The Burmese junta is dead, long live the Burmese junta? Few people are indeed stupid. While the military has handed over the keys to power Wednesday in Thein Sein, outgoing Prime Minister and now President of Parliament. He heads the new civilian government, supposedly the result of "7 Steps to a disciplined democracy". A program decided by the military junta shortly after the adoption of the new constitution in 2008 and peaked with disputed elections in November 2010.
Parliament, which is derived largely composed of retired military.But according to that constitution, the Association for Development and Solidarity, headed by Than Shwe, the junta leader since 1992, which controls the main levers of the country.
"There is no cause for celebration, the military junta turns into a dictatorship just civil," says FRANCE 24 Anna Roberts, director of Burma Campaign UK charity. The ceremony is only a "communication operation," said Anne Roberts, for giving a facelift to a dictatorship that has lasted nearly 50 years.
In 1962 the military took power following a coup. General Ne Win becomes the strongman of the junta that installed at all levels of public life.Nationalization of the economy and mass media, persecution of minorities and widespread corruption mark his twenty years of reign. 300 000 Indians fled the country during this period.
An authoritarian regime, a corrupt country
It is also the one who invented the little facelift midterm. Indeed, in 1974, Ne Win decided to resign ... to head a new civilian government largely modeled on the single party in the former USSR.
Than Shwe, who succeeded Ne Win in 1992, so which to keep. "In fact, it's one of those examples where the new dictator is worse than its predecessor," said Anna Roberts.General Than Shwe, which reinstates a military regime, appears to be a kind of paranoid despot as some call crazy influenced by his advisors, astrologers and others, like Anna Roberts, take "a great manipulator."
One thing is for sure. Than Shwe years have exacerbated the regime's authoritarian tendencies. In the late 1990s, the International Monetary Fund has described the country bankrupt state. Burma, along with Somalia, most corrupt country in the world by Transparency International and the International Organization estimates that nearly 800,000 people are subjected to forced labor.
The power cuts also definitely the people.Than Shwe moved in 2005, the capital 300 kilometers from Rangoon, where he built a city called Naypyidaw ("seat of kings"). The master of the junta also refused to speak to the foreign press and not meet with officials from other countries only on rare occasions. This life in an ivory tower became public during the flooding caused by a deadly cyclone in 2008. Than Shwe not only makes no public appearances but he refuses even to international aid. Like North Korea, the country is now officially cut off from the world.
Boundless hatred
Politically, the military junta does not want to hear about democracy, except in its sauce.Than Shwe is known, according to a biography of journalist and human rights Benedict Rogers ("Than Shwe: Burma unmask the tyrant", Ed), devote a boundless hatred for Aung San Suu Kyi. The very name of the opponent and Nobel peace in 1991 would rage. Since 1990 and the cancellation of elections won by the party of Aung San Suu Kyi, the power harasses his most famous opponent. It is officially free in his movements since July 2010 after years under house arrest and prison.
In 2007, the junta has also faced another test of democracy. A series of events in September, led by monks, demand more freedom.The military then crush these uprisings.
It was after this move that the authority has begun the process that culminated on Wednesday, the transfer of power to civilian authorities. "They hope that this gesture will push the international community to lift some economic sanctions," said Anna Roberts.
