IF YOU CAN'T SPLIT THEM, TARGET THEM:

Burma general 'sacked for being too moderate' (Thomas Bell, 02/10/2007, Daily Telegraph)

According to the Mizzima website, run by Burmese exiles, Maj Gen Hla Htay Win was "allowed to retire" yesterday, allegedly for being too moderate in crushing the protests.

He had supervised lethal dawn raids on monasteries and arrested many hundred monks and protesters.

His men fired automatic weapons into crowds of unarmed civilians, killing an unknown number of people.

A Western diplomat said that Senior General Than Shwe, who controls the junta, favoured crushing the protests with even more extreme violence. Hla Htay Win is seen as a loyalist of Than Shwe's deputy and potential rival, Vice Senior General Mg Aye.

Mg Aye is sometimes portrayed as a moderate, although in the context of the Burmese junta that is a relative term which does not imply moderation as most people understand it.

Nice British understatement there.

Posted by Orrin Judd at October 2, 2007 12:00 AM