Glossary: Myanmar

General Aung San was the founder of the modern Burmese army and founder of the Communist Party in Burma.  The father of national figure of Aung San Suu Kyi, San was instrumental in Burma’s independence from Great Britain.

Aung San Suu Kyi is a Nobel Peace Prize winner and chairperson of the National League of Democracy.  A Burmese opposition politician, she was placed on house arrest by the Burmese military for nearly two decades, she was released in November 2010.   The daughter of General Aung San, she is known to many in Burma as “The Lady.”

Junta is a term that refers to a military led dictatorship.

Association of Southeast Asian Nations (AESEAN) is a geo-political and economic organization of ten countries located in Southeast Asia.

Economic sanctions are restrictions imposed on a country by another or by a group of countries.

National League for Democracy (NLD) is the main Burmese political opposition party.  Formed following the 1988 revolutions, the party is chaired by Aung San Suu Kyi.

Yangon was capital of Burma until 2006, when the military leadership relocated the capital to Naypyidaw.  Still with a population of over 4 million people, Yangon remains the commercial center of Burma.

Tiananmen Square is a large public square in Beijing, China and the third largest public square in the world.  It is best known as the site of an uprising in 1989 in which anti-capitalism demonstrators clashed with Chinese soldiers in a confrontation that left hundred of civilians dead.