Brigadier-General Myo Thant ( my, မျိုးသန့်) was a senior member of the military government of

Burma Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John Wells explai ...

in the 1990s, holding the position of

Minister of Information An information minister (also called minister of information) is a position in the governments of some countries responsible for dealing with information matters; it is often linked with censorship and propaganda. Sometimes the position is given to ...

Minister of Information

On 28 May 1992 the

State Law and Order Restoration Council State may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Literature * ''State Magazine'', a monthly magazine published by the U.S. Department of State * ''The State'' (newspaper), a daily newspaper in Columbia, South Carolina, United States * ''Our S ...

(SLORC) named Brigadier-General Myo Thant, Minister of Information, Deputy Chairman of the Steering Committee for the Convening of the National Convention, or National Convention Convening Commission (NCCC). In February 1993 Brigadier General Myo Thant said that the military government would only consider the release of

Aung San Suu Kyi Aung San Suu Kyi (; ; born 19 June 1945) is a Burmese politician, diplomat, author, and a 1991 Nobel Peace Prize laureate who served as State Counsellor of Myanmar (equivalent to a prime minister) and Minister of Foreign Affairs from ...

after she had served five years of house arrest. This was the longest time that anyone could be detained without charge under Myanmar law. In October 1994 Myo Thant gave instructions to the Video Censorship Board to increase censorship of locally-made and imported videos. He said "National culture has been badly damaged due to the easy availability of uncensored foreign video features". 11 November 1994, Brigadier General Myo Thant met with the United Nations' Special Rapporteur

Yozo Yokota Yozo Yokota (17 October 1940 – 12 June 2019) was a professor of Law who acted as the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in Myanmar from 1992 to 1996. Academic career Yozo Yokota was born in New York City, USA o ...

. They discussed the democratization process and the National Convention. The minister accepted copy of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in the English language, with an unofficial translation in the Burmese language. However, he did not as agreed circulate the declaration to National Convention delegates.

Later career

On 17 June 1995 Brigadier-General Myo Thant was reassigned to SLORC Chairman's office, and was replaced by Major-General Aye Kyaw as Minister of Information. On 7 December 1997 Brigadier-General Myo Thant was removed from the NCCC. Myo Thant was included in a list issued on 21 October 2002 by the European Union of members and former members of the military regime who were subject to a visa ban and freezing of funds.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Myo Thant Government ministers of Myanmar Living people Year of birth missing (living people) 2002 deaths Burmese generals