[6] Abel retired from the State Peace and Development Council and vacated his position as the Minister of the Chairman's Office on 25 August 2003.

[7] Abel was born in 1935 in Insein, near Rangoon, but his family's roots were in Maymyo (now Pyin Oo Lwin).

[8] He then studied medicine at Mandalay College but did not complete his degree because of an ongoing insurgency in Upper Burma.

[8][11][12] Abel had served as the personal assistant of then-President General San Yu of the Socialist Republic of the Union of Burma.

He was a Roman Catholic in a junta dominated by Buddhists and before pre-publication censorship was lifted in August 2012 could only be referred to by his family name because his Christian name, “David”, was banned from publication.