Word: juntas
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...power to intimidate the highest ranking members of the junta derives from his intellectual prowess. One of the founders of the opposition National League for Democracy, he was viewed by many as the party's chief strategist, as well as a mentor for Aung San Suu Kyi, the Nobel Peace Prize winner who is in her 13th year of house arrest for leading Burma's ongoing pro-democracy movement. The generals believed he "was my puppet master," Suu Kyi once wrote of Win Tin. Bo Kyi Win of the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners in Burma, a Thailand-based exile...
...This month millions of Burmese are solemnly commemorating the 20th anniversary of the 1988 protests. As Jimmy's story shows, the spirit of '88 has not been entirely extinguished. But Burma's dictators have proved far more resilient than its democrats. In the past year alone, the junta has survived two of its biggest challenges since 1988: last year's mass protests and the aftermath of Cyclone Nargis, which killed nearly 140,000 people when it slammed into the Irrawaddy delta region...
...that his demise will fracture or enfeeble the military. Over the years, senior Burmese generals have either died (Ne Win in 2002) or been purged (Khin Nyunt in 2004), and each time the military has closed ranks and stayed intact. Still, future protests seem inevitable, so long as the junta refuses to tackle Burma's woes - poverty, inflation, disease - and the opposition continues to survive against appalling odds. Jimmy is one of 2,050 political prisoners in Burma today, says Amnesty International. If he were released tomorrow, nobody need ask him what he would do next. We already know...
...Philippines indicated earlier that they might delay their own ratifications of the charter until Burma cleans up its human-rights record, they have been less publicly forceful in their demands since then. While the U.S. and the European Union have tightened sanctions against Burma's ruling military junta since it violently crushed monk-led protests last year, ASEAN has continued with a "constructive engagement" approach that it hopes will, through dialogue and investment, convince Burma's leaders to treat its people more kindly...
...approach has failed. Since Burma's junta took over the country, also known as Myanmar, in 1962, its people have gone from some of the richest in Asia to among its poorest. An election won by the opposition was duly ignored. Political prisoners crowd jails. The most recent example of the generals' callousness came in May when Cyclone Nargis devastated the country's Irrawaddy Delta, leaving 138,000 people dead or missing and causing $4 billion in damage, according to an international assessment released on July 21. Yet instead of promptly accepting offers of help from around the world...