Burma's hard-line military junta arrests its Premier
Burma’s secretive military junta has forced out its prime minister, the long-powerful General Khin Nyunt, and placed him under house arrest on corruption charges.
“We can confirm that Khin Nyunt has been removed from the position of prime minister and is being detained under house arrest,” said Thai government spokesman Jakrapob Penkai.
The removal of Khin Nyunt, who was apparently forced to resign, could tilt the balance of power within the junta toward harder-line generals and further delay the stalled reconciliation process with the opposition led by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi.
The Thai spokesman’s declaration followed a day of rumours in Burma, also known as Myanmar, that Khin Nyunt had been ousted and that soldiers had raided the headquarters of military intelligence, which he had long headed and was the source of his power.
Diplomats in the capital Rangoon said that there was a rumour that Khin Nyunt had been “taken out of circulation,” but had no details. There was no sign of tanks or increased military presence, and any overthrow would appear to have been an internal affair.
Khin Nyunt had been in an awkward position since last month, when regular army soldiers raided a checkpoint dominated by military intelligence officers on the Chinese border. Large quantities of gold, jade and currency were seized.
More than 100 intelligence, immigration, customs and police personnel were arrested, including at least three military intelligence colonels who remain in custody and are expected to be charged.
Khin Nyunt assumed the prime minister’s post last year in what was seen as a demotion from the positions he had previously held in the ruling clique of generals, increasingly dominated in recent years by hard-liners.
In some aspects, Khin Nyunt is considered a moderate, though he never prevailed on other generals to strike a deal with the high-profile leader of the opposition, Suu Kyi, to restore democracy to the impoverished Southeast Asian country.
In the past year, Khin Nyunt promoted what he called a road map toward democracy in UN-brokered contacts between the government and Suu Kyi’s party, the National League for Democracy. The talks went nowhere, and critics accused the government of using stalling tactics to retain its monopoly on power.
Burma has been ruled by the military since 1962, when army commander Ne Win seized power. Pro-democracy protests led by Suu Kyi were bloodily suppressed in 1988, and Khin Nyunt was one of the younger generation of generals who assumed power.
