Ne Win, U

or Shu Maung

born May 24, 1911, Paungdale, Burma

died Dec. 5, 2002, Yangôn, Myanmar

Leader of Burma (Myanmar) from 1962 to 1988.

He became involved in the Burmese independence movement in the mid-1930s. During World War II he initially served in the Japanese-sponsored army but later helped organize underground resistance to the Japanese. In 1962 he ousted the elected prime minister U Nu; his subsequent regime combined military dictatorship with a socialist economic program. Burma became isolated and impoverished under Ne Win, and he resigned in 1988. He continued to exercise power behind the scenes, however, until shortly before his death.

* * *

▪ 2003

Shu Maung 

      Burmese general and dictator (b. May 24, 1911, Paungdale, Burma [now Myanmar]—d. Dec. 5, 2002, Yangon [Rangoon], Myanmar), ruled at the head of a repressive dictatorship from March 1962, when he overthrew the elected government of Prime Minister U Nu, until he resigned in 1988. He took the nom de guerre Ne Win (“brilliant light”) during Burma's struggle for independence from Great Britain, received his military training in Japan with Aung San's Thirty Comrades in the early 1940s, and served in the Japanese-sponsored Burma National Army until that group switched sides at the very end of World War II. In 1958 Ne Win was appointed the head of a caretaker government to replace Prime Minister U Nu, whose administration had failed to control ethnic insurgencies. After U Nu won the 1960 general election, Ne Win stepped down, but two years later he staged a coup and established himself at the head of a military revolutionary council. In 1964 Ne Win made Burma a one-party state under the army-backed Burmese Socialist Program Party (BSPP). He served as prime minister (1965–74), president (1974–81), and chairman of the BSPP (1973–88). His extreme socialist and isolationist policies, however, combined with official corruption, mismanagement, and personal idiosyncrasies, turned Burma into one of the world's least-developed countries. Ne Win resigned in July 1988 after food shortages and the demonetization of some 80% of Burma's currency triggered antigovernment riots.

* * *

▪ Myanmar general and dictator

also called  Shu Maung  

born May 24, 1911, Paungdale, Burma [Myanmar]

died December 5, 2002, Yangon, Myanmar

      Burmese general who was the leader of Burma (Myanmar) from 1962 to 1988.

      Ne Win studied at University College, Rangoon (Yangon), from 1929 to 1931, and in the mid-1930s he became involved in the struggle for Burmese independence from the British. During World War II, after the Japanese invasion of Burma, he was one of the Thirty Comrades who, in 1941, went to Hainan to receive military training from the Japanese. Ne Win was an officer in the Japanese-sponsored Burma National Army from 1943 to 1945, but, becoming disillusioned with the Japanese, he helped organize the underground resistance. After Burma gained independence from Britain on January 4, 1948, he served as the second commander in chief of the army.

      In 1958 Ne Win was asked to serve as prime minister in a caretaker government after former prime minister U Nu (Nu, U)'s administration had proved incapable of suppressing the ethnic insurgencies that were crippling the country. Ne Win held general elections in 1960, stepping down that same year after U Nu's reelection and the restoration of parliamentary government. However, on March 2, 1962, Ne Win carried out a coup d'état, imprisoning U Nu and establishing the Revolutionary Council of the Union of Burma, whose members were drawn almost exclusively from the armed forces.

      In his subsequent rule, Ne Win combined a military dictatorship with a socialist economic program, the cornerstone of which was the nationalization of Burma's major economic enterprises. His government broke Indian, Chinese, and Pakistani traders' control over the country's economy, and it embarked on an ambitious though unsuccessful program of rapid industrialization. Ne Win steered a neutralist course in foreign policy and isolated Burma from contacts with the outside world. His regime made Burma into a one-party state in 1964; the sole party permitted to exist was the Burmese Socialist Program Party (BSPP), which had been founded by Ne Win and which was dominated by military officers. Ne Win and his colleagues formulated a new constitution in 1972–73 that provided for a one-party state in Burma. A new government was elected in 1974 with Ne Win as president (1974–81). He subsequently retained the post of chairman of the BSPP, remaining the country's preeminent leader.

      By the late 1980s, Ne Win's socialist and isolationist policies had turned Burma into one of the world's poorest countries. Governmental corruption and mismanagement had driven a great deal of the country's economic activity underground into the black market, and Burma, which had once been a leading rice exporter, was beginning to experience food shortages. In late 1987 widespread antigovernment rioting broke out in the major cities, prompting Ne Win in July 1988 to resign from the chairmanship of the BSPP. The BSPP was replaced by the State Law and Order Restoration Council, which was also headed by military officers, but Ne Win remained active behind the scenes. In March 2002, however, he was placed under house arrest following the imprisonment of several family members who were accused of plotting a coup against the country's military junta; no charges were brought against Ne Win, but he remained under house arrrest until his death.

* * *