The ongoing conflicts in Burma are rooted in a deep racism pervasive throughout its various ethnic populations. Since gaining independence from Britain in 1948 the Burmese government has consistently faced uprisings by armed ethnic groups. A full military dictatorship was established in 1962 and since this time the implementation of the ‘Four Cuts’ policy, aimed at cutting off all supplies of food, funds, recruits and intelligence to opposition groups, has forced the civilian population into destitution. The result is a climate where forced relocation, forced labor, extrajudicial killings, torture, rape, human mine sweepers, intimidation of human rights defenders, continued violence against ethnic minorities and forced recruitment of child soldiers is common. Burma may now have the highest number of child soldiers in the world. In 1988 mass uprisings led by students and Buddhist monks were forcibly crushed and thousands of people are killed. In 1990, in Burma’s first multi-party elections for 30 years, the National League for Democracy, won a landslide victory but has never been allowed to govern. The media has undergone strict censorship and regulation since the military coup and, while the constitution provides for freedom of speech and the press, the government prohibits the exercise of these rights in practice. In 2007, Buddhist monks again took to the streets in a series of anti-government protests. Thousands were rounded up in a startling clear demonstration of a military crackdown on peaceful protestors. Many were tried in secret proceedings and received harsh sentences for offenses related to the demonstrations. Four lawyers representing activists were also jailed for contempt after attempts to withdraw from legal representation in protest of the unfair proceedings. When Cyclone Nargis struck Burma in 2008, the government tightly controlled emergency international assistance and denied visas and travel inside the country for disaster relief aid workers. Pro-democracy leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner, Aung San Suu Kyi has been subject to various restrictions on her activities since the late 1980s and currently remains on house arrest, denied visitors or contact with the outside world. In the past two decades she has spent 14 years in detention. Recently however she has been allowed to meet with Western diplomats and begin talks with Burmese military leaders, perhaps in response to the Obama administration’s announcement that it would engage with Burma's military junta in an attempt to promote reform.