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The Myanmar navy exhibits off its {hardware} throughout its Armed Forces Day parade.
By The Irrawaddy 15 March 2022
Till his and his household’s shady connections with the Myanmar navy had been uncovered by The New York Instances late final yr, U Jonathan Kyaw Thaung was principally referred to as the CEO of KT Group, which operates a port terminal and performed the renovation of the Pegu Membership in Yangon, amongst different enterprise actions.
The Instances’ story unmasked the Kyaw Thaungs as individuals who have quietly geared up the Myanmar navy, which has lengthy been infamous for its atrocities in opposition to the nation’s ethnic folks. Now it has killed greater than 1,500 folks since final yr’s coup for rejecting navy rule within the nation.
It turned out that the Kyaw Thaungs grew to become bedfellows with the navy by securing profitable contracts to offer it with European plane, a French coastal surveillance system and Italian weapons for the navy—amongst others—whereas avoiding Western sanctions.
Regardless of the proof supplied by the Instances and Justice For Myanmar, an advocacy group monitoring the Myanmar navy and its associates’ actions, U Jonathan Kyaw Thaung, denied any involvement in arms commerce.
“I’ve nothing to do with arms,” he instructed The Irrawaddy, saying he even shunned companies linked to fishing or poultry, as his father advised, reflecting a Buddhist perception that daunts animal farming.
“I come from a wealthy household. I don’t have to make fast cash like some folks,” he added.
However the 39-year-old didn’t deny his relationship with coup chief Min Aung Hlaing. He admitted that he was launched to the junta boss (who on the time was Myanmar navy commander-in-chief) almost one decade in the past by U Aung Ko Win, the chairman of Kanbawza (KBZ) Group of Corporations and one of many richest males within the nation. The assembly led Jonathan Kyaw Thaung to satisfy Min Aung Hlaing’s son U Aung Pyae Sone and daughter Daw Khin Thiri Thetmon, each of whom had been on the time making an attempt to develop their household companies.
Nevertheless, the Irish-Burmese man instructed The Irrawaddy that regardless of U Aung Ko Win’s introduction, he was by no means near Min Aung Hlaing and his spouse Daw Kyu Kyu Hla. He insisted that he has not met them because the coup in February final yr.
When requested about his involvement with Min Aung Hlaing’s son within the buy of JF-17 fighter jets and Okay-8 coaching plane from Pakistan as reported by navy sources, he denied it.
The Irrawaddy has discovered that U Jonathan Kyaw Thaung received profitable enterprise concessions linked to the navy with the assistance of KBZ’s U Aung Ko Win, whom he refers to as “Uncle” out of respect.
They had been so shut that U Jonathan Kyaw Thaung organized abroad journeys by hiring a personal jet for U Aung Ko Win, one in all Myanmar’s richest males. Typically he traveled with him for leisure and enterprise journeys, together with playing in Macau. He recalled to associates that on one of many journeys he requested the pilot to make a U-turn whereas flying from the east to the west of the nation, with a view to dine at their favourite Korean restaurant. U Jonathan Kyaw Thaung as soon as proudly mentioned, in line with one in all his associates, that U Aung Ko Win was so depending on him that he needed to deal with him “like a child”, together with on points like visa and immigration.
U Aung Ko Win made a fortune throughout Myanmar’s earlier regime, which managed Myanmar from 1988 to early 2011, by cultivating a friendship with the then junta’s second man, Senior Basic Maung Aye. The non-public ties helped the small city authorities college instructor from Shan State enter the banking, aviation, mining and different industries as the overall on the time was the pinnacle of the regime’s commerce council, which oversaw export, import and joint ventures with international international locations. U Aung Ko Win got here to public prominence together with his Kanbawza—domestically referred to as KBZ—financial institution.
Regardless of his earlier ties to the previous regime, the banker supported Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s Nationwide League for Democracy authorities, which got here to energy after the 2015 normal election. When Myanmar was arduous hit by COVID-19 in 2020, U Aung Ko Win was amongst a handful of cronies who made critical contributions within the struggle in opposition to the illness. He’s not on the US sanctions listing.
For all of the blessings from, and connections to, the Myanmar navy management, U Jonathan Kyaw Thaung has paid a worth for his ties to the generals.
His TNT port terminal in Yangon is now struggling to be operational. Shortly earlier than the coup, Maersk, the world’s largest container delivery agency, introduced that it could not use the terminal that he leased from the navy. Earlier than that, a British port operator stopped operating the port after the operator was placed on a “soiled listing” of worldwide firms doing enterprise with the navy. He admitted he was struggling to pay the leasing charges to the navy.
After a keep in Thailand till final yr, U Jonathan Kyaw Thaung is now believed to be in Dubai, the place his father is now residing.
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