THE MYANMAR military junta, in the midst of its worst crisis in two decades, was dealt another body blow today afternoon with its ailing Prime Minister Lt-Gen Soe Win reportedly dying in a military hospital in Mingalardon, Yangon at 5 p.m. Myanmar Time, according to family sources.

 

The Prime Minister came back to Myanmar on Monday (October 1) after being under treatment in Singapore shielded from public glare. Lt-Gen Soe Win had leukemia.

 

A fierce loyalist of junta head Senior General Than Shwe, he was infamous as the ‘Butcher of Depayin.’ He masterminded the Depayin massacre in 2003, where junta backed toughs attacked democracy icon Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s motorcade when she was touring the country with her entourage and killed scores.

 

Lt-Gen Thein Sei might replace him.

 

Interestingly, the deceased Prime Minister has a twin brother, who donated bone marrow to Lt-Gen Soe Win when he was being treated for leukaemia. The Myanmar generals, who swear by astrology, are worried because they were twins, now that the Prime Minister is dead, according to sources.

 

Comment from the Editor (9 October 2007): The author has informed us that the news, “Myanmarese Prime Minister dead", was inadvertently carried on the site after some family members of the PM said so. However, a few days later, other family sources said he was alive but terminally ill, suffering as he is from leukaemia. He is in the ICU of the military hospital in Mingalardon, Yangon and is in a critical state after being treated in Singapore. The news was disseminated at the height of the bloody turmoil in Myanmar and it is learnt that there was an attempt at deliberate disinformation to create confusion.