BANGKOK (AP) — Can Oo, one of Myanmar’s ousted leader Aung San Suu Kyi’s closest associates as well as co-founder of her National League for Democracy party, has died. He was 97 years old.
Tin Oo died on Saturday morning at Yangon General Hospital, said Moh Khan, a charity worker citing a family member. Charity workers in Myanmar handle funeral arrangements.
Moh Khan said Tin Oo was hospitalized at Yangon General Hospital on Wednesday due to difficulty urinating and other health problems, including weakness. His cause of death was not immediately announced.
In 1988, Tin Oo helped found the National League for Democracy with Suu Kyi after a failed uprising against military rule. He became vice president and then president of the new party.
But when the military cracked down the following year, he was placed under house arrest, like Suu Kyi. Like her, he spent 14 of the next 21 years under house arrest or in prison before being released before the 2010 general election. party won the 1990 elections, but the results were annulled by the military in power.
When the party was allowed to fully resume political activities, Tin Oo served as its senior leader and patron. He was often seen at public rallies and helped campaign with Suu Kyi for the 2015 elections, which the party won in a landslide.
Suu Kyi’s government was ousted by the army in 2021 after winning a second term in the 2020 elections. Suu Kyi was arrested and tried on a series of charges that were widely seen as concocted for political reasons to keep her imprisoned. Tin Oo was not arrested and was instead allowed to lie low in his home in Yangon.
Tin Oo’s background was unusual for a senior politician, as he joined the National League for Democracy after a high-profile military career.
He was the fourth commander-in-chief of the armed forces between 1974 and 1976 under the rule of the late dictator General Ne Win. A year after his retirement, he was arrested for allegedly withholding information about a failed coup against Ne Win, but was released in 1980 under amnesty.
