Ye Htoon

Who was Ye Htoon?

Ye Htoon, also known as Roland Chan Htoon, was a prominent Burmese lawyer, sometime-jailed political dissident, and a successful entrepreneur, and one of the notables of the now-extinct Scouting movement in Burma.

Ye Htoon was the eldest son of Chan Htoon, former Attorney General and Associate Justice of the Supreme Court and the architect of the first constitution of Burma in 1947, and Khin Khin Thein. He attended Myoma National High School, Ananda College, Colombo, Sri Lanka and Thacher School, Ojai Valley, California, is a 1961 graduate of Bucknell University, and received a postgraduate Bachelor of Law degree from the Rangoon University in 1965. His wife Onma Maw is the daughter of statesman Dr. Ba Maw, the first Prime Minister and the Head of State of Burma.

Then-Lieutenant Ye Htoon served as the last Director General of the Union of Burma Boy Scouts and Girl Guides, and reported that the military government dissolved the Union of Burma Boy Scouts, on 1 March 1964.

Ye Htoon was under detention for the first time from 1962 to 1963 for alleged participation in the 7 July Upheaval. He was arrested again from November 1971 to July 1972 for his connection with Burmese expatriates and foreign firms, and action was taken against him the third time in January 1975 for participation in what has come to be known as the U Thant crisis, student-led protests over the shabby treatment by the Ne Win government of the remains of U Thant which were crushed by the military government, when he was given a 10-year prison term. He was freed in July 1980 under the Government's Amnesty Order No. 2180. He was detained in June 1986, accused of involvement in illegal dollar transaction, but was freed two weeks later under a personal surety.