Ethnicity/race: Burman 68%, Shan 9%, Karen 7%, Rakhine 4%,
Chinese 3%, Mon 2%, Indian 2%, other 5%
Religions: Buddhist 89%, Christian 4% (Baptist 3%, Roman
Catholic 1%), Islam 4%, Animist 1%, other 2%
Literacy rate: 83% (1995 est.)
Economic summary:GDP/PPP (2005 est.):
$76.36 billion; per capita $1,600. Real growth rate: 1.5%.
Inflation: 25%. Unemployment: 5%. Arable land:
15%. Agriculture: rice, pulses, beans, sesame, groundnuts,
sugarcane; hardwood; fish and fish products. Labor force: 27.75
million; agriculture 70%, industry 7%, services 23% (2001).
Industries: agricultural processing; knit and woven apparel;
wood and wood products; copper, tin, tungsten, iron; construction
materials; pharmaceuticals; fertilizer; cement; natural gas.
Natural resources: petroleum, timber, tin, antimony, zinc,
copper, tungsten, lead, coal, some marble, limestone, precious stones,
natural gas, hydropower. Exports: $3.111 billion f.o.b. (2004);
note: official export figures are grossly underestimated due to the
value of timber, gems, narcotics, rice, and other products smuggled to
Thailand, China, and Bangladesh: clothing, gas, wood products, pulses,
beans, fish, rice. Imports: $3.454 billion f.o.b.; note: import
figures are grossly underestimated due to the value of consumer goods,
diesel fuel, and other products smuggled in from Thailand, China,
Malaysia, and India (2004): fabric, petroleum products, plastics,
machinery, transport equipment, construction materials, crude oil;
food products. Major trading partners: Thailand, India, China,
Japan, Singapore, South Korea, Malaysia (2004).
Communications: Telephones: main lines in
use: 250,000 (2000); mobile cellular: 8,492 (1997). Radio broadcast
stations: AM 2, FM 3, shortwave 3 (1998). Radios: 4.2
million (1997). Television broadcast stations: 2 (1998).
Televisions: 320,000 (2000). Internet Service Providers
(ISPs): 1; note: as of Sept. 2000, Internet connections were legal
only for the government, tourist offices, and a few large businesses
(2000). Internet users: 10,000 (2002).
Transportation: Railways: total: 3,955 km
(2002). Highways: total: 28,200 km; paved: 3,440 km; unpaved:
24,760 km (1996 est.). Waterways: 12,800 km; 3,200 km navigable
by large commercial vessels. Ports and harbors: Bassein, Bhamo,
Chauk, Mandalay, Moulmein, Myitkyina, Rangoon, Akyab (Sittwe), Tavoy.
Airports: 80 (2002).
International
disputes: despite continuing border committee talks, significant
differences remain with Thailand over boundary alignment and the
handling of ethnic rebels, refugees, and illegal cross-border
activities.
Slightly smaller than Texas, Myanmar occupies the Thailand/Cambodia
portion of the Indochinese peninsula. India lies to the northwest and
China to the northeast. Bangladesh, Laos, and Thailand are also neighbors.
The Bay of Bengal touches the southwest coast. The fertile delta of the
Irrawaddy River in the south contains a network of intercommunicating
canals and nine principal river mouths.
Government
Military regime.
History
The ethnic origins of modern Myanmar (known historically as Burma) are
a mixture of Indo-Aryans, who began pushing into the area around 700 B.C., and the Mongolian invaders under Kublai Khan
who penetrated the region in the 13th century. Anawrahta (1044–1077)
was the first great unifier of Myanmar.
In 1612, the British East India Company sent agents to Burma, but the
Burmese doggedly resisted efforts of British, Dutch, and Portuguese
traders to establish posts along the Bay of Bengal. Through the
Anglo-Burmese War in 1824–1826 and two subsequent wars, the British
East India Company expanded to the whole of Burma. By 1886, Burma was
annexed to India, then became a separate colony in 1937.
During World War II, Burma was a key battleground; the 800-mile Burma
Road was the Allies' vital supply line to China. The Japanese invaded the
country in Dec. 1941, and by May 1942, had occupied most of it, cutting
off the Burma Road. After one of the most difficult campaigns of the war,
Allied forces liberated most of Burma prior to the Japanese surrender in
Aug. 1945.
Burma became independent on Jan. 4, 1948. In 1962, left-wing general Ne
Win staged a coup, banned political opposition, suspended the
constitution, and introduced the “Burmese way of socialism.”
After 25 years of economic hardship and repression, the Burmese people
held massive demonstrations in 1987 and 1988. These were brutally quashed
by the State Law and Order Council (SLORC). In 1989, the military
government officially changed the name of the country to Myanmar. (The
U.S. State Department does not recognize the name Myanmar or the military
regime that represents it.)
In May 1990 elections, the opposition National League for Democracy
(NLD) won in a landslide. But the military, or SLORC, refused to recognize
the election results. The leader of the opposition, Aung San Suu Kyi, was
awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991, which focused world attention on
SLORC's repressive policies. Daughter of the assassinated general Aung
San, who was revered as the father of Burmese independence, Suu Kyi
remained under house arrest from 1989 until 1995. Suu Kyi continued to
protest against the government, but almost every move she made was
answered with a counterblow from SLORC.
Although the ruling junta has maintained a tight grip on Myanmar since
1988, it has not been able to subdue an insurgency in the country's south
that has gone on for decades. The ethnic Karen movement has sought an
independent homeland along Myanmar's southern border with Thailand. In
Jan. 2004, the military government and the insurgents from the Karen
National Union agreed to end the fighting, but they stopped short of
signing a cease-fire.
The economy has been in a state of collapse except for the
junta-controlled heroin trade, the universities have remained closed, and
the AIDS epidemic, unrecognized by the junta, has gripped the country.
From 2000 to 2002, Suu Kyi was again placed under house arrest. In
spring 2003, the government cracked down once again on the democracy
movement, detaining Suu Kyi and shuttering NLD headquarters. The regime
opened a constitutional convention in May 2004, but many observers doubted
its legitimacy.
In October 2004, the government arrested Prime Minister Gen. Khin Nyunt
and charged him with corruption. He had angered the leadership of the
junta with his recent experiments on reform, first by freeing Suu Kyi from
house arrest and later for proposing a seven-step “road map to
democracy.”
A series of coordinated bomb attacks in May 2005 killed about a dozen
people and wounded more than 100 in Rangoon. The military junta blamed the
Karen National Union and the Shan State Army. The ethnic rebel groups,
however, denied any involvement.
On November 13, 2005, the military junta—in a massive and
secretive move—relocated the seat of government from the capital
Rangoon to a mountain compound called Pyinmanaa in Naypyidaw. The move
perplexed many, and the junta was vague in its explanation, saying,
“Due to changed circumstances, where Myanmar is trying to develop a
modern nation, a more centrally located government seat has become a
necessity.”
More than 1,000 delegates gathered in December to begin drafting a
constitution, which the junta said was a step toward democracy. The
convention adjourned in late January 2006 with little progress. In Sept.
2007, representatives to the convention, which has met on and off since
1993, released a draft constitution that ensures that the military will
continue to control the ministries and legislature and have the right to
declare a state of emergency. The document also limits the rights of
political parties. Opposition parties were excluded from the
convention.
In a stunning show of defiance, widespread pro-democracy protests,
prompted by a sharp increase in fuel prices, erupted throughout the
country in August 2007. Participation in the peaceful protests ballooned
over several weeks, and Buddhist monks joined the throngs of protesters
when government troops used force against demonstrators in early
September. The monks emerged as the leaders of the protest movement and
gained international sympathy and support. On September 26, the military
cracked down on the protesters, firing into crowds, raiding pagodas, and
arresting monks. At least nine people were killed. The protests were by
far the largest in the country in 20 years, with as many as 100,000 people
marching. In a statement, the United Nations Security Council condemned
the crackdown, saying it "strongly deplores" the violence unleashed on the
protesters.
Prime Minister Soe Win died in October after a long illness. He was
replaced by Lt. Gen. Thein Sein.
On May 3, 2008, Cyclone Nargis ravaged the Irrawaddy Delta and Yangon,
killing 22,500 people and leaving up to a million homeless. Another 41,000
people were reported missing and feared dead. Most of the death and
destruction were caused by a 12-foot high tidal wave that formed during
the storm. The isolated military junta accepted international aid, a tacit
acknowledgement that it is ill-equipped to handle a disaster of such
enormous scope. But once the aid began to arrive, the government limited
distribution of the supplies, accepting only about 10% of what was needed.
In addition, it denied entry visas to relief workers, leaving the country
crippled and vulnerable to widespread disease. The junta faced further
criticism when it went ahead with a constitutional referendum on May 10
intended to cement its grip on power.