Burma: Taking a Step Backward

Despite a sound trouncing in last May’s elections, Burma’s military junta has yet to move forward on its promise to cede control of the country, which it now calls Myanmar, to the “largest party.” Last week it actually took a step backward. Citing “security reasons,” government forces in Rangoon and Mandalay arrested six top leaders of the National League for Democracy, the opposition party that won 80% of the seats in the national legislature. The arrests came a week after the junta said it would release N.L.D. leader Aung San Suu Kyi if she agreed to leave the country. Aung San Suu Kyi was placed under house arrest in July 1989, after she led a series of antigovernment rallies and criticized Burma’s behind-the-scenes strongman, Ne Win.