Disgraced former Burmese dictator Ne Win dies at 91

YANGON, Myanmar — Gen. Ne Win, 91, former military dictator of Burma who dragged his country from the verge of prosperity into poverty during his 26 years in power, died in Yangon today while under house arrest on charges of attempting to overthrow the military government of Myanmar, also known as Burma.

A national hero for his role in winning independence from Britain in 1948, Ne Win seized power in a bloodless coup in 1962.

He retired from politics in 1988, just before a popular uprising for democracy erupted, triggered by his quarter-century of misrule and catapulting Aung San Suu Kyi, the daughter of the late independence hero Gen. Aung San, to political prominence.

Thousands of civilian protesters were gunned down in the military crackdown that followed and many more fled into exile. Myanmar is still viewed by the West as a pariah state.

Since October 2001, the regime and Suu Kyi have held closed-door talks, resulting in some releases of political prisoners.

Ne Win's influence began to wane a few years ago, and he stood totally discredited earlier this year with the arrest of his relatives. Ne Win's son-in-law and the couple's three sons were sentenced to death Sept. 26 after being convicted of treason on the coup charges. They have appealed the verdict.

The government claimed the family was upset at losing privileges as Ne Win's influence declined.

Ne Win was born Shu Maung on May 14, 1911, to middle-class parents in the central city of Paungbe in what then was a British colony. When he joined the growing anti-British movement, he took the revolutionary name Ne Win, which means "brilliant as the sun."

In 1940 he was among a group of revolutionaries who secretly traveled to Japan for military training. Returning home he led the Burma Independence Army into the capital of Yangon, then known as Rangoon, while the British were retreating. In 1949, he became armed forces chief of staff.

In 1958, the military ousted a weak civilian prime minister and set up a caretaker government with Ne Win at its head, until a new prime minister was elected. In 1962, Ne Win moved against the new government, jailed the prime minister and vowed to lead the country on a neutral, egalitarian and moralistic "Burmese road to socialism."

Private businesses were nationalized, foreign private investment virtually ceased, and inefficiency, corruption and black-marketeering soon spread throughout the system.

Ne Win also achieved notoriety as a playboy and reclusive eccentric.

When Ne Win took power, Myanmar was well on the way to recovering from the ravages of World War II, exporting 2 million tons of rice per year. But by 1987, Myanmar was reduced to the status of a least-developed nation, said Josef Silverstein, an American political scientist who has studied Myanmar.

However, a mystique surrounded Ne Win, who was regarded by many as having almost magical powers of survival that allowed him to stay in power so long and live into old age.

For years, rumors that the "Old Man" had died circulated periodically in Yangon.