A prominent ethnic Chinese businessman with family links to a Kokang rebel commander waging war with government troops jumped to his death in a Yangon hospital, police have claimed.
Li Guoquan, the 60-year-old former vice chair of the Myanmar Chinese Chamber of Commerce, “suffered depression in custody and hit his head against the wall” before leaping through a window in Yangon Military Hospital, according to a police report obtained by the Myanmar Times.
Li, who was also vice chair of the Yangon Kokang Ethnic Culture Association and is believed to have been the brother-in-law of Kokang commander Peng Deren, was arrested on February 23 and died on March 4.
Chinese-language news website Miandian Zaixian (Myanmar Online), which claims to have obtained Li’s autopsy, reported that his death was attributed to ‘internal injuries’ and ‘serious damage to organs’.
The website quoted hospital witnesses who said the businessman’s face and stomach had been severely wounded and questioned whether he had been tortured, according to Radio Free Asia.
His death has reportedly prompted fears among the Chinese community that they will be targeted as war rages with rebels trying to re-take the Kokang self-administered zone in Shan State, under their control until 2009.
Sources speculated that Li, who was born in the Kokang region, may have been suspected of financing the rebel fighters.
The conflict, which has killed more than 100 and displaced tens of thousands of people, flared up on February 9 after Peng Deren’s father, Peng Jiasheng, returned from exile.
