Word: junta
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...Sadly, this strategy will prove as ineffective as past such actions against the junta. Sanctions that only heap more restrictions on Burmese exports will have no impact on the ruling generals. The junta has demonstrated that it does not care about Western opinion and has no genuine interest in dialogue. Indeed, negotiations between the generals and democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi, which were jump-started by the U.N. after the September protests, have stalled, and many dissidents have been rearrested. On Feb. 9 the junta said it would hold a referendum on a new constitution in May and hold...
...trusted. Instead, the outside world needs to hit them directly in their pockets, where they are vulnerable, while avoiding collateral damage to the wider Burmese population. Lower-profile financial measures also will appeal to China and to ASEAN, which is allergic to public shaming of the junta. Singapore, ASEAN's current chairman, has ruled out either imposing new sanctions or booting Burma out of ASEAN...
Stability had been Suharto's gift to his country. He had come to power at the head of a junta of generals in 1965, overthrowing the country's flamboyant and charismatic first president, Sukarno, whose friendship with Beijing and predeliction for Communists in the government had brought the country to the brink of economic collapse and civil war. Ensconced in power, Suharto proceeded to purge the country of Communism and anyone suspected of Communist sympathy. No one knows how many died. One estimate has it at 500,000 - among them many Indonesians of Chinese descent. The Communist Party was outlawed...
...years, that's meant Rabinowitz has occasionally had to negotiate with less than savory characters - no more so than in his most recent and crowning accomplishment, the establishment of a 8,452 sq. mi. (13,602 sq. km) tiger reserve in the northern jungles of Burma. The military junta that has ruled the nation since 1962 is among the most oppressive governments in the world, one regularly accused of human rights violations, and Washington maintains harsh economic sanctions against the regime. But for more than a decade Rabinowitz has traveled back and forth from Burma - which the junta now calls...
None of this would have happened, Rabinowitz says, without the determined support of the generals he spent years courting. Because of his willingness to work with the junta, Rabinowitz has emerged as a prime target for the free Burma community, which believes that any engagement with the generals only legitimizes a cruel military regime. While the charge especially stings in the wake of last fall's brutal military crackdown of Burmese protesters, Rabinowitz is unapologetic about his work with the junta, knowing their cooperation was the only way to ensure the reserve would be protected. And he's right...