Myanmar’s Acting President dies at 74

Naypyidaw: Myanmar’s Acting President U Myint Swe died at the age of 74 in the capital Naypyidaw on Thursday morning, the National Defence and Security Council (NDSC) said.

A State funeral will be held for the Acting President, the NDSC said. U Myint Swe had been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease and other related neurological conditions.

Due to his critical condition, he had been receiving intensive care at the Defence Services General Hospital in Naypyidaw since July, last year.

The Acting President had been on a medical leave since then and transferred duties to Senior General Min Aung Hlaing.

U Myint Swe was born in 1951 in the Mandalay region. He attended the Defence Services Academy in 1971 and served in various military ranks in the Tatmadaw (Myanmar military). He retired from the Tatmadaw in 2010 with the rank of Lieutenant General, a Xinhua News Agency report added.

He also served as Yangon Region Chief Minister from 2011 to 2016.

In March 2016, he was sworn in as the Vice-President of Myanmar. U Myint Swe became Acting President of the country on February 1, 2021 after then-President U Win Myint was detained in a military coup.

In February 2021, U Myint Swe declared a one-year state of emergency and transferred sovereign power to the Commander-in-Chief of Defence Services. The office of the Commander-in-Chief of Defence Services subsequently formed the State Administration Council, with Min Aung Hlaing as its chairman. The NDSC made multiple six-month extensions until July 31, this year.

Recently, Zaw Min Tun, a spokesperson of Myanmar’s State Administration Council, said that the NDSC had decided to end the state of emergency to hold general elections in the country.

According to a UN report, four years after the military coup, which plunged Myanmar into turmoil, the country has been facing an unprecedented “polycrisis”, marked by economic collapse, intensifying conflict, complex climate hazards and deepening poverty.

Last month, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk described Myanmar as a country gripped by war, repression and deepening suffering.

He mentioned that since the military coup in February 2021, nearly 6,800 civilians have been killed and over 22,000 remain arbitrarily detained, adding that humanitarian needs have soared, with nearly 22 million people in need of assistance and more than 3.5 million displaced by conflict.

–IANS