Myanmar

Tapestry weaving in Mandalay, Myanmar. Mandalay is the handicrafts centre of the country, and a kalaga or embroidered hand-woven tapestry is a popular purchase by tourists. Kalagas are heavily studded with sequins and glass beads, with gold- or silver-coloured threads woven into the cloth.

Collecting palm juice in Myanmar (Burma). The ‘toddy’ palm produces a juice from its leafy top; this is non-alcoholic to begin with, but it soon ferments into a weak intoxicating liquor.

A Padaung woman from Loikaw, eastern Myanmar (formerly Burma). The Padaung people number only about 7,000 but have become widely known for their custom of neck-stretching. The neck rings confer status and respect on the wearer's family, and must be worn for life. Their removal as a punishment for adultery is particularly cruel, as the skeletal and muscular deformities that have resulted from years of wearing them mean that the woman has to spend the rest of her life lying down, or try to find some other support for her neck.

A Padaung woman from Shan State, Myanmar (formerly Burma). The custom of neck-stretching practised by the tribe involves fitting girls with the rings at the age of five or six, and adding an extra ring every two years. By the time she reaches marriageable age, a Padaung woman will probably have had her neck extended by about 25 cm/10 in. The practice is likely to die out within two generations as fewer and fewer women choose it for their daughters.

The site of Pagan, Myanmar (formerly Burma). More than 2000 Buddhist monuments have been recorded at the present-day site, including numerous temples and shrines.

Country in Southeast Asia, bounded northwest by India and Bangladesh, northeast by China, southeast by Laos and Thailand, and southwest by the Bay of Bengal.

Government

Myanmar has a military government. Since the military takeover in September 1988, a 19-member State Peace and Development Council (SPDC), known before 1997 as the State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC), has been executive and law-maker. The SPDC consists of the commanders of the service branches and of the regional military commands. Its 19 members are more powerful than the country's cabinet ministers. Since 1993, a national convention, including representatives of SLORC and opposition parties, has met periodically to attempt to draft a new constitution.

The 1974 constitution, which was suspended in 1988, provided for a 489-member people's assembly, the Pyithu Hluttaw, elected by universal suffrage every four years. The people's assembly elected the nation's executive, the 30-member state council, which had a representative from each of Myanmar's 14 states and divisions and was headed by a chair who acted as president. It elected a council of ministers, headed by a prime minister, in charge of day-to-day administration.

History

The Burmese date their era from AD 638, when they arrived from the region where China meets Tibet. By 850 they had organized a state in the centre of the plain at Pagan, and in the period 1044–1287 maintained a hegemony over most of the area. In 1287 Kublai Khan's grandson Ye-su Timur occupied the region after destroying the Pagan dynasty. After he withdrew, anarchy supervened. From about 1490 to 1750 the Toungoo dynasty maintained itself, with increasing difficulty; in 1752 Alaungpaya reunited the country and founded Rangoon (now Yangon) as his capital.

Burmese wars

In a struggle with Britain in 1824–26, Alaungpaya's descendants lost the coastal strip from Chittagong to Cape Negrais. The second Burmese War of 1852 resulted in the British annexation of Lower Burma, including Rangoon. Thibaw, the last Burmese king, precipitated the third Burmese War of 1885, and the British seized Upper Burma in 1886. The country was united as a province of India until 1937, when it was made a crown colony with a degree of self-government.

Burma was occupied in 1942–45 by Japan, under a government of anti-British nationalists. The nationalists, led by Aung San and U Nu, later founded the Anti-Fascist People's Freedom League (AFPFL). Burma was liberated in 1945 and achieved full independence outside the Commonwealth in 1948.

Republic

A parliamentary democracy was established under the Socialist AFPFL led by Prime Minister U Nu. The new constitution, however, placed all central powers in the hands of the Burmese resulting in a civil war between communist guerrillas, the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA) and other ethnic group separatists which together comprise 40% of the population. Splits within the AFPFL forced the formation of an emergency caretaker government by Gen Ne Win (1911– ) during the years 1958–60. U Nu won an absolute majority in the 1960 election but continued quarrelling within the AFPFL led to a military coup in 1962 and abolition of the parliamentary system. Ne Win became head of a revolutionary council and established a strong one-party state.

In 1974 a new constitution was adopted, the military leaders became civilian rulers, and Ne Win became president. He stepped down to be replaced by U San Yu (1918– ) in 1981.

Burmese socialism

The post-1962 government adopted a foreign policy of neutralist isolationism while at home it pursued its unique, self-reliant, Buddhist-influenced ‘Burmese Way towards Socialism’, founded on state ownership in the commercial-industrial sector, strict agricultural price controls, and Burmese as the official language in government. Internal opposition by armed separatist groups continued after 1962, causing the economy to deteriorate. The Chinese-funded Burmese Communist Party established control over parts of the north; the Karen National Liberation Army in the southeast; and the Kachin Independence Army in the northeast.

Opposition movement

In 1975 the non-communist ethnic separatist groups joined together to form the broad National Democratic Front with the aim of creating a federal union. In 1974 and 1976 worsening economic conditions led to a wave of food riots and in September 1987 student demonstrations broke out in Rangoon. Workers' riots followed in the spring of 1988. Initially they were violently suppressed, at the cost of several hundred lives, but in mid 1988 San Yu and Ne Win, the leader of the ruling party, were forced to resign, as was the newly appointed president, Brig-Gen Sein Lwin, after the murder of 3,000 unarmed demonstrators. With a mass pro-democracy movement sweeping the nation, the more reformist Maung Maung took over as president and free multiparty elections were promised ‘within three months’.

Military rule

However, in September 1988 a military coup was staged by Gen Saw Maung. Martial law was imposed and authority was transferred to a 19-member State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC). The new regime pursued a more liberal economic course. Officially it legalized the formation of political parties, but popular opposition leaders, including Aung San Suu Kyi (the daughter of Aung San) and U Nu, were placed under house arrest and barred from standing in the elections of May 1990. Behind the scenes, Ne Win remained in control. In June 1989 the country's name was changed to Myanmar.

The May 1990 legislature elections resulted in an overwhelming victory for the opposition National League of Democracy (NLD) which attracted 59% of the vote. However, the military ignored the result and would not allow the People's Assembly to convene. An opposition ‘parallel government’ headed by Dr Sein Win was formed in December 1990. It was supported by ethnic rebel forces, but denounced by the bulk of the main opposition force. The socialist party headed by U Nu, still under house arrest, was outlawed in 1991.

Military crackdown

Serious human-rights abuses continued including arbitrary arrests and torture, forced relocation, and forced labour of nearly 2 million between 1992 and 1995. The ruling junta waged military offensives against Karen ethnic insurgents and moved 75,000 troops into Arakan state, in southwest Myanmar, in an attempt to stamp out a Muslim-led pro-independence movement. The latter prompted the flight of 50,000 Rohingya Muslims to Bangladesh during late 1991, and as many as 60,000 Muslims fled Myanmar after a further military crackdown on Karen rebels in January–February 1992.

Foreign response

In October 1991 Suu Kyi was awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace in recognition of her non-violent struggle for democracy. The West imposed sanctions against Myanmar. The Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) pursued a more positive policy.

Martial law ended

In April 1992 Saw Maung stepped down and was succeeded by Than Shwe, the former defence minister, although the real power in the junta still rested with Ne Win and Gen Khin Nyunt, head of military intelligence. Also in April, U Nu was released from jail along with several other political prisoners but not Suu Kyi. In September 1992 the government ended martial law but the military retained a tight control over political activities. Human-rights abuses continued and Western sanctions remained in force. However, the curfew in Yangon was lifted and more than 1,000 political prisoners released.

In February 1993 a constitutional convention in Yangon discussed the adoption of a proposed new constitution that would allow for multiparty elections but would enshrine the military's ‘leading role’.

Agreements with rebel groups

In the mid 1990s the junta reached cease-fire agreements that ended the fighting with the Kokang, hill tribes such as the Wa, and the Kachin, but the Karen guerrillas would not negotiate. However, the military captured the main Karen base at Manerplaw in 1995. In December 1995, Khun Sa, a major opium warlord who nominally controlled parts of Shan state, surrendered to government forces, after US pressure.

Release of Aung San Suu Kyi

In July 1995 Suu Kyi was released from house arrest, but the junta banned her from resuming any leadership post within the NLD. A UN report of April 1996 announced that torture, arbitrary killing, and forced labour were still widespread in Myanmar.

In September 1996, the government launched a renewed crackdown against the NLD. This led, in December 1996, to clashes between riot police and 2,000 students marching in support of Aung San Suu Kyi, in the biggest show of civil dissent since 1988. Subsequently, in January 1997, 14 of the protesters were sentenced to seven years' imprisonment and the government closed colleges and universities to students until 2000.

In April 1997, the USA punished Myanmar for its human-rights violations by banning new investment in Myanmar. However, in July 1997, the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) controversially admitted Myanmar as a new member.

Changes in the junta

In November 1997 the ruling military junta changed its name from the State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC) to the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC). A number of new, younger generals were brought into the junta, but the 19-member SPDC was still dominated by the top four generals from SLORC, with Gen Than Shwe as chairman, prime minister, and defence minister. Gen Ne Win was designated First Secretary. In March 1998 Japan resumed its supply of aid, which had been frozen since the military crackdown in 1988.

In November 1998, 300 members of the opposition NLD were released by the authorities, leaving more than 500, including 200 of its elected representatives, still in detention.

Aung San Suu Kyi again under house arrest

In August 2000, Aung San Suu Kyi, was prevented from leaving the capital, Yangon, to go to a nearby town to meet members of the NLD. She was involved in a nine-day roadside protest after which she was put under house arrest, prompting renewed international condemnation of the military government. The junta released Aung San Suu Kyi from house arrest in May 2002, but she was re-arrested in May 2003. There was concurrently a further crackdown on the NLD and its supporters.

In February 2005, the government reconvened the National Convention to draft the constitution, for the first time since 1993, but the main pro-democracy organizations and parties, including the NLD were not allowed to take part.

New capital

In March 2006, the military junta moved the national capital from Yangon to site near Pyinmana, officially naming it Naypyidaw (‘city of the kings’).

Myanmar (redirected from Union of Burma)