General Ne Win's fortunes on the decline

source : Radio australia-12/03/2002

Burma's military leaders have arrested the son-in-law and three grandsons of the country's former military dictator General Ne Win, claiming the group were plotting to seize power through a coup. Under the military sweep, the aging general and his powerful daughter Sandar Win, have been confined to their home, and three senior police and military officials have been sacked from their posts for collaborating with the so-called coup plotters. The military junta says the Ne Win faction was attempting to divide Burma's powerful defence force, signalling that further purges and sackings may follow. The crack-down is a sign that the power and influence of the 92-year-old General Ne Win who ruled Burma as a military dictator for 26 years, has finally waned.

Transcript:

FAULDER: We have here a situation where Ne Win is old, he will die soon and he can no longer be used as a pretext for not changing things, and in the old days it used to be well the old man would never allowed us, he would never stand for that. So time is running out and by moving the family aside in this way the ruling generals have made it very clear that they're charting their own court.

FITZGERALD: So a clearing away of the old guard, what sort of a force was Ne Win and what does this sidelining of his immediate family mean politically?

FAULDER: Ne Win resigned in 1988 nominally and made the call for multi-party democracy and disappeared. And I think it's true to say that he did actually resign at that time but he was still extremely influential in the background, and of course all the people who were running the country at that time owed their positions to Ne Win, so his influences stretch right down the years. Now he is probably the person who was responsible for the imprisonment of Aung San Suu Kyi in 1989 because she went out and attacked him directly and personally, and she was locked away for six years. During the 1990's Ne Win's power has declined simply as he's got much older and more reclusive.

FITZGERALD: So do you think Ne Win's close family, including his daughter Sandar Win and her sons really represented a political threat to the ruling junta?

FAULDER: Well it could be that Sandar Win wanted to make her play for power in her own right and there's been some speculation on that, but it is only speculation. What is clear is that this is a family that was in a very privileged position, they felt that that privilege was in some way threatened. Now the idea of a change of power in Rangoon being for political purposes or simply to back up their economic position, it could be one or the other and I think it's all speculation.

FITZGERALD: You've said that you feel the grandsons of Ne Win may have worn out their welcome so to speak. How were they regarded in Burma, what sort of reputation do they have?

FAULDER: Well they had a very bad reputation, they were regarded as ne're-do-wells who ran around town causing all sorts of trouble. The gang they belonged to is known as the Scorpions, so the fact that they've been dealt with will go down very well in the public.

FITZGERALD: But for some reason the authorities haven't chosen to arrest them for criminal reasons?

FAULDER: Well I think that all remains to be seen, so this will come out in the weeks to come to see what action is taken against them. Quite often when disciplinary action is taken in Burma against very senior figures, generals who are retired, they're basically stripped of their rank position and then quietly allowed to disappear into the background, they're not actually imprisoned and they're just taken out of the game.

FITZGERALD: Now on that note we've seen with this cleanup over the weekend that the national police chief, the airforce chief of staff and the military commander have all been sacked under this military sweep. Does this indicate that there was actually some fairly substantial support for the so-called Ne Win faction?

FAULDER: Well it indicates the people believe they were involved and that doesn't necessarily amount to a great deal because you're talking about a very influential group of people within Ne Win's family. And of course they would know everybody and they go off to a restaurant and have a conversation and condemn the government of the day. It can easily be blown up into a lot more than it actually was. The thing to watch for now would be to see if there are purges in other military units, other divisional commanders are taken out and that will be indicative of how serious the threat may have been.