�������t¶��

The only previous mention of Article 99 was in a December 1971 report by then Secretary-General U Thant to the council expressing his conviction that the situation in East Pakistan, now Bangladesh, and the Indian subcontinent threatened international peace and security, Dujarric said.

Thant Myint-U, an American-born Burmese historian and grandson of U Thant, the former United Nations secretary general, wrote in a recent edition of Foreign Affairs that the Myanmar army’s need for total power is ingrained.

“We are not committing a crime. We are doing our job,” said U Thant Myat Khaing, a reporter who was detained and interrogated.

Thant Myint-U has long studied the country, as both an insider and an outsider; his grandfather, U Thant, was born in colonial Burma and later became the secretary general of the United Nations.

There’s a patrician tone to the writing, as you might expect from the Harvard and Cambridge-educated grandson of U Thant, UN secretary general in the 1960s, but this is perhaps the best general introduction to Burma’s convoluted history.