmese army in 1945.

Military and governmental career
Aung Shwe as Ambassador to Australia, 1961

Aung Shwe played a role in the 1958 caretaker government and served as a high-ranking military officer led by General Ne Win. During this time, he also served as the Commander of the Southern Regional Command from 1955 to 1961 and Northern Regional Command in 1957.[6]

Aung Shwe was a member of the Burma Socialist Party before the 1962 Burmese coup d'état. He was forced to retire from Tatmadaw in 1961 after a public disagreement with General Ne Win, on the military's long-term role in government.

He then served as Burmese ambassador to France, Australia, Egypt, Spain and New Zealand from 1961 to 1975. Subsequent to his posting in Australia, He served in Egypt and then in Paris until his retirement from government service in 1975. He settled in Rangoon, where in 1988 public demonstrations erupted that eventually spread across the country. The people of Burma were tired of the authoritarian rule of the Burma Socialist Programme Party.[7]

Political career

Aung Shwe founded National League for Democracy Party with Tin Oo and secretary-general, Aung San Suu Kyi on 27 September 1988. He was a leading member of the NLD and also chairman of the Patriotic Old Comrades' League (POCL) in 1988.

He was elected as the MP for Yangon Region Mayangon Township Constituency No. 1 in the 1990 Myanmar general election. He was also chairman of the Committee Representing the People's Parliament (CRPP), a group of successful candidates in the 1990 elections.[8][9]

Personal life and death

He died on 13 August 2017 at Victoria Hospital in Yangon, Myanmar. He is survived by his three sons and three daughters namely Aung Than Shwe, Than Pe Shwe, Aung Myint Shwe, Yuzana Shwe, Myinzu Shwe and Sabai Shwe.[10][11]

References
  1. "ဗိုလ်မှူးချုပ် သရေစည်သူ အောင်ရွှေ(၁၉၁၈-၂ဝ၁၇)". BBC Burmese. 14 August 2017. Retrieved 14 August 2017.
  2. "Myanmar ruling party's former president U Aung Shwe dies". Xinhua News Agency. 2017-08-14. Archived from the original on August 14, 2017.
  3. "Funeral of NLD ex-chairman to be held on August 17". Eleven Media Group. 2017-08-16. Archived from the original on 2017-08-16. Retrieved 2017-08-16.
  4. "The Khaki Guardians of The NLD". The Irrawaddy. 2017-08-15. Retrieved 2017-08-16.
  5. Nanda (16 August 2017). "ထိုင်ခုံပူပေါ်က ဥက္ကဋ္ဌ". 7Day News. Archived from the original on 19 September 2017. Retrieved 16 August 2017.
  6. "Letters from Burma by Aung San Suu Kyi". Assistance Association for Political Prisoners. Archived from the original on 2017-08-14.
  7. "NLD Secretary U Lwin Suffers Stroke, Chairman Aung Shwe also Ill". The Irrawaddy News. 2008-10-22.
  8. "NLD ဥက္ကဌဟောင်း ဦးအောင်ရွှေ ကွယ်လွန်". VOA Burmese News (in Burmese). 2017-08-13.
  9. "ကွယ်လွန်သူ ဦးအောင်ရွှေအပေါ် လွှတ်တော်အမတ်ဟောင်းတချို့ရဲ့ သုံးသပ်ချက်". VOA Burmese News (in Burmese). 2017-08-13.
  10. "NLD ပါတီ ဥက္ကဋ္ဌဟောင်း ဦးအောင်ရွှေ ကွယ်လွန်". BBC News (in Burmese). 2017-08-13.
  11. Mizzima News Former NLD chairman U Aung Shwe passes away
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