Dead Retired Leader Honored By Former Comrades

Dead Retired Leader Honored By Former Comrades

A retired Shan Leader who died last Friday received fitting praises from his former colleagues and people before his cremation in Fang, north of Chiangmai yesterday. 

Kungna a.k.a. Mana Jansuwan, 79, who died on 14 January at his home in Ban Mawnpin, Fang District, Chiangmai Province, received honors and praises from his ex-comrades and friends who attended his funeral yesterday, 18 January. 

"Sao Noi wanted to start the Resistance, but he had no guns, no men and no money", said Sao Khurhsurh, whose leaflets had once stirred hundreds of Shan youth to join the struggle. "It was Kungna who, once he knew what Sao Noi planned to do and decided Sao Noi was genuine, offered him what he needed in 1958". 

The Noom Serk Harn (Young Brave Warriors) of Sao Noi a.k.a. Sao Yanda and Kungna was active for seven years. Then, Battalion 1, the strongest among Sao Noi's forces, mutinied. It came at a time when Kungna was broke and the Noom Serk Harn went into abeyance. 

Unbeaten, Sao Noi tried to revive it in 1968. By that time, the Shan struggle was already filled by bigger names such as the Shan State Army and Kornzurng. The Noom Serk Harn then merged with Kornzurng's force to form the Shan United Revolutionary Army. 

His former comrades, among whom were Sao Sengsuk, ex-President of the Shan State Progress Party and now leading the Shan State Organization and Shan Democratic Union and Sao Htun Aye, former Commander-in-Chief of the defunct Shan State Independence Army, stood with their heads bent as Sao Khurhsurh read his eulogy, before pushing the cremation button. 

Kungna was married to Nang Buakaew and had 8 children.