Fears for democracy as army ousts Burma PM

Burma’s prime minister has been sacked by his hardline army colleagues, clouding prospects for the freedom of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi and for democracy in the military-led south-east Asian nation.

The ousting of General Khin Nyunt, 65, who was also military intelligence chief, seemed to spell an end to a power struggle between the junta’s so-called moderates and a faction uninterested in reconciliation with democracy activists or with nations critical of the regime.

Khin Nyunt was taken into custody on Monday and charged with corruption, according to officials in neighbouring Thailand, who were the first to publicly break the news.

At the end of a day that saw rumours about Khin Nyunt’s fate swirl through Burma’s capital, Rangoon, the country’s state radio and television confirmed his removal yesterday.

A brief statement said Khin Nyunt was “permitted to retire for health reasons” – a phrase used in the past as a euphemism for the dismissal of cabinet members. It was signed by the junta’s supreme leader, Senior General Than Shwe, and gave no other details.

A separate broadcast announced that the new prime minister was Lieutenant General Soe Win, a former air defence chief who climbed into the regime’s top ranks only last year.

With his reputation as relatively moderate, the taciturn Khin Nyunt was the go-to man for diplomats and others interested in political dialogue, even before he became prime minister during a cabinet shake-up in August 2003.

Soe Win, thought to be about 56, is believed to espouse a hard line in dealing with the pro-democracy movement led by Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace Prize winner, and with Western countries that have imposed years of sanctions to pressure the military to hand power to an elected government and to free her.

Suu Kyi’s party, the National League for Democracy, won elections in 1990 but was not allowed to take power.

Soon after assuming the premiership, Khin Nyunt laid out a seven-step “road map to democracy”.

But the plan was met with disdain by democracy activists, in large part because there was no provision for the release of Suu Kyi, who was put back under house arrest after a bloody attack on her and her followers by government supporters in May last year.

Some diplomats and opposition figures believe Khin Nyunt helped organise the attack, which the junta insisted was spontaneous.

Suu Kyi remains under house arrest in Rangoon despite repeated entreaties from the world community, especially United Nations secretary-general Kofi Annan.

Yesterday, Annan expressed concern at reports about the power shift in Burma and reiterated his call on the government to release Suu Kyi “without further delay”.

He also urged the government to keep its commitment to pursue national reconciliation and democratisation, and to quickly resume a “substantive dialogue” with Suu Kyi’s NLD and other political parties.