Steady progress: On several fronts, Myanmar is moving ahead
Share with others: Events in Myanmar have led to an improvement
in U.S. relations, all in all a favorable development. Since a
1962 military coup, the nation formerly known as Burma, with 61
million people, has been something of a dark hole. For years it
had a repressive government, controlled by military officers.
The government's most visible victim was opposition leader Aung
San Suu Kyi, referred to as "The Lady" and kept under house
arrest for years. Her party, the National League for Democracy,
won the 1990 national elections hands down, but the military
refused to give up power. One result has been a low level of
economic development. In spite of Myanmar's resources it has
remained one of the poorest countries in a region of "Asian
tigers." Because of its dismal human rights performance, the
West and other Asian countries had shunned it and imposed
economic sanctions starting in 1988. Now it seems to be emerging
from the miasma of years of poli