Page 378 - The Rough Guide to Myanmar (Burma)

376 CONTEXTS History
arrested – possibly on account of his apparent willingness to reach an agreement with
the NLD – and stripped of power. Most surprising was the sudden announcement, in
November 2005, that the national capital was to be moved to Naypyitaw – a huge new
project dreamt up by Than Shwe, costing billions of dollars and confirming, in the eyes
of many observers, the true scale of the generals’ out-of-control megalomania.

The Saffron Revolution
The next major upheaval in Burmese society – the Saffron Revolution (as it has been
named in honour of the monks who played a leading part in it) – was in some ways
a rerun of the previous protests of 1988. After a decade during which anti-
government protests had been virtually unknown, simmering popular discontent
with military rule once again abruptly boiled over in August 2007 following the
junta’s decision to suddenly remove fuel subsidies, causing petrol prices to rise by
two-thirds overnight.
The first protests were held by monks in the town of Pakokku, from where public
shows of dissent rapidly spread nationwide. By September, thousands of monks and
other demonstrators were marching daily through Yangon and Mandalay (on
September 24 as many as 100,000 are estimated to have taken to the streets in
Yangon alone).
Then, just as in 1988, the military hit back with their customary brutality – Than
Shwe was rumoured to have taken personal charge of the army after senior
commanders had refused to use force against the demonstrations. Rumours circulated
that the military had purchased large quantities of monastic robes and were busily
shaving their heads in order to penetrate the ranks of the protesting monks; convicted
criminals were also released, and being ordered to do the same. Starting in late
September, soldiers began attacking and tear-gassing protesters. Thousands were beaten
and dozens shot, while reports of monks being abducted, beaten and possibly
murdered were widely circulated. Protesters were arrested and sentenced, usually to
many years of hard labour. Although the level of killing seen in 1988 was not repeated,
the crackdown was sufficient to eventually quell the uprising.
Further international sanctions and trade restrictions ensued. Rumours of dissension
within the ranks of the generals, however, and reports that many soldiers and army
officers had refused orders to take violent action against demonstrators, particularly
monks, suggested that the tide might finally be turning against the regime, who
subsequently announced that nationwide elections would be held in 2010.
Cyclone Nargis
Then, just as it seemed there might finally be light at the end of the tunnel, Myanmar
suffered the greatest natural disaster in its entire recorded history. On May 3, 2008,
Cyclone Nargis swept in from the Bay of Bengal, hitting the Delta region with little
warning and unprecedented force. Large swathes of the densely populated, low-lying
region were erased from the map in a matter of hours, with an estimated 130,000 dead,
and a million left homeless and without food or water.
The biblical scale of the cyclone’s devastation was impossible to grasp. Even more
shocking, however, was the response of the embattled junta, who over the following
month systematically blocked all offers of international aid, while doing almost

September 1988 1989
Founding of the National League for Democracy; protests are violently The country’s colonial-era name,
suppressed, with thousands killed by the military, who re-establish Burma, is changed by the military
control under the newly established State Law and Order Restoration government to Myanmar
Council (SLORC)

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