The Burmese junta is to undertake a huge military reshuffle next week, after which 10 officers at the rank of lieutenant general ranks are to retire to participate in the recently announced general elections on November 7, a source at the Ministry of Defence said late yesterday.

“Of the 14 lieutenant generals in the Burmese army, only four will be left in position and all the others will go”, the source said.

The positions will be filled by officers holding the rank of brigadier general, mostly Regional Military Commanders, the source said.

The men whose positions remain unchanged are military intelligence chief Lieutenant Gen Ye Myint, armed forces training chief Lieutenant General Hla Htay Win, Adjutant General Lieutenant General Thura Myint Aung and Bureau of Special Operations (BSO) 3 chief Lieutenant General Ko Ko.

The reshuffle is expected to occur next Friday.

Unexpectedly, the man who took part in talks to purchase weapons from North Korea, chief of military ordnance Lieutenant General Tin Aye, will vacate his army post.

The final decision to announce the mass retirements followed a meeting of State Peace and Development Council hard-core members last week in Naypyidaw.

This is the second occasion senior military staff have shed their uniforms to take part in the widely condemned national elections in November. In early April, Prime Minister Thein Sein led more than two dozens army officers out of the military and inherited leadership of the junta-backed Union Solidarity Development Party.

Out of uniform

(1) Lieutenant General Ohn Myint (BSO 1, DSA intake 17)
(2) Lieutenant General Min Aung Hlaing (BSO 2, DSA intake 19)
(3) Lieutenant General Khin Zaw (BSO 3, OTS inatake 49)
(4) Lieutenant General Thar Aye (BSO 4, DSA intake 16)
(5) Lieutenant General Myint Swe (BSO 5, DSA intake 15)
(6) Lieutenant General Myint Hlaing (Chief of Air Defence, DSA intake 17)
(7) Lieutenant General Tin Aye (Chief of Military Ordnance, DSA intake 9)
(8) Lieutenant General San Sint (Military Appointment General
(9) Lieutenant General Soe Maung (Judge Advocate General)
(10) Lieutenant General Thein Htike (Inspector General)

Abbreviations

BSO – Bureau of Special Operations
DSA – Defence Services Academy

NLD officially boycotts polls after strategic talks

Friday, 20 August 2010 01:41 Myint Maung
New Delhi (Mizzima) – Burma’s main opposition party, the National League for Democracy, today announced an official boycott of the nation’s first general elections in 20 years, scheduled last week for November 7, a party spokesman said.

The decision was reached at a meeting attended by top leaders including seven central executive committee members and eight central committee members at the residence of vice-chairman Tin Oo. They said the party would encourage the exercise of voters’ right of free choice over voting as stipulated in the Union Election Commission Law, released in March this year.

“We decided to boycott this election as the 2008 Constitution and the 2010 electoral laws will not lead to the restoration of democracy and human rights in Burma”, party spokesman Ohn Kyaing said.

Consent however was not sought from party general secretary Aung San Suu Kyi in advance of taking this decision, he told Mizzima.

In a letter to party leaders on March 23, Nobel Peace laureate Suu Kyi – who remains a prisoner in her own house at the orders Burma’s ruling military junta – had said she would abide by decisions taken by both leadership committees, he said. She has been tipped for release released six days after the polls are held in November.

Also, Suu Kyi last month said voters could exercise their franchise by their free will – to vote or refrain from voting.
The electoral laws stipulate that rights include the right to stand in elections, not to stand, the right to withdraw from the candidate list and to vote or refrain from voting.

NLD leaders said discussions would continue on how the public could be encouraged to participate in the boycott.

“We are still discussing how to release our appeal to the people, how to respond to the people, how not to cast the vote, or not to cast votes by simply saying nothing … After our discussions, we have to get the approval of Daw Suu”, a senior party leader, Win Tin, told Mizzima, using the Burmese female honorific.

The party will urge the public to reject the elections by not going to polling stations or casting their votes on polling day, as the Union Election Commission Law permitted, he said.

“If the government responds to our action and takes action against our party we would respond … in no other way than legal action against the government. The free choice to exercise our franchise that we are advocating is in accordance with the electoral laws,” Win Tin said.

The meeting was also attended by senior leaders Than Tun, Hla Pe, Nyunt Wei, and Win Myint.

The NLD decided unanimously against contesting in the polls at the committees’ plenary meeting held on March 29, citing unfairness of the junta’s electoral laws that were widely condemned for their effective barring of Suu Kyi and at least 2,100 prisoners of conscience.