Burma's Ruling Generals Are Men with Tough Reputations

Burma's Ruling Generals Are Men with Tough Reputations
By The Associated Press September 25, 2007

To much of the world and many of their own citizens, Burma's military rulers are tyrants stubbornly standing in the way of democracy.
But they claim to be binding a fractious nation together and safeguarding against anarchy that could come from many contending ethnic groups. And they see themselves as paragons of development.
The country has been under one form or another of military rule since 1962. The current regime refused to hand over power to the political party of detained Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, which won a 1990 general election.
Burma's ruling generals are at one and the same time familiar faces and men of mystery.
Even by the closed society mind-set of militaries worldwide, they are remarkably insular, having risen through the ranks at a time when Burma was under the thumb of its late military dictator, Gen Ne Win. Ne Win's eccentric version of socialism reluctantly admitted tourists on visits limited to one week and refused all foreign investment.
Ne Win's ruinous rule destroyed what had been one of Southeast Asia's most dynamic economies, and what little resources remained were put into the army's battle against ethnic minority groups along the border seeking autonomy, campaigns that set the tone for human rights abuses that continue to this day.
Ne Win was toppled in 1988, when the army violently suppressed mass pro-democracy demonstrations against 26 years of military dictatorship. Indirect military rule was replaced with a new junta.
First among equals in the newer regime is Snr-Gen Than Shwe, head of the State Peace and Development Council, as the ruling junta is formally known. Than Shwe was appointed as one of 21 members in the cabinet of Gen Saw Maung, whom he succeeded as junta chief in 1992.
Like many in Burma, he is said to be superstitious and to consult with astrologers, but otherwise has a public image that is taciturn in the extreme.
His image took a blow last year, when video footage of an extravagant wedding for his daughter raised questions about the lifestyles of military rulers in the impoverished country. The leaked video shows Thandar Shwe wearing a staggering collection of diamond encrusted jewelry and extravagant clothing and receiving wedding gifts worth $50 million at a fancy reception.
Number two in the junta is Deputy Snr-Gen Maung Aye, 69, whose reputation is, if anything, more ruthless than Than Shwe's, probably because he has more field combat experience from fighting ethnic rebels.
Stories abound that the two leaders are more rivals than friends.
But one thing they are said to share in common is a loathing for Suu Kyi. Rumor has it that Than Shwe cannot even bring himself to utter her name, while Maung Aye is believed by some to have been behind an attack on her convoy when she was making a political trip in northern Burma, from which she barely escaped with her life.
The 62-year-old Oxford-educated Suu Kyi is every bit as urbane as the generals are rough-hewn. But she herself is a soldier's daughter, whose father, Gen Aung San, was the country's independence hero. He was assassinated by political rivals in 1947 before independence was obtained from Britain.