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SINGAPORE, Oct 4, 2007 (AFP) - Myanmar's ailing Prime Minister Soe Win has flown home after lengthy treatment at a Singapore hospital, an embassy official here said Thursday.
The official said Soe Win flew out of the city-state earlier in the week. Asked what his condition was, the source said, "Same as before."
Last Friday, an embassy staffer said Soe Win had been at Singapore General Hospital for three to four months but was "on recovery."
The prime minister is believed to be in his late 50s.
Attempts last week to locate Soe Win at the hospital were unsuccessful. An AFP reporter visited the four-bed VIP room where he was listed as staying, but a nurse said Soe Win was not there.
A board showed the names of patients in the room, but all were Chinese. One bed was sealed off with a curtain.
In May, government sources in Myanmar said Soe Win had returned to Singapore for medical treatment - just 10 days after going back to Myanmar following at least seven weeks in the Singapore hospital.
Authorities insisted then that Soe Win was in good health and was merely in Singapore for medical checks. Dissidents and exiles in Thailand believed he was suffering from leukaemia.
Soe Win has a twin brother, and dissident sources said recently that the twin had died.
Analysts have said that even if Soe Win became too ill to work or were replaced, it would have little effect on the government because all real power lies with Senior General Than Shwe, 73, and his loyal deputies in the junta. Than Shwe visited Singapore in January for what an embassy official said were medical checks.
The junta has drawn worldwide condemnation and tighter sanctions after it launched a bloody crackdown last week against anti-government protests. The demonstrations led by Buddhist monks escalated into the biggest challenge to the regime in nearly 20 years.
At least 13 people were killed and 1,000 detained as the security forces reasserted control, although foreign diplomats, rights groups and aid agencies say the real figures could be much higher.
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