Officials tied to brutal killings fill cabinet of self-styled ‘President’ Min Aung Hlaing

Days after installing himself as president, junta leader Min Aung Hlaing has appointed a slate of officials who played key roles in post-coup crackdowns and other human rights abuses to serve in his cabinet, according to a list submitted to parliament. The new administration, expected to be formally constituted in the coming days, will include 31 ministries. Many of the nominated ministers are senior military and police figures who helped enforce the junta’s violent repression of protests and opposition movements since the 2021 coup. Among them is Lt-Gen Tun Aung, the current air force chief, who is set to become defence minister. The air force has been central to the military’s campaign of airstrikes against civilian areas over the past five years. Lt-Gen Nyunt Win Swe, a former Yangon regional commander, has been nominated as home affairs minister. He oversaw the brutal suppression of anti-coup protests in Yangon, where security forces shot and killed demonstrators. He has been sanctioned by the European Union, Switzerland, and Canada for human rights violations. The junta leader has also nominated Col Htein Lin as information minister. He previously served as security and border affairs minister in Rakhine State during the 2012 violence targeting Rohingya communities and has since been appointed as the junta’s chief minister for the state. Military officials Nyunt Win Swe (left) and Htein Lin (Photo: Myanmar Now) Lt-Gen Phone Myat, the current home affairs minister who is under sanctions from the United States and the European Union, is set to take over as border affairs minister. The appointments indicate a consolidation of power among military loyalists and figures implicated in past abuses, reinforcing the junta’s reliance on hardline enforcers to maintain control. Only a handful of members from the military-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) are included in the cabinet. Among them is Myo Zaw Thein, a former lieutenant general and current USDP vice chair, who will serve as minister for cooperatives and rural development. Tin Maung Swe, previously appointed ambassador to China and North Korea after the coup, has been named foreign minister. At the regional level, former police officials have also been elevated. Aung Naing Thu, a former deputy police chief, will serve as Yangon Region chief minister. Another former deputy police chief, Tin Ko Ko, has been appointed chief minister of Magway Region. He has been linked to the 2018 arrest of Reuters journalists who exposed a massacre of Rohingya villagers in Inn Din. Military figures will also head other regions, including Brig-Gen Aung Win Thein in Mon State and Gen Ko Lay in Sagaing Region, where resistance to military rule remains strong. More than half of the cabinet members are holdovers from the junta’s previous administration, having served continuously since the 2021 coup. Police crack down on anti-coup protesters during a demonstration in Yangon’s Sanchaung Township on January 28, 2021 (Sai Zaw / Myanmar Now) A former military officer who joined the Civil Disobedience Movement said the appointments show a clear pattern of rewarding those who demonstrated ruthlessness in carrying out orders. “Min Aung Hlaing’s policy is to promote those who can kill more people and repress the public more effectively, placing them in civilian roles while still maintaining military control,” said Zin Yaw, a former army captain. Despite formally stepping down as commander-in-chief, Min Aung Hlaing is expected to retain control over the military through loyal subordinates, including the newly appointed army chief General Ye Win Oo. He is also widely expected to assume a powerful role in a proposed advisory body, the “Union Consultative Council,” which would allow him to oversee both civilian and military authority even as president. The appointments underscore how all branches of power remain concentrated in the hands of Min Aung Hlaing and his inner circle, five years after the coup that toppled Myanmar’s elected government in early 2021.

Officials tied to brutal killings fill cabinet of self-styled ‘President’ Min Aung Hlaing

Senior military and police figures linked to deadly crackdowns on protesters get key posts, cementing the junta’s grip on power

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