2007: The Year in Review
covering burma and southeast asia
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2007: The Year in Review


By The Irrawaddy DECEMBER, 2007 - VOLUME 15 NO.12


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25—India starts training Burmese air force officers at a naval air base in Kochi. The Burmese air crew are said to be learning to operate sophisticated air defense equipment and aircraft.

28—A tornado rips through South Dagon Township in Rangoon. Three people die, at least five are injured, 90 homes are destroyed and 500 homes are damaged.

• JULY

Most delegates to the junta's National Convention were hand-picked [Photo: AFP]
18—The military government commences the final stage of the National Convention.

23 —An advertisement placed in the English-language Myanmar Times newspaper by a satirical art group, Danish-based “Surrend,” has a hidden message calling the country’s military ruler, Snr-Gen Than Shwe, a “killer.”

29—Southeast Asian countries set up a safety watchdog to ensure that nuclear power plants in the region are not used to produce weapons or aid rogue groups.

• AUGUST

01—Burma’s military government appoints an ambassador to North Korea for the first time since 1983. The ambassador, Thein Lwin, will serve concurrently as ambassador to China.

15—Burma’s ruling junta imposes a surprise 100 percent hike in petrol and diesel prices and a five-fold price increase for natural gas at state-run stations.

19—About 500 people, led by former student activists of the 88 Generation Students group, stage a protest in Rangoon against high fuel price hikes.

21—Burmese authorities arrest at least 13 prominent activists of the 88 Students Generation group, including leaders who staged a protest against fuel price increases.

24—About 25 pro-democracy protesters are arrested and beaten by members of two pro-junta groups—the Union Solidarity and Development Association and Pyithu Swan Ah Shin—while gathering to demonstrate in front of Rangoon’s City Hall.

27—Snr-Gen Than Shwe meets Gen Sonthi Boonyaratkalin, commander-in-chief of the Royal Thai Army, in Naypyidaw. On his last trip to Burma before retiring, Gen Sonthi says that during his two-day visit he accepted a request from the Burmese army to help restore peace between the junta and the armed ethnic groups in Burma.

• SEPTEMBER

03—Burma’s National Convention wraps up its work on adopting basic principles for a new constitution after 14 years of deliberation. The closing ceremony—unlike the opening one—is a quiet affair, conducted in the absence of the media and foreign diplomats.

An artist's rendering of security forces beating monks in Pakokku in central Burma
[Illustration: Harn Lay/The Irrawaddy]

05—Monks chanting the “Metta Sutta” (the Buddha’s words on loving kindness) in Pakokku, upper Burma, are brutally attacked by police, soldiers and pro-junta paramilitary thugs. Three monks are tied to an electricity pole and beaten with rifle butts and bludgeons. A prominent monk, U Sandima, sustains head injuries.

07—After organizing a seminar at a US Embassy center earlier this year, six labor activists are given jail sentences of up to 28 years each by a court set up inside Insein Prison in northern Rangoon.
10—The Alliance of All Burmese Buddhist Monks urges all monks to refuse alms from members of the military regime unless an apology is given for the violent way in which protesting monks were dispersed by the authorities and pro-junta thugs in Pakokku. It warns it will hold “patam nikkujjana kamma”—a boycott of alms from members of the military regime.

18—Hundreds of monks march peacefully through downtown Rangoon and Pegu. They also march in Pakokku and other towns in Magwe Division. The monks walk in procession to local temples, chanting the “Metta Sutta” and “Paritta Sutta.”

A demonstration by monks and civilians in Sittwe in Arakan State is broken up by the authorities using tear gas. Hundreds of local people join in the demonstration, including Muslim residents of the town.



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