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YANGON-Myanmar's incumbent Prime Minister Soe Win, a hardliner best known for allegedly orchestrating an attack on democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, has died at age 59, state media said Friday.General Soe Win rose in the ranks after the deadly attack on the Nobel laureate's convoy in May 2003, an event known to her supporters as "Black Friday."After the attack in rural northern Myanmar, she was imprisoned and then placed under house arrest-while Soe Win rose in the junta hierarchy to replace the disgraced Khin Nyunt as prime minister in October 2004.Soe Win had been hospitalised in Singapore since March, reportedly for leukemia treatments, but is believed to have returned to Yangon in recent weeks.In announcing his death, state radio said only that he died Friday evening at a military hospital in Yangon.He had already handed over his duties in May to Lieutenant General Thein Sein, who ranks fifth in the military junta, and who has been referred to as acting prime minister in state media.His death was not expected to have a major impact on the government because all real power lies with Senior General Than Shwe and the military junta, which launched a violent crackdown on pro-democracy protesters in late September.At least 13 people were killed and more than 2,000 arrested in the crackdown on the largest pro-democracy demonstrations the country has seen in almost 20 years, drawing international outrage expressed in a statement by the UN Security Council on Thursday.Soe Win, a tall and stern man, was considered to be among the leadership hardliners of the isolated country and an ultra-loyalist of Than Shwe.Soe Win was the former head of the Northwest Command, taking up the post in 1997. He was noted for his "smooth dealings" with civilians, according to a group of Myanmar parliamentarians in exile.Little is known about his early years other than reports from opposition groups he was "an average student." He became a colonel in the early 1990s.Having personally overseen the successful completion of hydroelectric dam, railway and road projects and sat on a series of military committees, Soe Win was seen as a party loyalist capable of putting plans into action.He kept a low profile on the way to the top, being publicised for visiting coffee plantations and pig farms and donating money to hospitals.But unlike his prime ministerial predecessor, who supported the idea of talks with the opposition, Soe Win publicly stated that the junta would not hand over power or commit itself to talks with Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) party.A dissident website quoted him as saying that the junta "not only won't talk to the NLD but also would never hand over power to the NLD."Like many members of the military, Soe Win played a part in the crackdown on the 1988 democracy uprising which left some 3,000 people dead.He left the Northwest Command before the attack on Aung San Suu Kyi's convoy, but pro-democracy groups allege that he toured parts of the region to rally members of the junta's civilian arm, the Union Solidarity and Development Association (USDA), to harass the NLD.Democracy activists view the USDA as Than Shwe's personal militia, used mainly to intimidate opposition groups. Soe Win excelled in his role as a leading official of the group, according to the opposition. The clash between supporters of Aung San Suu Kyi's NLD and a pro-junta group left up to 80 people dead, according to the party. The government said four people were killed and 50 injured.Aung San Suu Kyi, 62, is the world's only detained Nobel peace laureate.She has spent 12 of the last 18 years under house arrest at her lakeside Yangon home, with little contact with the outside world apart from a live-in maid and visits by her doctor.Soe Win had one son by his wife Than Than Nwe. He had a twin brother who also died last month, according to state media.
As in the days of Noah....
