Rumor of alleged coup in Myanmar inflates prices of gold, dollar
Rumor of alleged coup in Myanmar inflates prices of gold, dollar
Aye Aye Win
Associated Press/Yangon
Rumors of an alleged coup within Myanmar's ruling military junta
on Wednesday weakened the country's currency and strengthened the
price of gold, local businesspeople said.
The rumors that ruling junta chairman Sr. Gen. Than Shwe was
deposed by his deputy, Gen. Maung Aye, and a group of military
leaders spread rapidly after a story on Tuesday night on the
British Broadcasting Corp.'s Burmese program, quoting a resident
on the Myanmar-China border.
The person told the BBC that Than Shwe was forced to retire by
army Commander in Chief Maung Aye because of "nepotism and
corruption."
The government has not officially denied the rumor, but an
official close to a high-ranking military leader who demanded
anonymity said the "news was absolutely untrue."
"This rumor is still a rumor," the foreign minister of
neighboring Thailand, Kantathi Suphamongkhon, told reporters in
Bangkok on Wednesday. He said he is still planning to visit
Myanmar as previously scheduled from Aug. 31 to Sept. 1.
The U.S. dollar rose to 1,170 kyat on the black market on
Wednesday from 1,150 kyat on Tuesday because of the coup rumors,
a black-market money changer said on condition of anonymity.
The official exchange rate for the kyat, which is non-
convertible, is approximately 6 kyat per U.S. dollar, but most
business transactions and consumer sales are conducted at the
black-market rate. The government usually tolerates the
unofficial exchange rate as the only realistic way of conducting
trade.
"News about the alleged coup has also affected the price of
gold on Wednesday. A tical (16.4 gram) of 24 carat gold, which
was 271,500 kyat ($232), went up to 276,500 ($236) today," a
gold-shop owner said on Wednesday.
News-starved citizens of Myanmar rely on foreign radio
stations for news about the country. Because information is
tightly restricted, rumors are frequent and tend to spread
quickly.
There have also been rumors that security at the military
hospital was tight because Than Shwe was in the hospital, but the
same official who denied the coup rumor said security was
slightly increased because Maung Aye's daughter gave birth at the
hospital.
Meanwhile, the front page of the New Light of Myanmar
newspaper featured on Wednesday a brief report saying, "Sr. Gen.
Than Shwe sent felicitations to Ukraine on the occasion of its
Independence Day." The newspaper also showed Maung Aye
entertaining a group of visiting Russian military attaches.
Myanmar's current junta came to power in 1988 after crushing a
pro-democracy uprising. It refused to hand over power to Nobel
laureate Aung San Suu Kyi's party after its landslide election
victory in 1990.
Former Prime Minister Gen. Khin Nyunt, also the former
military intelligence chief, was ousted last October in a major
junta shake-up.
In April 1992, former junta chairman Gen. Saw Maung was
removed from office for "health reasons," after which Than Shwe
became chairman of the council.