Word: burma
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...announcer on Burmese state television only had two sentences to offer, but they were supposed to herald good news. On May 10th, he declared, Burma would hold a constitutional referendum, giving citizens a rare chance to participate in the political process. In the wake of global condemnation of crushed protests last year, Burma's secretive junta had apparently committed itself to a modicum of reform. Among the first steps would be a plebiscite on the army-drafted charter. (The previous constitution was torn up by the junta 18 years ago, and the country has operated without a basic law since...
...bookstores - and they must be purchased. Samizdat versions are available, and some pro-democracy activists have been poring through the text to publicize what they contend are the myriad ways in which the constitution subverts true democratic principles. But even if the draft were widely available, the majority of Burma's 53 million mostly impoverished residents are hardly likely to sit down with a 15-chapter tome...
...Something is better than nothing.' KYAW HSAN, Burma's Information Minister, on the junta's proposed new constitution, which would establish a civilian government but allows the military to maintain effective control of the country...
...Apart from in Tibet, China has clearly contributed to suffering in Darfur and Burma; it is the main diplomatic protector of Khartoum and Rangoon, and the major consumer of Sudanese oil. The Games are also hurting the human-rights climate in China - Beijing has been rounding up prominent activists before the Olympiad...
...leaders are finding it increasingly difficult to walk this laissez-faire diplomatic line. Beijing has gone along with the deployment of United Nations peacekeepers to Sudan's troubled Darfur province, and is even providing some troops of its own. Prime Minister Wen Jiabao recently called for democracy in Burma, another country with close ties to the Chinese government...