This Week in History provides brief synopses of important historical events whose anniversaries fall this week.

25 years ago: Burmese military regime totters

In response to the continuing mass demonstrations across the country, a civilian, Dr. U Maung Maung, was appointed president on August 19, 1988. The biographer of longtime military strongman Ne Win, Maung Maung was known to be closely aligned with the military government.

Hundreds of thousands continued to demonstrate in major cities across Burma, demanding the resignation of the newly-appointed president—the third in less than a month. In the capital of Rangoon, 200,000 to 300,000 surged through the streets, bringing the city to a standstill. The country’s second largest city, Mandalay, saw a demonstration of 250,000 people—half the city’s population. Transport was shut down as train and bus workers went on strike.

By MIN ZIN

Well-known Burmese writer and poet Dagon Taya passed away at his home in the town of Aungban, Shan State, on Monday at 1 pm. He was 95 years old.

Here is a story about Dagon Taya, known as one of Burma’s greatest literary figures, from the July 2000 issue of The Irrawaddy magazine. Stay tuned for more coverage soon.

Dagon Taya, Burma’s greatest living literary figure, continues to draw strength from his convictions despite attacks from critics and political opponents. At the turn of the 20th century, Burmese literature made a remarkable departure from its traditional classicism.

By LAWI WENG & SAW YAN NAING

RANGOON — Separate clashes were reported over the weekend in north Burma’s Kachin State and east Burma’s Karen State between government-backed militias and non-state armed groups.

In Kachin State, clashes reportedly occurred on Saturday between the government-backed Kachin Border Guard Force (BGF) and the Kachin Independence Army (KIA).

San Aung, a peace broker with the KIA’s political wing—the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO)—said fighting broke out after BGF members attacked KIA bases in Chi Pwe and Sawlaw, two towns in Pangwa region, in the northern part of the state.

By Zin Linn

Press freedom of Burma is still in the midst of an uncertain circumstance. The press law or the media law is a no-win situation so far. Since the majority of media personnel rejected the formation of the Core Press Council, the interim press council was a compromise between information ministry and the defiant journalists. The latest ‘interim press council’ was formed by referencing international standard of ‘Co-regulatory System’, as mentioned on the website of the Ministry of Information. Even though interim press council was formed on 17 September 2012 in Rangoon as a substitution for the Myanmar Core Press Council, its existence will be insecure within a few months.

According to earlier media reports, the interim Press Council has been assigned the task of drafting a code of conduct and to offer its input in rewriting a draft media law proposed by the Information Ministry. Most journalists believed that press council members’ major responsibility would be helping to draft the press law.

Robert Kelley

Francis Wade

Thein Sein must come clean on the ambitions of his military to break away from Myanmar’s past.

Three years ago a defector from the Myanmar military fled the country with extensive documentation of a nascent secret nuclear programme. The chain of custody and validation of the material he possessed rivals the equivalent information currently attributed to Iran, whose own ambitions have become the target of threats of war from the US and Israel.

By Todd Watson

The ABSDF formed in the aftermath of the 8888 Uprising, which led to thousands being massacred by the military, fought alongside rebels and ethnic minority groups.

YANGOON: Earlier this month, the All Burma Students’ Democratic Front (ABSDF) agreed to a 12-point cease-fire plan with the government of Myanmar.

This is by far the most fruitful development to come from last week’s commemoration of the 25th anniversary of the 1988 pro-democracy uprising.

The ABSDF was formed in the aftermath of the 8888 Uprising, so called because it began on 8 August 1988, which led to the massacre of thousands of Burmese citizens by the military.