Soe Win (deceased) - 080003 စိုးဝင္း (ေသဆံုး)

Title: Lieutenant General
Prime Minister from 19.10.2004 - 2007

DOB: 10.5.1947
Deceased: 12 October 2007
Wife: Than Than Nwe (Survived as at June 2008)

Was seen a hard-line operator with close links to Than Shwe. He succeeded Khin Nyunt as prime minister in 2004.

Soe Win's earlier roles were North-West Commander and Chairman of Sagaing Division Peace and Development Council.

He commanded an infantry division which helped crush the democracy party in 1988 following Aung San Suu Kyi's overwhelming victory in national elections. General Soe Win was nicknamed “the butcher of Dipeyin” for his role in the 2003 attack on Mrs. Aung San Suu Kyi and her followers near the northern town of Dipeyin.

The general first achieved notoriety as one of the officers who brutally suppressed a 1988 pro-democracy uprising, commanding troops around Rangoon University — a center for demonstrations — and giving orders to fire on a crowd of protesters in front of Rangoon General Hospital. Rangoon, now Yangon, is Myanmar’s largest city.

He joined the Defence Service Academy in 1965, and quickly worked his way up through the military ranks.

He joined the junta in 1997, and was appointed as Secretary-2 of the council in February 2003, and Secretary-1 in August of the same year, replacing Khin Nyunt, who became prime minister.

He died on 12 October 2007 in Rangoon, amid reports that he was suffering from leukaemia. He received treatment in the same hospital in Singapore that Than Shwe visited in January 2007.

Lt Gen Thein Sein, who ranks fifth in the military, replaced Soe Win as acting prime minister in May.