Inside AFP
Obit for former AFP Myanmar correspondent
We were saddened to learn of the death of Eddie Khin Maung Thwin, AFP’s correspondent in Myanmar for 30 years until his retirement in 2007.
Eddie passed away on April 25 at the age of 84, and his funeral was held the following day with close family in attendance.
A founding member of the Foreign Correspondents Club of Myanmar, Eddie joined AFP in 1978 and was the agency’s sole correspondent in Yangon for the following three decades.
It was a period of uninterrupted military rule that included the bloody crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrators in 1988 that left thousands dead. Multi-party elections two years later saw Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy secure an emphatic victory but the military junta refused to cede power
Writing for an international news organisation in such circumstances was a journalistic high-wire act, and it was one that Eddie trod with great commitment and fearlessness. His professionalism, combined with his kindness and generosity to foreign correspondents visiting in Myanmar, made him many friends and admirers within AFP and outside the agency.
Our deepest sympathies go to his family.