Director John Boorman on Burma Tour

[tun@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]

Subject: Director John Boorman on Burma Tourism

>From zar1963@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Thu Jul  6 11:57:59 1995
Date: Thu, 6 Jul 1995 11:57:40 +0630
To: tun@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (Coban Tun)
Subject: have you read this?
Cc: cwyu@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, maungthwin@xxxxxxxxxxx,
        U=Win%Counseling%OCC@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, FreeBurma@xxxxxxx,
        TMYINT@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, lsdohrs@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx,
        hag2@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, mbplatt@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx,
        cullinan@xxxxxxxxxxxxx, wu@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, frdc@xxxxxxxxxxx,
        Chochowin@xxxxxxx


Just got a fax that contained John Boorman's letter which appeared in
today's British publication "The Independent".

I thought it waswell-written and in line with our campaign. If you don't
mind please distribute it on the Net.

>From The Independent, Letters to teh Editor, July 6, 1995

TOURISM FUNDS THE TYRANTS OF BURMA
>From Mr John Boorman

        Sir: The marriage of convenience between a newspaper's editorial
and advertising content is a necessity we accept, but as the industry's own
codes of conduct recognise, there are limits.  It was disappointing
therefore to see that you accepted a full-page advertisement in the
"Independent Magazine" (1 July) for tourism in Burma.
        Your readers who may be tempted should be aware that slave labor
has been widely employed to improve roads and facilities, to bring them up
to levels expected by Western travellers.  They should also know that
SLORC, the Burmese military dictatorship, needs their money to buy even
more arms in order to continue to wage war on their ethnic minorities, and
that the elected leader of Burma, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, is entering her
seventh year of imprisonment without trial in Rangoon.

Yours sincerely,

JOHN BOORMAN
Annamoe, Co Wicklow
2 July

FYI: John Boorman is the Director of "Beyond Rangoon" which will be
released in the US on August 18, 1995.