Vigorous Burmese Student Warriors

The Vigorous Burmese Student Warriors (VBSW) is a Burmese terrorist organization opposed to the military junta that rules Myanmar (formerly Burma); the group is best known for a 1999 attack on Myanmar's consulate in Bangkok, Thailand.

In August 1988, student protests helped bring about the downfall of the Burmese dictator Ne Win; the following year, however, a coalition of Burmese military forces calling themselves the State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC; the name has since been changed to the State Peace and Development Council, or SPDC) took control of the country in a bloody coup, renaming it Myanmar. The SPDC reluctantly allowed elections in 1990. When the elections resulted in a landslide victory for the National League for Democracy (NLD), a student-backed group led by Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi, the junta ignored the results. Suu Kyi was held ...