Burma’s President Resigns After 17-Day Violent Reign : Successor Not Named by Party

Faced with a nationwide rebellion and signs of crumbling support among the military rank and file, former Gen. Sein Lwin resigned today as Burma’s president and ruling party leader.

The 64-year-old protege of Burmese strongman Ne Win surrendered his posts just 17 days after assuming power. His election brought on immediate street demonstrations that escalated into massive and bloody protests in Rangoon, the capital, and across the country. The resignation was announced today by official Rangoon Radio.

No Successor Named

The brief broadcast said simply that the Central Committee of the Burma Socialist Program Party, the country’s sole political vehicle, had accepted Sein Lwin’s resignation as party leader and that the Council of State had acknowledged the hard-liner’s withdrawal from the national presidency. No successor was named, but the radio report said emergency sessions of the National Assembly and the political party had been called for Aug. 19.

The broadcast gave no reason for the resignations, but Sein Lwin’s political demise was the No. 1 demand of demonstrators who filled the streets of Rangoon and other Burmese cities for the past week in defiance of “shoot to hit” orders to the security forces.

According to government figures, nearly 100 demonstrators died and hundreds more were wounded in the ruthless military crackdown this week. Casualty estimates by Rangoon-based diplomats were double or triple the official figure.

Leadership in Doubt

The resignation leaves in doubt the leadership of the Southeast Asian nation, which descended to the ranks of the world’s poorest under a quarter-century of erratic, dictatorial rule by Ne Win.

The political opposition to Ne Win’s ruling apparatus is limited to activist students, fallen-away members of the Socialist Program Party and leaders of Burma’s rebellious ethnic groups. None of these sectors has a leader of national standing, with the exception of Aung Gyi, a 70-year-old former general and one-time ally of Ne Win. In recent years, Aung Gyi had become the regime’s sharpest critic, and he was arrested as a threat to the state two weeks ago.

Since Ne Win took power in a 1962 coup, there has been no legal political party but his, and it did not encourage policy debate.

The probable immediate response to the leadership vacuum will be new appointments by the Socialist Program Party, presumably someone more acceptable than Sein Lwin. One name mentioned by diplomats abroad was Maung Maung Kha, a former prime minister ousted in the shake-up that brought Sein Lwin to the presidency.

Prime Minister Tun Tin would appear to be the de facto head of state until a new president takes office.

Students to Press Demands

However, the student protesters, buoyed by Sein Lwin’s departure, are expected to press their other demands on whoever takes power. They seek the release of demonstrators arrested in the past two weeks and in earlier protests this year, establishment of a multi-party democracy and human rights guarantees.

Sein Lwin’s resignation came on the first day of relative calm in the capital since he took power and was immediately targeted by student activists as the man who led bloody crackdowns on students during Ne Win’s 1962 coup and in anti-government demonstrations last March.