Fears for Aung Suu Kyi after Burmese moderate is ousted

The Burmese junta has sacked Prime Minister Khin Nyunt and arrested him on corruption charges after a purge of the military intelligence headquarters in Rangoon.

The Burmese junta has sacked Prime Minister Khin Nyunt and arrested him on corruption charges after a purge of the military intelligence headquarters in Rangoon.

The hermetic regime placed Khin Nyunt under house arrest in Rangoon and named Lt Gen Soe Win, 56, as his replacement. A brief announcement on state television said Khin Nyunt was "permitted to retire for health reasons", a common euphemism for sidelining a cabinet member.

The ousting of the comparatively moderate general, who also headed the country's powerful spy agency, ended a flurry of rumours which began on Monday night after the arrest of senior officers. Diplomatic sources said Khin Nyunt's replacement as military intelligence chief is expected to be Maj Gen Myint Swe, 53, a hardliner who commands forces near the capital, Rangoon.

Analysts suggest that Burma's generals have flexed their muscles to prevent reconciliation with the opposition leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, the Nobel Peace laureate who has been locked up since May 2003.

The supreme leader of the military government, strongman Than Shwe, is said to refuse to even utter her name.

Soe Win, a former air defence chief, is believed by some diplomats to have been behind a mob attack on Suu Kyi's convoy during a speaking tour of northern Burma in May, 2003, when she was detained by authorities.

A Rangoon-based diplomat said security was beefed up outside the Office of the Chief of Military Intelligence, which soldiers reportedly raided early yesterday. No mention was made of the Prime Minister in the government-controlled press yesterday, which raised suspicions of his imminent fall.

Officers loyal to the number two in the junta, Vice-Senior General Maung Aye, are said to have detained Khin Nyunt, who has been under pressure for at least a month as the Burmese Army vied for power with the country's omnipresent secret police. More than 70 military intelligence officers at Muse, a check post on the Chinese frontier, were arrested in September after stockpiles of jade, gold, and cash were seized by army regulars. Scores more personnel were removed from their lucrative immigration and customs positions, and three senior intelligence colonels remain in prison, awaiting charges. Khin Nyunt's son, Ye Naing Win, was reportedly detained, while the government took control of his internet server, Bagan Cybertech.

Khin Nyunt was named premier in August last year, but his appointment as figurehead was viewed as a demotion in the military dictatorship. The failure of Khin Nyunt's pet project, a new constitutional convention meant to give the present government legitimacy, coupled with the army's rejection of a ceasefire with the rebel Karen National Union signalled that his authority was waning. Even though the National Convention was discredited by the West, because Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy boycotted it, the mere contemplation of multi-party rule caused a rupture in Burma's leadership. It was only a matter of time until Khin Nyunt was toppled.

But one Western diplomat wondered: "Why would they bother sidelining him? He doesn't have a big power base. Than Shwe wants 100 percent control. They don't want 99 percent." Pro-democracy protests led by Suu Kyi were bloodily suppressed in 1988, and Khin Nyunt was among the youngest of the generals who grabbed power.

Some Burma hands said the current upheaval is primarily over business interests in a resource-rich country where the military controls the economy.

"I don't think they're squabbling over Aung San Suu Kyi and democracy - more likely a conflict over how much territory and area they can control in terms of business and armed forces," said Burmese exile Aung Zaw, the editor of Irrawaddy magazine, which is published in Thailand.

There are fears that Khin Nyunt's removal may lead to renewed clashes between ethnic groups and the government forces in Burma, which has a long history of insurgency. The government signed ceasefire pacts with several guerrilla groups in the 1990s, but is still negotiating a deal with the Karen National Union.

Meanwhile, Burma, signalling its displeasure with what it deems foreign interference in internal affairs, this week banned a new activist CD called For the Lady. Groups ranging from U2 to Pearl Jam and Coldplay play on the benefit album which will be released on 26 October in honour of Suu Kyi, whose party won a landslide victory in the 1990 elections, but was never permitted to govern.

Border guards reportedly were ordered by military intelligence to confiscate the double CD. According to the US Campaign for Burma, anyone who plays a freedom song inside Burma risks a seven-year prison sentence.