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“There’s no smoke without fire,” commented the European diplomat.

 

Meanwhile, Soe Win’s predecessor is a persistent source of rumors. Khin Nyunt lost both his positions when he was arrested in Mandalay last October. It is believed his MI had grown too powerful for Than Shwe’s comfort, and it was quickly dismantled.

 

It is not even certain where Khin Nyunt is being held. One rumor has him being “brainwashed” in Yemon military camp, in Rangoon’s outskirts. Another has him in a military base near Putao, in Kachin State, known for its inhumane treatment of political prisoners—tortured with the same methods he devised for his victims.

 

Or he could be under house arrest with his wife. She was also rumored to have been either shot while resisting arrest, or killing herself. Most think she is fine. Khin Nyunt’s son, Ye Naing Win, who headed Burma’s largest internet service, Bagan Cybertech, and provided satellite feeds, is under detention and awaiting trial.

 

As for the scores of intelligence agents also arrested, one of the more far-fetched rumors, according to a Rangoon businessman, has it that they are being injected with a serum which will eventually turn them insane before dying.

 

“Remember Saw Maung?” the businessman asks. Snr-Gen Saw Maung set up the current ruling State Law and Order Restoration Council in 1988. Three years later, he publicly talked of his imminent death and of sightings of Jesus in Tibet. No longer mentally fit to rule, he was replaced by Than Shwe in April 1992.

 

Now, as a journalist puts it, it’s like Khin Nyunt has been “chopped into four pieces.” These are: Maj-Gen Myint Shwe, who has taken control of intelligence duties, handing responsibility to the police special branch under the Ministry of Home Affairs; Lt-Gen Thein Sein, chairman of the National Convention, tasked with drafting a new constitution; Gen Thura Shwe Mann, the army chief of staff who is widely tipped to become the country’s next army chief or prime minister; and Soe Win.