He is ‘well off? and ‘well connected,? two things that ensure protection... "...Born in Thaung Tha, 80 km west of Mandalay Division, Aung Thaung served in the army for several years, fighting communist insurgents and earning the trust of regime leader Snr-Gen Than Shwe. The bespectacled minister is known to see eye-to-eye with Than Shwe and is so much in the elderly general?s confidence that he sometimes breakfasts with him and his family, a special privilege in the Burmese hierarchy. Aung Thaung is a leading member of the government-backed mass organization Union Solidarity and Development Association, and Western diplomats and some former student leaders in Rangoon believe he is behind attacks by USDA thugs o?n pro-democracy activists, which have increased in number and ferocity since the UN Security Council vote. He is also thought to have organized demonstrations against the US-led initiative outside the American and British embassies in Rangoon..."