“Min Aung Hlaing has been accused of presiding over repeated atrocities and human rights abuses. In 2009, while overseeing operations in border areas of the north-east, his troops were accused of driving tens of thousands of ethnic minority people from their homes”

“Such brutality would be repeated on an even greater scale in violence against the Rohingya Muslim minority in Rakhine state in 2017, which is now the centre of a genocide case at The Hague”

“Since the coup, UN investigators have accused Min Aung Hlaing’s regime of indiscriminate airstrikes killing civilians, 'mass killings of detainees, dismemberment and desecration of bodies, rape and the deliberate burning of entire villages', describing such crimes as 'a manifestation of an organisational policy'”

“Myanmar has denied the accusations of genocide, and the military says its post-coup operations are targeted at terrorists it accuses of destabilising the country”

“In recent months, Min Aung Hlaing had stepped up his international trips, attempting to clamber back from his status as an international pariah”

“His diplomatic style has been mocked by his critics – particularly a visit to Moscow last year, when, while heaping praise on Vladimir Putin, he said the friendship between Myanmar and Russia had been prophesied by the Buddha thousands of years ago when the Russian president was a 'rat king' in a previous life”

“Min Aung Hlaing is also a deeply superstitious figure and keen to present himself as devoutly religious, added Horsey. He has frequently commissioned and renovated pagodas and religious sites, including a huge Buddha statue in the capital Nay Pyi Taw”

“At home, Min Aung Hlaing is unable to travel to large areas of Myanmar that have been seized by opposition groups or are in the midst of fighting”

“However, with backing from his ally China, the junta chief probably hopes the recent election will allow שק to clamber back from his status as an international pariah”