Burma's PM 'has been sacked'

Burma's PM 'has been sacked'

Oct 19 (ITV News) - Khin Nyunt has been sacked as prime minister of military-ruled Burma amid allegations of corruption and placed under house arrest, a Thai government spokesman said.

Diplomats in Yangon said that according to rumours in the capital, Khin Nyunt was arrested by officers loyal to army commander and Vice Senior General Maung Aye, the number two in the junta.

"The Thai government has obtained additional information that General Khin Nyunt has been relieved of his premiership and placed under house arrest," government spokesman Jakrapob Penkair said.

"The person who signed the order said Khin Nyunt had been involved in corruption and is not suitable to stay in his position," he said.

Speculation has been rife for months of a widening rift between Khin Nyunt, who had struggled since he was appointed last year to implement his "roadmap to democracy", and the strongman of the secretive junta, Senior General Than Shwe.

The military has ruled Burma in various guises since 1962 and refused to hand over power to democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi after her National League for Democracy won a 1990 election.

Signals that an internal power struggle had reached a climax emerged early in the day from Thai military sources.

Rumours of Khin Nyunt's arrest surfaced after he failed to appear on state television during an inspection tour in Mandalay.

Another Thai army general said he had been told that Maung Aye, unhappy with Khin Nyunt's leadership, had pressed the prime minister to resign during a meeting on Monday night.

Khin Nyunt had announced a National Convention to draw up a new constitution, the first step of his seven-stage roadmap.

Analysts said they believed Than Shwe later dug in his heels, refusing to free Suu Kyi from house arrest before the convention. That prompted an NLD boycott of the convention.

Some Myanmar watchers said the latest upheaval may be a battle over business interests in a country where the military controls the levers of the economy.

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