According to the list of de-blacklisted foreigners and exiles that was published yesterday, two prominent Shan exiles Tiger Yawnghwe and his younger brother the late Dr Chao Tzang Yawnghwe are now safe to travel back to their home country.

Tiger Yawnghwe, born Sao Hso Hkan Fa, 74, is the son of Sao Shwe Thaike, ruling prince of Yawnghwe (Nyaung Shwe in Burmese) and the first president of Burma (1948-52). His name briefly hit the headlines in 2005, when he, as “President of Interim Shan Government”, declared Shan State independence.

Sao Hso Hkan Fa, Chao Tzang and Sao Harn

His more famous brother Chao Tzang Yawnghwe aka Eugene Thaike aka Sao Hso Lern Fa, resistance leader and scholar, died in 2004 at the age of 65.

Their youngest brother Harn aka Sao Hso Harn Fa, 64, is still on the blacklist. But since last October, a few weeks after he had met Naypyitaw’s than newly appointed negotiator U Aung Min in Bangkok, he has been allowed to return to Burma and set up a branch office of his Brussels-based Euro Burma Office (EBO), established in 1997 to promote democracy and human rights.

The government announced on 28 August 2,082 names out of 6,165 have been removed from its blacklist. They include names familiar to many Burmese such as Madeleine Albright, Corazon Aquino, Kim Dae Jung, Tom Lantos, Bertil Lintner, Priscilla Clapp, Debbie Stothard, Christina Fink, Yindee Lertcharoenchok, Moe Thee Zun, Dr Sein Win and Hkun Okker, among others.