Word: junta
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...asked about the best tourist attractions in Burma's new capital. That's no surprise, really: Naypyidaw - the name translates as "Abode of Kings" - was built from scratch just three years ago, on 1,800 square miles of land carved out of scrubland on the orders of the ruling junta. Naypyidaw doesn't even exist in the Lonely Planet's latest Burma travel guide; there's not much tourist charm in a dusty bunker town that is little more than the wish fulfillment of paranoid generals...
...attempt at a tourist attraction is a replica of Rangoon's famous Shwedagon pagoda. The Naypyidaw version, though, remains unfinished. At the building site, groups of child laborers - some appearing no older than six - lug heavy rocks on woven stretchers and swing pickaxes into the hard earth. Burma's junta has long been considered one of the world's worst human-rights abusers. But the country's generals don't have to see these tiny laborers build a golden temple for their Abode of Kings. That's because the generals are bunkered in another, faraway part of the city...
...junta that rules the country unilaterally decreed changes in place names, including Myanmar for Burma and Yangon for the former capital Rangoon. The U.S. State Department has not recognized these changes. TIME has chosen to retain the name Burma...
Burma's state-run media continues to portray a well-oiled state relief campaign: soldiers unloading relief supplies from helicopters, generals inspecting neat rows of refugee tents. Government propaganda is also used to justify the curtailment of most foreign assistance. This week the junta has ejected almost every expatriate aid worker from the disaster area. The people of Burma will "accept any kinds of foreign aid with appreciation," comments The New Light of Myanmar, a mouthpiece of the ruling junta. "However, they will not rely too much on international assistance and will reconstruct the nation on [a] self-reliance basis...
Sometimes, the propaganda appears even more starkly as if coming from a parallel reality. On Thursday, the junta announced the barely credible results of its referendum on a new constitution that would extend its hold on the country. The vote had been held in the cyclone's aftermath. More than 92% of voters supposedly said "yes," with a turnout of 99%. The plebiscite was delayed in Rangoon and the delta, but apparently the junta still expects the region's stricken people to vote on May 24. But the true sentiment of the country cannot be masked by propaganda...