Myanmar regime sacks foreign minister

Myanmar's military junta has replaced five ministers, state-run media reported yesterday, including Foreign Minister Win Aung the most visible face of the country's authoritarian regime.

The newspaper reports offered no reason for the changes. Those who lost their jobs were "given permission to retire," the reports said.

Win Aung often bore the brunt of Western anger and Asian frustration over his government's refusal to free pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, currently under house arrest.

The foreign minister's dismissal came two weeks before he was expected to attend the October 8-9 Asia-Europe Meeting, or ASEM, in Hanoi, Vietnam. He was to have attended in the place of Prime Minister Gen. Khin Nyunt in a compromise with the European Union, which had refused to attend the meeting if Myanmar sent its head of state.

The EU has given Myanmar until October 8 to release Nobel Peace Prize laureate Suu Kyi or face more sanctions. It has already imposed a travel ban on Myanmar's military leaders and frozen their financial assets in Europe. Win Aung was replaced as foreign minister by Maj. Gen. Nyan Win, formerly the vice chief of military training.

New ministers were also appointed for the agriculture, commerce, cooperatives and transport ministries all vital for the development of the country's ailing economy.

Myanmar is one of Asia's poorest countries, and development has been hobbled by government mismanagement and economic sanctions imposed by the West.

Last year, the government liberalised trade in farm goods, but in January it banned exports of rice and other basic commodities to stabilise prices and prevent shortages. Analysts said the decision severely hurt Myanmar's farmers, who make up more than 70 per cent of the country's 52 million people.

Trade has long been complicated by the sanctions, an unrealistically pegged exchange rate, widespread smuggling, and a severe shortage of foreign reserves.