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Introduction
The September 2007 protests by Buddhist monks in Myanmar have put a spotlight on the little-known Southeast Asian country for the first time in nearly twenty years. Protests in 1988 led to a crackdown by the ruling military junta that left an estimated three thousand people dead and intensified the country’s isolation and poverty. Still known as Burma by some states, the country faces new scrutiny by the international community and competing calls for sanctions and greater engagement with the regime.
Background to the Protests
Myanmar, a country of 56 million people, has abundant natural resources such as oil, natural gas, timber, and minerals. Once known as the rice bowl of the world, it was the richest country in the region at the time it gained independence from colonial rule in 1948. But decades of military rule have ravaged the country. In 2005, according to the United Nations Statistics Division, Myanmar’s per capita gross domestic product (GDP) was only $217, making it one of the twenty-poorest countries in the world.
A government decision to make cuts to national fuel subsidies in mid-August increased diesel prices by a reported 100 percent and caused a five-fold increase in the price of compressed natural gas, placing inflationary pressure (PINR) on an economy already facing estimated inflation levels of 21.4 percent in 2006. The surging fuel prices provoked public protests, joined by thousands of monks, attracting international attention.
Limited International Influence on Regime
The United States imposed sanctions on the country after the 1988 crackdown, including a ban on the export of financial services and a freeze on the assets of certain Burmese institutions. Washington announced new sanctions in September 2007 after the junta moved to crush dissent. Since 2000, the United Nations has sent special envoys several times to promote political dialogue with the government and the opposition towards democratic reform but has made little progress. Several European Union states have also imposed sanctions on the regime. But, according to analysts, real influence lies with Myanmar’s neighbors, Thailand, China and India.
Myanmar is “essentially a client state of China,” says Mathea Falco, president of the Washington-based research institution Drug Strategies and chair of a 2003 CFR Independent Task Force on Myanmar. Bilateral trade between China and Myanmar exceeds $1.5 billion and China is one of the major suppliers of arms to the junta. China, along with Russia, has consistently defended the government against efforts by mainly Western states to press UN sanctions; in January 2007 they vetoed a Security Council resolution calling for democratic reform in the country. India, competing with China for Myanmar’s oil and natural gas resources, shares extensive bilateral relations with the junta that include supplying it arms and conducting joint security operations.
Analysts still believe that the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN)—which accepted Myanmar as a member in 1997—may be able to put pressure on the junta to change its ways. But all earlier efforts by the bloc to seek political reconciliation in Myanmar have fallen on deaf ears. The Asian Development Bank (PDF) says Myanmar’s junta made exports worth $4.3 billion and imported goods worth $3.9 billion in 2006.
Political HistoryDespite constitutional disputes, representative democracy survived in Burma until the military coup of 1962 led by General Ne Win. His regime, known as the Burma Socialist Programme Party (BSPP), held power for the next twenty-six years. Throughout this period, there were no free elections, and freedom of expression and association were almost entirely denied. Ne Win abolished the consititution and framed a new one in 1974 based on an isolationist policy, “Burmese Way to Socialism,” and the economy deteriorated significantly.
By mid-1988, food shortages and economic discontent led to mass protests, often spearheaded by monks and students. The army seized power in a coup, abolished the 1974 constitution and silenced the protests by opening fire on unarmed dissidents, leaving more than three thousand dead, according to official figures. A year later in 1989, this new military regime, the junta changed the country’s name from the Union of Burma to the Union of Myanmar and the capital Rangoon was renamed Yangon. While the change in names has been accepted by the United Nations, countries such as the United States and Britain still refer to it as Burma. The junta also relocated the capital from the largest city Yangon to a remote mountainous town, Nay Pyi Taw, citing security reasons.
During the 1988 protests, Aung San Suu Kyi rose to prominence as the leader of the main opposition party, the National League for Democracy (NLD). In 1990, the junta held elections in which Suu Kyi garnered 82 percent of the vote despite being under house arrest. The military government refused to acknowledge the results, imprisoned many politicians, forced others to flee, and continued to clamp down on dissent, closing the country to the outside world. The junta renamed itself the State Peace and Development Council in November 1997 and continues under this name to the present day.
The State and Society in Myanmar
Largely a Buddhist country (90 percent of the population are devout followers of Buddha), Myanmar has around four-hundred thousand monks (Slate) and as many army personnel. The army has doubled in size since the 1988 uprising and now consumes over 40 percent (PINR) of the government’s annual budget. The military has extensive economic interests and its members occupy top positions in almost every government agency. Only military personnel are allowed to own shares in the military-run corporations that form a significant part of the economy.
Falco of Drug Strategies says, “Myanmar does not have a civil society.” Thaung Htun, a pro-democracy activist in exile in United States, says that many self-help groups work clandestinely in communities to offer relief and humanitarian assistance. Htun says members of such groups are often arrested and beaten by the military.
A likely cause for the latest unrest is frustration that the junta has failed to deliver basic services. According to the CFR Task Force report, in 2000, the government spent less than 0.5 percent of GDP on education, leaving 57 percent of the households without access to basic education. Spending on health is even more negligible. Even with hundreds of thousands of people living with HIV in Myanmar, (making it one of the highest HIV- infected countries in Asia) the junta spent only 0.17 percent of GDP on health in 2000. According to the World Health Organization, Myanmar’s health system is the world’s second worst. UNICEF says the country is facing a health crisis of epidemic proportions; HIV/AIDS is spreading rapidly, and malaria, tuberculosis, leprosy, maternal mortality and malnutrition are pervasive.
Human-rights monitors report abuses by the military junta are commonplace, including the following:
Labor.
Forced labor is widespread and systematic, according to the International Labor Organization, and is targeted particularly at the ethnic minorities living in the border regions such as Karen, Mon, Shan, and Karenni. The International Committee of the Red Cross says there are about ninety prisons and labor camps in the country.
Population flight.
Refugees International estimates that around one million people have fled due to military excesses and fear of persecution and around five hundred thousand are internally displaced in the eastern part of the country.
Sexual Violence.
The military’s use of sexual violence against women has dramatically escalated in recent years, especially in dissident ethnic areas. Refugees International says rape is systematically used by the military as a weapon to suppress ethnic communities.
Child soldiers.
Myanmar has the world’s largest number of child soldiers (under the age of 18) and the number is growing. Human Rights Watch said there were about seventy thousand child soldiers as of 2002, most of them forcibly recruited by the country’s army.
The junta has repeatedly denied any human-rights violations and condemns efforts by the United Nations to place it on the discussion agenda of the Security Council. Myanmar’s foreign minister called the latest efforts by the international community to pressure his government as an attempt by some powerful states “to impose their will on developing countries in pursuit of their political agenda.” (Myanmar Times)
The Role of Buddhist Monks
Monks in Myanmar have had a history of political activism dating back to colonial times. Monks enjoy the highest moral authority in Myanmar and monasteries play a prominent role in society, filling the gap in social services created by the government. Many poor families enlist their sons into monasteries where they are provided free food and education. In Buddhist tradition, laymen earn spiritual credit by offering alms to the monks and it is their route towards achieving Nirvana—freedom from the cycle of rebirth.
Monks participated in the 1988 protests; in the 2007 demonstrations, they came to symbolize the voice of dissent against the junta. Htun says the political consciousness of the monks is in keeping with Buddha’s teachings. “Buddha lays down a code of conduct for the rulers,” says Htun, “and if the rulers fail to follow it, it is then the responsibility of the monks to bring them back to the right path.”
The Troubled Way Forward
News reports frequently note the broad support for Suu Kyi—who won the 1990 elections with an overwhelming majority—as the legitimate leader of the country. Experts and pro-democracy activists hope that through international pressure and multilateral diplomatic approaches (such as the approach taken with North Korea on its nuclear program), Myanmar’s junta can be brought to the table to talk to other stakeholders, including political parties and various ethnic groups, and to embark on a path towards national reconciliation.
Many civil society activists also hope that the monks’ dissent may lead to resistance within the army, forcing the junta to rethink its ways. A Foreign Affairs article notes that potential chinks are appearing in the junta’s armor. If it were faced with an offer of new economic and political opportunities, write Michael Green and Derek Mitchell of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, “some of its members might eventually feel compelled to seek a different course for themselves and their country.”
A colony of the British Empire for more than a century, Myanmar achieved independence in 1948. The Union of Burma, as the newly independent country was called, started as a parliamentary democracy like most of its neighbors in the subcontinent that had recently gained freedom from colonial rule. It was beset by ethnic strife from the start. British authorities had been able to bring the different ethnic groups under some central administration. Soon after independence, however, the different groups began to resist domination by the Burman, the majority ethnic group. Burmans formed around 60 percent to 70 percent of the population in Burma; the remaining 30 percent to 40 percent was comprised of 135 different ethnic groups, with Karen, Shan, Rakhine, Chinese, Mon, and Indian among the largest.
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