Timeline Myanmar [formerly Burma]
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Civil Society for Burma by Htun Aung Gyaw: http://www.csburma.org
George Soros site: http://www.freeburma.org
Military regime: http://www.myanmar.com
The capital of Yangon was formerly known as Rangoon
(renamed in 1988).
(SFC, 6/30/96, A11)
The Karen are the largest of several ethnic
groups
astride the Burma borders with China and Thailand. Others include the
Kachin,
Karenni, Shan, Mon and Wa.
(SFC, 2/22/00, p.)
Burma has an 8-day week with Wednesday morning and afternoon
counted as 2 days for religious reasons.
(SFEC, 10/22/00, p.T8)
600-1600 Pagan was the seat of
Burma’s greatest dynasty and the site shows the remains of more than
7,000 temples and monuments of this period.
(AM, Mar/Apr 97 p.F)
1057 King Anawratha, founder of
the first Burmese empire, conquered the Mon kingdom to the south and
introduced Theravada Buddhism to the Burmese people. He and his heirs
oversaw building projects and Bagan (Pagan) became a center of Buddhist
learning.
(WSJ, 1/23/09, p.W12)
1162-1227 Genghis Khan was born in the Hentiyn Nuruu
mountains north of Ulan Bator. His given name was Temujin, “the
ironsmith.” He seized control over 5 million square miles that covered
China, Iran, Iraq, Burma, Vietnam, and most of Korea and Russia. "In
Search of Genghis Khan" is a book by Tim Severin. He was succeeded by
his son Ogedai, who was succeeded by Guyuk. Ogedai ignored numerous
pleas from his brother Chaghatai to cut down on his drinking and died
of alcoholism as did Guyuk.
(SFC, 4/14/96, T-10)(WUD, 1994, p. 591)(WSJ,
1/11/99, p.R6)
1287 The forces of Kublai Khan
overran Burma. The royal city of Bagan (Pagan) was abandoned under
threat from Kublai Khan in the 13th century. The brick temple of Ananda
Pahto is in Bagan. More than 4,400 pagodas and 3,000 other religious
structures of bricks and stones were built in Bagan, Myanmar's former
capital, during a 243-year period from the 11th to 13th centuries, the
result of extraordinary Buddhist fervor.
(SFEC, 10/22/00, p.T9)(DC, 10/10/98)(AP, 12/1/03)
1548 In Thailand King Chakrapat
was saved by his wife Suriyothai, who maneuvered her elephant in front
of the invading Burmese King Tabinshweeti and took the sword thrust
intended for her husband. The 1999 historical film “Suriyothai” was
directed by Chatri Chalerm Yukol. It was about the 16th Queen
Suriyothai who saved her husband King Thianracha during a war with
invaders from Myanmar.
(SFC, 9/30/99, p.E6)(WSJ, 8/30/01, p.A11)
1569 Burmese King Bayinnaung
invaded Thailand and took as hostage Princess Suphankalaya. It was
later believed that the princess gave up her freedom in exchange for
her kingdom's independence from Burma. In 1999 The Thai government
offered to help Burma restore a palace in exchange for information
about the princess.
(SFEC, 7/4/99, p.A11)
1571 Siam’s Naresuan the Great (8)
was taken hostage by Burmese invaders. It was the custom of the time
for the victorious nation in a battle to take a royal child of the
defeated monarch home as insurance against further aggression.
(www.muaythaionline.org/disciplines/naresuan1.html)
1586 Ralph Fitch, the first
Englishman to record his impressions of Burma, took note of the
qualities of the Schwedagon. Archeologists later said the 320-foot high
golden pagoda was built in the 10th century by the Mon people.
(WSJ, 2/23/08, p.W14)
1590 Prince Naresuan (35) became
King upon the death of his father (the puppet monarch). Naresuan
continued to drive the Burmese from the Kingdom of Ayutthaya
(Siam-Thailand).
(www.chiangmai-chiangrai.com/two-great-kings.html)
1767 Burmese invaded the port city
of Ayutthaya (Siam-Thailand), sacked the city and left it in ruins. The
capital was then moved to Bangkok.
(WSJ, 4/21/05, p.D7)
1850 Dec 28, Rangoon, Burma, was
destroyed by fire.
(MC, 12/28/01)
1862 Nov 7, The body of exiled
Bahadur Shah Zafar II was lowered into an unmarked grave in Rangoon
(Burma-Myanmar). Zafar II, the last Mughal emperor in India, was
deposed in the 1857 sepoy mutiny. In 2006 William Dalrymple authored
“The Last Mughal: The Fall of a Dynasty, Delhi, 1857.”
(Econ, 11/11/06, p.96)
1870 Dec 18, Saki, [Hector Hugo
Munro], author (Reginald, When William Came), was born in Burma.
(MC, 12/18/01)
1895-1896 Prince Henri d’Orleans encountered the
dwarf T’rung people of Burma during a journey to the sources of the
Irrawaddy River.
(CW, Fall ‘03, p.9)
1902 May 6, British SS Camorta
sank off Rangoon and 739 died.
(MC, 5/6/02)
1907 May 25, U Nu, premier Burma
(1948-58, 1960-62), was born.
(SC, 5/25/02)
1909 Jan 22, U Thant, Secretary
General of United Nations General Assembly (1962-1972), was born in
Burma. He played a major role in the Cuban crisis.
(HN, 1/22/99)(MC, 1/22/02)
1920 Burmese students rebelled
against British rule.
(WSJ, 12/6/96, p.A1)
1923 Pablo Neruda was appointed as
Chile’s consul to Burma.
(SFC, 7/15/04, p.E11)
1924 Feb 14, Patricia Edwina
Victoria Mountbatten, the 2nd Countess Mountbatten of Burma, was born
in London.
(www.thepeerage.com/p10115.htm)
1933 Feb 2, Than Shwe, later
military ruler of Myanmar (1992), was born.
(WSJ, 5/15/08,
p.A9)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Than_Shwe)
1934 George Orwell published his
1st novel “Burmese Days.” In 2005 Emma Larkin authored “Finding George
Orwell in Burma.”
(SFEC, 10/22/00, p.T9)(SSFC, 6/5/05, p.B3)
1937 Burma was made a crown colony
of Britain.
(SFC, 5/7/02, p.A9)
1940 Oct 18, Britain reopened the
Burma Road linking Myanmar with China, three months after closing it.
(AP, 10/18/06)
1940-1942 U Saw served as PM of Burma. As head of the
Myochit party, U Saw became prime minister of the then British colony
in 1940. When the British entered the war against Japan, U Saw
pressed the British for full independence, while secretly negotiating
with the Japanese. Upon learning of his contacts with Japan, the
British arrested him and removed him from office. U Saw was responsible
for the assassination of his rival Aung San after the war.
(HNQ, 4/18/00)
1941 Bertram Smythies (d.1999 at
86), British naturalist, published "The Birds of Burma." Most of the
original copies were lost but a 2nd edition in 1953 was published.
(SFC, 8/3/99, p.A20)
1941 In Burma Aung San founded the
Burmese Army. He is considered the father of the nation.
(SFEC, 1/19/96, Parade p.4)
1942 Jan 16, Japan’s advance into
Burma began. [see Jan 19]
(HN, 1/16/99)
1942 Jan 19, Japanese forces
invaded Burma. [see Jan 16]
(MC, 1/19/02)
1942 Feb 9, Chiang Kai-shek met
with Sir Stafford Cripps, the British viceroy in India. Detachment 101
harried the Japanese in Burma and provided close support for regular
Allied forces.
(HN, 2/9/97)
1942 Feb 22, India’s Capt. Sam
Manekshaw (1914-2008) was severely wounded in a counteroffensive
against Japanese forces on the Sittong River in Burma. In 1969
Manekshaw became the 8th chief of the Indian army.
(SFC, 7/1/08, p.B5)
1942 Mar 8, Japanese captured
Rangoon, Burma, during World War II.
(AP, 3/8/98)(HN, 3/8/98)
1942 Apr 11, Detachment 101 of the
OSS, a guerrilla force, was activated in Burma.
(HN, 4/11/99)
1942 Apr 29, Japanese troops
marched into Lashio and cut off the Burma Road.
(MC, 4/29/02)
1942 May 2, Japanese troops
occupied Mandalay Burma.
(MC, 5/2/02)
1942 May 14, The British, in
retreat from Burma, reached India.
(HN, 5/14/98)
1942 May 20, Japan completed the
conquest of Burma.
(HN, 5/20/98)
1942 Sep 21, British forces
attacked the Japanese in Burma.
(HN, 9/21/98)
1942 Dec 19, British advanced 40
miles into Burma in a drive to oust the Japanese from the colony.
(HN, 12/19/98)
1943 Jan 26, The first OSS (Office
of Strategic Services) agent parachuted behind Japanese lines in Burma.
(HN, 1/26/99)
1943 Feb 8, British General
Wingate led a guerrilla force of "Chindits" against the Japanese in
Burma. Detachment 101's support of Maj. Gen. Orde Wingate's Chindits
and Maj. Gen. Frank Merrill's Marauders was crucial to the Allied
success in Burma and to the eventual victory in Southeast Asia.
(HN, 2/8/98)
1943 Oct 25, Japanese
forces held an official ceremony for the 415-km Thailand-Burma
railroad. The rail was completed Oct 17 at Konkuita, Thailand.
During its construction, approximately 13,000 prisoners of war died and
were buried along the “Death Railway.” An estimated 80,000 to 100,000
civilians also died in the course of the project, chiefly forced labor
brought from Malaya and the Dutch East Indies, or conscripted in Siam
(Thailand) and Burma (Myanmar). The movie “The Bridge on the River
Kwai” (1957) was a part of this effort and is today a big tourist
attraction in Thailand.
(www.bmw.ukf.net/3pagodas/TBRandON.htm)
1943 Nov 7, British troops
launched a limited offensive along the coast of Burma.
(HN, 11/7/98)
1944 Mar 7, Japan began an
offensive in Burma.
(MC, 3/7/02)
1944 Dec 18, The Japanese were
repelled from northern Burma by British troops.
(HN, 12/18/98)
1944 Feb 4, The Japanese attacked
the Indian Seventh Army in Burma.
(HN, 2/4/99)
1945 Jan 22, The Burma highway
reopened.
(MC, 1/22/02)
1945 Feb 19, On Ramree Island off
the coast of old Burma, some 900 Japanese soldiers retreated from
British soldiers into an alligator filled swamp. Only about 20 men
survived.
(SFEC, 2/23/96, Z1 p.2)(MC, 2/19/02)
1945 Apr 29, Japanese army
evacuated Rangoon.
(MC, 4/29/02)
1945 May 3,
Allied forces captured Rangoon, Burma, from the Japanese.
(AP, 5/3/07)
1945 Jun 14, Burma was liberated
by the British.
(HN, 6/14/98)
1945 Jun 19, Aung San Suu Kyi,
Myanmar poet, Nobel peace laureate (1991), was born. In 1998
Barbara Victor published “The Lady, Aung San Suu Kyi, Nobel Laureate
and Burma’s Prisoner.”
(HN, 6/19/01)(SFC, 5/7/02, p.A9)
1945-1949 A series of wars for independence during
this period spread from India to Burma, Thailand, Malaysia and
Singapore. In 2007 Christopher Bayly and Tim Harper authored “Forgotten
Wars: Freedom and Revolution in Southeast Asia.”
(WSJ, 8/9/07, p.D7)
1947 Jan 27, Britain agreed to
give Burma independence following negotiations with nationalist leader
Aung San.
(SFC, 5/7/02,
p.A9)(www.myanmar.gov.mm/Perspective/persp2001/2-2001/uni.htm)
1947 Feb 12, General Aung San and
21 delegates of the national races of the mountain regions, the Shan,
Kachin and Chin, finally signed the historic Pinlon Accord. They
unanimously agreed to independence, not for a fragmented country, but
for what has now become known as the Union of Myanmar.
(AP, 2/12/06)
1947 Jul, Aung San, an
independence hero, was assassinated on the eve of becoming Burma’s
first prime minister. 6 other members of his interim government were
also killed. His daughter was Aung San Suu Kyi, winner of the 1991
Nobel Peace Prize.
(SFEC, 8/23/98, BR p.4)(SFC, 5/7/02, p.A9)
1948 Jan 4, Britain granted
independence to Burma (later renamed to Myanmar). Aung San had arranged
for national independence on this day but was assassinated before the
event by political rivals.
(SFEC, 1/19/97, Par p.4)(AP, 1/4/98)
1948 A conflict for power began
that involved the Karen, a group of people from eastern and southern
Burma.
(WSJ, 7/11/96, p.A10)(WUD, 1994, p.779)
1950 Burma enacted An Emergency
Provision Act that provided up to 20-year jail terms for inciting
unrest and disturbing the peace and tranquility of the state.
(SFC, 8/15/98, p.A14)
1950 Sein Lwin commanded a
military unit that tracked down and shot dead the leader of a rebellion
against the government of Burma by the country's ethnic Karen minority.
(AP, 4/10/04)
1960 Apr 1, Burma elected U Nu as
premier.
(MC, 4/1/02)
1961-1971 U Thant of Burma served as the
Secretary-General of the UN.
(SFC, 12/14/96, p.A1)
1962 Mar, Army commander Ne Win
staged a coup against a civilian government and took over control of
Burma.
(SFC, 5/22/96, p.C-1)(SFC,12/31/97, p.A10)(AP,
4/10/04)
1962 Jul 7, In Burma Sein Lwin
headed the army unit that shot dead Rangoon University students
protesting Ne Win's rule.
(AP, 4/10/04)
1962 Nov 30, U Thant of Burma was
elected Secretary-General of the United Nations, succeeding the late
Dag Hammarskjold.
(AP, 11/30/97)
1962-1988 Gen’l. Ne Win ruled over Burma. During his
rule he periodically reorganized the government with a purge where
powerful opponents were either jailed or banished.
(SFC,11/17/97, p.A16)
1967 The Association of Southeast
Asian Nations (ASEAN) was formed by Vietnam, Laos, Thailand, Brunei,
Myanmar, Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines.
(SFC, 12/17/98, p.C6)
1972 In Burma Sein Lwin headed the
army unit that exacted a deadly suppression of workers' protests.
(AP, 4/10/04)
1974 Nov 25, Former U.N.
Secretary-General U Thant died in New York at age 65.
(AP, 11/25/97)
1974 In Burma Sein Lwin headed the
army unit that suppressed demonstrations by students and Buddhist monks
in connection with the funeral of former U.N. Secretary General U Thant.
(AP, 4/10/04)
1975 Jul 8, An earthquake struck
Pagan (Bagan), Burma, and destroyed many monuments.
(Econ, 2/28/04,
p.42)(www.myanmars.net/travel/bagan.htm)
1983 Oct 9, The president of South
Korea, Chun Doo Hwan, with his cabinet and other top officials were
scheduled to lay a wreath on a monument in Rangoon, Burma, when a bomb
exploded. Hwan had not yet arrived so escaped injury, but 17 Koreans,
including the deputy prime minister and two other cabinet members, and
two Burmese were killed. North Korea was blamed. In the “Rangoon
Massacre” a terrorist attack plotted by North Korea killed 17 South
Korean officials on a visit to Burma.
(WSJ, 9/9/96, p.A18)(HN, 10/9/98)
1986 Karen refugees established
the Huay Ko Lok refugee camp in Thailand. The camp was burned 3 times
between 1996-1998 by the Burmese military. Residents were relocated in
Aug, 1999, to Um Phien.
(SFEC, 4/2/00, Z1 p.4)
1987 Burma’s military junta
withdrew most banknotes late this year, which sparked massive protests
in 1988.
(Econ, 10/6/07, p.44)
1988 Mar, Burmese riot police shot
to death 200 demonstrators as students began an uprising for democracy.
(SFEC, 1/19/96, Parade p.5)(SFC, 5/7/02, p.A9)
1988 Jul 27, Sein Lwin (d.2004)
then became chairman of Burma's ruling party and the country's
president, but the pro-democracy protests grew. Instead of negotiating,
Sein Lwin tried to end the protests by force, and the capital became a
bloody battleground.
(AP, 4/10/04)
1988 Aug 8-1988 Aug 13, Police in
Burma (Myanmar) killed nearly 3,000 protesters in the streets of
Rangoon.
(SFEC, 1/19/96, Par. p.5)(SFEC, 10/22/00, p.T8)
1988 Aug 12, Sein Lwin resigned
from the presidency of Burma. He was succeeded by a civilian, Maung
Maung, who in turn was ousted by the military after just a month in
office.
(AP, 4/10/04)
1988 Sep 18, In Burma Gen’l.
Saw Maung (d.1997 at 69) became chairman of a military junta, called
The State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC). He had been the
army chief of staff and defense minister before leading the coup. The
junta took power and put under house arrest Aung San Suu Kyi, the
elected president. After years of economic distress the junta released
Aung San in 1995 in hopes of gaining foreign economic aid. The junta
announced that Burma would henceforth be called Myanmar, and the
capital, Rangoon, Yangon.
(SFC, 6/30/96, A11)(SFC, 7/25/97,
p.A18)(www.burmawatch.org/aboutburma.html)
1988 Sep 24, In Burma Aung San Suu
Kyi formed the National League for Democracy party.
(SFC, 5/7/02, p.A9)
1988 Sep, In Burma over 10,000
students led by Htun Aung Gyaw took to the jungles to organize an armed
resistance against the military regime. Gyaw was arrested by Thai
authorities in 1992 and took refugee status in the US. Military rulers
killed thousands of pro-democracy activists during the suppression of
demonstrations. Hundreds of pro-democracy supporters were killed in
Rangoon. A film was made called Beyond Rangoon that depicts the terror
and bloodshed of the period.
(SFC, 5/22/96, p.C-1)(SFC, 5/25/96, p.A12)(SFC,
9/3/96, p.A7)(SFEC, 8/23/98, Par p.10)
1988 Burma’s dictator Ne Win
retired.
(SSFC, 3/10/02, p.A15)
1988 The Chin army began fighting
a low-level rebellion for more autonomy for the mainly Christian Chin
in Burma's northwest, where government troops have been trying to force
them to convert to Buddhism.
(AP, 6/25/05)
1989 Jun 19, Burma’s government
renamed the country Myanmar. Rangoon was renamed Yangon.
(SFC, 5/7/02, p.A9)
1989 Jul 20, Myanmar military
authorities placed Aung San Suu Kyi and her deputy Tin Oo under house
arrest where she was confined for the next 6 years.
(SFEC, 8/23/98, BR p.4)(SFC, 5/7/02, p.A9)
1989 Gen. Khin Nyunt, Myanmar’s
prime minister and intelligence chief, brokered a ceasefire and
autonomy deal with Sai Leun (Lin Mingxian), warlord of Mongla, who
built the area into a gambling destination for Chinese tourists.
(Econ, 1/29/05, p.41)
1990 Apr 7, In Myanmar a
double-decker ferry sank in Gyaing River during a storm and 215 people
were believed drowned.
(www.factmonster.com/ipka/A0005329.html)
1990 May 27, The political
opposition of Burma (Myanmar) scored a victory in the country’s first
free, multiparty elections in three decades. The military rulers
allowed democratic elections but ignored the results when the National
League for Democracy (NLD) of Aung San Suu Kyi won 392 of 485 contested
seats.
(SFC, 5/25/96, p.A12)(AP, 5/27/00)(Econ, 7/23/05,
p.23)
1991 Oct 14, Myanmar opposition
leader Aung San Suu Kyi was named winner of the Nobel Peace Prize for
her non-violent promotion of democracy. Her award was accepted by her
husband, Michael Aris (d.1999 at 53) and their sons. A collection of
her writings is titled "Freedom From Fear."
(SFC, 5/22/96, p.C-1)(SFEC, 3/28/99, p.D6)(AP,
10/14/01)
1991 Khun Sa (1934-2007), Myanmar
drug warlord and head of the Shan United Army, became head of the Shan
State Restoration Council.
(Econ, 11/10/07, p.106)
1992 Apr 23, Myanmar Gen’l. Saw
Maung stepped down as chairman of SLORC because of illness. He was
replaced by Gen’l. Than Shwe.
(SFC, 7/25/97, p.A18)
1992 The Asian Development Bank
began building and improving transport and telecom links between China,
Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam.
(Econ, 11/8/03, p.42)
1992 Bangladesh began refusing
refugee status to Rohingyas, a dark-skinned Muslim minority from
Myanmar.
(Econ, 12/1/07, p.56)
1993 Aug, A 370-pound heroin
shipment was seized in New Orleans. In 1997 Thai police seized a
Myanmar man, Liu Wen Ming, for organizing the shipment. Ming was
suspected of being an associate of drug kingpin Khun Sa.
(SFC, 4/1/97, p.A12)
1993 In Myanmar the Mong Tai Army
took up arms against the government.
(WSJ, 7/11/96, p.A10)
1993 In Myanmar the pro-junta
Union Solidarity and Development Association (USDA) was formed.
(Econ, 4/12/08, p.28)
1994 Myanmar leased the 2 Coco
Islands in the Indian Ocean to China. China proceeded to establish
surveillance stations there.
(www.fas.org/irp/world/china/facilities/coco.htm)(Econ, 7/23/05, p.25)
1994 The Orient-Express purchased
a floating hotel on the Rhine, converted it and renamed it to the
"Road to Mandalay" for 4 day excursions on the Irrawaddy from Bagan to
Mandalay.
(SSFC, 4/4/04, p.D12)
1995 Jan, Myanmar government
forces overran the Karen National Union’s stronghold at Manerplaw and
forced refugees to take refuge in Thailand.
(SFEC, 6/4/00, p.C15)
1995 July 10, Aung San Suu Kyi
was released after six years of house arrest. She later charged
that the Myanmar military regime doesn't want democratic reform.
(SFC, 5/22/96, p.C-1)(WSJ, 11/30/95, p.A-1)
1995 In Myanmar more than 500
people died this year in the 48-year long conflict with Karen rebels.
(WSJ, 7/11/96, p.A10)
1995 Berkeley, Ca., became the
first city to adopt sanctions against Myanmar due to the repressive
military regime.
(SFC, 1/26/98, p.A13)
1995-1998 The Yadana pipeline and offshore natural
gas production facilities were built by a consortium of Total, Unocal
and Myanmar Oil and Gas Enterprise.
(SFC, 4/29/08, p.D1)
1996 Jan, Khun Sa, a Myanmar opium
warlord in command of some 15,000 Shan troops, surrendered to the
government. He agreed to disband his private army, give up the drug
trade and submit to a form of house arrest in exchange for protection
and freedom to pursue business opportunities.
(SFC, 4/15/98, p.C14)(SFC, 8/8/98, p.A14)
1996 Jan, Lu Maw, Par Par Lay and
Lu Zaw performed as the Moustache Brothers in a skit outside the home
of Aung San Suu Kyi. They satirized Myanmar’s ruling SLORC and were
charged with “disrupting the stability of the Union.” A 2-month public,
but juryless trial followed and they were sentenced to prison. They
were released in July 2001.
(WSJ, 7/10/02, p.D8)
1996 May, The Myanmar military
regime has jailed 71 supporters of Aung San Suu Kyi in a bid to block a
pro-democracy meeting. General Maung Aye, commander and deputy chairman
of the military regime warned that the government will annihilate
anyone who disturbs the country’s peace and tranquility.
(SFC, 5/22/96, p.C-1)
1996 May 24, Roger Truitt,
president of Atlantic Richfield Co. was pictured in negotiations
with Myanmar General Khin Nyunt, head of the secret police.
(SFC, 5/25/96, p.A12)
1996 Jun 6, The Myanmar military
regime banned the weekly meetings at the house of Aung San Suu Kyi.
(SFC, 6/7/96, p.A15)
1996 Oct 3, In Myanmar SLORC was
in arrears in payments on crude-oil imports. The main foreign exchange
earners, rice and timber, were in production slowdowns.
(WSJ, 10/3/96, p.B11A)
1996 Nov 1, A government program
to attract visitors, “Visit Myanmar Year,” began with tighter security
measures.
(SFEC, 11/10/96, p.T5)
1996 Dec 3, Myanmar riot police
dispersed hundreds of student demonstrators and detained dozens outside
Rangoon at the Schwedagon Pagoda.
(SFC, 12/3/96, p.A13)
1996 Dec 26, Two bombs exploded in
Rangoon during an exhibit of a tooth believed to have belonged to
Buddha. The military regime blamed student and ethnic Karen insurgents
based in eastern Myanmar. Five people were killed.
(WSJ, 12/27/96, p.A1)
1996 Dec, The Myanmar universities
were closed.
(SFC, 5/27/97, p.A11)
1996-1998 A 1998 Amnesty Int’l. report accused the
Burmese army in the torture and killings of hundreds of ethnic Shan
villagers in the Shan state during this period.
(SFC, 4/15/98, p.C14)
1996-2001 In 2002 the Thailand-based Shan Human
Rights Foundation filed a report that Myanmar government military
forces raped at least 625 girls and women in Shan state over this
period in an effort to bring the area under control.
(SFC, 7/4/02, p.A16)
1997 Jan 28, PepsiCo Inc. said it
was ending business in Myanmar due to human rights problems. It joined
Eddie Bauer, Levi Strauss and Liz Claiborne.
(USAT, 1/29/97, p.8A)
1997 Feb 14, In Myanmar some 3,000
Karen refugees fled into Thailand to escape fighting. The Karen
National Union had been fighting for autonomy since 1948. Thailand said
16,000 Karens were crossing over its border.
(SFC, 2/15/97, p.A10)(WSJ, 2/14/97, p.A1)
1997 Feb 26, Thai soldiers pushed
Karen refugees back across the border into Myanmar as Burmese troops
massed for an offensive.
(WSJ, 2/27/97, p.A1)
1997 Apr 6, A bomb exploded at the
Rangoon home of Lt. Gen’l. Tin Oo and killed his daughter, Cho Lei Oo
(34).
(WSJ, 4/8/97, p.A1)(SFC, 4/8/97, p.A10)
1997 Apr 21, Pres. Clinton
approved a ban on new American investment in Myanmar due to human
rights abuses. It also banned visas for senior Burmese government
officials.
(SFC, 4/22/97, p.A6)(WSJ, 3/25/04, p.A15)
1997 May 31, The 7-member ASEAN
alliance, Association of Southeast Asian Nations, met in Kuala Lumpur
and agreed to allow Myanmar to become a member in July. Laos and
Cambodia were also admitted. The members were Thailand, Singapore, the
Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei and Vietnam.
(SFEC, 6/1/97, p.D3)
1997 Jul 23, The ASEAN trade bloc
admitted Laos and Myanmar but barred Cambodia.
(SFC, 7/24/97, p.A12)
1997 Jul, In Myanmar SLORC renamed
itself State Peace and Development Council (SPDC).
(SFC, 5/7/02, p.A9)
1997 Oct 15, It was reported that
only 2 of the 31 in the elite Junta have university degrees and that
Chinese business people had virtually taken over in Mandalay, which had
been the heart of Burmese culture.
(SFC,10/15/97, p.C2)
1997 Nov 15, In Myanmar the
21-member SLORC was dissolved and a new State Peace and Development
Council headed by 4 top generals and commanders of various regions was
established.
(SFEC,11/16/97, p.A27)
1997 In Rangoon talks between the
Karen National Union and Burmese officials broke down when the Karen
refused to disarm. After the talks broke the Burmese army swept through
Karen territory and forced thousands of refugees into Thailand.
(SFEC, 4/2/00, Z1 p.4)
1997 Sai Leun (Lin Mingxian),
warlord of Mongla, declared his fief an “opium-free zone.”
(Econ, 1/29/05, p.42)
1997 A US federal judge allowed a
lawsuit to proceed against Unocal, accusing the oil company of
complicity in human rights abuses on the Yadana project in Myanmar. The
decision opened the door to suing US corporations on their behaviour
pverseas.
(SFC, 4/29/08, p.D1)
1998 Mar 1, Myanmar's military
regime arrested 40 people it accused of planning to assassinate leaders
and bomb buildings.
(WSJ, 3/2/98, p.A1)
1998 Mar 31, It was reported that
in Thailand’s Mae Hong Son province, women of the Padaung tribe of
Myanmar were attracting tourists with their necks elongated by wearing
brass coils. They began fleeing Myanmar’s Kayah state over a decade ago
(SFC, 3/31/98, p.B4)
1998 Apr 2, Ethnic Karen rebels
launched attacks against Myanmar troops and killed 30 people.
(SFC, 4/4/98, p.A16)
1998 Apr 21, The Myanmar military
regime sentenced San San to 25 years in prison for a BBC interview that
criticized the government.
(WSJ, 4/22/98, p.A1)
1998 May 15, It was reported that
the Myanmar junta was expanding opium production while collecting money
from the UN for destroying poppy fields.
(SFC, 5/15/98, p.A14)
1998 May 27, Myanmar democracy
activists gathered to mark their 1990 victory, that was annulled by the
junta. It was their first legal gathering since then.
(WSJ, 5/28/98, p.A1)
1998 Jun 1, The Myanmar military
sentenced Aung Thein and Ko Hla Myint to 14 years in prison for handing
out copies of a letter from the Shan State Army addressed to Lt. Gen’l.
Khin Nyunt, the head of military intelligence, back in March.
(SFC, 6/9/98, p.A14)
1998 Jun 2, In Myanmar 26 farmers
were gunned down near Murng-Kerng.
(SFC, 8/8/98, p.A12)
1998 Jun 27, Myanmar soldiers of
the Light Infantry Battalion 246 shot and killed 23 villagers in Kaeng
Tawn. The dead included 7 children and 2 women.
(SFC, 8/8/98, p.A12)
1998 Aug 15, In Myanmar (Burma) 18
detainees, arrested for passing out literature and charged with
violating the 1950 Emergency Provision Act, were forced to leave the
country. A 5-year prison term was imposed if they break Burma’s laws
again.
(SFC, 8/15/98, p.A14)
1998 Aug 19, In Myanmar Aung San
Suu Kyi was in her 8th day of a roadside protest in her 4th attempt to
travel to Bassein.
(SFC, 8/20/98, p.A16)
1998 Aug 24, In Burma Aung San Suu
Kyi bowed to medical problems and ended her 13-day roadside standoff
against the government.
(SFC, 8/25/98, p.A8)
1998 Sep 17, Ten dissidents voted
to annul all laws passed by the Myanmar junta in the last 10 years
after constituting themselves as the elected parliament of 1990.
(WSJ, 9/18/98, p.A1)
1998 Sep, Air Myanmar F-27 with 39
people crashed near Tachilek in Shan state. Shan tribesmen looted the
wreckage. 5 adult male survivors were tortured and an air hostess was
raped for days. A surviving baby was left to die. 30 villagers were
arrested.
(SFC, 9/25/98, p.A12)
1998 EU foreign ministers banned
visits by Myanmar officials, withdrew trade privileges and imposed an
arms embargo due to the repression of civil and political rights.
(SFC, 4/11/00, p.D4)
1998 Burmese refugees in Thailand
created the Backpack Health Worker Team to effectively sneak health
into eastern Burma (Myanmar), where the military junta provides little
health care.
(SSFC, 3/22/09, p.A8)
1999 Apr 19, One of the annual
Goldman Environmental Prizes went to: Ka Hsaw Wa of Myanmar for
reporting on the plight of indigenous people and environmental abuses
on a Unocal gas pipeline across Thailand and Myanmar.
(SFC, 4/19/99, p.A2)(SFC, 4/7/00, p.A14)
1999 Jun 19, Aung San Suu Kyi
encouraged women to fight for democracy on the unofficial Women of
Burma Day, which was created by her followers to coincide with her
birthday.
(SFEC, 6/20/99, p.A5)
1999 Oct 1, In Thailand the
Vigorous Burmese Student Warriors took 38 diplomats as hostages at the
Burmese Embassy in Bangkok. Two Thai officials were exchanged for the
hostages and 12 [5] students were reported to have flown to the
Thai-Myanmar border by helicopter, where they were released. The
students demanded the release of political prisoners, dialogue between
the military and Aung San Suu Kyi and an elected parliament.
(SFC, 10/2/99, p.A12)(SFEC, 10/3/99, p.A25)
1999 Oct 2, Bo Mya, leader of the
Karen National Union, said he would grant sanctuary to the Burmese
students who were flown to the Thai-Myanmar border following a 26 hour
takeover of the Myanmar Embassy in Thailand.
(SFEC, 10/3/99, p.A25)
1999 In Myanmar the twins Luther
and Johnny Htoo (12) led God's Army, a band of some 100 guerrilla
fighters that operated from the Ka Mar Pa Law village near the Thailand
border.
(SFC, 12/16/99, p.C9)
2000 Jan 24, In Thailand security
forces stormed a hospital and ended a 22-hour standoff with Burmese
guerrillas. 10 rebels of the "God's Army" were reported killed. The
hostage-takers were executed after surrendering to security forces.
(SFC, 1/25/00, p.A10)(SFC, 1/27/00, p.A12)
2000 Jan 26, In Myanmar Bo Mya,
legendary 24-year leader of the Karen National Union (KNU), was voted
out of the chairmanship. Saw Ba Thin was elected as the new chairman of
the Karen National Union (KNU).
(SFC, 1/28/00, p.A14)(SFC, 2/22/00, p.A8)
2000 Jan, The Karen celebrated
their new year 2739. Some 300,000 Karen were believed to be internally
displace within Myanmar.
(SFEC, 4/2/00, Z1 p.4)(SFEC, 6/4/00, p.C15)
2000 Apr 10, EU foreign ministers
toughened sanctions against Myanmar due to the increased repression of
civil and political rights.
(SFC, 4/11/00, p.D4)
2000 Apr, Over 40 youth members of
the opposition National league for Democracy were arrested by Myanmar
authorities over the mid-month Thingyan (New year) festival. The
information was smuggled in on video from Suu Kyi.
(SFC, 4/28/00, p.D6)
2000 Jun 12, The Bangkok Post
reported that Johnny and Luther Htoo, the 12-year-old leaders of God’s
Army, had laid down their arms and were living in a Christian ethnic
Karen village.
(SFC, 6/13/00, p.A11)
2000 Jul 24, Myanmar university
students returned to classes nearly 3.5 years after the military shut
down schools due to antigovernment protests. Loyalty pledges to the
government were required and political activity was barred.
(WSJ, 7/25/00, p.A1)(SFC, 8/23/00, p.A12)
2000 Aug 24, Aung San Suu Kyi and
14 supporters tried to leave Rangoon for political activities in the
countryside. Police stopped her party and a stand-off began. After 9
days the party was forced back to Rangoon.
(SFC, 9/2/00, p.A12)
2000 Sep 14, The Myanmar military
lifted restrictions against Suu Kyi and 8 other leaders of the National
League for Democracy.
(SFC, 9/16/00, p.A10)
2000 Nov 10, Some 125 Karen
guerrillas overran the Bianaw Myanmar military camp near the Thai
border. 30 escaped and one soldier was killed.
(SFC, 11/11/00, p.C18)
2000 Dec 6, Pres. Clinton gave the
US Presidential Medal of Freedom to Alexander Aris, the son of Aung San
Suu Kyi of Myanmar, on behalf of his mother who was held under house
arrest.
(SFC, 12/7/00, p.C10)
2001 Jan 9, The UN announced that
in Myanmar Aung San Suu Kyi and the military junta had held more than
round of talks since October.
(SFC, 1/10/01, p.A10)
2001 Jan 16, Luther and Johnny
Htoo, twin adolescent leaders of an ethnic Karen rebel group,
surrendered to Thai border police.
(WSJ, 1/17/01, p.A1)
2001 Feb 19, A helicopter crash
killed Myanmar junta Lt. Gen. Tin Oo (67) and left 14 missing.
(SFC, 2/20/01, p.A10)
2001 Feb, Russia’s Atomic Energy
Ministry announced plans to build a 10-megawatt nuclear research
reactor in central Myanmar. The deal was finalized in July.
(WSJ, 1/3/02, p.A6)
2001 Mar 30, It was reported that
the forests of Myanmar had dropped from 21% coverage in 1949 to less
than 7% today.
(SFC, 3/30/01, p.A17)
2001 Russia sold Myanmar 10 MiG-29
fighter aircraft for $130 million.
(WSJ, 1/3/02, p.A6)
2002 Jan 22, The Myanmar army was
charged by Amnesty Int’l. of killing and torturing hundreds of ethnic
Shan villagers. Some 300,000 Shan villagers have been forced to flee
their homes in the past 2 years.
(SFC, 1/23/02, p.A6)
2002 Jan, Adrian Levy and Cathy
Scott-Clark authored “The Stone of Heaven,” and history of jadeite and
their experiences in northern Myanmar at the world’s the biggest
jadeite mine.
(WSJ, 2/15/02, p.W6)
2002 Mar 7, In Myanmar Aye Zaw Win
(54) and 3 adult sons, 4 relatives of former dictator Ne Win, were
arrested and some military officers were dismissed for planning a coup.
Later Ne Win and his daughter were put under house arrest. Aye Zaw Win
and his 3 sons were convicted and sentenced to death Sep 26.
(SSFC, 3/10/02, p.A15)(SFC, 3/19/02, p.A7)(SFC,
9/27/02, p.A11)
2002 May 5, In Myanmar the
military government released Aung San Suu Kyi (56) after 19 months of
house arrest in Rangoon.
(SFC, 5/6/02, p.A1,3)
2002 May, In Myanmar a trial began
for a number of soldiers, members of a security unit guarding former
dictator Ne Win, in connection with an abortive plot to overthrow the
country's ruling junta. In Sep a Myanmar military tribunal sentenced 83
soldiers to 15-year jail terms.
(Reuters, 9/14/02)
2002 Jul 28, Myanmar's military
government released 32 political prisoners, among them 14 members of
the opposition, ahead of the visit next month of top U.N. envoy Razali
Ismail.
(AP, 7/28/02)
2002 Aug 9, Myanmar's junta freed
14 political prisoners, but the move was far short of the release of
all prisoners of conscience that opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi has
demanded as a precondition for national reconciliation.
(AP, 8/9/02)
2002 Dec 5, Ne Win (91), former
general and dictator, died in Yangon. His 26 years in power bankrupted
Myanmar (Burma) economically and spiritually.
(SFC, 12/6/02, p.A30)(WSJ, 12/6/02, p.A1)
2002 Pascal Khoo Thwe (b.1967) won
the Kiriyama Pacific Rim Book Prize for his memoir “From the Land of
Green Ghosts: A Burmese Odyssey.”
(SSFC, 11/10/02, p.M1)
2002 In Bangladesh Operation Clean
Heart rooted thousands of Rohingyas, dark-skinned members of a poor,
Muslin minority from Myanmar, from local villages. Myanmar’s ruling
junta called them residents of Rakhine state, pressed them into slave
labor and severely restricted their rights to travel and marry. This
led to the Rohingya border camp named Tal, on the banks of the Naf
River in Bangladesh.
(Econ, 12/1/07, p.56)
2003 Mar 7, Nai Shwe Kyin
(90), a veteran guerrilla leader from Myanmar’s Mon ethnic minority,
died. He founded the Mon Freedom League in 1947. He also helped found
the Mon People’s Front in 1952 and the New Mon State Party in 1958. The
party signed a cease-fire agreement with Myanmar’s military government
in 1995.
(AP, 3/8/03)
2003 Mar 27, In Yangon, Myanmar, a
bomb went off in front of a state telecommunications office, killing at
least one person and wounding three as the country marked Armed Forces
Day.
(AP, 3/27/03)
2003 May 21, In Myanmar bombs
exploded on the border with Thailand, killing four people.
(AP, 5/21/03)
2003 May 30, In Myanmar a
pro-government drunken mob of some 3,000 ambushed a 400-person convoy
carrying Aung San Suu Kyi and members of her National League for
Democracy. At least 70 people were killed.
(SFC, 6/12/03, p.A6)(SFC, 7/5/03, p.A16)
2003 Jun 1, Myanmar's military
junta closed universities and shut down offices of pro-democracy leader
Ang San Suu Kyi's party, after she and some of her key aides were
detained.
(AP, 6/1/03)
2003 Jun 16, The Association of
Southeast Asian Nations urged Myanmar's military government to free
pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
(AP, 6/16/03)
2003 Nov 23, Myanmar's military
government released 4 top opposition party members from house arrest,
but pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi and 4 others continued in
detention.
(AP, 11/23/03)
2003 Nov 28, A Myanmar court
sentenced 9 people to death for high treason, including the editor of a
sports magazine. The government said the suspects were accused of
plotting to overthrow Myanmar's military junta through bombings and
assassinations.
(AP, 12/3/03)
2003 Nov 29, Bhaddanta Vinaya
(93), one of Myanmar's most revered Buddhist monks and a spiritual
adviser to pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, died.
(AP, 11/30/03)
2003 Dec 23, Myanmar's largest
guerrilla group said it is committed to peace talks with the military
government, but it wants future rounds held in the Thai capital to
preserve neutrality.
(AP, 12/23/03)
2003 Myanmar’s SPDC unveiled a
17-point “road map” to democracy.
(Econ, 7/23/05, p.24)
2003 In Myanmar opium was banned
in Kokang Special Region No. 1. This forced nearly a third of the
population to leave their homes in search of money and food.
(Econ, 2/12/05, p.42)
2003 Myanmar reported 42% of the
world’s official malaria deaths. WHO statistics were not very accurate
as half of Africa’s countries did not submit any data.
(Econ, 12/9/06, p.86)
2004 Jan 17, Myanmar's junta said
it freed 26 members of Aung San Suu Kyi's opposition National League
for Democracy party.
(AP, 1/17/04)
2004 Mar 30, Myanmar's military
government said it will take the first step on a self-proclaimed "road
to democracy" by reconvening a constitutional convention that was
suspended eight years ago.
(AP, 3/30/04)
2004 Apr 7, In Malaysia 3 men
armed with firebombs, machetes and an axe attacked Myanmar's embassy,
hacking one senior official and starting a fire that destroyed the
building.
(AP, 4/7/04)
2004 Apr 9, Sein Lwin (81), who
served briefly as Myanmar's president in 1988, died.
(AP, 4/10/04)
2004 May 17, Myanmar held a
constitutional convention.
(WSJ, 5/17/04, p.A1)
2004 May 19, A cyclone that swept
through western Myanmar and left more than 140 people dead or missing,
and about 18,000 people homeless.
(AP, 5/28/04)
2004 Oct 7, An Asia-Europe forum
accepted Myanmar and 12 other new members ahead of a summit strained by
Yangon's human rights record. ASEM comprises 39 members: 25 from
Europe, 13 from Asia and the European Commission.
(AP, 10/7/04)
2004 Oct 19, Myanmar's state radio
and television announced that PM Gen. Khin Nyunt was replaced by a top
member of the country's ruling junta, Lt. Gen. Soe Win.
(AP, 10/19/04)
2004 Nov 18, Myanmar's military
government said it had begun releasing thousands of prisoners who may
have been wrongly imprisoned by a recently disbanded military
intelligence unit.
(AFP, 11/18/04)
2004 Nov 19, Myanmar's junta freed
Student democracy leader Min Ko Naing, the nation's number two
political prisoner, as part of a release of 3,937 inmates. After 15
years in jail he became head of the “88 Generation students’ Group.”
(AFP, 11/20/04)(Econ, 8/25/07, p.39)
2004 Nov 25, Myanmar announced it
is to free more than 5,000 prisoners on top of the nearly 4,000
announced last week.
(AP, 11/25/04)
2004 Dec 11, Myanmar's state media
announced the military junta would release a further 5,070 prisoners.
(AP, 12/11/04)
2005 Feb, Bao You Xiang, head of
Myanmar’s Wa Special Region No. 2, allowed farmers one last opium
harvest prior to enforcing and absolute ban.
(Econ, 2/12/05, p.42)
2005 Mar 27, The head of Myanmar's
ruling junta said the country was moving toward democracy but gave no
indication of when the military would relinquish its 43-year grip on
power.
(AP, 3/27/05)
2005 Apr 4, Chevron announced
plans to purchase Unocal Corp. for $18.4 billion. Chevron’s eventual
acquisition of Unocal included a stake in the Yadana project in
Myanmar, in which Unocal invested in the 1990s along with France’s
Total, Myanmar Oil and Gas Enterprise and the petroleum Authority of
Thailand. Total with a 31% stake operated the project. The Yadana
project brought in an estimated $969 million to the government
undercutting international sanctions to isolate the regime.
(SFC, 4/5/05, p.A1)(SFC, 10/4/07, p.A10)(SFC,
4/29/08, p.D3)
2005 Apr 26, A bomb exploded at a
busy market in Myanmar's key tourist city of Mandalay, killing at least
two people and wounding 15 others.
(AP, 4/28/05)
2005 Apr, Unocal agreed to settle
a lawsuit, for an undisclosed sum, concerning human rights abuses on
the Yadana project in Myanmar.
(SFC, 4/29/08, p.D1)
2005 May 7, In Myanmar 3
explosions rocked the capital, Yangon, killing at least 19 people and
wounding 162 others.
(AP, 5/8/05)(Reuters, 5/15/05)
2005 Jun 25, India said police
forces have destroyed one of the largest Mynamarese rebel bases in
India, deep in the mountainous jungles of the remote northeast. Some
200 guerrillas and supporters living in the Chin National Army camp
fled before the attack.
(AP, 6/25/05)
2005 Jul 6, Myanmar's military
government released about 240 prisoners, including political detainees
and opposition politicians.
(AP, 7/6/05)
2005 Jul 22, Former Myanmar PM
Khin Nyunt received a 44-year suspended sentence after being convicted
on eight charges including bribery and corruption.
(AP, 7/22/05)
2005 Jul 26, Myanmar agreed to
forgo its chairmanship of Southeast Asia's bloc next year to avoid a
damaging Western boycott of the group's meetings.
(AP, 7/26/05)
2005 Oct 18, An environmental
watchdog alleged that Chinese logging companies in Myanmar have
illegally exported huge amounts of timber in collusion with the
military government and ethnic guerrillas, destroying ecologically
unique forest areas.
(AP, 10/18/05)
2005 Nov 6, Myanmar’s military
junta began moving key ministries to Pyinmana, a secret location in the
mountains and dense forest. The ruling junta had shifted headquarters
to a series of underground bunkers in Pyinmana, in central Myanmar.
(Econ, 7/23/05, p.24)(WSJ, 11/7/05, p.A18)
2005 Nov 8, The US State
Department issued its 7th annual report to Congress on religious
freedom. It cited Burma, China, Eritrea, Iran, North Korea, Saudi
Arabia, Sudan and Vietnam as restricting religious freedom.
(AP, 11/8/05)
2005 Dec 3, Myanmar’s government
confirmed for the first time that it has extended pro-democracy leader
Aung San Suu Kyi's detention for six months.
(AP, 12/03/05)
2005 Dec 5, Myanmar's military
junta reopened a key national constitutional convention.
(AP, 12/05/05)
2005 Dec 23, In Myanmar at least
four government battalions began shelling and attacking villages and
internal refugee hide-outs in southern Karenni State and areas of
neighboring Karen State, forcing some 3,000 people to flee their homes.
(AP, 2/21/06)
2005 Myanmar’s ruling junta
arrested the leader of the Shan State National Army (SSNA) along with
other members of the Shan minority.
(Econ, 7/23/05, p.24)
2005 AIDS in Myanmar was estimated
at 1.2% of the population. It was reported that 100,000 new cases of TB
were being detected annualy.
(Econ, 7/23/05, p.25)
2006 Jan 8, The UN envoy to
Myanmar, Razali Ismail of Malaysia, said he had quit his post after
being refused entry for the past 2 years to the military-ruled country
where he pushed for reforms.
(AFP, 1/8/06)
2006 Jan 31, Myanmar's military
government adjourned a constitution-drafting convention after almost
two months of deliberations, delegates said, amid growing frustration
with the slow pace of democratic reforms. Karen insurgents, marking
nearly six decades of fighting, said there was little chance Myanmar's
military rulers would come to the negotiating table and end their
bloody campaign against the ethnic minorities.
(AP, 1/31/06)
2006 Feb 10, In Myanmar government
officials said Win Aung, a former foreign minister ousted in a Cabinet
reshuffle by the country's ruling military junta, has been put on trial
for corruption charges.
(AP, 2/10/06)
2006 Feb 12, Myanmar's leader
Senior General Than Shwe lashed out at the US and the EU over their
sanctions against his regime, amid rising global pressure for it to
reform.
(AP, 2/12/06)
2006 Mar 13, Myanmar reported its
first case of the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu.
(AP, 3/13/06)
2006 Mar 26, A rights group said
Myanmar's military rulers have launched an offensive against separatist
guerrillas, attacking villages and forcing thousands to flee in an
attempt to quash a five-decade insurgency by Karen ethnic rebels.
(AP, 3/26/06)
2006 Apr 27, Reports from Myanmar
and Thailand said Myanmar troops were waging their biggest military
offensive in almost a decade and have uprooted more than 11,000 ethnic
minority civilians in a campaign punctuated by torture, killings and
the burning of villages.
(AP, 4/27/06)
2006 May 5, The US State
Department said Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has waived a law to
make Myanmar refugees, almost all of whom back an armed group fighting
the Yangon military junta, eligible for resettlement into the US.
(AP, 5/5/06)
2006 May 13, Myanmar's ruling
military acknowledged that its army is targeting the Karen ethnic
minority, saying the offensive is necessary to suppress bombings and
other anti-government attacks.
(AP, 5/14/06)
2006 May 18, A Karen group said
Myanmar troops, who have driven an estimated 15,000 Karen villagers
from their homes, are throwing more battalions into a widening
offensive against the ethnic minority.
(AP, 5/18/06)
2006 May 27, A Myanmar government
official said Nobel Peace Prize-winning pro-democracy leader Aung San
Suu Kyi will remain under house arrest for another year.
(AP, 5/27/06)
2006 Jun 11, Amnesty International
released a report saying China's sales of military vehicles and weapons
to Sudan, Nepal and Myanmar have aggravated conflicts and abetted
violence and repressive rule in those countries.
(AP, 6/11/06)
2006 Jul 17, One of two young twin
brothers who led a small band of ethnic rebels calling themselves
"God's Army" surrendered to Myanmar's military government. Johnny Htoo
(18) and 8 fellow members of the group surrendered with weapons in two
separate groups on July 17 and 19 at the coastal region military
command in southeastern Myanmar.
(AP, 7/25/06)
2006 Jul, In Myanmar the daughter
of junta supremo Than Shwe (73) was married. In November a leaked video
of the lavish wedding sparked outrage among ordinary people in the
military-ruled and deeply impoverished nation.
(Reuters, 11/2/06)
2006 Aug 1, US sanctions on
Myanmar were extended for up to three years under a law signed by
President Bush, an attempt to increase pressure on the government to
follow through with democratic reforms.
(AP, 8/1/06)
2006 Sep 15, Over strong
opposition from China, the UN Security Council put Myanmar on its
agenda in what US officials called a "major step forward" in American
efforts to increase pressure on the country's military dictatorship.
(AP, 9/15/06)
2006 Oct 16, In central Myanmar
Thet Win Aung (34), who had been serving a 59-year sentence since 1998
after protesting for educational reform, died in jail.
(AP, 10/18/06)
2006 Oct 21, The death toll from
severe flooding in Thailand and neighboring Myanmar has jumped to 143
after Thai authorities confirmed another 16 victims. The severe
flooding began in late August in Thailand's central and northern
provinces
(AFP, 10/21/06)
2006 Oct 23, The military regime
in Myanmar ordered the International Red Cross to close five key field
offices in the country.
(AP, 11/27/06)
2006 Nov 6, Transparency
International, a watchdog group, reported that nearly three-quarters of
163 countries ranked in a new survey suffer from a perception of
serious corruption, while in nearly half it is seen as rampant.
Finland, Iceland and New Zealand ranked as the least corrupt, while
Haiti, Guinea and Myanmar ranked as most corrupt.
(AP, 11/6/06)(Econ, 11/11/06, p.69)
2006 Nov 11, In Myanmar senior UN
official Ibrahim Gambari met detained opposition leader Aung San Suu
Kyi and the ruling junta's top leader.
(Reuters, 11/11/06)
2006 Nov 30, Human Rights Watch
said Myanmar army attacks against a rebellious minority have forced
thousands of civilians to flee their homes, with many trekking as far
as the Thai border for food and shelter.
(AP, 11/30/06)
2006 Dec 14, Myanmar's military
junta has told Red Cross officials that the humanitarian group can
reopen field offices that the government had ordered shut in October.
(AP, 12/15/06)
2006 Dec 24, Bo Mya (79), a
longtime leader of the Karen National Union, died in Thailand. The KNU
was Myanmar's largest guerrilla group.
(AP, 12/24/06)
2006 Thant Myint-U authored “The
River of Lost Footsteps: Histories of Burma,” a memoir and history of
Myanmar.
(WSJ, 12/7/06, p.D8)
2006 Myanmar’s population numbered
about 51 million.
(Econ, 9/2/06, p.39)
2007 Jan 3, Myanmar's military
government freed nearly 3,000 convicts, but key political prisoners
were not among those released.
(AP, 1/3/07)
2007 Jan 10, A new report alleged
that Myanmar's military junta is allowing gold mines to pollute the
world's largest wild tiger reserve and has promoted development that is
destroying ethnic Kachin communities.
(AP, 1/10/07)
2007 Jan 12, China and Russia
blocked the Security Council from demanding an end to political
repression and human rights violations in military-ruled Myanmar,
rejecting a resolution proposed by the United States. South Africa
sided with China and Russia.
(AP, 1/13/07)(Econ, 1/27/07, p.47)
2007 Jan 18, Myanmar’s state media
accused pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi of evading taxes by
spending her money from the 1991 Nobel Peace prize and other awards
overseas.
(AP, 1/18/07)
2007 Feb 12, A report issued by a
human rights group accused Myanmar's military of killing, raping and
torturing ethnic Karen women as part of its battle against the minority
group over the past 25 years.
(AP, 2/12/07)
2007 Feb 23, In Myanmar at least
five protesters who took part in a rare demonstration that urged the
ruling military junta to improve health care, education and economic
conditions were taken into custody.
(AP, 2/23/07)
2007 Mar 15, The EU said it would
put pressure on members of the Southeast Asian regional grouping ASEAN
at talks in Germany to urge Myanmar to improve its human rights record.
(AP, 3/15/07)
2007 Apr 12, An international
conservation group tens of thousands of villagers could be displaced
and a fragile ecosystem destroyed by a hydropower project being built
on northeastern Myanmar's Salween River.
(AP, 4/12/07)
2007 Apr 26, Myanmar and North
Korea signed an agreement to resume diplomatic ties during a visit to
Myanmar by the North Korean vice foreign minister.
(AP, 4/26/07)
2007 May 14, Nearly 60 former
heads of state, including three ex-American presidents, demanded that
Myanmar's military regime release Nobel peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi
from house arrest.
(AP, 5/14/07)
2007 May 22, Cambodian PM Hun Sen
met with junta head Senior General Than Shwe in military-ruled Myanmar,
as the two nations moved to improve tourism links.
(AP, 5/22/07)
2007 May 25, Myanmar's military
government extended the house arrest of pro-democracy leader Aung San
Suu Kyi by another year.
(AP, 5/25/07)
2007 Jul 30, In the Philippines
southeast Asian foreign ministers agreed to set up a regional human
rights commission, overcoming fierce resistance from military-ruled
Myanmar. Myanmar agreed not to veto discussion over the human rights
commission at a November summit.
(AP, 7/30/07)(Econ, 8/4/07, p.36)
2007 Aug 22, In Myanmar hundreds
of pro-democracy activists marched to protest the government's fuel
price hikes. The military junta arrested 13 top dissidents and deployed
gangs of spade-wielding supporters on the streets of Yangon.
(Reuters, 8/22/07)
2007 Aug 23, In Myanmar defiant
pro-democracy activists took to the streets for the third time this
week, forming a human chain to try to prevent officers from dragging
them into waiting trucks and buses.
(AP, 8/23/07)
2007 Aug 24, Myanmar's military
junta moved swiftly to crush the latest in a series of protests against
fuel price hikes, arresting more than 10 activists in front of Yangon
City Hall before they could launch any action.
(AP, 8/24/07)
2007 Aug 25, Myanmar's state media
reported that military junta has detained at least 63 activists who
protested massive fuel-price hikes over the last week, as the
government pursued its clampdown on the increasingly daring
demonstrations.
(AP, 8/25/07)
2007 Aug 27, About 50
pro-democracy activists were arrested outside Yangon, as the Myanmar
junta clamped down on dissent following a series of protests last week
against a sharp hike in fuel prices.
(AFP, 8/27/07)
2007 Aug 28, Pro-democracy
supporters expanded their protests against Myanmar's military, marching
through the streets of the port town of Sittwe while attempting to
rally in the main city Yangon.
(AP, 8/28/07)
2007 Aug 29, In Myanmar
pro-government gangs on trucks staked out key streets in Yangon as the
country's military rulers sought to crush a rare wave of dissent by
pro-democracy activists protesting fuel price increases.
(AP, 8/29/07)
2007 Sep 19, More than 2,000 monks
protested across Myanmar for a 2nd straight day against the country's
junta.
(AP, 9/19/07)
2007 Sep 20, Almost 1,000 Buddhist
monks, protected by onlookers, marched through Myanmar's biggest city
for a third straight day and pledged to keep alive the most sustained
protests against the military government in at least a decade.
(AP, 9/20/07)
2007 Sep 21, In Myanmar about
1,500 Buddhist monks marched through downtown Yangon to protest against
Myanmar's military government, beginning their fourth day of
demonstrations at a pagoda that has long served as a national symbol
for dissent.
(AP, 9/21/07)
2007 Sep 22, In the central
Myanmar city of Mandalay, a crowd of 10,000 people, including at least
4,000 Buddhist monks, marched in one of the largest demonstrations
since the 1988 democracy uprising. About 1,000 monks, led by one
holding his begging bowl upturned as a sign of protest, marched in
Yangon for a 5th straight day. The anti-government demonstrations
touched the doorstep of democracy heroine Aung San Suu Kyi.
(AP, 9/22/07)
2007 Sep 22, To date 144 countries
had ratified the UN Convention Against Torture. Holdouts included
Sudan, North Korea, Myanmar, Zimbabwe and India.
(Econ, 9/22/07, p.72)
2007 Sep 23, In Myanmar some
20,000 people, led by Buddhist monks, protested against the junta. Riot
police and barbed wire barricades blocked hundreds of monks and
anti-government demonstrators from approaching the home of the detained
democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, in a new show of force against a
rising protest movement.
(AP, 9/23/07)
2007 Sep 23, Indian Oil Minister
Murli Deora witnessed the signing of three accords between state-run
Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) and the state-run Myanmar Oil and Gas
Enterprise at Nay Pyi Taw, the administrative capital of Myanmar.
(AFP, 9/24/07)
2007 Sep 24, In Myanmar as many as
100,000 protesters led by a phalanx of barefoot monks marched through
Yangon. The movement has grown in a week from faltering demonstrations
to one rivaling the failed 1988 pro-democracy uprising.
(AP, 9/24/07)
2007 Sep 25, Soldiers, including
an army division that took part in the brutal suppression of a 1988
uprising, converged on Yangon, Myanmar's largest city, after thousands
of monks and sympathizers defied government orders to stay out of
politics and protested once again. The Buddhist monks marched out for
an eighth day of peaceful protest despite orders to the Buddhist clergy
to halt all political activity and return to their monasteries.
Military leaders imposed a nighttime curfew and banned gatherings of
more than 5 people.
(AP, 9/25/07)(WSJ, 9/26/07, p.A1)
2007 Sep 25, President George W.
Bush announced new US sanctions against Myanmar's military rulers and
urged other countries to follow suit amid Myanmar's biggest
anti-government protests in 20 years.
(AP, 9/25/07)
2007 Sep 26, In Myanmar at least
four people including three Buddhist monks were killed as security
forces used weapons and tear gas to crush protests that have erupted
nationwide against the military junta.
(AFP, 9/26/07)
2007 Sep 26, Transparency
International's 2007 index ranked Myanmar and Somalia as the most
corrupt nations. Both received the lowest score of 1.4 out of 10.
Denmark, Finland and New Zealand were ranked the least corrupt, each
scoring 9.4.
(AP, 9/26/07)
2007 Sep 27, In Myanmar troops
cleared protesters from the streets of central Yangon, giving them 10
minutes to leave or be shot as the Myanmar junta intensified a two-day
crackdown on the largest uprising in 20 years. At least nine people
were killed, including a Japanese national. In December a UN
investigator documented 31 people killed by the end of the crackdown in
October.
(Reuters, 9/27/07)(AP, 12/7/07)
2007 Sep 27, China issued an
evenhanded plea for calm in Myanmar, calling on all sides to show
restraint.
(AP, 9/27/07)
2007 Sep 28, Myanmar soldiers
clubbed and dragged away activists while firing tear gas and warning
shots to break up demonstrations before they could grow, and the
government cut Internet access, raising fears that a deadly crackdown
was set to intensify. The US administration slapped visa bans on more
than 30 members of the Myanmar junta and their families.
(AP, 9/28/07)(AFP, 9/29/07)
2007 Sep 29, UN envoy Ibrahim
Gambari flew into Myanmar carrying worldwide hopes he can persuade its
ruling generals to use negotiations instead of guns to end mass
protests. The streets of Myanmar's two biggest cities were eerily quiet
after a brutal crackdown on demonstrators seeking to end 45 years of
military rule. Soldiers quickly snuffed out one small demonstration in
Yangon, dragging several men to waiting trucks.
(AP, 9/29/07)
2007 Sep 30, Myanmar's government
unexpectedly allowed the country's leading opposition figure, Aung San
Suu Kyi, to leave house arrest briefly and meet with a UN envoy trying
to persuade the junta to ease its crackdown against a pro-democracy
uprising. Thousands of troops locked down Myanmar's largest cities, and
scores of people were arrested overnight. In Mandalay, Myanmar's second
largest city, security forces arrested dozens of university students
who staged a street protest.
(AP, 9/30/07)(AP, 10/1/07)
2007 Oct 1, Myanmar's junta leader
stalled a UN envoy for yet another day, delaying his chance to present
international demands for an end to the crackdown on the largest
protests in two decades. A Norway-based dissident news organization,
the Democratic Voice of Burma, said pro-democracy activists estimate
138 people were killed in the recent protests. Shari Villarosa, the top
US diplomat in Myanmar, said her staff had visited up to 15 monasteries
around Yangon and every single one was empty. She put the number of
arrested demonstrators, monks and civilians, in the thousands.
(AP, 10/1/07)(AP, 10/1/07)
2007 Oct 2, Myanmar's reclusive
junta leader, Senior Gen. Than Shwe, finally granted an audience to a
UN envoy hoping to broker an end to Myanmar's crackdown on
pro-democracy protesters.
(AP, 10/2/07)
2007 Oct 3, Soldiers said they
were hunting pro-democracy protesters in Myanmar's largest city and the
top US diplomat in the country said military police had pulled people
out of their homes during the night. The European Union agreed in
principle to punish the junta with sanctions.
(AP, 10/3/07)(AFP, 10/3/07)
2007 Oct 5, In Myanmar acting
Ambassador Shari Villarosa met with Deputy Foreign Minister Maung Myint
in the remote jungle capital of Naypitaw (Naypyidaw). During her visit,
she was expected to repeat the US view that the regime must meet with
democratic opposition groups and "stop the iron crackdown" on peaceful
demonstrators. The US said it would propose a UN Security Council
resolution imposing sanctions on Myanmar if the government there does
not "respond constructively" to international concern about repression
of pro-democracy protests.
(AP, 10/5/07)(Econ, 4/12/08, p.27)
2007 Oct 6, Myanmar's junta tried
to cool growing UN pressure over its deadly crackdown on peaceful
protests, offering talks with democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, and
relaxing its blockage of the Internet. A day of global protests against
Myanmar's junta began in cities across Asia, after the military regime
admitted detaining hundreds of Buddhist monks when troops turned their
guns on pro-democracy demonstrators last week.
(AFP, 10/6/07)(AP, 10/6/07)
2007 Oct 7, Myanmar's military
leaders stepped up pressure on monks who spearheaded pro-democracy
rallies, saying that weapons had been seized from Buddhist monasteries
and threatening to punish all violators of the law.
(AP, 10/7/07)
2007 Oct 10, A Myanmar exile
group, made up of former political prisoners, said authorities had
recently informed the family of Win Shwe (42), that he had died during
interrogation in the central Myanmar region of Sagaing. He and five
colleagues were arrested on Sept. 26. The Assistance Association for
Political Prisoners said that at least seven people have been arrested
in the past two days in Yangon, including Hla Myo Naung (39), a leader
of the '88 Generation Students.
(AP, 10/10/07)
2007 Oct 12, Myanmar PM Gen. Soe
Win (59), reviled for his role in a bloody attack on opposition leader
Aung San Suu Kyi and her followers in 2003, died after a long illness.
Myanmar's military junta rejected a UN statement calling for
negotiations with the opposition, insisting that it would follow its
own plan to bring democracy to the country.
(AP, 10/12/07)
2007 Oct 13, Amnesty International
said 4 prominent political activists were arrested in Myanmar as the
ruling junta kept up its crackdown on pro-democracy protesters.
(AP, 10/13/07)
2007 Oct 14, Myanmar's ruling
junta restored Internet access but kept foreign news sites blocked,
partially easing its crackdown as a UN envoy headed to Asia to convey
the world's demands for democratic reforms in the country.
(AP, 10/14/07)
2007 Oct 16, In Myanmar relatives
said 5 pro-democracy activists had been sentenced to long jail terms.
(WSJ, 10/17/07, p.A1)
2007 Oct 16,
Japan, Myanmar's largest aid donor, said it had canceled a
multimillion dollar grant to protest the military-ruled nation's
crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrators.
(AP, 10/16/07)
2007 Oct 17,
Myanmar's military junta acknowledged that it detained nearly
3,000 people during a crackdown on recent pro-democracy protests, with
hundreds still remaining in custody.
(AP, 10/17/07)
2007 Oct 19,
Pres. Bush imposed new financial sanctions against Myanmar,
freezing YS assets of 11 additional members of the military government.
(SFC, 10/20/07, p.A3)
2007 Oct 20,
Myanmar announced that it was lifting a curfew and ending a ban
on assembly imposed after a crackdown on pro-democracy protesters, the
latest sign that the government believes it has extinguished the
largest demonstrations in decades.
(AP, 10/20/07)
2007 Oct 24, A day of global
protests against Myanmar's junta began in Bangkok as democracy leader
and Nobel peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi marked a cumulative 12 years
in detention.
(AP, 10/24/07)
2007 Oct 25, Suu Kyi, detained
since May 2003, met with a newly appointed Myanmar government official
as part of a UN-brokered attempt to nudge her and the military junta
toward reconciliation. At least 70 people
detained by the military government following protests in Myanmar,
including 50 members of pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi's party,
were released.
(AP, 10/26/07)
2007 Oct 26, In Myanmar one-time
drug warlord Khun Sa (b.1933), variously described as among the world's
most wanted men and as a great Shan liberation fighter, died.
(AP, 10/30/07)(Econ, 11/10/07, p.106)
2007 Oct 30,
Myanmar's military government freed seven members of Aung San Suu
Kyi's pro-democracy party, who had been held for more than a month.
Human Rights Watch charged that Myanmar’s military government is
recruiting children as young as 10 into its armed forces.
(AP, 10/30/07)(WSJ, 10/31/07, p.A1)
2007 Oct 31, More than 100
Buddhist monks marched in northern Myanmar for nearly an hour, the
first public demonstration since the government's deadly crackdown last
month on pro-democracy protesters.
(AP, 10/31/07)
2007 Nov 14, Myanmar's military
junta arrested three more activists, surging ahead with a crackdown
even as it hosted a UN human rights investigator and insisted that all
arrests had stopped.
(AP, 11/14/07)
2007 Nov 17, State media reported
that China has called on Myanmar to speed up democratic reforms, an
unusual move for Beijing, which has traditionally refrained from
criticizing the military regime.
(AP, 11/17/07)
2007 Dec 4, State media said
Myanmar's military junta has completed the release of 8,585 prisoners,
but it was unclear if any of those released were among those detained
during the crackdown.
(AP, 12/4/07)
2007 Dec 10, Australia accepted
seven asylum seekers from Myanmar as refugees as the country's new
Labor government began unwinding tough immigration laws which force
boatpeople into detention on Pacific island nations.
(AP, 12/10/07)
2007 Dec 14, Indonesia, the nation
hardest hit by bird flu, announced its 93rd death due to the H5N1
virus. In China, the military in eastern Nanjing banned the sale of
poultry this week after a father and son came down with the disease
earlier this month. Health officials confirmed the 24-year-old man died
from the virus a day before his father, 52, became sick. It was the
country's 17th bird flu death. The WHO confirmed Myanmar's first human
case of bird flu and praised the secretive country for its quick and
open handling of the infection. State media reported a girl (7) was
hospitalized on Nov. 27 and released on Dec. 12 in good condition after
being treated with the antiviral drug Tamiflu.
(AP, 12/15/07)
2007 Myanmar’s population was
around 53 million. Myanmar is rich in natural resources, but 90 percent
of its people lived on less than $1 a day. 30% lived below the poverty
line.
(AP, 9/29/07)(Econ, 4/12/08, p.29)(Econ, 5/10/08,
p.12)
2007 Thant Myint-U authored “The
River of Lost Footsteps: Histories of Burma.”
(Econ, 3/3/07, p.87)
2008 Jan 2, Myanmar's military
junta dramatically raised the annual fee for TV satellite dishes, an
apparent move to block the foreign news channels that beamed in global
criticism of its recent crackdown on pro-democracy protests.
(AP, 1/2/08)
2008 Jan 4, Myanmar's Independence
Day was marked by opposition calls for the freeing of democracy icon
Aung San Suu Kyi and other political prisoners as the military rulers
urged national discipline.
(AP, 1/4/08)
2008 Jan 20, In Myanmar a bus
plunged over the side of a road and flipped over, killing 27 passengers
and injuring 10 others.
(AP, 1/21/08)
2008 Feb 5, The US Treasury Dept.
said it is imposing financial sanctions against family members of the
military-run government of Myanmar and individuals it identified as key
members of the financial empire of Tay Za.
(SFC, 2/6/08, p.A7)
2008 Feb 12, In Myanmar supporters
of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi protested to demand democracy in
Myanmar, days after the military regime said it would hold elections in
2010 under a new constitution likely to entrench the junta's powerful
position.
(AP, 2/12/08)
2008 Feb 19, Myanmar's ruling
junta said the country's new draft constitution, which will replace one
scrapped in 1988, has been completed.
(AP, 2/19/08)
2008 Mar 3, In Myanmar 5 people
were killed in execution-style shootings in the wealthy Yangon
neighborhood where democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi is under house
arrest.
(AFP, 3/4/08)
2008 Mar 3, The Sri Lankan navy
said it rescued 71 Burmese Bangladeshi citizens aboard a vessel that
had drifted for 12 days in the Indian Ocean. 20 others had died from
lack of food and water.
(SFC, 3/4/08, p.A3)
2008 Mar 5, In Myanmar
pro-democracy party of detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi's
said they had failed in a bid to sue the military government for not
recognizing their 1990 election victory.
(AP, 3/5/08)
2008 Mar 21, In Myanmar a man set
himself on fire at Shwedagon pagoda, Yangon's most famous landmark in a
political protest against the military junta. He died of his injuries
in April.
(www.mysinchew.com/node/8895)(WSJ, 4/23/08, p.A1)
2008 Mar 27, Myanmar's junta chief
insisted that he is not power-hungry and intends to hand control of the
government to the winners of elections in 2010.
(AP, 3/27/08)
2008 Apr 2, Myanmar democracy
leader Aung San Suu Kyi's opposition party urged voters to reject a
military-backed draft constitution, saying it was undemocratic and
drafted under the junta's direct control.
(AP, 4/2/08)
2008 Apr 10, In Thailand 54
illegal migrant workers from Myanmar suffocated in the back of an
unventilated truck, while the rest of the passengers being smuggled to
Thailand pounded on the container and screamed in vain for the driver's
help. 37 of the dead were women and 17 were men. A Thai court the next
day convicted some 64 survivors of illegal entry and rule to send them
back to Myanmar.
(AP, 4/10/08)(Reuters, 4/11/08)
2008 Apr 12, Myanmar reportedly
had about 500,000 soldiers, twice the 1958 number.
(Econ, 4/12/08, p.29)
2008 May 1, Pres. Bush imposed new
sanctions against property owned or controlled by the military junta in
Myanmar.
(WSJ, 5/2/08, p.A8)
2008 May 3, A tropical cyclone
slammed into Myanmar's main city of Yangon, ripping off roofs, felling
trees and raising fears of major casualties. Within days the death toll
soared above 22,000 and more than 41,000 others were missing as foreign
countries mobilized to rush in aid after the country's deadliest storm
on record.
(AP, 5/4/08)(AP, 5/6/08)
2008 May 6, Myanmar's junta
decided to postpone voting on a new constitution in areas hardest-hit
by a devastating cyclone as the death toll soared above 22,500.
(AP, 5/6/08)
2008 May 7, The international
relief effort for hundreds of thousands of Myanmar cyclone victims
picked up speed as India dispatched two planeloads of aid and Myanmar
authorized the UN to send its own air shipment.
(AP, 5/7/08)
2008 May 8, Relief supplies from
the United Nations began arriving in Myanmar, but US military planes
loaded with aid were still denied access by the country's isolationist
regime five days after a devastating cyclone. Some feared that lack of
safe food and drinking water could push the death toll above 100,000.
(AP, 5/8/08)
2008 May 9, Myanmar's junta seized
UN aid shipments headed for hungry and homeless survivors of last
week's devastating cyclone prompting the world body to suspend further
help. According to state media, 23,335 people died and 37,019 are
missing from Cyclone Nargis.
(AP, 5/9/08)
2008 May 10, Myanmar's military
regime distributed international aid but plastered the boxes with the
names of top generals in an apparent effort to turn the relief effort
for last week's devastating cyclone into a propaganda exercise. Voting
on a new constitution began in all but the hardest hit parts of the
country. The UN said at least one million survivors remain without aid
more than a week after the deadly cyclone.
(AP, 5/10/08)(AFP, 5/10/08)
2008 May 11, In Myanmar a Red
Cross boat carrying rice and drinking water for cyclone victims sank,
while the death toll jumped to more than 28,000 and aid groups warned
of a humanitarian catastrophe.
(AP, 5/11/08)
2008 May 12, Myanmar state
television put the death toll for Cyclone Nargis at 31,938 with 29,770
people missing. The US White House said it was extending an extra 13
million dollars in aid as the first US flight of emergency supplies
landed in the country.
(AP, 5/12/08)(SFC, 5/13/08, p.A3)
2008 May 14, Experts said the 1.5
million people left destitute by Myanmar's cyclone are in increasing
danger of disease and starvation, but the ruling junta said no to a
Thai request to admit more aid workers. The Red Cross said the death
toll could reach nearly 128,000. Another powerful storm headed toward
Myanmar's cyclone-devastated delta and the UN warned that inadequate
relief efforts could lead to a second wave of deaths among the
estimated 2 million survivors.
(AP, 5/14/08)(WSJ, 5/15/08, p.A1)
2008 May 15, Myanmar's junta
warned that legal action would be taken against people who trade or
hoard international aid as the cyclone's death toll soared above
43,000. Myanmar announced that a constitution won massive support in a
referendum, a claim slammed by a leading rights group as an insult to
the country's people.
(AP, 5/15/08)
2008 May 16, The EU aid chief said
that Myanmar's junta still would not budge on accepting foreign relief
workers, two weeks after the cyclone tragedy that has left more than
71,000 dead or missing.
(AP, 5/16/08)
2008 May 17, Frustrated world
leaders tightened the pressure on Myanmar, raising the allegation of
crimes against humanity over the regime's slow-moving response to the
cyclone disaster. Diplomats witnessed "huge" devastation in the
Irrawaddy delta and the toll of dead and missing from the cyclone rose
above 133,000 people.
(AFP, 5/17/08)(Reuters, 5/17/08)
2008 May 18, A senior UN envoy
went to Myanmar to urge its military junta to accept more international
aid for cyclone survivors. A British minister suggested the
isolationist regime may be relenting.
(AP, 5/18/08)
2008 May 19, Myanmar declared
three days of mourning for cyclone victims after agreeing to an
international aid effort led by its Southeast Asian neighbors to help
two million survivors in dire need.
(AFP, 5/19/08)
2008 May 20, The UN's top
humanitarian official made fresh pleas to Myanmar's military government
to allow in more foreign aid for cyclone survivors, as the country
began three days of mourning for the 134,000 dead and missing.
(AP, 5/20/08)
2008 May 21, UN chief Ban Ki-moon
began a mission for Myanmar's cyclone victims, saying "our focus now is
on saving lives," as the military government gave approval UN
helicopters to distribute aid.
(Reuters, 5/21/08)(WSJ, 5/22/08, p.A1)
2008 May 23, UN Secretary-General
Ban Ki-moon said Myanmar's junta agreed to allow all aid workers into
the country after weeks of refusing access to foreign relief experts
seeking to help cyclone survivors.
(AP, 5/23/08)
2008 May 25, A 52-nation
international conference pledged tens of millions of dollars for some
2.4 million Myanmar survivors in need of aid. Official estimates put
the death toll at about 78,000, with another 56,000 missing. Myanmar
has estimated the economic damage at about $11 billion.
(AP, 5/25/08)
2008 May 27, Myanmar's military
junta extended opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi's detention by one
year, ignoring worldwide appeals to free the Nobel laureate who has
been detained for more than 12 of the past 18 years.
(AP, 5/27/08)
2008 May 30, Myanmar's ruling
junta lashed out at foreign aid donors, saying cyclone victims did not
need supplies of "chocolate bars" and could instead survive by eating
frogs and fish.
(AFP, 5/30/08)
2008 Jun 5, Amnesty International
said Myanmar's military regime has forced cyclone survivors to do
menial labor in exchange for food and stepped up a campaign to evict
displaced citizens from aid shelters.
(AP, 6/5/08)
2008 Jun 9, UN helicopters fanned
out across Myanmar's Irrawaddy delta, ferrying critical supplies to
villages struggling to survive since a devastating cyclone struck more
than five weeks ago.
(AP, 6/9/08)
2008 Jun 12, ASEAN said Southeast
Asian and UN experts will have full access to cyclone-devastated parts
of Myanmar, where more than a million people have still not received
any foreign help.
(AFP, 6/12/08)
2008 Jun 12, In central Myanmar at
least 11 people died over the last 24 hours when their homes collapsed
from landslides caused by heavy rain.
(AP, 6/14/08)
2008 Jun 24, Myanmar's ruling
junta announced that 84,500 people perished in Cyclone Nargis in May,
up from an earlier confirmed toll of 77,700.
(AP, 6/24/08)
2008 Jul 1, In Myanmar a ferry
named "Myo Pa Pa Tun" sank in the Yway river in the cyclone-battered
Irrawaddy delta, killing 38 people. 44 others were rescued.
(AP, 7/4/08)
2008 Jul 6, Myanmar's state-run
newspaper said the overwhelming election victory by Aung San Suu Kyi's
party in 1990 has been nullified by the approval of a military-backed
constitution and her National League for Democracy party should prepare
for a new vote in 2010.
(AP, 7/6/08)
2008 Jul 8, State-media said
Myanmar's military regime has approved visas for more than 1,500
international aid workers to help victims of Cyclone Nargis, with half
of them involved in relief operations in storm-hit regions.
(AP, 7/8/08)
2008 Jul 21, A UN-led report said
Myanmar needs at least $1 billion over the next three years to put the
survivors of Cyclone Nargis back on their feet, in the first
comprehensive assessment of damage caused by the disaster that killed
more than 84,000 people.
(AP, 7/21/08)
2008 Jul 25, A UN official said as
much as 25 percent of cyclone relief aid in Myanmar is being lost
because of the military government's foreign exchange system.
(AP, 7/25/08)
2008 Jul 29, Pres. Bush signed a
bill freezing the assets of political and military leaders in Myanmar
and banning the importation of rubies and jade from Myanmar to the US.
The legislation also gave incentives to Chevron to divest its natural
gas program there. The US Treasury announced financial sanctions on 10
companies suspected of being owned by Myanmar’s government.
(SFC, 7/30/08, p.A4)
2008 Aug 6, President George W.
Bush flew into Bangkok on the latest leg of a pre-Olympics Asian tour,
although his focus in Thailand is mainly on the "outpost of tyranny"
junta in neighboring Myanmar.
(AP, 8/6/08)
2008 Aug 7, In Thailand first lady
Laura Bush, meeting with refugees who fled a brutal campaign by
Myanmar's military junta, urged China and other countries to join the
US in imposing sanctions against the country.
(AP, 8/7/08)
2008 Sep 1, In Myanmar Saw Myint
Than, a magazine journalist was arrested on a charge of violating the
Electronics Law, which regulates all forms of electronic communication
and carries a maximum five-year prison term. He was freed on Oct 20
after police determined he had not provided information to The
Irrawaddy, a Thailand-based Web site run by Myanmar exiles.
(AP, 10/22/08)
2008 Sep 5, The political party of
detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi urged Myanmar's military
government to ensure her well-being as she continued to refuse food
deliveries to protest her detention.
(AP, 9/5/08)
2008 Sep 16, A Buddhist monk
slashed his throat in a suicide attempt at Myanmar's most sacred
temple, the scene of several pro-democracy protests that erupted a year
ago. A trustee of the Shwedagon temple said the monk became desperate
after running out of money to pay for medical care.
(AP, 9/18/08)
2008 Sep 23, Myanmar's
longest-serving political prisoner, journalist Win Tin, was freed after
19 years behind bars and vowed to continue his struggle to achieve
democracy in the military-ruled country. Altogether Myanmar freed 9,002
prisoners. Win Htein (64), a former aide to Myanmar pro-democracy
leader Aung San Suu Kyi, was re-arrested less than 24 hours after being
freed by the military government in the mass amnesty.
(AP, 9/23/08)(SFC, 9/24/08, p.A4)(AP, 9/26/08)
2008 Nov 11, Myanmar sentenced 23
activists, including 5 Buddhist monks arrested during anti-junta
protests last year to 65 years each in jail, in what rights groups
branded a fresh attempt to stifle dissent. Min Ko Naing, considered as
one of Myanmar's top activists, was among those sentenced.
(AP, 11/11/08)(AFP, 11/14/08)(AFP, 11/15/08)
2008 Nov 13, Myanmar courts handed
down sentences of between six and eight years for 4 Buddhist monks and
two to 16 years for members of Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu
Kyi's party for involvement in last year's massive protests against the
military junta. 14 more activists from the NLD were sentenced the next
day at different courts in Yangon for between two to 16 years, all in
relation to last year's protests.
(AFP, 11/14/08)
2008 Nov 14, In Myanmar journalist
Ein Khaing Oo, who had been detained for five months, was sentenced to
two years in prison for her coverage of a protest over the lack of
government relief for victims of a devastating cyclone. She was
convicted in a closed-door trial on charges of "disturbing tranquility."
(AP, 11/15/08)
2008 Nov 17, Courts in
military-ruled Myanmar sentenced at least seven democracy activists to
prison, continuing a crackdown that saw about 70 people jailed last
week.
(AP, 11/18/08)
2008 Nov 19, A court in
military-ruled Myanmar sentenced a student activist to 6 1/2 years in
jail, a week after his father received a 65-year prison term for his
own political activities and a decade after his grandfather died in
custody. Di Nyein Lin was one of three student activists sentenced by a
court in a suburb of Yangon for various offenses, including causing
public alarm and insulting religion.
(AP, 11/20/08)
2008 Nov 21, Courts in
military-ruled Myanmar handed long prison sentences to a prominent
Buddhist monk and Zarganar, a popular comedian active in the country's
pro-democracy movement, rounding out two weeks of an intensive judicial
crackdown on activists.
(AP, 11/21/08)
2008 Nov 27, A court inside
Myanmar's notorious Insein prison sentenced a comedian who has
criticized the government's cyclone response to 14 more years, bringing
his total prison term to 59 years, his lawyer said. Comedian and
activist Zarganar was given a 45-year prison sentence last week after
he was convicted on charges related to interviews he gave to foreign
media outlets.
(AP, 11/27/08)
2008 Nov 28, In Myanmar 2
journalists were jailed for seven years each on charges of undermining
the military junta after they were caught with a UN human rights
report. A court in a northeastern suburb of Yangon sentenced Thet Zin,
editor of the local Myanmar-language journal News Watch, and Sein Win
Maung, the paper's manager, under the country's draconian Printing and
Publishing Law.
(AP, 11/30/08)
2008 Dec 29, The Indian Coast
Guard rescued two people off India's east coast during a search for
more than 300 illegal immigrants missing for the past four days and
feared dead. Survivors told Indian authorities that more than 300
people from Bangladesh and Myanmar, members of the ethnic Rohingya
minority, had jumped from a rickety boat that had been drifting for 13
days in the Indian Ocean and tried to swim to shore near the Andaman
Islands. On Jan 16 a refugees' advocacy group accused the Thai navy of
tying up four illegal immigrants and throwing them into the ocean
before abandoning hundreds of others on a barge in open water, where
some 300 drowned. At least 100 were rescued in Indian waters. Survivors
at the time told Indian authorities they had been detained by Thai
authorities, who towed them into the open sea and left them.
(AP, 12/30/08)(AP, 1/16/09)(SSFC, 1/18/09, p.A5)
2009 Jan 17, Two dehydrated men
from Myanmar were found bobbing in an ice box in the Torres Strait off
Australia. They told authorities they had spent 25 days adrift after
their fishing boat sank. There was no sign of 18 other crew members.
(AP, 1/20/09)
2009 Jan 26, The Thai navy
detained a boat filled with 78 illegal Rohingya migrants, many of whom
had lacerations and burns they said were inflicted by Myanmar soldiers.
(AP, 1/27/09)
2009 Jan 28, A new UN report said
Myanmar faced food shortages in many parts of the country, largely
because of last year's cyclone and a rat infestation that destroyed
crops. A human rights group said the Chin people, Christians
living in the remote mountains of northwestern Myanmar, are subject to
forced labor, torture, extrajudicial killings and religious persecution
by the country's military regime.
(AP, 1/28/09)
2009 Jan 28, A Thai court
convicted 66 barefoot, disheveled migrants detained at sea of illegally
entering the country, raising the prospect they could be sent back to
Myanmar despite fears they would be persecuted there.
(AP, 1/28/09)
2009 Jan 30, Indonesia said it
will repatriate 174 "economic migrants" who fled Myanmar claiming
persecution, as new accounts emerged of their harrowing sea journey and
alleged abuse by the Thai navy. The 174 Rohingya and 19 Bangladeshis
being kept at an Indonesian naval base landed in Weh Island off
northern Sumatra on January 7.
(AFP, 1/30/09)
2009 Feb 2, Indonesia's navy
picked up 198 starving, dehydrated boat people from Myanmar who said
they drifted for three weeks after authorities in Thailand forced them
to sea in a boat without an engine. Indonesian fishermen had discovered
the 40-foot (12-meter) boat off Aceh's coast in northern Sumatra and
towed it to shore.
(AP, 2/3/09)
2009 Feb 13, Myanmar's military
government extended the house arrest of the deputy leader of Aung San
Suu Kyi's pro-democracy party for one year, despite recent calls from
the United Nations for the release of political prisoners.
(AP, 2/13/09)
2009 Feb 20, In Myanmar the
government announced an amnesty for 6,300 prisoners. Only a handfull of
political detainees were among those released.
(SFC, 2/21/09, p.A2)(AFP, 2/22/09)
2009 Mar 17, Authorities in
Myanmar were reported to have arrested five members of detained
pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi's political party from March
6-13. the report came a day after the UN called for the release of more
than 2,000 political prisoners in the military-run country.
(AP, 3/17/09)
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