5/23/22, 2:51 AM Internet Filtering in Burma in 2005: A Country Study | OpenNet Initiative Appendix 3. Burma Background A. Demographics Burma is a country in Southeast Asia bordered by Bangladesh, China, India, Laos, Thailand, the Bay of Bengal and the Andaman Sea.75While reliable census figures are unavailable, most sources estimate Burma's population at 40 to 50 million people.76Ethnic Burmans (68%) constitute the largest ethnic group, but a variety of minority groups exist, including the Shan (9%), Karen (7%), Rakhine (4%), Chinese (3%), Indian (2%), and Mon (2%).77 B. Economy Burma's economy is predominantly agricultural, and unstable economic conditions and international isolation have substantially limited economic growth.78The country's economy includes a substantial "black market" sector; Burma is the world's largest opium exporter.79Burma has shifted between socialist and capitalist market systems, with negative results under both approaches. Under a centralized socialist program in the 1960s (the "Burmese Way to Socialism"), economic growth stagnated and food shortages ensued.80In 1989, the state launched the "Burmese Way to Capitalism", which unfortunately resulted in significant entrenchment of wealth and corruption.81Moreover, in 2003 a banking crisis crippled the private economy, leaving little domestic capital available at a time when the country already suffered international sanctions that blocked foreign direct investment.82This economic crisis continues today.83 C. Politics After 62 years of occupation by Great Britain, Burma gained sovereignty in 1948 as a parliamentary democracy. Despite ongoing ethnic conflict, the state remained democratic until 1962, when a military coup took power.84The military nationalized the economy, outlawed the independent press, and established the Burma Socialist Program Party (BSPP)85as the only legal political party. In 1975, the National Democratic Front launched a guerilla insurgency against the BSPP.86 In August 1988, soldiers opened fire on demonstrators calling for democratic elections.87To suppress unrest, Burma formed the State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC); SLORC declared martial law, and arrested or killed thousands of demonstrators through 1989. As many as 5000 people were killed, with a significant but unknown number imprisoned.88SLORC placed Aung San Suu Kyi, leader of the most popular opposition party (the National League for Democracy) and a future Nobel Peace Prize Winner, under house arrest in July 1989; she has been detained for most of the period since then.89Popular elections in 1990 gave the NLD a landslide victory.90The ruling military junta, though, declared the election irrelevant and intensified its repression of the NLD. SLORC has since been renamed the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC).91 Burma's ruling military state has been accused repeatedly of human rights violations by the United States, United Nations, Human Rights Watch, and Amnesty International, among others.92(For example, in May 2003, pro-government forces attacked Aung San Suu Kyi and a convoy of NLD officials.93) Accordingly, since 1997 the United States has prohibited new investment in Burma.94 The government has reason to be wary of the Internet; activists abroad began to organize on-line as early as 1996.95Although there is no dissent on Burma's Intranet, expatriates used The Free Burma Coalition and BurmaNet to spread information about political conditions in Burma.96Dissidents successfully brought international pressure to bear upon the state, first through shareholder pressure and boycotts against corporations doing business in Burma, and then through U.S.-led economic sanctions.97 Footnotes 1 See Websites Barred in Burma, Mizzima News, June 10, 2005, available at http://www.mizzima.com/mizzima/archives/news-in-2005/News-in-June/10-Jun-05-11.htm. 2 U.S. Department of State, Country Reports on Human Rights: Burma (2004), at http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2004/41637.htm. 3 Myanmar Information Committee, A Response on Recent Amnesty International's Report, June 19, 1999, at http://www.myanmar.gov.mm/Infosheet/1999/990619.htm. 4 Myanmar.com, Human Rights in Myanmar, at http://www.myanmar.com/Understanding%20Myanmar/hrm.html. https://opennet.net/studies/burma 11/15