"The Tatmadaw in Burma have control of executive, legislative and judicial power and the Parliament has not met since before the Tatmadaw seized power by military coup d? etat on the 18th September 1988, installing the State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC), predecessor of the present State and Peace and Development Council (SPDC). The SPDC is the creature of the Tatmadaw (Burma?s Armed Forces), as was the Tatmadaw's Burmese Socialists Program Party's (BSPP) Revolutionary Council that ruled Burma for many years up until 1988. For functional purposes they are one and the same group, in essence a military junta exercising the power of dictatorship..."