Myanmar’s acting President Myint Swe died Thursday at a military hospital. File Photo by Hein Htet/EPA
Aug. 7 (UPI) — Myanmar’s junta-appointed acting President U Myint Swe died Thursday morning, weeks after he was declared unable to perform his mostly ceremonial duties due to Parkinson‘s disease. He was 74.
Myint Swe died at 8:28 a.m. local time at the No. 2 Defense Services General Hospital, the National Defense Security Council said in a statement.
Myint Swe, a former general, was vice president of Myanmar during the Feb. 1, 2021, military coup. He was appointed acting president after the country’s civilian leader, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, was arrested.
According to the National Defense and Security Council, Myint Swe began experiencing “sluggishness in movement and the ability to consume food and nutrients” in early 2023, and was soon diagnosed with Parkinson’s, which the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention calls is a progressive nervous system disorder that afects movement and has no cure.
In April of last year, he received medical treatment at Singapore’s Mount Elizabeth Medical Center. Then from late May to mid-June of this year, he received treatment again, this time at the No. 2 Defense Services General Hospital in Myanmar.
According to officials, Myint Swe experience wight loss, loss of appetite, fever and a decline in cognitive function last month, and was placed on medical leave July 18 and then hospitalized on July 24.
He was listed as in critical condition after being hospitalized in the Special Intensive Care Unit of the No. 2 Defense Services General Hospital, where he died Thursday morning.
A period of mourning has been declared from Thursday to Monday, during which the national flag will be flown at half-mast.
The coup of 2021 has upended the country, which has been embroiled in civil war since. According to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, more than 7,000 civilians have been killed by junta forces amid the civil war and 22,000 remain arbitrarily detained.
The United Nations estimates 22 million are in need of assistance and more than 3.5 million have been displaced by the fighting.