Word: shwe
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...that happens, what can the world do? There is already unprecedented international pressure on Burma, although its impact on this isolated and xenophobic regime is questionable. While I was in Rangoon, U.N. Special Envoy Ibrahim Gambari met with both Suu Kyi (twice) and junta chief Than Shwe, but Gambari's efforts look unlikely to kick-start a dialogue between the two. Similarly, China's influence over Burma--and its willingness to use it--is probably exaggerated. Its U.N. Ambassador, Wang Guangya, has characterized Burma's troubles as "basically internal...
...maintaining power above all else, the army has repeatedly turned its guns against its own people, most tragically in 1988 when a student-led protest movement was crushed, leaving some 3,000 dead. Nor do army leaders perceive threats to their authority coming only from inside the country. "Than Shwe grew up under colonial occupation by the British and the Japanese," says Thailand-based Burmese military analyst Win Min, "so he is a nationalist to the point of xenophobia [who] believes military rule is the only way to keep the country independent." Indeed, in a speech to the U.N. General...
...starters, Burma is ruled by one of the world's longest-standing military dictatorships. An army-led coup in 1962 against a democratically elected government brought men in uniform to power, 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...
...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...
...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...