Secrecy to follow leader to grave

[hlaing@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx]

 South China Morning Post

Wednesday  July 1  1998

Secrecy to follow leader to grave 

BURMA by William Barnes in Bangkok 
How will the world really know when the octogenarian founder of Burma's
military junta passes on?

Rumours that ageing former dictator Ne Win has died have swirled around
Rangoon in recent days, but were dismissed by an official at the Burmese
Embassy in Bangkok yesterday.

The reclusive Mr Ne Win - who rarely appeared in public even while
officially the country's leader - has been virtually invisible to the
outside world for a decade.

Opposition observers in exile believe the military regime may well be
tempted not only to hide any decline in his health but also to delay news
of his death.

It is widely assumed he is, or was, hugely influential behind the scenes.

A Rangoon-based diplomat said the regime feared the departure of a man who
has been a shadowy presence over Burma for nearly half a 
century would unlock anti-military pressures and perhaps even destabilise
the military's own unity.

"If the junta doesn't think the time is right they won't tell us. We have
no way of confirming whether he is dead or alive," said Aung Naing Oo,
foreign affairs spokesman for the All Burma Democratic Students Front in
Bangkok.

Mr Ne Win made a rare public foray last year when he visited his old
authoritarian friend, then-president Suharto of Indonesia.

For decades the state media and official walls ran photographs of Mr Ne Win
alongside those of independence hero Aung San.

But he never gained a fraction of the popularity and respect of his
charismatic former comrade, who was assassinated when his daughter,
National League for Democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, was two years old.