Army power struggle in Myanmar as EU team to visit
Army power struggle in Myanmar as EU team to visit
Dominic Whiting, Reuters, Bangkok
A European Union (EU) mission arrives in Myanmar on Wednesday to revive talks between the military junta and pro-democracy opposition, but a growing power struggle among senior generals may foil their efforts.
Myanmar's rulers said at the weekend they had thwarted an attempted coup, arresting four relatives of 92-year-old former dictator Ne Win and firing three high-ranking officials. Analysts say a purge may be under way with more arrests likely.
Foreign diplomats in Yangon and Myanmar analysts in exile say the arrests may be linked to a power struggle between army head Gen. Maung Aye and intelligence chief Lt. Gen. Khin Nyunt, officially number two and three in Myanmar's ruling junta.
Khin Nyunt is seen as a supporter of efforts to break the political deadlock through talks with pro-democracy opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi. Maung Aye is said to be against concessions to Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD).
The talks, which began in secret in late 2000, have yet to yield any accord. The military has been gradually releasing political prisoners, but the EU team wants faster progress.
"After one and a half years, visible results need to be shown if the military wants to avoid the impression it's not just buying time," an EU official in Bangkok told Reuters.
Nobel prize-winning laureate Suu Kyi has been confined to her Yangon house since September 2000.
The State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) has ruled the impoverished Southeast Asian country of 52 million people under one guise or another since rejecting the results of Suu Kyi's 1990 landslide election victory.
A year ago, an EU team left the country hailing the nascent talks between the ruling generals and the NLD as the "most interesting development" for more than a decade.
Now optimism is evaporating, and confusion over the alleged coup plot has done nothing to help.
The two-day EU visit aims to assess the human rights and political situation in Myanmar a month before the group's "common position" is reviewed. The EU currently maintains a visa ban on the junta's leaders, as well as trade and aid sanctions.
Top of the EU's demands is the immediate release of Suu Kyi, who had insisted the junta firstly free the estimated 1,500 political prisoners before diplomats persuaded her she could further her cause better by being freed first.
He said the EU team would consult Yangon-based diplomats about the coup allegations. The EU diplomat said talk of internal power struggles was credible.
Military rulers said they had arrested a son-in-law and three grandsons of Ne Win for plotting a coup after they were muscled out of lucrative business deals because of the waning influence of their family elder.
Although not announced officially, diplomats said the chief of police, the head of the air force and a senior army general had also been sacked because of links to Ne Win's relatives.
Ne Win seized power in 1962, relinquishing it only in 1988. Many believe he continued to wield behind-the-scenes influence after officially stepping down. His family was seen as close to Khin Nyunt.
Myanmar officials made a rare comment at the weekend on allegations of a split among senior generals, saying there was no struggle between Maung Aye and Khin Nyunt.