Myanmar Naingngandaw

Note: Ibrahim Gambari, special envoy of the United Nations secretary general to Myanmar, told the UN Security Council on November 13, 2007, that the ruling State Peace and Development Council had taken steps toward establishing a “substantive dialogue" on human rights concerns. Nevertheless, at the end of the year the country’s leading prodemocracy figure, Aung San Suu Kyi, remained under house arrest. Little progress had been made during a series of meetings between her and the government.

Political Status: Independent republic established January 4, 1948; military-backed regime instituted March 2, 1962; one-party constitution of January 4, 1974, abrogated upon direct assumption of power by the military on September 18, 1988, at which time the words “Socialist Republic” (Socialist Thamada) were dropped from the ...