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.