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ILLUSTRATIONS Plates 1 Shwedagon pagoda being regilded. Author’s own. 2 Standard Chartered bank, Yangon. Author’s own. 3 Crumbling colonial architecture, Yangon. Author’s own. 4 Aung San, 13 January 1947. © Photo by Keystone/Hulton Archive/Getty Images. 5 Aung San Suu Kyi, 1 September 1988. © Photo by Sandro Tucci/The LIFE Images Collection/Getty Images. 6 Thein Sein, 10 April 2015. © Soe Than WIN/AFP/Getty Images. 7 Naypyidaw. © Photo by Thierry Falise/LightRocket via Getty Images. 8 Than Shwe, 27 March 2010. © Christophe Archambault/AFP/Getty Images. 9 Ne Win, 1 January 1966. © Photo by Francis Miller/The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images. 10 Nats. Author’s own. 11 Saffron Revolution, 13 December 2007. © AFP/AFP/Getty Images. 12 Chin woman, 2014. Author’s own. 13 Kachin dancing, 1 February 1962. © Photo by W. Robert Moore/National Geographic/Getty Images. 14 Teak lion. Author’s own. vii viii ILLUSTRATIONS 15 Plastic Burma. Author’s own. 16 Tin Oo, 2014. Author’s own. 17 Win Tin, 1 January 2010. © Photo by Gerhard Joren/LightRocket via Getty Images. 18 Sittwe burning, 12 June 2012. © STR/AFP/Getty Images. Maps page 1 Burma. 2 2 Rangoon: The colonial centre. 11 3 Burma and its neighbours. 43 4 Burma’s ethnic make-up. 111 1 The Shwedagon pagoda, Yangon: the most famous symbol of Burmese Buddhism during one of its periodic regildings. 2 The former headquarters of Standard Chartered bank on Pansodan Street, Yangon. One of the most modern buildings in Asia when it opened in 1941. 3 Colonial-era Yangon today. 4 General Aung San, Burma’s first liberation hero. The famous outzise greatcoat was a gift from India’s first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru. 5 Burma’s second liberation hero; Aung San Suu Kyi, the general’s daughter. 6 Hoping for something better? President Thein Sein, the leader of the reformers. 7 Naypyidaw, the new capital of Burma; General Than Shwe’s “abode of kings”. 8 Than Shwe, Burma’s most ruthless, and perhaps most surprising, military ruler. 9 General Ne Win, freedom fighter turned dictator. Ruler of Burma from 1962 to 1988. 10 Two nats, the malevolent spirits of rebels and outlaws. 11 The sangha, the monks of Burma, protesting against the government during the Saffron Revolution, 2007. 12 The Chin; amongst the poorest people in Asia. 13 The Kachin dance in front of the manau posts at a manau festival, honouring their ancestors. 14 Where Burma’s famous teak goes; a gargantuan lion for sale in Ruili, over the border in China. 15 Fantasyland – a plastic pastiche of Burma in the theme park at Ruili, China. 16 Tin Oo, general turned freedom fighter, stalwart of the National League for Democracy. 17 Win Tin, the conscience of Burma’s political opposition. 18 The dark side of reform. Muslim Rohingya fleeing their homes as Sittwe burns, 2012..

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Violent Repression in Burma: Human Rights and the Global Response
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