ABSTRACT
This chapter provides a brief historical background and a description of major events in Burma. It also provides basic political, economic, and social data arranged in the following categories: polity, economy, population, purchasing power parities, life expectancy, ethnic groups, capital, political rights, civil liberties, and status. The chapter discusses the progress and decline of political rights and civil liberties in Burma. Amnesty International said in 2000 that "torture has become an institution" in Burma and that victims include political activists, criminals, and members of ethnic minorities. There was "a significant increase in the level of anti-Muslim violence" in Burma between July 2000 and June 2001, according to the US State Department's annual report on religious freedom covering that period. Burma continued to be ruled by one of the world's most repressive regimes. The junta rules by decree, controls the judiciary, suppresses nearly all basic rights, and commits human rights abuses with impunity.
