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Myanmar
Union of Myanmar National
name: Pyidaungsu Myanmar Naingngandau Head of State: Senior Gen. Than Shwe
(1992) Prime Minister: Lt. Gen.
Thein Sein (2007)
Current government officials
Land area: 253,954 sq mi (657,741 sq km);
total area: 261,969 q mi (678,500 sq km) Population (2008 est.): 47,758,181 (growth
rate: 0.8%); birth rate: 17.2/1000; infant mortality rate: 49.1/1000;
life expectancy: 62.9; density per sq km: 72
Capital and largest city (2003 est.):
Rangoon (Yangon), 4,344,100 Naypyidaw
(administrative capital) Other large
city: Mandalay, 1,147,400 Monetary
unit: Kyat
Languages:
Burmese, minority languages
Ethnicity/race:
Burman 68%, Shan 9%, Karen 7%, Rakhine 4%,
Chinese 3%, Mon 2%, Indian 2%, other 5%
Religions:
Buddhist 89%, Christian 4% (Baptist 3%, Roman
Catholic 1%), Islam 4%, Animist 1%, other 2% Literacy rate: 83% (1995 est.) Economic summary: GDP/PPP (2005 est.):
$76.36 billion; per capita $1,600. Real growth rate: 1.5%.
Inflation: 25%. Unemployment: 5%. Arable land:
15%. Agriculture: rice, pulses, beans, sesame, groundnuts,
sugarcane; hardwood; fish and fish products. Labor force: 27.75
million; agriculture 70%, industry 7%, services 23% (2001).
Industries: agricultural processing; knit and woven apparel;
wood and wood products; copper, tin, tungsten, iron; construction
materials; pharmaceuticals; fertilizer; cement; natural gas.
Natural resources: petroleum, timber, tin, antimony, zinc,
copper, tungsten, lead, coal, some marble, limestone, precious stones,
natural gas, hydropower. Exports: $3.111 billion f.o.b. (2004);
note: official export figures are grossly underestimated due to the
value of timber, gems, narcotics, rice, and other products smuggled to
Thailand, China, and Bangladesh: clothing, gas, wood products, pulses,
beans, fish, rice. Imports: $3.454 billion f.o.b.; note: import
figures are grossly underestimated due to the value of consumer goods,
diesel fuel, and other products smuggled in from Thailand, China,
Malaysia, and India (2004): fabric, petroleum products, plastics,
machinery, transport equipment, construction materials, crude oil;
food products. Major trading partners: Thailand, India, China,
Japan, Singapore, South Korea, Malaysia (2004). Communications: Telephones: main lines in
use: 250,000 (2000); mobile cellular: 8,492 (1997). Radio broadcast
stations: AM 2, FM 3, shortwave 3 (1998). Radios: 4.2
million (1997). Television broadcast stations: 2 (1998).
Televisions: 320,000 (2000). Internet Service Providers
(ISPs): 1; note: as of Sept. 2000, Internet connections were legal
only for the government, tourist offices, and a few large businesses
(2000). Internet users: 10,000 (2002). Transportation: Railways: total: 3,955 km
(2002). Highways: total: 28,200 km; paved: 3,440 km; unpaved:
24,760 km (1996 est.). Waterways: 12,800 km; 3,200 km navigable
by large commercial vessels. Ports and harbors: Bassein, Bhamo,
Chauk, Mandalay, Moulmein, Myitkyina, Rangoon, Akyab (Sittwe), Tavoy.
Airports: 80 (2002). International
disputes: despite continuing border committee talks, significant
differences remain with Thailand over boundary alignment and the
handling of ethnic rebels, refugees, and illegal cross-border
activities.
Major sources and definitions
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Geography
Slightly smaller than Texas, Myanmar occupies
the Thailand/Cambodia portion of the Indochinese peninsula. India lies to
the northwest and China to the northeast. Bangladesh, Laos, and Thailand
are also neighbors. The Bay of Bengal touches the southwest coast. The
fertile delta of the Irrawaddy River in the south contains a network of
intercommunicating canals and nine principal river mouths.
Government
Military regime.
History
The ethnic origins of modern Myanmar (known historically as Burma) are
a mixture of Indo-Aryans, who began pushing into the area around 700 B.C., and the Mongolian
invaders under Kublai Khan who penetrated the region in the 13th century.
Anawrahta (1044–1077) was the first great unifier of Myanmar.
In 1612, the British East India Company sent
agents to Burma, but the Burmese doggedly resisted efforts of British,
Dutch, and Portuguese traders to establish posts along the Bay of Bengal.
Through the Anglo-Burmese War in 1824–1826 and two subsequent wars,
the British East India Company expanded to the whole of Burma. By 1886,
Burma was annexed to India, then became a separate colony in 1937.
During World War II, Burma was a key
battleground; the 800-mile Burma Road was the Allies' vital supply line to
China. The Japanese invaded the country in Dec. 1941, and by May 1942, had
occupied most of it, cutting off the Burma Road. After one of the most
difficult campaigns of the war, Allied forces liberated most of Burma
prior to the Japanese surrender in Aug. 1945.
Burma became independent on Jan. 4, 1948. In
1962, left-wing general Ne Win staged a coup, banned political opposition,
suspended the constitution, and introduced the “Burmese way of
socialism.” After 25 years of economic hardship and repression, the
Burmese people held massive demonstrations in 1987 and 1988. These were
brutally quashed by the State Law and Order Council (SLORC). In 1989, the
military government officially changed the name of the country to Myanmar.
(The U.S. State Department does not recognize the name Myanmar or the
military regime that represents it.)
In May 1990 elections, the opposition National
League for Democracy (NLD) won in a landslide. But the military, or SLORC,
refused to recognize the election results. The leader of the opposition,
Aung San Suu Kyi, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991, which focused
world attention on SLORC's repressive policies. Daughter of the
assassinated general Aung San, who was revered as the father of Burmese
independence, Suu Kyi remained under house arrest from 1989 until 1995.
Suu Kyi continued to protest against the government, but almost every move
she made was answered with a counterblow from SLORC.
Although the ruling junta has maintained a tight
grip on Myanmar since 1988, it has not been able to subdue an insurgency
in the country's south that has gone on for decades. The ethnic Karen
movement has sought an independent homeland along Myanmar's southern
border with Thailand. In Jan. 2004, the military government and the
insurgents from the Karen National Union agreed to end the fighting, but
they stopped short of signing a cease-fire.
The economy has been in a state of collapse
except for the junta-controlled heroin trade, the universities have
remained closed, and the AIDS epidemic, unrecognized by the junta, has
gripped the country.
From 2000 to 2002, Suu Kyi was again placed
under house arrest. In spring 2003, the government cracked down once again
on the democracy movement, detaining Suu Kyi and shuttering NLD
headquarters. The regime opened a constitutional convention in May 2004,
but many observers doubted its legitimacy.
In October 2004, the government arrested Prime
Minister Gen. Khin Nyunt and charged him with corruption. He had angered
the leadership of the junta with his recent experiments on reform, first
by freeing Suu Kyi from house arrest and later for proposing a seven-step
“road map to democracy.”
A series of coordinated bomb attacks in May 2005
killed about a dozen people and wounded more than 100 in Rangoon. The
military junta blamed the Karen National Union and the Shan State Army.
The ethnic rebel groups, however, denied any involvement.
On November 13, 2005, the military
junta—in a massive and secretive move—relocated the seat of
government from the capital Rangoon to a mountain compound called
Pyinmanaa in Naypyidaw. The move perplexed many, and the junta was vague
in its explanation, saying, “Due to changed circumstances, where
Myanmar is trying to develop a modern nation, a more centrally located
government seat has become a necessity.”
More than 1,000 delegates gathered in December
to begin drafting a constitution, which the junta said was a step toward
democracy. The convention adjourned in late January 2006 with little
progress. In Sept. 2007, representatives to the convention, which has met
on and off since 1993, released a draft constitution that ensures that the
military will continue to control the ministries and legislature and have
the right to declare a state of emergency. The document also limits the
rights of political parties. Opposition parties were excluded from the
convention.
In a stunning show of defiance, widespread
pro-democracy protests, prompted by a sharp increase in fuel prices,
erupted throughout the country in August 2007. Participation in the
peaceful protests ballooned over several weeks, and Buddhist monks joined
the throngs of protesters when government troops used force against
demonstrators in early September. The monks emerged as the leaders of the
protest movement and gained international sympathy and support. On
September 26, the military cracked down on the protesters, firing into
crowds, raiding pagodas, and arresting monks. At least nine people were
killed. The protests were by far the largest in the country in 20 years,
with as many as 100,000 people marching. In a statement, the United
Nations Security Council condemned the crackdown, saying it "strongly
deplores" the violence unleashed on the protesters.
Prime Minister Soe Win died in October after a
long illness. He was replaced by Lt. Gen. Thein Sein.
On May 3, 2008, Cyclone Nargis ravaged the
Irrawaddy Delta and Yangon, killing 22,500 people and leaving up to a
million homeless. Another 41,000 people were reported missing and feared
dead. Most of the death and destruction were caused by a 12-foot high
tidal wave that formed during the storm. The isolated military junta
accepted international aid, a tacit acknowledgement that it is
ill-equipped to handle a disaster of such enormous scope. But once the aid
began to arrive, the government limited distribution of the supplies,
accepting only about 10% of what was needed. In addition, it denied entry
visas to relief workers, leaving the country crippled and vulnerable to
widespread disease. The junta faced further criticism when it went ahead
with a constitutional referendum on May 10 intended to cement its grip on
power.
In September, the military government released just over 9,000
prisoners, including the longest-serving political prisoner, Win Tin. Most
of those released, however, were not political prisoners. By most
estimates, as many as 2,000 political prisoners remain in detention. These
releases were followed in November by the sentencing of 30 activists to up
to 65 years in jail. The activists include veterans of the 1988 students'
movement and other democracy advocates who participated in the thwarted
monk-led protests in August and September 2007.
See also Encyclopedia: Myanmar. U.S. State Dept. Country Notes:
Myanmar (Burma)
Information Please® Database, © 2008 Pearson
Education, Inc. All rights reserved.
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