BANGKOK (AP) — Tin Oo, one of the closest associates of Myanmar’s deposed leader Aung San Suu Kyi and co-founder of her National League for Democracy party, has died. He was 97.
Tin Oo died on Saturday morning at Yangon General Hospital, said Moh Khan, a charity worker, citing a member of his family. Charity workers in Myanmar are handling the funeral arrangements.
Moh Khan said Tin Oo was hospitalized at Yangon General Hospital on Wednesday due to urinary problems and other health problems, including weakness. His cause of death was not immediately announced.
In 1988, Tin Oo helped found the National League for Democracy with Suu Kyi after a failed uprising against military rule. He became vice-chairman and then chairman of the new party.
But when the military cracked down the following year, he was placed under house arrest, as was Suu Kyi. Like them, he spent 14 of the next 21 years under house arrest or in prison before being released ahead of the 2010 general election. The party had won the 1990 election, but the result was annulled by the ruling military.
When the party was allowed to fully resume political activities, Tin Oo served as its senior leader and patron. He often appeared at public rallies and helped campaign with Suu Kyi for the 2015 elections, which the party won by a large majority.
Suu Kyi’s government was ousted by the military in 2021 after winning a second term in the 2020 elections. Suu Kyi was arrested and tried on a series of charges widely believed to have been crafted for political reasons to target her to keep locked up. Tin Oo was not arrested and was instead allowed to remain quietly at his home in Yangon.
Tin Oo’s background was unusual for a senior politician, as he joined the National League for Democracy after a high-profile military career.
He had served as the fourth Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces under the government of the late dictator General Ne Win between 1974 and 1976. A year after his retirement, he was imprisoned for allegedly withholding information about a failed coup against Ne Win, but was released under amnesty in 1980.
