Win Aung ( my, ဝင်းအောင်) was a Burmese

military officer An officer is a person who holds a position of authority as a member of an armed force or uniformed service. Broadly speaking, "officer" means a commissioned officer, a non-commissioned officer, or a warrant officer. However, absent context ...

and

politician A politician is a person active in party politics, or a person holding or seeking an elected office in government. Politicians propose, support, reject and create laws that govern the land and by an extension of its people. Broadly speaking, a ...

who served as the 17th Minister of Foreign Affairs from 1998 until 2004. Win Aung was born in

Dawei Dawei (, ; mnw, ဓဝဲါ, ; th, ทวาย, RTGS: ''Thawai'', ; formerly known as Tavoy) is a city in south-eastern Myanmar and is the capital of the Tanintharyi Region, formerly known as the Tenasserim Division, on the northern bank of ...

(formerly Tavoy),

Tanintharyi Division Tanintharyi Region ( my, တနင်္သာရီတိုင်းဒေသကြီး, ; Mon: or ; ms, Tanah Sari; formerly Tenasserim Division and subsequently Tanintharyi Division, th, ตะนาวศรี, RTGS: ''Tanao Si'', ; ...

in 1944. Win Aung would later join the

armed forces A military, also known collectively as armed forces, is a heavily armed, highly organized force primarily intended for warfare. It is typically authorized and maintained by a sovereign state, with its members identifiable by their distinct ...

, where he served as a military intelligence officer. Since Win Aung served as an ambassador to Germany and the UK until he was appointed as Minister of Foreign Affairs in November 1998. During his tenure as foreign minister, he often bore the brunt of international criticism on many issues, especially for his government's repression of political dissidents such as

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 ...

, while visiting foreign nations. In September 2004, he was dismissed from his post, along with several other ministers, following a purge of members of the Military Intelligence faction of the

State Peace and Development Council The State Peace and Development Council ( my, နိုင်ငံတော် အေးချမ်းသာယာရေး နှင့် ဖွံ့ဖြိုးရေး ကောင်စီ ; abbreviated SPDC or , ) was the offi ...

. Win Aung was a close associate of former Prime Minister Khin Nyunt, who was among those purged in September 2004. Following his dismissal, Win Aung was arrested and sent to the notorious

Insein Prison Insein Prison ( my, အင်းစိန်ထောင်) is located in Yangon Division, near Yangon (Rangoon), the old capital of Myanmar (formerly Burma). From 1988 to 2011 it was run by the military junta of Myanmar, named the State Law and ...

. He died there on 4 November 2009 at the age of 65. At the time of his death, he was the only former Burmese government minister to be imprisoned. Win Aung's son, Thaung Su Nyein, is CEO of Seven Days News, a widely read journal in Myanmar.

References

1944 births 2009 deaths Foreign ministers of Myanmar Government ministers of Myanmar Ambassadors of Myanmar to Germany Ambassadors of Myanmar to the United Kingdom Burmese people who died in prison custody Prisoners who died in Burmese detention People from Tanintharyi Region {{Myanmar-politician-stub