Later that day I finally got to speak with him, and then, the following day, I met him again with five other dissidents in similarly secretive circumstances.

Mr Thein and his colleagues were very pleasant, highly cautious and yet hopeful about the future of their country. All of them had served time in jail for their activism and as we were meeting, the military regime that rules Burma was actively looking for activists who had been involved in sporadic demonstrations just weeks before.

When I asked him how he believed the fight for democracy in Burma could be won, and he replied: "I do not know what to tell you. We do not have any right to connect [with each other] or demonstrate. The younger generation know every little [about the struggle.]" 

Just days later, after I had left safely for the outside world, Burma would see unprecedented scenes when tens of thousands of Buddhist monks and ordinary civilians took to the streets in protest.

I do not know if Mr Thein was among them but very soon afterwards the 62-year-old spokesman was among hundreds or even thousands of people detained and thrown into prison by the regime. His friends said that in the six weeks he was in Rangoon's notorious Insein Jail his health suffered badly and by the time he came out he required treatment that could only be provided outside of the country. He applied for a passport and two months later he was able to fly for treatment at Singapore General Hospital.

When he arrived he was diagnosed with stomach cancer and it appears there was little the doctors could do. Mr Thein died last Friday, with his wife and son at his bedside. Burma's struggle for democracy - barely permitted to whisper inside the country - has lost a very important voice.