Background
Than Shwe was born on February 2, 1933.
military officer prime minister
Than Shwe was born on February 2, 1933.
After graduating from school and the University he was a worker at a postal service. But his position of a regular postal worker didn’t satisfy the ambitious young man. He decided to make a military career and in 1953 he voluntary joined forces, where he began to serve in a special unit called “the unit of psychological war conduct”.
In the beginning of 1990-ies he was a lieutenant general.
On April 23, 1992 as a result of the coup d'état, Than Shwe came to power and took the post of the chairman of the State Soviet of the law order restoration. Till present days he remains the permanent head of the country.
Than Shwe initiated a number of economic reforms in the country, which improved the economic state of the country and led to not very significant, but still development of social life conditions of the population.
On October 28, 1996 some sanctions were imposed on Than Shwe’s military regime by the EU, particularly the prohibition of the weapon and ammunition trade with that country and also a temporary suspension for help except for humanitarian aid. In 2005 after the refusal of the dialogue about the beginning of the country democratization those sanctions were toughened: the EU members were forbidden to invest in the economy of Myanmar and to create joint ventures there, all the authorities and their families were forbidden to enter the EU territory.
In connection with that Than Shwe in the first place seeks to develop the cooperation with his region neighbors. Particularly, in 2003 a number of treaties on interaction and cooperation were signed. As the result of that, Myanmar received considerable economic and financial help from its neighbors. Therefore, Myanmar and the People's Republic of China concluded three treaties in fields of economics and technology, healthcare and sports: on Than Shwe’s initiative the treaty on the mutual revocation of the visa system for the service and diplomatic passports owners and the memorandum on cooperation in the work recourses operation were signed with India. The activation of the collaboration with Bangladesh manifested itself in signing the clearing treaty and two memorandums on forming the joint Trading Commission. Besides that, Myanmar received a favorable borrowing of US $200 mln from the the People's Republic of China. India in turn promised to give a US $57 mln credit for the railways reconstruction that connects the capital Yangon with the second largest city Mandala. At the same time Thailand promised to give Yangon a US $30 mln credit for the construction of the 200 km highway that goes from Myanmar to Taka (Thailand).
In 2003 an international magazine “The Parade” published the current rating of the present day dictators, who have almost unlimited power, on basis of the reports of the most powerful international right-defending organizations, like “Freedom House”, Amnesty International” and “Human Rights Watch”.
According to human rights activists, general Than Shwe in fact turned Myanmar in a concentration camp. As it is said in one of the reports of the International Labor Organization, there are the worst forms of the present slavery in Myanmar now and even eleven-year-olds are recruited to its army.
Here is one of the quotes: “Burma is terrible in terms of the freedom of speech. Even if faxes, modems and photocopiers exist, they are illegal. There is not one independent newspaper. Foreign mass media is blocked. The atmosphere of total control over the words was created, that’s why the people of Burma don’t even know, what the government is doing”.