SCMP-Ringside seat for power broker

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South China Morning Post
Wednesday  December 16  1998

Ringside seat for power broker
by GREG TORODE in Hanoi

Ask Khin Nyunt, the most feared man in Burma's military regime, about
political change, human rights abuses and democracy torch-bearer Aung San
Suu Kyi and he folds his hands, smiles and says: "I have no comment."

The shadowy head of military intelligence and a figure often assumed to be
the most powerful figure in Burma much prefers to talk about the many rings
on his fingers than about the chances of reconciliation with Burma's
suppressed opposition.

"This one is for strength and for luck," the Lieutenant-General told the
South China Morning Post in a rare interview, talking of a large star ruby
surrounded by nine emeralds, sapphires and diamonds encased in gold.

"They are from Myanmar [Burma]. With this, hopefully I will be a lucky man.
I like my rings very much," he says.

Softly spoken, slightly built and well-groomed in a midnight-blue suit and
loafers, General Khin Nyunt was yesterday standing on the steps of Hanoi's
Ba Dinh Hall, a surprise figure on the fringes of the ASEAN summit.

His junta, the recently re-named State Peace and Development Council, is
officially represented in Hanoi by Chairman Than Shwe. General Khin Nyunt,
who rarely leaves his country, cannot be found on the official invitation
list, but is known to have forged close ties with Vietnam over the past two
years.

When asked if he was worried about widening splits in Southeast Asia between
liberal nations and more isolated, secretive states such as his own, he
insisted the grouping remained one large happy family.

"I am here to express a feeling of being together with my friends. That is
the feeling I am getting. Unity. Solidarity."

He claimed the regional economic crisis had not had a large impact on his
country, one of the poorest and most economically isolated in the region.

He spoke of a "strong, long and deep" relationship with China when asked
about increased trading, military and aid links with Beijing, but stopped
short of describing the relationship as now being Burma's most important.