Ruling Party Hardliner Aung Thaung Dead at 74

23rd July 2015
Aung Thaung, a senior member of Burma’s ruling party with a reputation for hardline politicking that included alleged links to an
infamous attack on the motorcade of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi more than a decade ago, died on Thursday at a hospital in
Singapore. He was 74.
...He has long been accused of orchestrating a mob attack on Suu Kyi’s convoy in northern Burma in 2003, when about 70 supporters of
her National League for Democracy (NLD) were killed in an incident known as the “Depayin Massacre.”
When anti-Muslim riots hit central Burma in March 2013, The Straits Times of Singapore hinted at his possible connection to the
communal strife by describing the emergence of a new Buddhist paramilitary force known as the “Taung Tha Army,” noting that Taung
Tha is a town in Mandalay Division that “happened to be home to the notoriously hardline Aung Thaung.”
...Aung Thaung is survived by four children, some of whom are believed to be among the wealthiest people in Burma, with extensive
business interests across multiple industries. IGE Co. Ltd. is publicly known as Aung Thaung family business, active in oil, gas and
mineral extraction, as well as the high-end Amara Hotel in Naypyidaw and United Amara Bank.

Ref: irrawaddy.org