As head of the country’s armed forces, Min Aung Hlaing overthrew the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi in 2021, detaining the Nobel Peace Prize winner and sparking a civil war.
After five years of dictatorial rule, he organized elections that ended in January, shutting out her party and securing a landslide victory for military allies in civilian politics who backed him to the top job.
– Myanmar has returned to the path of democracy and is heading for a better future – said the 69-year-old in a speech, after reading aloud the presidential oath at the beginning of his five-year term at a triumphal parliamentary ceremony in the capital Naypyidaw.
Min Aung Hlaing resigned as top general to take over as head of the new government ahead of Myanmar’s Thingyan holiday starting Monday, which celebrates the new year with water-sprinkling ceremonies of renewal and rejuvenation.
Democracy watchdogs deride the transition as a rebranding of military rule under unconvincing civilian guise.
More than two-thirds of Min Aung Hlaing’s 30 ministers, who were also sworn in on Friday, are either retired or active members of the military.
A similar proportion served in the post-coup junta leadership, while more than a dozen were subject to international sanctions.
AFP reporters saw bomb squads patrolling hotels in Naypyidaw ahead of the ceremony, and parliament surrounded by rings of checkpoints.
In the run-up to Min Aung Hlaing’s swearing-in, some political prisoners from Suu Kyi’s administration were pardoned and government officials blacklisted for resigning in protest against the coup were invited back to their jobs.
(Vijesti.ba / FENA)
