Myanmar at a glance Year

1948 1962 Burma achieved independence from Britain The army overthrew an elected government amidst economic crisis and insurgencies by ethnic rebel groups
Since then Burma has effectively become a garrison state ruled by one of the most repressive regimes in the world - the junta, which controls the judiciary, and the rule of law is nonexistent.

Importance

next 26 years 1988

General Ne Win's military rule impoverished what had been one of Southeast Asia's richest countries An estimated 3,000 people were killed in an army crackdown on massive, peaceful pro-democracy demonstrations General Saw Maung and Brigadier General Khin Nyunt created the State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC) to rule the country
The SLORC has imprisoned or driven into exile most of its vocal opponents; severely restricted freedoms of speech, press, association and other fundamental rights; and used a tightly controlled mass movement, the Union Solidarity Development Association, to monitor forced labor quotas, report on citizens, and intimidate opponents. The army is responsible for arbitrary beatings and killings of civilians; the forced, unpaid use of civilians as porters, laborers, and human mine sweepers under brutal conditions, with soldiers sometimes killing weakened porters or executing those who resist; summary executions of civilians who refuse to provide food or money to military units; arrests of civilians as alleged insurgents or insurgent sympathizers; and widespread incidents of rape.

1990

The first free elections in three decades The opposition National League for Democracy (NLD) won 392 of the 485 parliamentary seats. The SLORC refused to cede power and jailed hundreds of NLD members

1991 1992

Aung San Suu Kyi won Nobel Peace Prize Implemented superficial liberalizations, including replacement of hardliner Saw Maung with General Than Shwe as prime minister and junta leader The generals rejected the Suu Kyi's calls for a dialogue on democratic reform.

1993

A sham constitutional convention drafted by General Than Shwe granting the military 25 percent of seats in a future parliament and formalizing its leading role in politics

1995

SLORC released Aung San Suu Kyi after six years of house arrest, the NLD leader and the country's preeminent pro-democracy campaigner

1996 1997

Authorities quelled student demonstrations by closing universities and detaining scores of people. SLORC reconstituted itself as the 19-member State Peace and Development Council (SPDC), elevated relatively junior commanders, and sidelined at least 14 of the 21 SLORC members

1998 1998

The military remained firmly in control of Burma behind a younger and more savvy, but equally brutal, generation of officers. The junta removed numerous corrupt ministers in an apparent effort to improve its international image, attract foreign investment, and promote an end to U.S.-led sanctions. Lieutenant General Khin Nyunt, the intelligence chief and formally one of the junta's top five members, continues to be the regime's strongman. April: the regime reportedly detained nearly 250 lawyers, Buddhist monks, and student leaders in an intensified crackdown.

It also reportedly sentenced six pro-democracy activists to death after claiming that they had been caught with explosives. April: UN Special Rapporteur for Burma said that, based on well-documented reports, "extrajudicial, summary, or arbitrary executions, the practice of
torture, portering, and forced labor continue to occur in Myanmar, particularly in the context of development programs and of counterinsurgency operations in minority-dominated regions.

May: NLD called for the parliament elected in 1990 to be convened by August. The military responded by ordering NLD members of parliament
outside of Rangoon to report to local authorities twice a day.

July: the NLD reported that the junta had detained 79 elected representatives for defying the restrictions. August: riot police reportedly arrested dozens of anti-junta protesters at Rangoon University. September: authorities allowed thousands of students to hold rare protests at two other universities in Rangoon.
Ethnic minorities The ethnic minorities that comprise more than one-third of Burma's population have been fighting for autonomy from the Burman-dominated central government since late 1940s. Since 1989, the SLORC has co-opted 15 ethnic rebel armies with ceasefire deals that allow them to maintain their weapons and territory. Many warlords have become drug traffickers and have helped to make Burma one of the world's largest heroin exporters while pouring the proceeds into Rangoon real estate and other business ventures. In recent years, the countrys dry season has seen intense fighting between the army and the predominantly-Christian Karen National Union (KNU), the largest active insurgency. In 1997 and 1998, regular troops and the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army, a pro-regime militia of KNU defectors, attacked Karen refugee camps inside Thailand and destroyed homes.
Gross human rights violations during counterinsurgency operations against ethnic rebel groups have driven more than 100,000 mainly Karen, Karenni, Shan, and Mon refugees into Thailand. In January, Danish doctors who examined 200 Burmese refugees in Thailand reported that two-thirds were victims of rape and other abuses. Fighting has internally displaced thousands of other ethnic minorities. The Burmese army also forcibly relocates ethnic minority villagers as part of its military strategy, generally without providing food or shelter at the new sites. In April, Amnesty International reported that, since 1996, the army has forcibly relocated at least 300,000 villagers as part of its counterinsurgency

operations against the Shan States Army in Shan state. Soldiers have burned homes, killed hundreds of Shan civilians, and subjected others to beatings, rape, and forced porterage and other labor. Amnesty International also reported that armed opposition groups have committed killings and other abuses against ethnic Burmans in Shan state. Ethnic Chin communities on the western border also face forced labor and other abuses. Since 1994, most of the 250,000 Muslim Rohingyas who fled to Bangladesh in 1991 and 1992 to escape extrajudicial executions, rape, religious persecution, and other abuses in northern Arakan state have returned to Burma. Nevertheless, the Rohingyas have not received increased protection, and, in 1996 and 1997, thousands sought asylum in Bangladesh to escape forced labor, porterage, arbitrary taxation, land confiscation, and other hardships. The Rohingya refugee issue occurs in the context of the xenophobic regime's broader persecution of the Muslim minority. Human Rights Watch/Asia has noted that the 1982 Citizenship Act was designed to deny citizenship to the Rohingyas and make them ineligible for basic social, educational, and health services. In 1997, soldiers fighting the KNU in Karen state also leveled mosques and forcibly expelled Muslims from their homes.