Ceasefire leader

Ceasefire leader's condition improving

According to telephone interviews last evening, the condition of Col. Gunyawd who was hospitalized in Mandalay after his car accident on Sunday has passed "the danger zone."

The accident took place in Sinkaing township (and not Sinku as S.H.A.N. reported earlier) when his van, ridden by 5 including himself, overturned. "We don't know what really happened, but Sai Lu, the driver, is known to be a reckless driver," said the source.

Gunyawd suffered one rib broken and a vertebra near his neck displaced. As a result, the surgeon at the Mandalay hospital had to insert a steel bar as a support. "But we're still worried, because he still couldn't move his lower part of the body," he said.

Lt-Col Sengzoom, Chief of Administration, a survivor of several battles against Burmese forces in the past, Sai Lu and two privates also suffered some injuries.

Gunyawd's mutiny in 1995 had broken the backbone of Khun Sa's 25,000-strong Mong Tai Army and led to its surrender in January 1996.