Death of Shan Herald chief’s namesake causes a stir

Saengchuen Soikhamhuang, Khuensai’s deputy, better known as U Sein Kyi to the exiled radio stations, said he was bombarded by phone calls from several friends.
 
Khuensai was in Bangkok on Sunday to attend a three-day seminar organized by the Southeast Asian Press Alliance (SEAPA) when the news broke.
 
Friends of SHAN, brought up among old wife’s tales, had each reacted to the news after being assured that SHAN chief was still alive and kicking. “Please ask some astrologers to do some yatara (Preventive magic) on you,” advised one. “Maybe it’s a forewarning for your impending demise.”
 
Two others saw it different. “I think it’s a good omen,” a friend from the United Wa State Army commented. “It means he has died in your stead and you are going to live a long life.”
 
Khuensai Jaiyen is turning sixty this year.
 

_{Khuensai Khunlu}

Khuensai Khun Lu, 63, who died of lung infection, was born as Sai Yan Naing, son of a traditional minor-prince in Mongkeung State, Federated Shan States, the former name of Shan State before its union with Burma proper in 1948. He had joined the Shan resistance in 1982, after giving up his addiction to drugs, and took up a new name Peunhsai (Record Cleansed ).
 
However, Thai registration officials somehow mistook his name and his Thai ID card shows him as Khuensai Khun Lu, although he is known in the Shan community in Chiangmai’s Wiang Haeng district as Peunhsai.
 
His funeral in Piangluang, Wiang Haeng district, is on Friday, 2 May.