Another Shan leader fades out

No.06 - 8/2007
13 August 2007
Politics
 
Another Shan leader fades out
 
Almost 5 months after his 72nd birthday was celebrated by young Shans in Chiangmai, Sao Seng Suk, one of the principal Shan leaders fighting for democracy and self-determination, succumbed this evening at 17:00 to his prolonged illness.
 
Seng Suk was first hospitalized on 23 April. "Something's going wrong with his lungs," his doctor told S.H.A.N. without elaborating after examining his X-ray. His wife, Nang Layen, recounted later that he had been treated for tuberculosis 20 years earlier.
 

_{Sao Seng Suk}

The sixth of the 10 siblings of Khun Kya Bu, one of the signatories of the 1947 historic Panglong Agreement, Sao Seng Suk aka Khun Kya Nu, had served as the Commander in Chief of the Shan State Army (SSA) until 1976. The late Chao Tzang Yawnghwe (1939-2004) was Chief of Staff.
 
One of his recent accomplishments was the first draft of the Shan State Constitution which was published last year. He died while gathering feedback for the second draft.
 
"Sao Seng Suk was one guy the struggle didn't break," said Lt-Col (Retired) Pai Moeng, a former colleague. "He was forever in high spirits."

 
Invictus
Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the Pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be   
For my unconquerable soul.    
 
In the fell clutch of circumstance 
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance   
My head is bloody, but unbowed.
 
Beyond this place of wrath and tears   
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years   
Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.
  
It matters not how strait the gate,   
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate: 
I am the captain of my soul.
 
_{William Ernest Henley. 1849–1903}