Burma junta leader takes over interim presidency due to incumbent leader’s “medical leave”

Jul 23. (EUROPA PRESS) –

Myanmar junta leader Min Aung Hlaing has been named interim president after authorities announced a “medical leave” for Myint Swe, who was installed by the military following the coup on February 1, 2021.

According to information collected by the official Burmese newspaper, ‘The Global New Light of Myanmar’, the junta leader has assumed these functions to avoid a power vacuum while Myint Swe receives medical treatment, a measure that came into effect on Monday.

Myint Swe, 73, who was vice president of the government of the ousted Win Myint – arrested during the coup along with the state counselor and de facto leader of the country, Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyii – is receiving treatment and is reportedly unable to perform his duties.

The current acting president has been suffering from “neurological disorders and peripheral neuropathy” for years, which required a final round of medical treatment in a Burmese hospital from May 27 to June 18, according to the coup authorities last week.

The acting president is directly responsible for declaring the constant extensions of the state of emergency that has been in place since the coup, the latest of which ends in two weeks, and was a civilian figure who gave the regime a semblance of legitimacy in the eyes of the international community.

Since the uprising, Burma has been mired in a civil war pitting the military against rebel groups and “popular resistance” organisations. The Armed Conflict Location Data Project (ACLED) NGO estimates that some 53,000 people have died as of the beginning of the month due to the armed conflict.