HISTORY
POST-1990 MYANMAR
306
2007
Following fuel price
hikes, monk-led
protests hit Myanmar’s
streets; after 50,000
march in Yangon
in September the
government brutally
cracks down on this
‘Saff ron Revolution’,
killing at least 31.2008
Cyclone Nargis tears
across the delta,
killing an estimated
138,000 and leaving
many more without
homes. Two days later
(sticking to schedule),
a referendum on
constitutional reform
takes place.2010
NLD boycott October
elections but many
other parties decide
to take part; few
are surprised when
the military-backed
USDP wins. Aung San
Suu Kyi released in
November.2011
Myanmar achieves
seventh and fi nal
step on ‘roadmap to
democracy’ when
former general Thein
Sein is sworn into
offi ce as President,
heading up a quasi-
civilian government.Myanmar military’s refusal to allow foreign planes to deliver aid. Locals
stepped into the breach, heroically organising their own relief teams.
In the meantime, the government kept the referendum more or less on
schedule, outraging many locals and outside observers.
Several months afterward, a group organised by Asean and the UN
to analyse the disaster documented 84,537 deaths and 53,836 missing
people – 138,373 in all, 61% of whom were female. Other estimates are
even higher, suggesting 300,000 were lost. Children, unable to withstand
the infl ow of water, were most vulnerable to drowning.A New Constitution
Even before the cyclone, activist groups and NLD members had urged
the public to vote ‘no’ at the referendum to change the constitution. They
feared that it would enshrine the power of the generals. Others worried
that not voting would only deepen the military hold on the government
and leave no wiggle room for other political parties to contribute.
Voting took place in two rounds during May 2008, while a reported
2.5 million people still required food, shelter and medical assistance.
The military announced that 98.12% of those eligible had voted and
that 92.48% had approved the new constitution – even though very few
would have even seen the document in advance of the referendum.
With Than Shwe’s ‘roadmap towards discipline-fl ourishing democracy’
in place, and yet another reason found to keep his nemesis, Aung San Suu
Kyi, under house arrest (beyond her scheduled release in 2009), Myan-
mar’s fi rst general election in 20 years went ahead in November 2010.Everything is
Broken by Emma
Larkin is an eye-
opening account
of the regime’s
response to the
worst natural
disaster to befall
Myanmar in mod-
ern history.NARGIS
NUCLEAR AMBITIONS?In June 2011, the US Navy turned back a North Korean vessel presumed to be carrying
military cargo bound for Myanmar. According to a report in the Christian Science Monitor,
experts had linked the vessel to previous shipments to Myanmar, with whom North Korea
is suspected of cooperating in a program for enriching uranium for nuclear warheads.
According to Aung Lynn Htut, a former senior intelligence offi cer in Myanmar’s Min-
istry of Defence and a defector to the US in 2005, the country had secretly re-engaged
with North Korea as far back as 1992 to gain missile and nuclear-weapon technology.
These allegations appeared to be backed up by US diplomatic cables, leaked by Wikile-
aks in 2010, detailing the presence of North Korean technicians in Myanmar, helping the
regime to build some kind of missile facility.
The cables don’t confi rm conclusively what Myanmar and North Korea are up to, but
as the BBC reported ‘they do provide a fascinating insight into the jigsaw of information
on which Western intelligence is based’.