Overview
The Tatmadaw Government, officially the Government of the Union of Myanmar, was a totalitarian provisional military government that had ruled Burma (Myanmar) since the collapse of the constitutional socialist regime in 1988 until the new constitutional government took power in 2011. Direct military rule was established on 18 September 1988 when the military junta, namely the State Law and Order Restoration Council, came into power. The SLORC was dissolved and the junta was reconstituted as the State Peace and Development Council on 15 November 1997. On 30 March 2011, Senior General Than Shwe, the SPDC Chairman, signed a decree that officially dissolved the SPDC, ending the direct military rule that had lasted for more than two decades.