Myanmar's state radio and television announced yesterday that Prime Minister General Khin Nyunt has been replaced by a hardline member of the country's ruling military junta, Lieutenant General Soe Win.
The brief announcement said Khin Nyunt was "permitted to retire for health reasons," a euphemism used in the past for the forced ouster of Cabinet members.
PHOTO: AP
The radio said Soe Win would become the new prime minister, moving from his high-ranking post of secretary-1 of the junta, which is officially called the State Peace and Development Council.
Both announcements were signed by the junta's supreme leader, Senior General Than Shwe.
Khin Nyunt, also head of military intelligence, had a reputation as a relative moderate compared to the more hardline generals who were his seniors.
Soe Win, 56, is believed to espouse a hard line in dealing with the country's pro-democracy movement, led by detained Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, and the country's foreign critics who want the army to hand over power to an elected government.
Soe Win is a former military commander of Myanmar's Sagaing region in the northwest who became air defense chief in November 2001.
He joined the junta as secretary-2 in February 2003, and was promoted to secretary-1 in an August 2003 Cabinet shake-up, replacing Khin Nyunt, who became prime minister.
Khin Nyunt's move to the prime minister's post last year was interpreted by some as a gesture toward reconciliation with the pro-democracy movement, while other analysts thought Soe Win's promotion was more significant.
He is believed by some diplomats and government critics to have been involved in a May 2003 attack on Suu Kyi and her followers in northern Myanmar by a mob of government supporters. Suu Kyi has been detained since the attack.
Yesterday's announcement said Soe Win would be succeeded as secretary-1 by Lieutenant General Thein Sein, moving up a step in the junta's hierarchy.
No announcement was made of who would replace Khin Nyunt in the influential post of military intelligence chief.
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