Aung San - Assassination

Assassination

On 19 July 1947, a gang of armed paramilitaries of former Prime Minister U Saw broke into the Secretariat Building in downtown Rangoon during a meeting of the Executive Council (the shadow government established by the British in preparation for the transfer of power) and assassinated Aung San and six of his cabinet ministers, including his older brother Ba Win, father of Sein Win leader of the government-in-exile, the National Coalition Government of the Union of Burma (NCGUB). A cabinet secretary and a bodyguard were also killed. U Saw was subsequently tried and hanged.

During his trial a number of middle-ranking British army officers were implicated in the plot; they also were tried and imprisoned. Several British officers had supplied weapons to the assassins. Rumours of higher-level British involvement is unproven and probably unfounded.

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