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It is still not known where the disgraced former premier and his family are being held, although some news reports indicate that they are in a detention center on the outskirts of Rangoon.

 

Khin Nyunt was a prot้ge of Gen Ne Win, and was regarded as a moderate and a pragmatist by some diplomats and officials of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, or Asean.

 

The National Intelligence Bureau, or NIB—the umbrella intelligence and investigative organ—was dissolved in the October purge. OCMI department heads and staff were either sacked or jailed. Maj-Gen Myint Swe, Rangoon Division commander, took over what was left of the OCMI. The intelligence apparatus now appears to take orders directly from the War Office.

 

Maj-Gen Myint Swe’s loyalty to the Rangoon supremo, Than Shwe, is said to be unquestioned. Opposition sources say he is a nephew of Than Shwe’s wife.

 

Politics________________________________

Sr-Gen Than Shwe

 

The stars have obviously been auspicious for Burma’s strongman, Sr-Gen Than Shwe. The veteran military leader who reportedly depends on astrology to make policy decisions is now even more firmly in the saddle after removing spy chief and prime minister Gen Khin Nyunt in a purge in October.

 

It was clearly no easy task for 71-year-old Than Shwe to remove from power the man he had appointed to the premiership little more than one year previously, sacking several of his ministers, and at the same time dismantling the intelligence apparatus Khin Nyunt had built up.

 

Now the task is complete. Khin Nyunt and many of his cronies are in jail, the National Intelligence Bureau is no more.