Oct 31, 2007 (DVB), Free Funeral Service Society chairman Aye Than resigned on Monday after wrongly announcing two weeks ago that actor Kyaw Thu and other respected members had been expelled from the charity.

Aye Than left his position soon after it was revealed that he had given inaccurate information to the Rangoon-published Snapshot weekly journal nearly two weeks ago.

He told the journal that the Free Funeral Service Society had expelled actor Kyaw Thu, his wife She Zee Gwat and high-profile writer Than Myint Aung when they were detained by the Burmese authorities in connection with last month's protests.

It later turned out that Aye Than had misunderstood a decision by the charity to suspend the three members temporarily, which was taken at a meeting he had not attended.

The group secretary said that this decision was taken to avoid jeopardising the charity's operations by having links with the detained activists.

"They only decided to suspend them because they were worried it might threaten the group's existence," he said.

Free Funeral Service Society work coordinator Soe Myint told DVB yesterday that Aye Than had told the group he could not continue working with them as he was suffering from eye related problem and had just had a surgical procedure.

Kyaw Thu will take over Aye Than's position as chairman.

Reporting by Naw Say Phaw