"Amidst growing political and social turmoil in many parts of the country, Burma?s various mineral industries shrank, weakened or, in some cases, even disappeared as investment capital, technical expertise, equipment replacement, and labor availability all became increasingly scarce. After years of self-imposed isolation from the mainstream of international investment, development, and trade, Burma?s centrally planned economy unraveled to the point of crisis in 1987 when the Government repudiated and demonetized all banknotes over 15 kyat, nominally about $2.34. The real or black-market rate was about $0.30 to $0.35, however, and the citizens of Burma found their savings destroyed. This was the final event in General Ne Win?s ?Burmese Way To Socialism,” begun in 1962, which turned a comparatively rich nation into one of the world?s poorest. Amidst intense civil unrest and brutal suppression of demonstrations, Ne Win stepped down in July 1988. By September of that year, after chaos and bloodshed, General Saw Maung emerged as the leader of a military junta that established itself as the Government of Burma. With an economy in shambles, a 30% inflation rate, a foreign debt of $5.3 billion, and a debt-service ratio of nearly 100%, the various ethnic areas such as the Shan State of eastern Burma and the Kachin State of northern Burma took issue with the junta?s attempts to govern and began to behave independently. Karen rebels, for example, announced the prohibition of mining or logging by the Government in Rangoon or its contractors in Karen territory. A provisional alliance of several ethnic and territorial groups has joined forces, such as they are, to resist the Rangoon junta. Meanwhile the Government, after announcing that democratic elections were to be held in May 1990, had not only detained and imprisoned prominent opposition leaders and supporters, but so proscribed the conditions of the election as to probably throw the results into limbo. The single factor for potential redemption of the country was finally invoked by the junta in 1989, more or less as a last-ditch attempt to retain power by abruptly abandoning its isolationist policies. With little or no idea as to how business actually works, the leaders of the junta were reported as believing Burma to be rich on the basis of its natural resources. This belief was without regard to the fact that in the ground such resources produce no wealth, no capital flow, and no prosperity..."