Very few at the “historic” (according to Kachin general Gun Maw) meeting on 5 April in Rangoon, where 21 armed resistance movements (ARMs) in Burma had sent their representatives, knew or heard of him.

Many of them, both Burman and non-Burman alike, were more familiar with Mongla’s top leader, Sai Leun aka U Sai Lin aka Lin Mingxian, his two deputies, Hsan Per and Hsang Lu, and former General Secretary Min Ein, who was gunned down near Mongla’s Oriental Hotel on 27 January 2010 by an assassin who is still at large.

His assassination, taking place at the height of tensions caused by Naypyitaw’s demand that all ARMs that had concluded ceasefire agreements since 1989 transform themselves into Burma Army-controlled People’s Militia Forces (PMFs) or Border Guard Forces (BGFs), had created a sensation.

The National Democratic Front (NDF), the predecessor to today’s United Nationalities Council (UNFC), issued a statement on the next day saying a secret order to assassinate leaders of ceasefire groups that had resisted government demand to become PMFs/BGFs came out from Naypyitaw following the Tri-annual meeting held there in November.

Following Min Ein’s untimely demise, a Shan, Sai Hseng La, was appointed in his place. Three years later, Kyi Myint aka Zhang Zhiming, now 64, returned to Mongla after more than a decade absence. By the end of 2013, he was appointed to replace Sai Hseng La, who became head of the local administration.
Kyi Myint, on 5 April 2014, speaking at the ''historic'' meeting (Photo: RCSS)

It was after his return that Mongla began its call for a self-administered status, a right currently enjoyed by Wa, Danu, PaO, Palaung, Kokang and Naga. Indeed at the meeting in Rangoon, Kyi Myint, as Mongla’s spokesman, spoke in favor of its ally the United Wa State Army (UWSA)’s demand for a separate statehood and reiterated its own call to be elevated to a self administered level. “It was as though the Wa and Mongla had had a rehearsal together before coming,” commented a participant.

Kyi Myint, according to Bertil Lintner, was born in 1950 in Wanding, opposite Shan State’s Panghsai near Muse. He joined the Communist Party of Burma (CPB) in 1968 as a Red Guard volunteer along with Lin Mingxian. He was regarded as one of CPB’s ablest commanders. His departure from Mongla, a few years after Lin concluded a ceasefire in 1989, was said to be “because he couldn’t get along with Lin Hongshen (aka Min Ein).”

Now that he’s back, it is clear Mongla is in the hands of a man with better political acumen. Whether it will make the work of peacemakers more difficult or easier is anybody’s guess at present, though.