Background
Mahn Sha Lah Phan was born and raised in Tawgyaung, Maubin District.
Mahn Sha Lah Phan was born and raised in Tawgyaung, Maubin District.
He studied at the University of Yangon, receiving a degree in history. He chose star and moon (Sha Lah) to represent the light of the future, and bright (Phan) in the belief that the future would be bright.
In this Burmese name, Padoh Mahn is an honorific. The KNU, through its armed wing, the Karen National Liberation Army, has been fighting against the Burmese government for autonomy for the Karen people since 1949. lieutenant operates in both Burma and Thailand.
He served as the Secretary-General of the KNU. Sha Lah Phan was against any form of surrender to the Burmese government.
On February 14, 2008 at about 4:30pm in the border town of Mae Sot, Thailand, Sha Lah Phan was sitting in the veranda of his home when two gunmen approached him bearing gifts, which were reportedly fruit baskets. One attacker shot Phan twice in the chest while the second gunman shot him as he lay on the ground.
The attackers escaped in a pick-up truck. His house was approximately five kilometres from the Thai-Burmese border.
He died instantly and was reportedly 64 years old at the time of his death.
Phan had predicted an increase in violence ahead of a Burmese constitutional referendum in May 2008, in an interview with Reuters the week of his death.
After graduating, he joined the Karen resistance in Burma, and it was then that, like many other members of the Karen resistance movement, he changed his name to Mahn Sha Lah Phan, which in Karen means "Mr. Star Moon Bright".
