Bo Hmu Aung ( my, ဗိုလ်မှူးအောင်, 30 August 1910 – 9 November 2004) was a Burmese military officer and a member of the legendary ''

Thirty Comrades The Thirty Comrades ( my, ရဲဘော်သုံးကျိပ်) constituted the embryo of the modern Burmese army called the Burma Independence Army (BIA) which was formed to fight for independence from Britain. This was accomplishe ...

'' who trained in Japan in the struggle for independence from

Britain Britain most often refers to: * The United Kingdom, a sovereign state in Europe comprising the island of Great Britain, the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland and many smaller islands * Great Britain, the largest island in the United King ...

and regarded as one of the founders of the

Tatmadaw Tatmadaw (, , ) is the official name of the armed forces of Myanmar (formerly Burma). It is administered by the Ministry of Defence and composed of the Myanmar Army, the Myanmar Navy and the Myanmar Air Force. Auxiliary services include th ...

(the modern-day Myanmar Armed Forces). He also served as Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies, was the lower house of the bicameral

Union Parliament The Union Parliament ( my, ပြည်ထောင်စုလွှတ်တော်) was the bicameral legislature of the Union of Burma from 1948 to 1962, when it was disbanded by the Union Revolutionary Council. It consisted of an upper h ...

of independence

Burma Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John Wells explai ...

(now Myanmar).

Early life

Bo Hmu Aung was born on 30 August 1910 in Kyauktaga,

Pegu Bago (formerly spelt Pegu; , ), formerly known as Hanthawaddy, is a city and the capital of the Bago Region in Myanmar. It is located north-east of Yangon. Etymology The Burmese name Bago (ပဲခူး) is likely derived from the Mon langua ...

Province, British Burma (now Myanmar).

Struggle for independence

Freedom fighter

He joined Dobama Asiayone in 1930. In 1940, he smuggled out of Burma with

Aung San Aung San (, ; 13 February 191519 July 1947) was a Burmese politician, independence activist and revolutionary. He was instrumental in Myanmar's struggle for independence from British rule, but he was assassinated just six months before his goa ...

and 28 others to receive military training to fight the British colonial government and founded

Burma Independence Army The Burma Independence Army (BIA), was a collaborationist and revolutionary army that fought for the end of British rule in Burma by assisting the Japanese in their conquest of the country in 1942 during World War II. It was the first post-c ...

(BIA). When Burma's resistance to Japanese occupation was launched on 27 March 1945, Bo Hmu Aung commanded Zone 7, one of the hottest area of war. His subordinate officers during Burmese revolution against Japanese occupation of Burma were Bo Sein Hman (who later died in action as Special Commissioner) and Bo

Aung Gyi Brigadier General Aung Gyi ( my, အောင်ကြီး ; 16 February 1919 – 25 October 2012) was a Burmese military officer and politician. He was a cofounder of the National League for Democracy and served as president of the party. E ...

Panglong Conference

In 1947, Bo Hmu Aung acted as one of the negotiators of the historical

Panglong Conference The Panglong Conference ( my, ပင်လုံညီလာခံ), held in February 1947, was a historic meeting that took place at Panglong in the Shan States in Burma between the Shan, Kachin and Chin ethnic minority leaders and Aung San, ...

negotiated with Bamar representative General Aung San and other ethnic leaders. All these leaders unanimously decided to join the Union of Burma. On the agenda was the united struggle for independence from

and the future of Burma after independence as a unified republic. The signing is now celebrated as a public holiday, Union Day, in Myanmar.

Political career

After independence, Bo Hmu Aung served as a member of

parliament In modern politics, and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: representing the electorate, making laws, and overseeing the government via hearings and inquiries. Th ...

, Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies, and a minister in various ministries, such as transport and communication, housing and resettlement and defence. He was detained and put under house arrest many times after the

military coup A military, also known collectively as armed forces, is a heavily armed, highly organized force primarily intended for warfare. It is typically authorized and maintained by a sovereign state, with its members identifiable by their distinct ...

in 1962. Released in 1967, he joined

U Nu Nu ( my, ဦးနု; ; 25 May 1907 – 14 February 1995), commonly known as U Nu also known by the honorific name Thakin Nu, was a leading Burmese statesman and nationalist politician. He was the first Prime Minister of Burma under the pr ...

's insurgent PDP in Thailand, but returned to Rangoon after the 1980 amnesty. After the

8888 Uprising The 8888 Uprising ( my, ၈၈၈၈ အရေးအခင်း), also known as the People Power UprisingYawnghwe (1995), pp. 170 and the 1988 Uprising, was a series of nationwide protests, marches, and riots in Burma (present-day Myanmar) th ...

he formed, with U Nu, the

League for Democracy and Peace The Democracy and Peace Party ( my, ဒီမိုကရေစီနှင့် ငြိမ်းချမ်းရေးပါတီ, ; abbreviated DPP; formerly the League for Democracy and Peace) is a Burmese political party registered in May ...

and signed several public appeals urging the ruling

junta Junta may refer to: Government and military * Junta (governing body) (from Spanish), the name of various historical and current governments and governing institutions, including civil ones ** Military junta, one form of junta, government led by ...

to negotiate with the

National League for Democracy The National League for Democracy ( my, အမျိုးသား ဒီမိုကရေစီ အဖွဲ့ချုပ်, ; abbr. NLD; Burmese abbr. ဒီချုပ်) is a liberal democratic political party in Myanmar (Burma). It ...

after its win in the 1990 parliamentary elections.

Death

He died on 9 November 2004 at his residence in Rangoon.

References

External links

Bo Hmu Aung profile 10 November 2004 {{DEFAULTSORT:Hmu Aung, Bo History of Myanmar Government ministers of Myanmar 2004 deaths 1910 births People from Bago Region Burmese collaborators with Imperial Japan Burmese military personnel