Travel to Burma? NO!

[brelief@xxxxxxx]

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THE DAILY YOMIURI
October 14, 1995

Letters to the Editor

Improbable  window'

We are writing in response to David Flack's letter "Travel to
Myanmar?  Yes" (Oct 8 P5), in which he rationalized accepting
the invitation to visit Burma (Myanmar) issued by the State
Law and Order Restoration Council, that country's military
dictatorship.

Flack claims he wants to befriend Burmese people.  Great.  So
why not start with one of the thousands of Burmese here in
Japan?  Many of them are political refugees who cannot return
to their families as long as people like Flack insist on propping
up SLORC with their tourist dollars, beginning with the $300
payment to the military junta upon arrival.  "Small change" in
Flack's deep pockets, but lots of bullets in the guns of a
government soldier.

Alternatively, Flack could travel to the Thai - Burma border
and befriend some of the tens of thousands of Burmese refugees
there.  He might want to pack some rice, a box of clothes or
some medicine along with his expansive knowledge.

Inside Burma, however, Flack's being a "window ... to the
outside world" is highly improbable.  Does he know more than
the BBC and VOA announcers to whom educated English - and
Burmese - speaking citizens listen avidly?  Does he speak any
of the hundreds of dialects by which people in the neglected
frontier regions communicate?  Does he imagine that he, the
tourist, rather than the Burmese citizen he hopes to edify, will
be punished for any conversations of a political nature
overheard by the omnipresent military intelligence?

If Flack better understood the relationship between tourism and
militarism in Burma, he would not wish to go there. It is he,
therefore, and not the Burmese citizen, who suffers from a lack
of information.  Or maybe he just suffers from a lack of
conscience.

Carol Schlenker and Aung Thu
Tokyo



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