Alienated Nation

JOHN STANMEYERVII FOR TIME

IN THE DARK: Thant believes foreign boycotts have made Rangoons isolation worse

For far too long, and for far too many, Burma has meant only one thing: isolation. In 1962 General Ne Win closed the doors to the country, going on to nationalize even the Boy Scouts and the Automobile Association of Burma, and turned his land into the most secretive and reclusive place this side of North Korea. And ever since the brutally suppressed popular uprising of 1988, more and more foreigners have tried to isolate the country still further, through the sanctions called for by Burma's main opposition figure, Aung San Suu Kyi. Meanwhile, the country's 47 million people suffer through...

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