Word: juntas
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...first the charismatic and superstitious Ne Win, now his rather less magnetic successor Than Shwe. A high-school dropout who later trained in psychological warfare, Than Shwe, 74, helms a secretive group of generals that calls itself the State Peace and Development Council. True to its grand name, the junta controls not only the armed forces but all aspects of politics and the economy as well. Indeed, constitutional guidelines passed last month bar anyone without army experience from holding high office. "The military believes they are the only ones who can run Burma," says Khin Maung Nyunt, an exiled former...
...True, during the lead-up to last month's brutal suppression of the protests, exile groups buzzed with speculation that the junta's No. 2, General Maung Aye, opposed any violence. Rumors of tensions between Than Shwe and his deputy have circulated for years. Yet any hope of a moderating influence died when troops began opening fire on Sept. 26, killing at least 10 people in Rangoon, according to the junta's own likely lowball death count. (Hundreds of others are still reported missing, including many monks, whom exile groups fear have been rounded up and imprisoned across the nation...
...most promising economies by unveiling the "Burmese Way to Socialism." The army took over colonial-era business concerns like shipping and banking. Even as civilians have grown poorer, the military continues to enrich itself through timber, mineral and natural-gas deals with Burma's neighbors. In 2005, the junta mysteriously moved the nation's capital from Rangoon to a new city called Naypyidaw, carved out of the jungle at a cost of hundreds of millions of dollars. A lavish military retreat complete with a man-made beach is also being built near Maymyo, where the Defense Services Academy is located...
...During his Sept. 29 to Oct. 2 visit to Burma, U.N. special envoy Ibrahim Gambari met both Than Shwe and Suu Kyi, whose National League for Democracy won elections in 1990 that the junta ignored. Exile groups speculated these rare meetings might signal at least a token effort by the generals to address widespread international condemnation of last week's crackdown. Rumors that Than Shwe, who has been ill for years, has picked junta No. 3 Shwe Mann - a purported economic pragmatist - as his favored successor have also raised hopes. But a change of guard may not mean much...
...from oil. Before its latest brutal crackdown on peaceful protestors, Burma's military regime already demonstrated such little concern for its people that it reportedly spent among the lowest on health care per person of any government on the planet. Hiding out in its new jungle capital Naypyidaw, the junta has not even suggested that oil money will benefit its people. While many oil companies support the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, which pushes countries to explain how they spend petroleum money, Chinese oil giants, dominant in Burma, refuse to sign up. Even Brunei, a country that at least used decades...