The political, social, religious, and intellectual suppression brought about by Ne Win's policies eventually brought the country to a major crisis. In 1988 university students in Rangoon staged a massive demonstration. Students and Buddhist monks stood in front of tanks, formed blockades of government buildings, and tore down insignia's associated with the military government. Several government buildings were occupied by striking students while some government-run operations such as public transportation, local police departments, and government accounting agencies were momentarily shut down.
The demonstrations were so powerful that the entire government was paralyzed for several months. In September, 1988, Ne Win resigned, although he maintained power behind the scenes. After several months of chaos the military government put down the demonstrators, but once again Myanmar found itself under tightly administered martial law.
Some historians have likened the demonstrations of 1988 in Myanmar to the Civil Rights and Vietnam War protests in the United States in the 1960's and 1970's. The focal points of the demonstrations in both cases were university campuses, and the demonstrators were predominantly students. However, many historians reject comparisons between the demonstrations in Myanmar in 1988 and those of the 1960's in the United States when considering how each government responded.
Myanmar's crackdown on the student demonstrators was severe. It may never be known how many Myanmar students and monks were killed during the crackdown of 1988 in Rangoon, but estimates run in the thousands. In fact, several historians have put the number killed as much higher than the number of persons killed during China's 1989 crackdown on demonstrators at Tiananmen Square in Beijing, where students protested the Chinese government's opposition to free speech and democratic values.
Since the repression of the student demonstrations in 1988, Myanmar has been governed by the same military regime that was established under Ne Win. In 1989 the reestablished military government officially formed the Union of Myanmar, abandoning the old country name, Burma. The military government throughout the early 1990's continued its policies of isolation from the rest of the world. The government also continued its suppression of student groups and political activists as part of a general policy of suppressing free speech.
A year after the reinstatement of the military government in 1990 various factions outside the military called for a national election. In May, 1990, Aung San Suu Kyi, the daughter of Aung San and leader of the National League for Democracy (NLD), overwhelmingly won a popular national election. The military government allowed the election to take place but, embarrassed by the results, did not concede power to Aung San Suu Kyi. In fact, Aung San Suu Kyi had been under house arrest since 1989. Despite international protests, she was not released until 1995.
The 1995 release of Aung San Suu Kyi did not end governmental attempts to suppress her efforts at democratization. In 1996, the ruling military junta known as the State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC) passed a law banning rallies by Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy and in October of that year the SLORC arrested hundreds of NLD members and cut Aung San Suu Kyi's telephone. Under intense criticism from abroad, the military leadership did make some effort to use methods other than force to resolve the conflict with the advocates of democratization. In 1997, representatives of the SLORC opened talks with the NLD, and the NLD was allowed to hold a party congress. These movements toward moderation alternated with repressive actions, however. Through 2002, Aung San Suu Kyi was periodically kept in detention in her house and during the times that she was allowed more freedom of movement, she was prevented from attending NLD party meetings or traveling from the capital of Rangoon (Yangon).
As the military government continues to rule Myanmar it is faced with one nagging problem: ethnic nationalism. Many ethnic minority groups have formed organizations that are, in one way or another, opposed to Myanmar's government. This situation has grown increasingly complicated. For example, some ethnic groups have split their allegiances. For several years significant numbers of Karen, a horticultural people who have traditionally lived in the rugged highlands of eastern Myanmar along the Thai border, have been crossing the border into Thailand to escape government persecution. These Karen have taken up residence in several refugee camps in Thailand near the border.
In March, 1998, a group called the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army, an offshoot group of the Karen who had sided with the government, crossed the Myanmar border into Thailand and attacked other Karen who were living in the camps. Nearly fifty structures were burned and numerous refugees seriously injured. Two weeks earlier this same group of Karen fighters attacked another refugee camp at Huay Kaloke, Thailand. Nearly nine thousand refugees were left stranded and at the mercy of further attacks.
Buddhist temples in the Myanmar countryside. (PhotoDisc)
Assaults of the Myanmar army enabled it to make some progress in its fight against the rebels. By 2000, Myanmar forces had largely defeated the Karen group known as God's Army, a guerrilla corps led by two twelve-year-old brothers. The fighting along the Thai border also brought Myanmar into conflict with Thailand. The year 2001 saw a number of clashes between soldiers and Myanmar.
On its western side, Myanmar's internal ethnic conflicts helped to worsen its relations with Bangladesh. Large numbers of persecuted Muslim refugees had fled from Myanmar into Bangladesh in 1977 and 1978 and again in 1991 and 1992. The Muslim movement from Myanmar continued through the 1990's, and this was a source of tension between Myanmar and Bangladesh. In May, 2001, troops in Myanmar and Bangladesh exchanged fire.
The internal strife and the inability of the Myanmar government to establish workable links with the world beyond its borders bodes ill for Myanmar's future. At the beginning of 2001, an investigating committee from the European Union (EU) visited Myanmar. The committee found extensive violations of human rights and the European Union extended its sanctions against Myanmar, although the EU did agree to increase humanitarian aid to the nation. Its neighbor Thailand has been relatively successful in establishing economic, social, and political ties with other parts of the world. Myanmar, along with Cambodia and Laos, has not been so fortunate.
Myanmar faces a number of critical problems. The domestic economy is weak and an environment for open political discussions does not exist. There is also one important issue that the government of Myanmar must resolve if it decides to join the global community of nations: It must improve its human rights situation.
Myanmar has found itself under the scrutiny of various international agencies, including the United Nations and Amnesty International, which have been looking for evidence of human rights violations. If Myanmar continues to be a closed society, a negative world perception of Myanmar will continue.
Michael Shaw Findlay Updated by the Editors
World History
