Shans today know very little about Sao Htun Yin Nawngmawn (1912-1950) whose honors conferred by the British include CBE, MBE, DSO and IDSM. Some may have heard of another one-armed general Moheng aka Gawn Zerng (1926-1991), who used to serve with him during World War II, but almost everyone gives a blank stare when you talk about Sao Htun Yin, the Prince of Nawngmawn, one of the 33 states of the Federated Shan States.
The eldest son of Sao Tun Ok and Sao Nang Nyo, he attended the Shan Chiefs School, the school set up by the British to groom future Shan leaders, from 1919-1930. Keen in athletics, he had won several prizes each year, according to his close relatives.
After school, he joined the Frontier Force (There were two battalions of Frontier Force in Shan States at that time, a fact which gives rise to the question: Why should our Burman rulers need more than 160 infantry battalions when the British colonizers could do without them?) In 1935, he received a Distinguished Service Order (DSO), for his outstanding performance in the Wa areas.
In 1942, World War II came to Burma and the Frontier Force was among those British units trying in vain to check the advance of the Japanese forces. Sao Htun Yin participated in the two critical battles: Sittaung Bridge and Nyaunglebin. It was at Nyaunglebin, where he was wounded and his arm had to be amputated.
He was flown to Maymyo, now Pyin Oo Lwin, and later to Simla in India, when the conquering Japanese forces reached upper Burma.
In 1944, he was back in action again at the Kohima-Imphal Battle. “Think back to Cannae, Mohi Heath and Blenheim; Kohima-Imphal is on the same level as these, only lesser known,” commented Jonathan Webb in www.theartofbattle.com.
Soon afterwards, he was back in Shan States as one of the commanders of Force 101 that operated behind the Japanese lines.
After the War, he was promoted to colonel to command the Frontier Force. He also succeeded his father as Prince of Nawngmawn in 1946. After Independence, he was appointed as Commander in Chief of Shan State Forces.
He was one of the few princes who was against joint independence with Burma. “We should remain in the Commonwealth as a dominion (country of the British Commonwealth that had its own government) like Malaya,” he was quoted as saying.
Understandably, he was against the Panglong Agreement, whose opening line was, “The members of the Conference, believing that freedom will be more speedily achieved by the Shan, the Kachin and the Chins by their immediate cooperation with the Interim Burmese Government.”
He reportedly accused Hkun Pan Sing, President of the Shan States Council, “What you are doing in effect, Elder Brother, is making slaves of us.” That was in Panglong.
Unconfirmed reports also say he had pulled out his pistol to threaten or shoot some participants, (some say Aung San), but his relatives have denied the incident ever took place.
Later at a follow-up meeting in Taunggyi, he was said to have pointed his fingers at Sao Shwe Thaike of Yawnghwe, who became the first President of the independent Burma, and told other participants, “He’s the one who will lead us to the Burmese prison.”
15 years later, in 1962, Sao Shwe Thaike, as foretold by Sao Htun Yin, was imprisoned at the notorious Insein jail together with other leaders of Shan State by Gen Ne Win, who staged a coup d’etat in opposition to the Shan proposal for a federal system. “I just wish Ji Yin (Sao Htun Yin) were here to witness his prediction coming true,” mourned one of his relatives.
Sao Htun Yin died under mysterious circumstances after returning from a dinner party hosted by Burmese intelligence officers on 14 April 1950. He was just 38.
