Hardline Myanmar vice president resigns, says report

YANGON, May 6: A former top general close to Myanmar�s retired dictator Than Shwe has resigned as vice-president, Burmese media reported, ending the hardliner�s role in the reformist government.Tin Aung Myint Oo, 61, submitted his resignation on May 3 for health reasons after returning from Singapore for medical treatment, the Myanmar language service of Voice of America reported today.The report could not be immediately confirmed.Tin Aung Myint Oo, a former four-star general, was one of two vice-presidents and considered a leader among hardliners in the year-old military-backed government that replaced the often-brutal junta who ruled for half a� century.Tin Aung Myint Oo graduated from the Defence Services Academy in 1970, becoming northeastern military commander near the Chinese border late 1990s.He was promoted to Secretary-1 of the former junta in 1997, a year when the army rounded up hundreds of pro-democracy activists in Aung San Suu Kyi�s National League for Democracy to prevent them from attending a party congress.Suu Kyi and 42 other members of her party took their seats in parliament last week following a historic by-election in a year of dramatic reforms in the former British colony also known as Burma.In 2009, Tin Aung Myint Oo was appointed military advisor to then-Senior General Than Shwe. He was elected to the lower house a year later as a candidate for the army-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party, and was quickly nominated as vice president by military delegates.(AGENCIES)