U Kyaw Htun (U, pronounced “Oo” means “uncle” or “Mr.” in Burmese), who taught himself English as a child by reading comic books and went on to an extraordinary career working for the US Agency for International Development (USAID), the Asian Development Bank, the World Bank and most recently the Washington Times, died April 11 in a hospital in Santa Monica, California from complications from gout. He was 85.

            He leaves behind his wife Daw Khin Aye Tint and four children. Htun also suffered from a heart valve problem since the late 1980s. This, he believed, had been caused by illness as a child during the Japanese Occupation of Burma in World War II.

Htun was also able to facilitate the historic first interview that an official of Communist China gave to the western press. Chinese Prime Minister Zhou Enlai was interviewed by Edward R. Murrow of CBS news.

Htun, nicknamed “Joe” by American classmates who could not pronounce his name properly, exemplified all that is good among Burmese who had to leave their homeland and ended up contributing to the international community, when their talents, time and commitment would have been better put to use for Burma, had circumstances and the military government of Burma allowed it.

Htun studied English Literature at Rangoon University for his Bachelor’s degree. He was one of the many students my father U Kaung (his name means Mr. Good), selected as states scholars in the 50s to study overseas.

U Kyaw Htun arrived i the United States in 1947, and studied at the Maxwell School of Journalism at Syracuse University, where he received his MA in Journalism.  From 1949 to 1954, he worked on doctoral studies in International Relations at the University of Chicago, studying with famous geographer Norton Ginsburg, among others.  He passed his comprehensive examinations, which formally made him a doctoral candidate, but he did not complete his dissertation and returned to Burma in 1954.

Key roles

I met him for the first time then when he visited my parents on his return. In Rangoon, the capital city of Burma, he became personal assistant to the democratically elected Prime Minister of the time, U Nu (Mr. Tender.)  At this time, he also worked with U Thant (Mr. Clean), U Nu’s Minister of Information, who was himself later to become Secretary General of the United Nations, after Dag Hammerschold died in a plane accident in the Congo.

During this time, U Htun led a cultural mission to China.  Burma after World War II had been the first country to formally recognize the Peoples Republic of China (Mainland China). At the time, the US did not have diplomatic relations with China. Htun toured China one month as a guest of Chinese Premier Enlai.  Among the places he recalled visiting were the Burma Road, constructed during World War II to supply the Nationalist Government of China under Chiang Kai-shek.

Chinese goods in the 50s were very rare in Burma and elsewhere outside China (unlike now!) and Htun brought back from China a set of small white porcelain horses and a bright green silk piece for my parents.

In the early 80s, Htun told me that the famous CBS TV reporter Murrow also wished to interview some notable Burmese women in politics.  Htun was able to facilitate an interview of the Mahadevi of Yawngwe, Sao Hearn Hkam. The Mahadevi was the wife of the Sawbwa or hereditary chief of the biggest of the Shan States, Yawngwe (known by the Burmese as Nyaungshwe.)  Her husband, the Nyaungshwe Sawbwa, was also the first President of Burma after World War II in its short democratic period before the military coup of 1962.

Htun distinctly remembered that the Mahadevi spoke courageously against the human rights abuses even then being perpetuated against Shan villagers by the Burman dominated army.

He worked briefly for the English language newspaper The Guardian in Rangoon, but he left after one week, as “promises made to lure him away from the PM’s office, were not kept.”  He then went to work for the Aratoon brothers, who were of Armenian origin, as the manager of the five-star Strand Hotel.  During this time he met and married his wife, Daw Khin Aye Tint.  (Daw is Ms. in Burmese).

In 1963, while working for USAID, U Kyaw Htun managed to pursuade the xenophobic military government of Burma led by Gen. Ne Win, to accept aid for cyclone victims in the Arakan region in western Burma. “Lay Bay” or “storm aid” has since become part of the Burmese vocabulary.

After his emigration from Burma with his family, Htun worked with the ADB in Manila, the World Bank in Washington D.C. and after retiring from the World Bank, with the Washington Times as copy editor for 15 years. His freedom in expressing himself in written and spoken media and his keen insight will be sorely missed.