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BurmaNet News: Monday, September 19
- Subject: BurmaNet News: Monday, September 19
- From: strider@xxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Mon, 19 Sep 1994 05:53:00
Subject: BurmaNet News: Monday, September 19, 1994
************************** BurmaNet **************************
"Appropriate Information Technologies, Practical Strategies"
**************************************************************
BurmaNet News: Monday, September 19, 1994
Issue #21
QUOTE OF THE DAY:
"What Burma simply lacks is a democratic and just government with
the moral fibre to pull its people out of mediaeval feudalism and
allow AIDS to come to the forefront of the national debate."
Stuart Isett in his report on AIDS in Burma
*************************************************************
Contents:
1: BKK POST: BURMA'S VICTIMS OF APATHY (AIDS)
2: BKK POST: RANGOON, KACHIN MOVEMENT TO HOLD TOP-LEVEL ECONOMIC TALKS
3: BKK POST: BURMESE RULES DETER THAI FISHERMEN
4: KHRG: SLORC VICTIMS IN NYAUNGLEBIN DISTRICT, PART 2
5: BURMANET: GETTING MAPS OF BURMA
*************************************************************
BKK POST: BURMA'S VICTIMS OF APATHY (AIDS)
16 September 1994
by Stuart Isett
Dr Myint Htwe remembers his years studying at Johns Hopkins Medical School in
Baltimore vividly. Now in his fifties, he remembers the equipment, the
shelves filled with medicines, the research facilities, and the advanced
medical diagnostic equipment that the world class medical school offered.
Now back in Rangoon, Dr Htwe works at the Contagious Disease Hospital that
sits between a girls' high school and the Aung San Stadium. The hospital is
disturbingly pleasant for someone used to the sterile and mechanical feel of
a western hospital and consists of a series of small resort-like bungalows,
surrounded by freshly planted flower beds and well kept green lawns.
When you enter the hospital it is easy to mistake it as a joyful place as the
sounds of excited, playful young girls echo out of the school next door and
staff members sit in the gardens taking their lunch as if at a picnic.
The hospital cares for patients with a variety of illnesses: TB, measles,
hepatitis and whooping cough among them. But it is the AIDS patients who are
increasingly filling the beds.
At Dr Htwe's new residence there are no shelves filled with medicines, no
IVs, no X-ray machines. Actually the only electric devices to be found are
the patients' electric hot pots and the fluorescent lights overhead that cast
an ugly green pallor on the place. Many of the medicines are black market
antibiotics smuggled in from Thailand, many already expired.
The only "equipment" to be seen is clear rubber tubing used to drain the
lungs of those with pneumonia, the fluids being unceremoniously drained into
buckets under the bed. One wondered whether even this being was smuggled in
from Thailand.
Before meeting Dr. Myint one also wondered why he ever returned to Burma, but
his commitment and passion for his people and their well being soon made him
appear almost saintly in stature.
Burma does have some AIDS prevention programmes, although real health care
for infected Burmese does not appear to be part of any programme. At the
airport exit one is greeted by a large AIDS education bill board, complete
with an animated condom, but it is hard to imagine how many Burmese, besides
the vendors and taxi drivers who serve the incoming foreign visitors will
ever see the board.
Government TV also runs 90 second spots that feature popular Burmese actors
and actresses with simple messages intended, it seems, more to scare than
educate. Besides the public service messages are only shown twice a week
according to Dr Htwe and during such "popular" SLORC shows as "Yangon City
Development Committee's report on preventing roads from flooding and better
drainage system in six downtown areas of Yangon City". It is hard to imagine
how many Burmese will get the message.
Burma now has 250 confirmed cases of AIDS and nearly 7,500 people have
confirmed HIV positive. Estimates on the actual number of Burmese infected
in the politically isolated country vary between 100,000 and 200,000, many
infected through IV drug use and the flourishing sex trade across the Thai
border where young Burmese girls are offered, in a perverse form of "safe
sex" to clients as a healthier alternative to Thai girls.
Dr Htwe was quick to point out that in Burma only 0.001 per cent of the
population is homosexual and that few HIV cases involve homosexual
transmission. His comparatively low estimate on Burma's gay community
reflects not only a certain amount of prejudice (homosexuality is usually
only associated with transvestism rather than sexual preference) but also
reflects Burma's inability to conduct effective research into the crisis and
potential risk groups.
Virtually all the studies of AIDS in the country have been conducted by
foreign NGOs and the World Health Organisation and, as Dr Htwe points out,
different groups have used different statistical methods to gauge the extent
of the AIDS crisis leading to widely ranging estimates and little certainty.
Although Thailand has far more HIV cases than Burma, Thailand enjoys much
greater economic prosperity and is blessed by a relatively stable democratic
government allowing the issue of AIDS to be effectively approached.
In a world where news is a marketable product, though, Burma's political
problems have dominated coverage, leaving the issue of AIDS to fall into
obscurity. As long as Aung San Suu Kyi remains imprisoned, and democracy is
stifled, few will have time, either inside or outside Burma, to worry about
AIDS. It is an environment in which HIV transmission will flourish.
Although many have been quick to point out that AIDS is far more troubling in
Thailand, AIDS is a disease that cannot and should not be dealt with by such
competitive motivations. The one factor that separates the crises of Burma
and Thailand or any other country is time and unlike many factors influencing
the spread of HIV, time cannot be stopped, hindered or suppressed either by
force or education.
Burma, often called "the Golden Land", is not technically, a poor country.
Blessed with bountiful natural resources that foreign investors are all to
keen to exploit, the country has simply been cursed with corrupt, oppressive
and hopelessly inefficient government. Whereas the Tatmadaw, Burma's
military, has enough money to arm, cloth, feed and care for themselves, Dr
Htwe's hospital has only 32 beds, and has to depend on family members to care
for many of the patient's basic needs.
While the presence of family members no doubt fulfills an invaluable
emotional and psychological need, there are no real medical means to prolong
the lives or ease the paid of AIDS patients at the hospital; it is simply a
way station to inevitably premature deaths.
In the United States many AIDS activists are working hard to dispel the
notion that AIDS simply means death, often replacing the ominous words "AIDS
victim" with the more hopeful and positive term "AIDS survivor". But at the
Contagious Disease Hospital, even a simple cold can quietly lead to pneumonia
and death, leaving little reason for such optimism.
As hopeful and concerned as Dr Htwe is, it was impossible to escape the
reality that in Burma, his hospital feels more like a funeral home than a
place of medicine. As I walked around with my camera, relatives straightened
clothes and bed sheets in an effort to make their loved ones more
"presentable" for the visiting photographer.
As you would see at a funeral, family members attend to every detail , hoping
that in their final days their loved ones could still look respectable and
noble, even though most patients, exhausted and in varying states of
dementia, seemed unaware of my presence. At the most tragic moments, humans
have an uncanny ability to focus on what normally seems to trite.
As i walked out of the hospital the smell of disinfectant stung my eyes as I
passed a recently vacated bad being scrubbed down for the next patient.
Again, I was reminded of a wake or funeral. The next morning someone else
would arrive to temporarily take up his space until they, too , moved on.
Relatives would come, fuss over their loved ones, mourn their deaths and then
return home in an endless cycle of life and death.
Some have equated AIDS with mediaeval plagues and at the Contagious Disease
Hospital, it was easy, in some was, to imaging such a time. But today, the
world as the means and the tools to lengthen the lives and ease th suffering
of this new plague. What Burma simply lacks, though, is a democratic and
just government with the moral fibre to pull its people out of mediaeval
feudalism and allow AIDS to come to the forefront of the national debate.
As I took a taxi back to my hotel I passed another of SLORC's ubiquitous,
simple red and white propaganda boards that in parts of Rangoon nowadays, are
being replaced by garish Sony and Toshiba neon signs. Normally written in
Burmese, this one spelled out its message in plain English and helped explain
why Dr Htwe's gallant efforts seem, for the time being, so futile:
"The Tatmadaw will never betray the National Cause."
*************************************************************
BKK POST: RANGOON, KACHIN MOVEMENT TO HOLD TOP-LEVEL ECONOMIC TALKS
17 September 1994
BURMA'S ruling military junta and the Kachin guerrilla movement
are for the first time to hold top-level talks on the future of
the rebel state, AFP quoted Kachin sources as saying in Bangkok
Yesterday. The talks between Gen Khin Nyunt, secretary-general
of the junta, and a Kachin delegations should take place "very
soon", and come after the ceasefire was signed between the two
last Feb, Seng Raw, Bangkok representative of the Organization
for Kachin Independence (KIO) told AFP.
Khin Nyunt will meet the Kachin group to be headed by Gen Tu
Jai, vice president of the Council for Kachin Independence in
Rangoon, she added.
The planned talks are expected to deal with economic and trade
issues between Rangoon and the Kachin state in the far north of
Burma, which produces the world's best jade. Other issues to be
discuses are the administrative organization of the Kachin state
and the voluntary repatriation programs for 50,000 people
displaced within Burma and the 12,000 refugees now in China,
Seng Raw added.
KIA chief staff Gen Zaw Mai was quoted as telling one of
Bangkok's English-language newspapers yesterday that the
ceasefire between the junta and the Kachin guerrillas was still
fragile.
*************************************************************
BKK POST: BURMESE RULES DETER THAI FISHERMEN
September 17
THAI fishing operators in this southern province are still
reluctant to apply for fishing concessions in Burma on the
grounds that country has set certain conditions which seem to be
impractical for them, Ranong Fisheries' Association chairman
Charoon Silawong said yesterday.
Mr Charoon said the conditions lacked detailed and were difficult
for fisherman to follow when they were at sea. He cited a period
of 25 days given by burmese authorities for Thai traders to
operate in that country's territorial waters, which would not be
enough.
Association executive Rian Mahaphanthip agreed the condition were
impractical and may force many fishing operators to turn to black
tiger prawn farming in Thai costal provinces instead. Another
executive, Ong-arj Charoenphol, said fishing operators have not
shown much interest in seeking fishing concessions from Burma
since application in the past took a lot of money and time.
A source said Burma had agreed to allow 150 trawlers registered
in this country by 17 firm to operate in this waters. These
vessels had begun to send fish to sell in Ranong.Three Thai
companies are said to be applying for concessions for the total
of 85 trawlers to operate in Burma waters.
*************************************************************
KHRG: SLORC VICTIMS IN NYAUNGLEBIN DISTRICT, PART 2
An Independent Report by the Karen Human Rights Group
September 1, 1994 / KHRG #94-22
Part 2 of 2
The following testimonies were given by civilian villagers in
Nyaunglebin District (Karen name Kler Lwe Htoo District) and 2
porters from west of the Pegu Yoma in Pegu Division. Their names
have been changed and some details deliberately omitted to protect
them, but all names and details in their stories are real. This
report may freely be used in any way which may help the peoples
of Burma.
TOPIC SUMMARY: Murder of civilians (p.2,4,5), torture (p.1,2,3,4,5,7,8),
torture and unlawful imprisonment of relatives of resistance soldiers,
including young children (p.3-6), forced portering and abuse of
porters (p.7-8), killing elderly porters (p.7), enslavement for
business purposes (p.7,8), looting (p.2,3,5), forced labour at
army camps (p.2,4,5,7,8).
++++++++++++++++++
NAME: Naw K'ser Paw SEX: F AGE: 38 Karen Buddhist farmer
ADDRESS: Ler Doh Township, Nyaunglebin District, Pegu Division
FAMILY: Married with 6 children aged 2 to 16
Naw K'Ser Paw's husband is a Karen soldier. She fled her village
and arrived in Karen-controlled territory in June 1994. She is
from a different village than Naw Ta Blu Htoo, but was arrested
on the same day.
I was arrested at the start of this year. The SLORC soldiers
surrounded the house, called us to come out and said "If you don't
come out we'll drag you out!" Then they started to punch me.
They tried to punch me in the face but they missed, then they
tried to punch me in my back but instead of me they hit my baby
son in the head. I thought he was going to die. He wasn't even
breathing. There was also a man staying at our house to protect
us, and they hit him with a gun about 10 times. There were about
200 soldiers - that's a lot! Their commander was Major Myo Tint.
They tied us up and took us to the headman's house in M--- village.
At the same time they took all our buffalos and cattle. They
kept us there 1 night, then the next day they took us to Tat Tu
camp. Along the way they made me and my baby son sit under a
hut for about 4 hours. They didn't give us any food. At Noh
Po they took our photo twice. First they made me stand under
a tamarind tree, put on my bamboo hat and hold my son, and the
second time I had to sit crosslegged with one of the bags I'd
brought along and my son in my lap. When we arrived at Tat Tu
they asked me a lot of questions about my husband and then put
us in the camp jail. The next morning they took us to a bigger
jail in Tat Tu, where they kept us for 8 days.
We were locked up together with Naw Ta Blu Htoo and her son, just
the four of us. They just kept us in the cell. My son had diarrhoea
and they wouldn't let us go out to the toilet. I thought "This
time, he's going to die. Even if he doesn't die here, he'll die
in the next place for sure". But luckily he could eat a little
bit, and one of the sentries gave him 2 tablets to stop the diarrhoea
and it stopped. The soldiers interrogated me about my husband.
They said "Ask your husband to come and surrender to us. We
won't kill him, and then you can all go live in Ler Doh." I told
them that my husband doesn't do anything for me and that I never
even see him. I'm left alone with only my baby son, just the
2 of us. They said "You're lying. We arrested you because you're
a liar", and they kept telling me to call my husband to come and
surrender. While we were there they called out some other people
in the jail and killed them. They accused those people of being
spies. We saw them digging the ground beside the jail to bury
them. Then one evening they called us so we thought they were
going to kill us because we were the only two left, each of us
with our child. I said to Naw Ta Blu Htoo, "This time I am going
to die." I couldn't carry my son with me because they'd beaten
me on my back and it was too painful, so Naw Ta Blu Htoo and I
went to them alone. They told us "We won't kill you, but we
want the truth." Then they asked us questions.
Then Major Nyo Aye took us to Thu K'Bee. On the way they tied
2 of us together and we couldn't even walk along the paddy dikes
in the ricefields. When we had to cross rivers sometimes they
were up to my waist, and I also had to carry my son. When we
got to Thu K'Bee they took us apart and tied us up separately,
then we went on to Seik Gyi, then by truck to Nat Than Gwin and
eventually to Tham Bo camp.
At Tham Bo we had to work starting at 6 a.m., clearing the bushes
and cleaning around the senior officers' houses. We had to make
fences around their houses, cut wood and carry water. There were
many other people being held prisoner with us, not only Karen
but Burmese too. There was one group of 24 people they arrested
all together. Then 20 of them were released and only 4 of them
were left. Everybody had to work, the whole world! Burmese,
Karen, everybody. The soldiers hit me on my back and kicked me
in the head. The only food we had was sent to us from our village,
it wasn't SLORC's food. Sometimes we only had rice, not even
any fishpaste or salt. They sent messages to our children and
relatives back home to bring us food but when they came they wouldn't
let us see them. If they brought salt, rice and chillies for
us then often the soldiers took it all. If they brought money
for us to buy medicines, the soldiers just took it all and never
gave it to us. We couldn't do anything about it because we were
in prison. When the people from our village couldn't come, we
were only fed once a day until they brought more food.
After 3 months at Tham Bo they took us to the police camp at Ler
Doh for 1 night and 1 day without food. Then they took us to
the court [she probably means the Township LORC office]. At the
court they told us "We arrested you because of your husbands,
not because of yourselves. Because your husbands are very bad
men. We need to kill them, though in a way I don't want to kill
them." Then I had to pay 16,000 Kyat to Ye Soe. He is the superior
of Major Myo Tint, who arrested me. I also had to pay 2,400 Kyat
when we were at the police station. They told us if we didn't
give them the money they asked for they'd put us back in prison,
so we had to give them everything because we couldn't bear to
stay there anymore. Then they released us, but even after I was
back at home they still came once a week to interrogate me. They
asked me questions and said "Your husband didn't surrender to
us. You're a liar", and they beat me up. I told them "Since
you released me I haven't seen my husband. I know nothing about
him. Just ask the village headman." The headman confirmed that
my husband hadn't been around, but the SLORC said if anyone saw
my husband around there, they'd kill our whole family. They said
they'll be watching and come back again. I got so sick I was
paralyzed for 2 days. People thought I was going to die, and
they gave me 14 or 15 IV drips before I got better. I don't know
what it was. Just after that Major Ye Soe came and ordered me
to get out of the village. I moved to my aunt's house in M---
village, but I couldn't stay there because she was afraid to get
into trouble because of me. The SLORC people there called her
in and told her they didn't want me there. They told me to go
report to the police and the army regiment office, but I didn't
want to do that after what they did to me last time. So I ran
away from that place and came here.
The SLORC had done other things to me before too. One time my
father asked me to go and buy 30 packets of cheroots for him.
I went alone, and when I passed an army post the sergeant stopped
me and said "Give me a light. I want to smoke." When I tried
to give him a light he grabbed my hand and said "Last night, 15
people slept in your house. Do you know who they are?" I told
him I hadn't seen anyone and he said "How can you say that? I
stay in my camp and I saw the people in your house." Then he
punched me. I kept telling the truth, and he slapped me in the
face. Then I stopped talking and started crying. One of my sons
and my nephew were with me. My nephew said "Auntie, SLORC is
going to beat us until we die." Then the sergeant punched him
too and his jaw swelled up. My nephew is an orphan, and he is
not strong. Then the sergeant hit me with his rifle butt, but
then he saw his chief commander coming so he released us. This
sergeant's name was Wah Ko. Another time we were just delivering
a letter to Thu K'Bee village for my father, but SLORC troops
arrived and asked what we were doing there. We told them we were
there to buy chickens but they didn't believe us, punched us and
then made us hold our ears and squat and stand up 15 times [a
children's punishment, very degrading for adults].
Back there we always had to keep running from SLORC. Only 2 of
my children went to school, one girl and one boy. They just started
school for 2 days, then we had to move. Since we've arrived here
we've been sick all the time, so we can't do anything. The mother
has to care for her sick children, and the children have to care
for their sick mother. We can't get any food so we have to buy
it, and now we've run out of money.
_______________________________________
NAME: Win Maung SEX: M AGE: 18 Burman Buddhist, trishaw driver
ADDRESS: Kyo Bin Gaut [Gyobingauk] town, south of Prome, Pegu Division
FAMILY: Single, father dead. He is an only child, and lives with
his mother.
Win Maung was encountered walking along a path in Nyaunglebin
District by a human rights worker. His hometown is over 150 km.
to the west as the crow flies, across the high hills of the Pegu
Yoma.
The police took me to be a porter, and they transferred me to
#35 Battalion based in Thayawaddy. At 35 Battalion they said,
"You're going to the Pegu Yoma". But they didn't stop there.
The night of May 27 they took me on a truck, and we only arrived
in Kyauk Kyi [on the other side of the Pegu Yoma] early the next
morning. There were 10 of us going as porters. They kept us
in the school in Kyauk Kyi, then we took a boat across the Sittang
River and rode on a truck again to Camp 60. We slept one night
there, then the next day I had to carry 4 heavy shells, 100 bullets
and one ration bag. There were about 400 porters, and the soldiers
were #35 Infantry Battalion. One of the officers was Major Soe
Win - he's a column commander.
We had to carry to Mu Thay, and we stayed nearly a month there
[given the dates of his arrest and escape, his time in each camp
may have been shorter than he estimates - but it probably seemed
that long]. The soldiers weren't fighting, they were only doing
business. At Mu Thay the soldiers were opening a big shop so
they were forcing all the porters to carry the goods for them
to sell at their shop. They ordered us to cut bamboo, dig trenches,
and do other kinds of basic labour every day. We only got to
eat once every 2 days. If some traders came along and they knew
some of the porters from Kyauk Kyi then they gave us some food.
After a month we left Mu Thay, and I had to carry a sack of rice
as well as some cooked rice. Along the way there was a steep
mountain called Hlan Hlan Taung, and I couldn't climb it with
my sack of rice so they beat me with a bamboo stick three times
on my back, then they hit me on the head twice with a gun. When
we arrived at the top of that high mountain they only gave a little
rice to each porter. I wasn't satisfied so I went and demanded
more, and Major Win Ko from 35 Battalion punched me in the mouth
and broke one of my teeth. After that we kept going and slept
one night at Nay Kya Gone hill. From there we walked to Wah Ser
Ko and stayed there nearly a week. We had to cut bamboo, make
roofing, repair the buildings and barracks, and make huts for
them. We had to carry big thick bamboo, and when I couldn't carry
them they beat me with a gun and the butt of a knife. Not only
me - they beat everyone who couldn't carry. Some of the old men
who couldn't keep up with us were beaten with guns by the soldiers.
Then they used a knife to stab them in the arms and legs and
kicked them down the mountainside. I saw them do this to three
old men who were over 50.
When we left there we had to carry rations to Yah Ko, and we stayed
over a month there. I said to Maung Hla Kyaw [not his real name
- see testimony below] "If we stay with SLORC we'll die, so we
should escape". So we escaped on July 25 at 4 a.m. We walked
all day and just before nightfall we slept beside a stream. The
next morning we walked along the stream. We thought if we didn't
run the SLORC would catch us again and we'd die, so we ran even
though we didn't have the strength to run. Then we saw 2 buffalos
by the stream, so we knew there must be a village nearby and we
decided to let the buffalos guide us there. We followed them
and finally we found a house. The people there gave us some food
and we dried our clothes, then we set out walking again and met
you.
The SLORC tortured me and my body is injured all over. I'll never
forget this. I stay with my mother and she's very old, so I work
to get money and food to give to my mother. If she has died because
I've been away then I don't want to go back home. I'll stay here
and join the Revolution.
_______________________________________
NAME: Maung Hla Kyaw SEX: M AGE: 20 Burman
Buddhist, trishaw driver
ADDRESS: Nattalin town, south of Prome, Pegu Division
FAMILY: Single, parents still alive
Maung Hla Kyaw was encountered walking along a path together with
Win Maung [see above] in Nyaunglebin District by a human rights
worker. His hometown is also over 150 km. to the west as the
crow flies, across the high hills of the Pegu Yoma.
On May 24, 1994 the police arrested me at 9 p.m. in the video
theatre and sent me to Infantry Battalion #35 in Thayawaddy.
They put us on a truck all night long to Kyauk Kyi. When we arrived
there we had to sleep 1 night, then we had to carry a basket and
cross the Sittang River. After we crossed, a truck came and carried
us to Camp 60 and we slept there 1 night. Then they sent us to
Mu Thay. On the way I had to carry a big basket that felt like
it weighed more than 30 viss [48 kg.] There were about 300 porters
there, because in Mu Thay the soldiers are opening a big shop
so we had to carry all the goods for the shop as well as the rations
and ammunition for all the soldiers. They only gave us food once
a day, sometimes only once every 2 days. It wasn't enough for
me.
In Mu Thay we stayed for nearly a month. We had to cut bamboo,
make fences, dig trenches and make buildings. Then they sent
us to Yah Ko. On the way I couldn't climb Hlan Hlan Taung mountain,
so one of the Sergeants came and beat and kicked me. He also
beat me on my knees with a bamboo [Maung Hla Kyaw has a scar on
his back from this beating]. We arrived at the Strategic Command
hill. There were a battalion of soldiers there, and they said
"We're going to release you", but then the next day they sent
us to Yah Ko. After that they said they were going to send us
to Plah Ko, so my friend and I decided that we should escape.
The soldiers slept on a platform while Win Maung [not his real
name - see testimony above] and I were tied to a stake in the
ground. We worked at it and managed to undo the rope, and we
escaped in the dark. Then we crossed the mountains and jungle
in the rain until finally we arrived here.
*************************************************************
BURMANET: GETTING MAPS OF BURMA
The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration publishes a set of
maps of Burma that may be useful to people who need detailed maps of the
country. The "Tactical Pilots Charts" printed by NOAA are 1:500,000 scale
and sell for $4.50 each. To cover all of Burma, you would need to order nine
different map sheets (three of these sheets cover only small parts of the
edges of Burma).
You can order NOAA's map catalog for free by either faxing them in the US at
301-436-6829 or writing to them at:
NOAA Distribution Branch, N/CG33
National Ocean Service
Riverdale, Maryland 20737-1199
USA
The map sheets covering Burma are:
TPCH10B * (tip of upper Kachin State)
TPCH10C (Kachin State)
TPCH10D * (Naga hills, upper Sagaing Division)
TPCJ10A (Arakan, Sagaing Division)
TPCJ10B (Shan State, Central Burma)
TPCJ10C (Thai/Burma border)
TPCJ10D (Irrawady Delta)
TPCK9B (Tenasserim Division)
TPCK9C * (Victoria Point)
Map sheets that are starred cover only small sections of Burma and can be
omitted if you don't need that section.
To pay by credit card, send your number (Visa or Mastercard) and expiration
date. A check on a US bank or an international money order payable to NOAA
will also work.
If you are in the area, you can pick maps up at NOAA's Chart Sales Office,
6501 Lafayette Avenue, Riverdale Maryland 20737 (tel: 301 436-6980)
These maps are not suitable for land navigation. You may be able to find
1:50,000 and 1:25,000 maps of Burma either through The Map Store in
Washington, DC (sorry I don't have the address) or at the US Geographical
Service's publication office, which I believe is in the Virginia suburbs of
Washington. The Map Store will be in the phone directory for Washington and
they should also know how to order from USGS. If you are going to order
detailed maps of Burma, you'll need to know either the name of a large town
on the same map sheet (map sheets take their name from the nearest large town
or well-known feature) or the grid coordinates of the area you are looking
for.
*************************************************************************
ABBREVIATIONS USED BY BURMANET:
AP: ASSOCIATED PRESS
AFP: AGENCE FRANCE PRESSE
AWSJ: ASIAN WALL STREET JOURNAL
BBC: BRITISH BROADCASTING CORPORATION
BI: BURMA ISSUES
BIG: BURMA INFORMATION GROUP
BKK POST: THE BANGKOK POST
CPPSM: COMMITTEE FOR THE PUBLICITY OF THE PEOPLE'S STRUGGLE IN MONLAND
DA: DEPTHNEWS ASIA
FEER: FAR EAST ECONOMIC REVIEW
NATION: THE NATION (DAILY NEWSPAPER, BANGKOK)
*************************************************************************
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