A Purge in Burma

If Burma's military junta had an incrementally gentler side, it was personified by General Khin Nyunt. No one would call him a liberal in the Western sensehe headed the dictatorship's military intelligence servicebut diplomats from the outside world considered him more pragmatic and less xenophobic than the country's paramount leader, General Than Shwe. Khin Nyunt steered the country into the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in 1997. (Burma is set to chair the regional grouping in 2006.) He succeeded in brokering cease-fires with 17 of Burma's armed, rebellious tribes. And when he was elevated to Prime Minister 14 months ago,...