Republic of the Union of Myanmar

Republic of the Union of Myanmar ပြည်ထောင်စု သမ္မတ မြန်မာနိုင်ငံတော်‌
Capital	Naypyidaw
Largest city	Yangon
Official languages	Burmese
Government	Military junta
Area
• Total	676,578 km²
Population
• 2017 census	53,582,855

The Republic of the Union of Myanmar, also known as Myanmar or Burma, is a country in Southeast Asia.

History

Myanmar was colonized by the British beginning in 1824 and gained its independence in 1948. In 1962, the Burma Socialist Programme Party came to power in a military coup. The new government nationalized businesses and hospitals and implemented public education, free healthcare, and land reforms. However, not all ethnicities and religious groups benefitted from these changes because of the Buddhist nationalist character of the military junta. In 1974, a single-party system was established.

In 1988, a multi-party system was established after a nationwide referendum. In 2008, a new constitution was drafted that gave 25% of government seats to unelected military representatives. President Thein Sein began a series of reforms in 2010, but the Western-backed National League for Democracy party, led by Aung San Suu Kyi, won a majority in the 2012 elections.

The NLD was supported by the U.S. government and received $375 million of support from the Obama administration.

Rohingya genocide

The Rohingya people are predominantly Muslims and mostly live in Rakhine State on the border with Bangladesh. Over a million Rohingya people have fled from Myanmar to Bangladesh since 1948. The Buddhist Burmese government considers them illegal immigrants from Bangladesh.

In 2012, the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army was founded in an effort to create an independent, democratic Muslim state for the Rohingya people. In 2017, after the ARSA attacked a Burmese military camp, the government attacked hundreds of Rohingya.