41 Facts About Ne Win

Ne Win was a Burmese politician and military commander who served as Prime Minister of Burma from 1958 to 1960 and 1962 to 1974, and President of Burma from 1962 to 1981.

Ne Win was Burma's military dictator during the Socialist Burma period of 1962 to 1988.

Ne Win founded the Burma Socialist Programme Party and overthrew the democratic Union Parliament of U Nu in the 1962 Burmese coup d'etat, establishing Burma as a one-party socialist state under the Burmese Way to Socialism ideology.

Ne Win was Burma's de facto leader as chairman of the BSPP, serving in various official titles as part of his military government, and was known by his supporters as U Ne Win.

Ne Win's rule was characterized by a non-aligned foreign policy, isolationism, one-party rule, economic stagnation and superstition.

Ne Win resigned in July 1988 in response to the 8888 Uprising that overthrew the BSPP, and was replaced by the military junta of the State Law and Order Restoration Council.

Ne Win held minor influence in the 1990s but was eventually placed under house arrest, under which he died in 2002.

In foreign affairs, Ne Win followed a strictly neutralist policy during the Cold War, participating in the Non-Aligned Movement and keeping his distance from both the United States and the Soviet Union.

The English language publication Who's Who in Burma published in 1961 by People's Literature House, Rangoon, stated that Ne Win was born on 14 May 1911.

Dr Maung Maung stated in the Burmese version of his book Burma and General Ne Win, published in English, that Ne Win was born on 14 May 1911.

Secondly, when Ne Win died on 5 December 2002, the Burmese language newspapers that were allowed to carry a paid obituary stated the age of 'U Ne Win' to be '93 years'.

Since Ne Win turned 92 in July 2002, when he died in December 2002 he was considered to be 93 years old.

Ne Win, born Shu Maung, was born into an ethnic Chinese family in a small village near Paungdale about 200 miles north of Rangoon.

Ne Win spent two years at Rangoon University beginning in 1929, and took biology as his main subject with hopes of becoming a doctor.

Ne Win eventually became "Thakin Shu Maung", or a member of the nationalist organisation Dobama Asiayone.

In late 1948, after a confrontation between army rivals, Ne Win was appointed second in command of the army and his rival Bo Zeya, a communist commander and fellow member of the Thirty Comrades, took a portion of the army into rebellion.

Ne Win immediately adopted a policy of creating Socialist militia battalions called 'Sitwundan' under his personal command with the approval of U Nu.

On 31 January 1949, Ne Win was appointed Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces and given total control of the army, replacing General Smith Dun, an ethnic Karen.

Ne Win rebuilt and restructured the armed forces along the ruling Socialist Party's political lines, but the country was still split and the government was ineffective.

Ne Win was asked to serve as interim prime minister from 28 October 1958 by U Nu, when the AFPFL split into two factions and U Nu barely survived a motion of no-confidence against his government in parliament.

Ne Win restored order during the period known as the "Ne Win caretaker government".

Elections were held in February 1960 and Ne Win handed back power to the victorious U Nu on 4 April 1960.

On 2 March 1962, Ne Win again seized power in a coup d'etat.

Ne Win became head of state as Chairman of the Union Revolutionary Council and Prime Minister.

On 13 July 1962, less than a week after the speech, Ne Win left for Austria, Switzerland and the United Kingdom "for a medical check up".

Ne Win oversaw a number of reforms after taking power.

Ne Win founded the Burma Socialist Programme Party, which in 1964 was formally declared to be the only legal party.

Ne Win was elected president and shortly afterward appointed Brigadier General Sein Win as Prime Minister.

On 9 November 1981, Ne Win resigned as president and was succeeded in that post by General San Yu.

However, Ne Win remained leader of the party and thus remained the ultimate political authority in the land until his resignation in 1988.

Ne Win's government nationalized the economy and pursued a policy of autarky, which involved the economic isolation of Burma from the world.

In 1987, reportedly on the recommendation of an astrologer that the number nine was auspicious, Ne Win ordered the withdrawal of several large-denomination kyat notes while issuing new denominations of 45 and 90 kyats.

Ne Win was well known for his penchant for yadaya.

Ne Win resigned as chairman of the ruling Burma Socialist Programme Party on 23 July 1988 at the height of the uprising against his regime, and roughly one year after the United Nations declared Burma a "Least Developed Country".

Since Ne Win was in Australia on an official visit at the time, responsibility for these shootings is unclear.

Since Ne Win made Burmese as the medium of instruction, many Chinese-language schools had to be closed.

At the height of the Four Eights Uprising against the BSPP, Ne Win resigned as party chairman on 23 July 1988.

Still under house arrest, Ne Win died on 5 December 2002 at his lakeside house in Yangon.

The only mention of Ne Win's death was a paid obituary notice that appeared in some of the government-controlled Burmese language newspapers.

Ne Win was not given a state funeral, and his former contacts or junior colleagues were strongly discouraged from attending a hastily arranged funeral, so that only thirty people attended the funeral.

Ne Win later dispersed her father's ashes into the Hlaing River.