Veteran newsman aid worker dies

Janta Phraiwanawan, 56, one of the most beloved Shans along the Thai-Burma border, passed away at 23:30 at his home in Fang district, Chiangmai province, yesterday 4 August.
       
A community leader at his village of Banmai Tonhoong, Tambon Mawnpin, he had been a sort of Father Christmas to thousands of Shans fleeing from Burma into Thailand for the past nine years. In addition, he had been one of S.H.A.N.’s star reporters, one who was using the pseudonym “King Cobra”.

On 25 May he arrived at Maw Toe Clinic in Fang thoroughly played out and his illness was diagnosed as liver cancer. This was confirmed later by the Maharaj Hospital in Chiangmai where he was admitted as a patient.

His contribution to the following three reports, have been immense without which they would not have come into being:

• Dispossessed, by Shan Human Rights Foundation, on the Burma Army’s campaign in southern Shan State, 1996-98, when 300,000 people were forcibly relocated
• License to Rape, by Shan Women’s Action Network, on the Burma Army’s sexual abuses
• Show Business, by Shan Herald Agency for News, on the Burma Army’s involvement in the drug industry

His funeral will be at 13:00 on Tuesday, 9 August in Fang.