Bangkok: Myanmar’s new prime minister, Soe Win, is a trusted deputy of junta strongman Than Shwe and has been blamed for an attack on pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi’s convoy last year.

Lieutenant General Soe Win, who shot to notoriety in 1988 when he helped crush a democracy uprising, replaced Khin Nyunt who was sacked as premier this week, dashing faint hopes for reform in the military-ruled country.

The United States said Soe Win is believed to have been directly involved in the May 2003 attack by pro-government youths on Suu Kyi and her supporters near Mandalay, leading to her detention.

“We see no indication that the leadership change will have any tangible impact on relations between the junta and the democratic opposition,” State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said in Washington on Wednesday.

“We note that the new prime minister was reportedly directly involved in the decision to carry out the brutal attack on Aung San Suu Kyi and her convoy on May 30th, 2003.”

The U.S. blamed “government-affiliated thugs” for the attack in which exiled dissidents say dozens were killed by youths wielding bamboo and iron rods. The junta says four people died.

Rights activists say the attack was orchestrated by the Union Solidarity and Development Association (USDA), a political arm of the junta in which Soe Win is a senior figure. He was also regional commander of the area where the incident occured.

“The only slight chance Myanmar could transform into a democratic country has ended after the man who commanded the paramilitary troops that wanted to kill Suu Kyi has become the prime minister,” said Sunai Phasuk, a Thai consultant for the New York-based Human Rights Watch.

“A FRIENDLY GUY”

Southeast Asian leaders, who have seen little gain from their policy of constructive engagement with Yangon, urged the junta to implement its democracy “roadmap” despite the purge of Khin Nyunt who unveiled it last year.

Thai Foreign Minister Surakiart Sathirathai said he was confident Soe Win would carry on with the roadmap, a seven-step plan to civilian rule denounced as a sham by some Western critics because it has so far excluded
Suu Kyi.

“He’s quite a nice guy, friendly. We have known each other for quite some time. He is not a typical stern army type of guy. He is not authoritarian. He has an international view,” Surakiart told Thai radio on Thursday.

But Soe Win has shown little inclination to negotiate with Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD), which won elections in 1990 but was barred by the military from taking power.

In a profile of Soe Win, the Thailand-based Irrawaddy magazine quoted him as once telling a USDA meeting that the junta “not only will not talk to the NLD, but also would never hand over power to the NLD”.

Born in 1949, Soe Win entered the Defence Services Academy in 1965 and quickly rose through the ranks.

When resentment against military rule boiled over into pro-democracy protests in 1988, he commanded an infantry division that helped crush the uprising in the capital Yangon, according to Irrawaddy. Thousands of people were killed in the nationwide military crackdown.

Soe Win joined the ruling military council in 1997.

When Khin Nyunt was appointed prime minister by Than Shwe in in August 2003 – a demotion according to some analysts – Soe Win replaced him in the powerful position of Secretary One.

Soe Win shadowed Khin Nyunt on several key committees and sometimes accompanied the premier on foreign visits. His last trip was at the head of a military delegation to China in July.

Some saw it as the beginning of Than Shwe’s bid to consolidate his power in the government and armed forces which resulted in this week’s purge of his rival, Khin Nyunt.

“Soe Win is a Than Shwe loyalist,” said retired World Bank economist and Myanmar watcher Bradley Babson. “There has been a pattern of Than Shwe loyalists put in key positions. He wants the whole pie.”