Lt-Gen Soe Win was named Burma’s prime minister on Tuesday after the dismissal and detention of his predecessor, Gen Khin Nyunt.

Virtually unknown to the public until he helped violently put down the democracy uprising in 1988, Soe Win owes much of his recent success to junta chairman Sr-Gen Than Shwe.

On February 1 of last year Soe Win was appointed Secretary-2 of the ruling State Peace and Development Council, or SPDC, a position left vacant for two years after the death of Lt-Gen Tin Oo in a helicopter crash in February 2001. In August, he was promoted to Secretary-1 of the junta, replacing Khin Nyunt, who became prime minister.

In November 2001, he was named Air Defense General, a new position created in 2002 in the Defense Ministry’s War Office. He is also a key figure of the Union Solidarity and Development Association, or USDA, the civilian wing of the regime and the brainchild of Than Shwe, which orchestrated the deadly attack on the convoy of the main opposition party, the National League for Democracy, in May 2003. Soe Win once said at a local USDA gathering in Prome that “the SPDC not only will not talk to the NLD but also would never hand over power to the NLD”.

In the middle of last year, he accompanied Than Shwe on a visit to Vietnam. Soe Win also visited China in August 2003, accompanied by the regime’s number-two leader and army chief, Deputy Sr-Gen Maung Aye.

Soe Win also signed the order to remove Foreign Minister Win Aung and his deputy last month.

In 1965 Soe Win entered the Defense Service Academy, class 12, and later became commander of Light Infantry Battalion 207, of the Light Infantry Division 22. The LID 22, based in the Karen State capital of Pa-an, was moved to the capital in 1988 to crack down on democracy protestors.

Two years later he became Tactical Operations Commander 3 of the Northwestern Regional Command. In 1991 he was made lieutenant colonel and was promoted to colonel the following year. In 1995 he became deputy commander of the LID 66 in Prome. In 1997 he joined the junta, was promoted to brigadier general and appointed commander of the Northwestern Regional Command, based in Sagaing.