45 years of resistance and repression in Myanmar
Anyone championing military rule in Bangladesh should recognize that there is not a single example in the world of a country that has fared better in a military rule. Burma is a prime example of how a country with immense potential was ruined thanks to a few greedy generals
CHRONOLOGY-45 years of resistance and repression in Myanmar
Wed Sep 26, 2007 6:22am EDT
Sept 26 (Reuters) - Myanmar soldiers and police have cracked down hard on the biggest protests against military rule in 20 years, sealing off the Shwedagon Pagoda, firing tear gas and arresting up to 200 monks on Wednesday.
Here is a timeline of the military’s efforts to control the former Burma since it seized power in a coup 45 years ago.
* March 1962: Army commander General Ne Win seizes power, ousting three-time Prime Minister U Nu.
* March 1988: A fight between students and locals in a Yangon tea shop escalates into demonstrations in which dozens of students are killed by riot police and troops.
– Sept. 18: General Saw Maung overthrows ruling Burma Socialist Programme Party (BSPP) and establishes the State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC) after two months of near daily demonstrations and food and fuel shortages in Yangon. More than 3,000 demonstrators are killed in the days after the coup.
* July 19-20, 1989: National League for Democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi and party chairman Tin Oo cancel planned march by 100 opposition groups, fearing military violence. Both are placed under house arrest. Tin Oo is later sentenced to three years jail.
* August 1990: Several people reported killed during protests demanding elected chamber after generals reject landslide election victory by Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy.
* Sept. 27, 1996: Police bar NLD from holding meeting at Suu Kyi’s home. Many party members are arrested.
* Jan. 1997: 14 people, including five NLD members, jailed for seven years for student demonstrations in December 1996.
– March 16: Curfew imposed after anti-Muslim rioting in Mandalay. A week later, 100 monks are detained by security forces after attacking a mosque in Yangon in further anti-Muslim unrest.
– May 27: Roads closed around Suu Kyi’s house to stop supporters marking anniversary of 1990 election victory. Some 300 NLD members arrested.
* July-Aug 1998: Suu Kyi carries out series of roadside protests after her car is halted outside Yangon. Students rally in Yangon. She returns home by ambulance.
* Sept. 16, 2000: NLD announces it will draft a new state constitution in defiance of a government ban.
* May, 2003 - Suu Kyi and many NLD leaders are put under “protective custody” after clashes between her supporters and those of the junta. The government says four people died and as many as 50 were injured. She remains in detention.
* Dec. 2005: Government battalions shell villages and refugee hide-outs in southern Karenni State and neighbouring Karen State, forcing 3,000 people to flee their homes.
* March-April 2006: Troops wage biggest military offensive in 10 years to quell five-decade insurgency by ethnic Karen rebels.
* Aug-Sept 2007: A sharp spike in fuel prices sparks the biggest protests in 20 years. Tens of thousands of monks and civilians demonstrate in Yangon and other cities.
Sources: Reuters, A Political Chronology of Southeast Asia and Oceania
September 26th, 2007 at 8:33 pm
Hope MUA-goshthi in Bangladesh learns from this.
BTW, doesn’t she sound like a first lady?
http://www.amadershomoy.com/news.php?id=202125&sys=1
September 27th, 2007 at 7:47 pm
I express my full solidarity with our fellow brethren in Myanmar. I wish I could take to the Rangoon streets with the monks hand in hand and sacrifice my insignificant life for establishment of pure democracy in Burma. Burma under the military has been portrayed in George Orwell’s 1984 long long ago. It is time that our Burmese brothers and sisters are finally given the elixir of democracy after years of blockhead military madness.
The Buddhist monks are the most peace-loving souls on earth. Since they have sensed injustice I am sure the richest neighbour of Bangladesh will soon become a Jewel-in-the-Crown of South-Southeast Asian nations.
Bangladesh must take full advantage of the two giants - an awakening giant India and a sleeping giant Myanmar on its flanks.
I am sure the developments in Myanmar will send shivers through the spine of the illegitimate fascist military junta in Thailand. Anti-fascist movements will spread like wildfires in the region toppling military governments one after another like house of cards.
Democracy at any cost must be restored in the region. Discontent is simmering in Bangladesh. The Burmese effect will spillover into a highly emotionally-charged democracy-bowing Bangladesh anytime. The democracy busters of Bangladesh better take note of the evolving developments in the region and get ready to pack up and leave before its too late.
No Bush or Ban or Brit(Anwar Choudhury) can resist peoples’ power.
Long live DEMOCRACY!
September 27th, 2007 at 9:59 pm
I am surprised seeing India is so silenced over Burma issue.
September 29th, 2007 at 5:53 pm
China, Russia,India and many other smaller players have an eye on Burma’s energy resources - oil and off-shore gas fields. These countries will not take any steps that will jeopardize their economic relations with the regime. And the regime knows this very well.
So, chances are this is a repeat of 1988. Military junta is not going to give up easily.
October 1st, 2007 at 7:11 pm
The military crackdown in Burma is a reminder that street demonstrations do not necessarily lead to success for popular uprisings.
The key factor is the destabilisation of the existing regime and if protests cannot bring that about, they become vulnerable to the kind of repression the Burmese authorities have imposed.
So far, the Burmese military has held together. The campaign for democracy in Burma still hopes for rapid success but fears that the project will be more long-term.
In our day, we have perhaps become so used to seeing pro-democracy protestors toppling authoritarian governments that the difficulties involved can be underestimated.
A handbook for overthrowing such governments would have to include the following factors:
Widespread public protests, bringing in many different social and economic groups
An opposition leadership with clear ideas around which people can rally
The ability to use the media in some form to get a message across
A mechanism for undermining the existing regime - whether by internal coup in the case of a military junta, the emergence of reformers, or the simple exhaustion of an existing government leading to its collapse
External pressure from key countries able to exert influence.
Experience has shown that a combination of the above is usually necessary for success.
Examples
In Eastern Europe in the 1990s, for example, several factors came into play. There were the protests, the communist governments were exhausted, reformers came to the fore, the Soviet Union under Mikhail Gorbachev withdrew its support and the local security forces switched sides.
However, in Uzbekistan in 2005, protests in the city of Andijan were swiftly repressed because they did not lead to wider influences being brought to bear.
And in China in 1989, the democracy demonstrators in Tiananmen Square were eventually dispersed by force because the Chinese government cracked down instead of cracking up.
In Burma, the protesters have been faced with an implacable military government. Maybe elements of the armed forces will rebel and overthrow the old guard. But this has not happened yet.
In the meantime, the regime has blocked off the media, including the new phenomenon of the internet, which proved instrumental in helping to mobilise opinion abroad.
External pressure, in the form of international condemnation and talk of sanctions, has not been strong enough to be decisive.
The China connection
I watched the unfolding events while on a visit to China, and it was interesting to note the approach to events in Burma there.
On satellite television, one could see the concern growing in Europe and the United States. This emphasised the way in which the foreign policies of Western governments are influenced by non-governmental organisations, human rights groups and also celebrities.
On French television, the actress Jane Birkin was interviewed at length about Burma and the next day led a delegation to see President Nicolas Sarkozy.
In China there was none of that. The media almost ignored the crisis in Burma. The first 10 minutes of the nightly news concentrated, as it always does, on the comings and goings of the senior Chinese leadership, which seemed to consist mostly of making speeches.
The government in Beijing is not susceptible to influence on human rights grounds. It has a policy of pursuing its own interests world wide (which require the acquisition of large amounts of natural resources) while keeping out of world crises as far as possible.
There is only one point of pressure on China - the Olympic Games being held in Beijing next year.
The Chinese government is desperate that there should be no boycott. The Olympics are presented as the symbol of China’s “peaceful rise”, as it is called.
So China has to pay some attention to world opinion. That has led to it calling for restraint in Burma, but not much more.
The prospect in Burma now is for another lengthy campaign for democracy of the kind that has had to be waged since the last major crackdown in 1988.
There will always remain the hope among activists, though, that one of the other decisive factors can suddenly turn things around.
Paul.Reynolds-INTERNET@bbc.co.uk
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/7021567.stm