Word: burma
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...RANGOON, Burma--A day after a military coup, soldiers loyal to the new government opened fire on thousands of angry demonstrators who surged into the streets yesterday to protest the power shift. About 100 people were reported killed in Rangoon...
Demonstrations also broke out it other cities, including Mandalay. Witnesses and other reports said a total of about 150 people, including 17 soldiers, had died in the violence that swept Burma after Sunday's coup...
Orderly and friendly, yet adamant and determined, the people of Burma pressed their demand for the three-week-old government of President Maung Maung to step down and open a path to a free, democratic state. Finally the regime began to buckle under the pressure. At an extraordinary session on Saturday, the ruling Burma Socialist Program Party gave way -- at least, partway -- to the popular clamor and declared an apparent end to the country's 26 years of one-party domination. The B.S.P.P. said elections would be held and multiple parties would participate. But the government set no date...
...boldest individual challenge to the beleaguered government last week came from an unexpected source: former Prime Minister U Nu, 81. Toppled from power in 1962 by General Ne Win, who ruled Burma for the next 26 years, U Nu asserted last week, "Though I have been robbed of my power, I am still the legitimate Prime Minister." In a remarkable display of Burmese-style chutzpah, U Nu named a government and announced that general elections would be held on Oct. 9 to ratify his claim to power...
Given the depth of popular frustration, it was thought unlikely that the bloodshed was over -- or that Maung Maung, 63, was secure in his new job. The British-trained lawyer has long-standing ties to General Ne Win, Burma's strongman from 1962 until his resignation on July 23 and the man blamed for widespread repression and an economy that lies in ruins. Maung Maung served with Ne Win in the fight to free their country of colonial domination during World War II and, after Ne Win's 1962 military coup, became Chief Justice of Burma's high court...