Win Aung, a former foreign minister and one of ex-spy chief Gen Khin
Nyunt’s aides, died on Wednesday morning at 1:55 a.m. local time in
Rangoon’s infamous Insein Prison. He was 65.

According to prison sources in Rangoon, Win Aung died of a cerebral
hemorrhage. Burmese authorities allowed Win Aung’s family to post his
obituary in Thursday’s state-run newspapers.

He is survived by his wife, one daughter and two sons. His younger
son, Thaung Suu Nyein, is the editor-in-chief of a leading Rangoon-
based weekly, 7 Days News Journal.

Win Aung was arrested in September 2004, a month before a government
crackdown on powerful Military Intelligence officers. The junta
announced Win Aung and his deputy Khin Maung Win’s retirement
following news that Win Aung had told senior officials at an
Association of Southeast Asian Nations Ministry meeting in Jakarta in
July 2004 that Burmese Prime Minister Khin Nyunt was in political
trouble.

“He [Khin Nyunt] is in a dangerous position,” Win Aung was quoted as
saying. “Khin Nyunt may have to flee the country. If that happens, I
will have to flee with him.”

Win Aung was replaced by Maj-Gen Nyan Win, the deputy head of the
military training college who was junta chief Snr-Gen Than Shwe’s
choice.

After his arrest, Wing Aung was detained under house arrest for two
years. In 2006, he was sentenced to a 7-year jail term on charges of
misuse of authority. He was detained in Insein Prison until he died.

Win Aung served as Burma’s foreign minister under the military regime
from 1998 to 2004. He had previously been Burmese ambassador to
Germany and the United Kingdom before being recalled to Burma to take
up the foreign minister position.

Win Aung led a Burmese delegation to the UN General Assembly in
September 2003 a few months after a brutal crackdown on pro-democracy
leader Aung San Suu Kyi’s convoy in Depayin had led to international
criticism of the regime and economic sanctions on Burma.

At the UN, he said it was “disconcerting that some countries have
chosen to turn a blind eye to the reality.”

In his earlier days, Win Aung was an officer with Military
Intelligence. As a major, he was close to then spy chief Brig-Gen Tin
Oo, the No 2 in the country after dictator Ne Win.

Following Tin Oo’s removal, Win Aung was reappointed as a counsel-
general with several Burmese consulates in Asia in the early 1980s.

Fluent in English, Win Aung was said to be media savvy with foreign
journalists. Unlike current Foreign Minister Nyan Win, he was willing
to give regular interviews with foreign media, including Time
Magazine.

“I am a democratic person myself,” Win Aung told Time in 1999. “I
would like my children and myself to live under a real democratic
situation.”

He added that this sentiment was also held by junta chief Snr-Gen Than
Shwe and other members of the junta.

Before his removal from the foreign minister post, he wrote religious
and political articles under the pen name of Sithu Nyein Aye.