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Obituary: for KIO Leader Lamung Tu Jai

June 15, 2006: The Leader of Kachin Independence Organization Lamung Tu Jai has passed away this morning at the age of 76. He died at 10 am, on the way back home from Mangshi hospital in China.

Lamung Tu Jai was hospitalized in Mangshi in Yunnan province since his health condition had been deteriorated in three weeks ago.

He was born in 1930 in Kutkai, northern Shan State. He Studied at Kutkai middle school up to 8th Standard. In 1950, he joined the 4th Kachin Rifles and become lance corporal in 1956.

In 1961, he joined the Kachin independence movement. Tu Jai got promoted as the 1st Brigade commander of the Kachin Independence Army, KIA, in Putao area of Kachin State in 1973.

In 1975, Tu Jai became central committee members of Kachin Independence Organization and chief of staff of the KIA. He handed over his KIA chief of staff duties to Mali Zup Zau Mai in 1980.

In 2001, he became a leader of Kachin Independence organization after former leader Mali Zup Zau Mai was ousted by the coup d’etat in KIO headquarters Pajau.

BURMA DIGEST here expresses our condolences on the passing away of a well-respected ethnic leader.

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