“Our higher-ups have informed us that there are concerns about the senior general being targeted by snipers and suicide bombers ahead of the election,” a junior officer in military security affairs told The Irrawaddy.
“So, we were told to increase security awareness,” he said, on condition of anonymity.
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| Snr-Gen Than Shwe. (Photo: Reuters) |
The reclusive 77-year-old dictator has never encountered an assassination attempt since he came to power in 1992. Reports say that he lives in a residence in the military headquarters in Napyidaw. He makes few public appearances, and he rarely visits the former capital, Rangoon.
Instructions have been issued to scrutinize goods and to record the identity cards of passengers entering Naypidaw, according to a bus driver.
“We have been told to cover any suspicious object with sand bags and to report to the authorities,” he said. “But no one cares about the instructions.”
In August, in an attempt to assassinate Lt-Gen Ye Myint, the regime's former military intelligence chief, Karen National Liberation Army troops ambushed a convoy of regime troops near Kawkareik Township in Karen State, leaving at least five people dead and two wounded. All Burmese senior military officials escaped unhurt. It was later learned that Ye Myint was not in the convoy.
There have been no recent incidents of sniper or bombing attacks against the junta's top generals, however.
Last week, there were reports of massive resignations of military officials from the army and also that Than Shwe and his deputy, Gen Maung Aye, resigned from their military posts as commander-in-chief and deputy commander-in-chief.
