DECLASSIFIED UK
By Phil Miller and Matt Kennard• 14 April 2021
The terrible scenes of young people being gunned down by Burma’s military junta should make British diplomats think hard about why their policy of aiding and trading with the regime went so wrong.
It was not long ago that General Min Aung Hlaing, the leader of the recent military coup in Burma (also known as Myanmar), was being fêted by the UK.
In 2013, he met General Sir David Richards, the then head of Britain’s armed forces, who praised Burma’s “remarkable progress” in moving towards democracy and described Hlaing as “highly intelligent and well-intentioned”.
After decades of dictatorship, Burma’s military had freed its most high profile political prisoner, Aung San Suu Kyi, and was finally letting her run the country in league with the army.