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Burma/Politics
1988: Prospects for Re-emerging of Democracy

Seeing at last a possible escape from military rule, economic decline and routine

human rights abuses, thousands of people took to the streets of Rangoon following a series of student demonstrations in March and June, which the regime brutally cracked down by using its armed forces. And intermittent protests against the regime continued; demonstrations began to occur in other cities too. In July 23, 1988, the BSPP called an “emergency congress” with a political ploy of changing the state economic policies and guidelines. Ne Win, the BSPP chairman, announced his resignation from his position as well as from his party just before making his most notorious speech: “Concerning the future tendency of mass protest, the people must bear in mind that if the army shoots, it shoots to kill. Not over the head.”

Under this threat, people assembled for non-violent demonstrations in every part of the country on August 8, 1988. At midnight in Rangoon, the army troops began a massacre, firing into crowds of men, women and children gathered at the City Hall. For weeks the demonstration by the people continued. The military continued to suppress then by using brutal methods during which almost all the civil administrative mechanism halted and the people established their own local administrations.

Just when democratic changes seemed imminent, the recently retired Ne Win commandeered the army and controlled it from behind the scenes. On September 18, 1988, the army established a ruling body called State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC) and took control of the country. From 8.8.88 to the time of establishment of the ruling body, at least 10,000 demonstrators were believed to be killed across the country. As a result, thousands of students and democracy activists fled to neighboring countries. The majority of them fled to the Thai-Burma border and joined forces with the ethnic organizations to continue the struggle for freedom and democracy.
Attempting to divert international condemnation for its violence, the SLORC announced that it would hold multi-party general election.

During this time of unrest, General Aung San’s daughter, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi who had been living abroad returned to Burma to care for her ailing mother. Under the persuasion of students and others opposed to the regime, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and like-minded colleagues founded the National League for Democracy (NLD). The NLD party quickly gathered countrywide support. The old BSPP, former generals’ party, became a registered party for election by renaming it as National Unity Party (NUP). The SLORC regime turned over the properties and resources of BSPP to NUP and gave it support openly in the whole country.
Although committed to non-violence, the military junta placed Daw Aung San Suu Kyi under house arrest in July 1989 on the trumped up charges of “endangering the state” and held her for the next six years. In 1991, she received the Nobel Peace Prize for her commitment to nonviolent resistance and peaceful change.

Desperate to improve its image and generate foreign investment, the SLORC went ahead on May 27, 1990 and held the multi-party general election it had promised. Despite severe repression of political parties and the complete lack of freedom of expression throughout the country, the NLD won alandslide victory with 82% of the seats (392 out of 485 seats). However, the SLORC refused to acknowledge the election results and retained its grip on power ever since.
Democracy’s Light Begins to Dim
After seizing state power, the SLORC made cease-fire agreements with most of the armed ethnic groups.4 Opium warlord Khun Sa, seen as responsible for about half of Burma’s annual opium crop of more than 2,000 tons, surrendered to the government in January 1996 along with thousands of his Mong Tai (Shan State) Army fighters.
The SLORC’s other major campaigns to eliminate all threats to its rule targeted the NLD. Following its total defeat in the 1990 election, the SLORC nullified the election results and disqualified, detained, arrested, or drove into exile many members of parliament elect. Since then, 280 of the 480 members of parliament-elect have been jailed, disqualified, forced to resign under threat, have gone into exile, or died. A total of 43 members of parliament elect remain in prison. Pro-democracy activists and human rights supporters continually were persecuted, imprisoned and abused. After the general election, the military junta started to ban a large number of activist organizations and some political parties as unlawful associations. Other political parties that did not obtain any seat in the parliamentary election were abolished. On December 18, 1990, the elected Members of Parliament formed the National Coalition Government of the Union of Burma (NCGUB) while in exile on the Thai-Burma border.
In 1992, Burma rejoined the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM), which it had left in 1979 while under BSPP rule because of perceived Soviet manipulation. In this year too, the SLORC called for a National Convention to lay down guidelines for a new constitution. Almost 700 delegates, the majority of them chosen by the SLORC, began meeting in January 1993. These guidelines set by the SLORC contained 15 chapter headings and 104 basic principles for inclusion in a new constitution. The SLORC demanded that it (the army) be constitutionally guaranteed for a “leading role” in politics5 and 25% share of power in all branches of the government.
In late 1995, when the SLORC reconvened its constitutional convention after a three-year delay, the NLD party boycotted it because of its emphasis on the army’s role in government, instead of democratic principles. In 1996, the military regime ordered the arrest of 250 NLD members for holding a celebration in honor of the 1990 election victory. And then meetings by the NLD were banned.
In April 1997, the United States banned all new investment in Burma and the European Union extended its economic sanctions for its dire human rights records and political persecution. As a result of international pressure, in November 1997, the SLORC regime changed its name to the State Peaceand Development Council (SPDC). The regime was admitted into the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) in July of that year on the recommendation of Malaysia and with support from Indonesia.
The NLD Party Congress on May 27, 1998, decided again to call upon the regime to convene parliament. Ethnic nationality parties and MPs submitted similar demands to support the NLD. On June 23, 1998, the NLD called on the SPDC authorities to meet their demand by August 21. On Sept 16, 1998, the NLD together with other four ethnic political parties formed the Committee Representing the People’s Parliament (CRPP) in light of the SPDC’s failure to comply with election results, its refusal to allow parliament to convene for nine years, and its failure to convene parliament. The CRPP was supported by 251 parliament members, including MPs from other parties. It annulled all laws promulgated since Sept 18, 1988 and called for the release of all political prisoners.
The SPDC immediately responded by arresting 110 NLD MPs and officials. By the end of 1998, the SPDC had shut down 43 NLD offices. It demanded the dissolution of the CRPP as a pre-condition for talks with the opposition.
The CRPP issued a resolution on the 10th anniversary of the election in which it clearly stated that it would never relinquish the demand for recognition of results of the general election, which was achieved through the blood and sweat of thousands of monks, students, and citizens. Also it stated that as a member country of the United Nations and for the purpose of maintaining its reputation and integrity, the country had to comply with the United Nations Charter and abide by all the conventions and agreements of the United Nations and its associated organizations and bodies (including the International Labour Organization and the United Nations Human Rights Commission).
In 2000, the SPDC lifted some of the restrictions on Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and the NLD but continued its refusal to convene a parliament, recognize the NLD’s status or respond to pro-democracy demands. In 1992, reacting to concern about the situation in Burma, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights appointed a Special Rapporteur with a mandate to monitor and promote human rights in Burma. Additionally, on April 4, 2000, United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan appointed Tan Sri Razali Ismail as the special envoy for Burma and charged him with reinvigorating efforts to achieve national reconciliation. On September of that year, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi was placed under house arrest again after attempting to travel to the northern city of Mandalay on party business with senior NLD members. It was learnt that secret talks, brokered by Razali Ismail, began in October between Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and the junta, but neither the regime nor the special envoy announced detailed progress. However, at that time the routine demonizing in government publicity of the NLD and Daw Aung San Suu Kyi stopped, and some NLD offices were allowed to reopen, which were the minimum concessions to keep international criticism at bay. On May 6, 2002, the regime announced that after 19 months, the house arrest restrictions on Daw Aung San Suu Kyi had been lifted and she was free to carry out political activities. Local NLD township offices reopened around the country.
In September 2002, the NLD called on the SPDC to fulfill its pledge to begin negotiations for handing over power to the elected representatives. Ethnic nationality opposition groups called for their inclusion in negotiations between the government and the NLD.
The third Human Rights Special Rapporteur to Burma, Paulo Sergio Pinheiro, was compelled to cut short a mission to Burma in March 2003 when a bugging device was discovered in a room where he was interviewing political prisoners. In April 2003, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi complained publicly for the first time about lack of progress in national reconciliation talks.
On May 30, while Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and her party were making a political tour to promote the NLD, their entourage was attacked by a group of thugs consisting of about 500 armed soldiers, members of the regime-backed Union Solidarity and Development Association (USDA), and an unknown number of convicts recruited from prison. In the deadly skirmish that lasted for about an hour, the attackers beat up NLD members and shot at them with catapults. Soldiers also opened fire killing and wounding a large number of NLD members. Up to seventy or eighty people were believed to be killed in the attack. More than one hundred people were arrested and many disappeared after the incident.
The SPDC regime proceeded to detain Executive members of the NLD and elected Members of Parliament, and close all the NLD offices including the headquarters of the party. The regime ignored all pleas from international governments and rights groups to make an official investigation concerning the massacre; instead it described the incident as a spontaneous clash between supporters of NLD and its opponents among the people. It stated that Daw Aung San Suu Kyi was not injured and that she was under a protective custody for her own safety. Everyone except the regime recognized that the events of May 30 were premeditated, systematically planned and conducted by the SPDC.
Despite international pressure for the release of all political prisoners in Burma, including Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, and calls for national reconciliation, the regime went on ignoring the election results, asking for support in drawing up a new constitution — one that would guarantee their leading role in the country’s future politics