Burmese Resistance Movement

The Burmese resistance movement, otherwise known as the Burmese pro-democracy movement, has worked for democratic reforms inside and outside Burma since a military junta took control of the country in 1988. Facing severe repression in Burma, many pro-democracy activists have taken refuge in neighboring Thailand and the United States, where they have set up a government-in-exile in Rockville, Maryland. The most famous pro-democracy activist, Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi, remains under house arrest in Rangoon, while many of her fellow activists have been imprisoned and often killed at the hands of the oppressive State Peace and Development Council.

The Burmese resistance movement first mobilized in 1988, when mass demonstrations and riots threatened to bring down the government of General Ne Win, who had controlled the country since a military coup in 1962. After the resignation of Ne Win, another military junta, named the State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC; renamed as the State Peace and Development Council in 1997) took control of the country. Pro-democracy activists, including Suu Kyi, called for democratic elections. A mass uprising spread throughout the country, which the SLORC violently suppressed, killing thousands. In response, Suu Kyi and other pro-democracy activists formed the National League of Democracy (NLD) and continued to push for democratic reforms.

The embattled military junta agreed to hold democratic elections in 1990, assuming that it could manipulate the results to stay in power. When the NLD won 82% of the seats in Parliament, the SLORC declared the results void and refused to let the new government assume office, placing Aung San Suu Kyi under house arrest and imprisoning NLD Chairman U Tin Oo. The military junta has continued to violently suppress the pro-democracy movement, and scores of activists have been imprisoned or killed. In 2003, a convoy carrying Aung San Suu Kyi was attacked by the military, and many NLD supporters were killed. Suu Kyi herself barely escaped but was later caught and imprisoned. In all, she has spent 12 of the past 17 years under house arrest. The State Peace and Development Council routinely prohibits international observers from meeting with NLD members, and all pro-democracy activities are illegal and punishable by imprisonment or death.

Because continued resistance within Burma has remained so difficult, many members of the NLD and its coalition partners formed the National Coalition Government of the Union of Burma on December 18, 1990, and elected Sein Win, the first cousin of Aung San Suu Kyi, as its prime minister. The exiled government, headquartered in Rockville, Maryland, has as one of its founding principles that it will dissolve as soon as new elections can be held. The Burmese resistance movement has garnered extensive international support from foreign governments, the United Nations, and many non-governmental organizations whose sole purpose is to support democratic reform in Burma. In May 2006, the U.N. Undersecretary-General for Political Affairs, Ibrahim Gambari, met with Aung San Suu Kyi in Rangoon, the first foreign dignitary to meet with her since 2004.