Myint Swe, Myanmar's figurehead president who came to power after a 2021 coup, dies

Myanmar's military-appointed figurehead president -- suspended from service since last year due to declining health -- died on Thursday, a junta statement said. Former general Myint Swe was named Myanmar's acting president in 2021, when the military deposed the democratic government of Aung San Suu Kyi in a coup, sparking a many-sided civil war.

The coup handed supreme power to armed forces chief Min Aung Hlaing, who last July also took over Myint Swe's ceremonial role as "acting president" as he suffered the effects of Parkinson's disease.

"President U Myint Swe passed away at 8:28 am this morning," said a junta statement, adding the 74-year-old had died in a hospital in the capital Naypyidaw.

“It is hereby announced that the funeral of Pro Tem President U Myint Swe will be held as a state funeral.” State media said on Wednesday he was experiencing "weight loss, loss of appetite, fever and a decline in cognitive function" and had been admitted to intensive care.

Myint Swe was vice-president under the democratically elected government of Suu Kyi -- who remains jailed four-and-a-half years on from the military takeover. The coup sparked pro-democracy protests that were quashed, before activists quit the cities to wage guerrilla warfare -- finding common cause with ethnic armed groups that have long resisted central rule.

Min Aung Hlaing last week ended the nationwide state of emergency declared during the takeover, touting plans for an election in December as an off-ramp to the conflict consuming the country.

The move handed power from the office of the armed forces chief -- occupied by Min Aung Hlaing -- back to the president's office -- also held by Min Aung Hlaing.

Opposition groups have pledged to boycott the poll, while a UN expert in June described the exercise as a "fraud" designed to legitimise the junta's continued rule. No exact date has yet been set for the election.

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