nguages

Literacy: age 15 and over can read and write (1990 est.)
total population: 81%
male: 89%
female: 72%

Labor force: 16.007 million (1992)
by occupation: agriculture 65.2%, industry 14.3%, trade 10.1%,
government 6.3%, other 4.1% (FY88/89 est.)

@Burma:Government

Names:
conventional long form: Union of Burma
conventional short form: Burma
local long form: Pyidaungzu Myanma Naingngandaw (translated by the US
Government as Union of Myanma and by the Burmese as Union of Myanmar)
local short form: Myanma Naingngandaw
former: Socialist Republic of the Union of Burma

Digraph: BM

Type: military regime

Capital: Rangoon (regime refers to the capital as Yangon)

Administrative divisions: 7 divisions* (yin-mya, singular - yin) and 7
states (pyine-mya, singular - pyine); Chin State, Ayeyarwady*, Bago*,
Kachin State, Kayin State, Kayah State, Magway*, Mandalay*, Mon State,
Rakhine State, Sagaing*, Shan State, Tanintharyi*, Yangon*

Independence: 4 January 1948 (from UK)

National holiday: Independence Day, 4 January (1948)

Constitution: 3 January 1974 (suspended since 18 September 1988);
National Convention started on 9 January 1993 to draft a new
constitution; chapter headings and three of 15 sections have been
approved

Legal system: has not accepted compulsory ICJ jurisdiction

Suffrage: 18 years of age; universal

Executive branch:
chief of state and head of government: Chairman of the State Law and
Order Restoration Council Gen. THAN SHWE (since 23 April 1992)
State Law and Order Restoration Council: military junta which assumed
power 18 September 1988

Legislative branch:
People's Assembly (Pyithu Hluttaw): election last held 27 May 1990,
but Assembly never convened; results - NLD 80%; seats - (485 total)
NLD 396, the regime-favored NUP 10, other 79; was dissolved after the
coup of 18 September 1988

Judicial branch: limited; remnants of the British-era legal system in
place, but there is no guarantee of a fair public trial; the judiciary
is not independent of the executive

Political parties and leaders: Union Solidarity and Development
Association (USDA), THAN AUNG, Secretary; National Unity Party (NUP;
proregime), THA KYAW; National League for Democracy (NLD), U AUNG
SHWE; and eight other minor legal parties

Other political or pressure groups: National Coalition Government of
the Union of Burma (NCGUB), headed by the elected prime min