BurmaNet News: October 17, #253

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------------------------ BurmaNet ------------------------
"Appropriate Information Technologies, Practical Strategies"
----------------------------------------------------------

The BurmaNet News: October 17, 1995
Issue# 253

Noted in Passing:
Of course I prefer my Shakespeare and Charles Dickens but these
days I have to read whatever trash comes my way. - Kyaw Min, a resident
of Rangoon, on the difficulty of finding and buying decent books.
(quoted in: BKK POST: WHY KYAW MIN READS TRASH INSTEAD 
OF CLASSICS)


HEADLINES:
==========
BKK POST: WHY KYAW MIN READS TRASH INSTEAD OF CLASSICS
INDEPENDENT REPORT: NOTES ON BURMA TOURISM
NATION: UN HUMAN RIGHTS INVESTIGATOR VISITS BURMA'S MINORITIES
ISBDA: JAPAN TO CONSTRUCT SOLAR POWER STATIONS IN BURMA
INDEPENDENT LETTER: TO UNHCR(GENEVA) AND THAI PM 
----------------------------------------------------------

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************************

BKK POST: WHY KYAW MIN READS TRASH INSTEAD OF CLASSICS
October 16, 1995

Cut off form new books by years of censorship and economic
stagnation, the Burmese are desperate for a good read.
S.SATYANARAYAN reports on the widespread information famine in
Rangoon.

Sitting in his ramshackle hut in suburban Rangoon, at 45 Kyaw Min
is too old to be reading teenage novels and yet he is enjoying
the experience. Given the sheer shortage and high cost of
English-language books in Burma, he has little choice.

"Of course I prefer my Shakespeare and Charles Dickens but these
days I have to read whatever trash comes my way," he explains.

It is a dilemma common to thousands of educated Burmese who do
not know that concept of choice when it comes to information.
They have been shut out from the rest of the world by three
decades of military rule and subject to severe censorship. The
rising prices of published material is only the latest addition
to their cup of intellectual woes.

Since the opening up of the economy in 1990, prices of almost all
essential commodities have risen several-fold and books have been
a major casualty. In a country where the highest government
salary does not exceed 3000 kyat (12,500 baht), the starting
price for English-language books is 600 kyat (2,083.25 baht),
well above the reach of most citizens.

The scarcity of foreign exchange has also held back imports of
newly-published material, leaving already bare bookshops even
emptier.

"Leave alone literature, many educational institutions in the
country don't even have textbooks for their students in several
subjects," says a Rangoon University lecturer. He says many
schools and colleges now lend out the same set of textbooks to
students year after year to overcome shortages.

Burma's 45-plus universities and colleges produced 27,000
graduates last year, of whom nearly 2,000 were engineers and
health professionals. But the lack of up-to-date educational
material and research literature is creating a large pool of
qualified yet ignorant manpower.

Most citizens blame the military rulers for the dismal state of
educational institutions and the failure to nurture the
intellectual capabilities of the people.

"Before the coup, Burma was easily east Asia's most forward-looking 
economy with a large number of very skilled and educated personnel", 
says Dr Sein Win, who remembers how several Burmese universities 
once had standards comparable with those in the West.

Apart from stifling all intellectual discussion in educational
institutions, the military - which came to power through a coup
in 1962 - is also accused of taking the country back in time by
banning the teaching of English at the primary school level and
implementing a "Burmese only" policy.

Though the policy was relaxed in the late 1980s, the damage had
been done with the creation of an entire generation of students
with little knowledge of English.

Another major factor preventing intellectual development has been
the backwardness of the economy, which has been unable to create
enough jobs for the number of qualified people.

It is common in Rangoon to see post-graduate students working as
taxi drivers and engineers running roadside shops.

"The biggest problem in Burma is the fact that most of the officials 
overseeing educational affairs come from military backgrounds with 
little education or understanding of it," says a Burmese writer.

Throughout the military's reign, students and teachers, he points
out, have been the regime's main opponents and are seen by it as
a "natural enemy."

Since the 1988 pro-democracy agitation, which was largely led by
students the military authorities have been trying to "depoliticise" 
campuses.

Re-opened in 1992 after three years' closure, universities are
now under strict surveillance for signs of "dissident" activity,
which includes publishing any literature, organising debates and
staging plays and song performances.

But one of the dilemmas facing the military regime is that its
attempts to open up the economy is also inadvertently exposing
the population to foreign influences.

With foreign investment worth US$2.5 billion (62.5 billion baht)
flowing in since 1990 and thousands of visitors entering the
country every year, it is experiencing increasing difficulty in
controlling the influx of uncensored information in the form of
books, video and audio cassettes.

A good example of the problem confronting the regime concerns its
decision a few years ago, under pressure g form the tourism
lobby, to allow the setting up of satellite dishes by hotels 
catering to foreign tourists. In April this year the government
stopped issuing licences and cracked down on the scores of
illegal dishes that had sprung up all over the country.

Worried that rising inflation might spark off political riots, the regime 
has also started jamming the programmes of the British Broadcasting 
Corporation and Voice of America. Radio has become the main means 
by which many Burmese keep abreast of events in and outside Burma.

"In this day and age no regime can keep its people in the dark
forever. It is a losing game", says an Asian diplomat in Rangoon.

Censorship, he points out, could not keep the regimes of Eastern
Europe from collapsing under the weight of their own lies. _
Gemini news

********************

INDEPENDENT REPORT: NOTES ON BURMA TOURISM
(Notes by Kevin Heppner, also of Karen Human Rights Group)

Despite the situation in Burma, a growing number of tour groups
are planning tours capitalizing on SLORC's "Visit Myanmar Year
1996". Some tour companies appear to have picked up on the
SLORC's promotions and are fervently promoting these tours. In
the USA, one such tour company is:

Thomas P. Gohagan and Company
224 South Michigan Ave., Suite 220
Chicago, Illinois 60604
Tel: (312) 922-3002

Gohagan has mainly been targetting University Alumni
associations, getting them to offer tours to their members in the
$5,000-7,000 range, centred around a cruise up the Irrawaddy
River from Rangoon to Mandalay on the MV "Road to Mandalay".
There are currently reports that Alumni Associations at
Northwestern (Evanston, IL), Yale, Michigan (Ann Arbor), Indiana
(Bloomington), University of Southern California, and many other
Universities are currently promoting the tours to their Alumni (a
full list would be useful if available). UCLA was also planning a
tour, but cancelled it after being briefed on the situation in
Burma. Gohagan is not only hitting Alumni Associations, but is
also hitting groups interested in Art and Culture - the Chicago
Art Institute is reportedly also planning a tour.

Gohagan is supplying the glossy literature for the Associations
to use, customized with the Association's name inserted. Of
course, no mention of any problems is made - "Myanmar" is
characterized as a beautifully "serene" country coated with
flower blossoms and gold. The first sentence reads "To find an
unspoiled country today may seem impossible, but Myanmar, called
Burma in the days of the Raj, is such a place." Is that Ne Win's
Raj they mean? But Gohagan encloses an explanation for the name
change: "Within the last decade, the government, wishing to
preserve the nation's indigenous character, has reverted to
calling the country and the main cities by their original Burmese
names, which may cause confusion." People from Burma may be
interested to read that "Myanmar has absorbed the best of its
neighbors' cultures and, poised between India and China, has
developed a character that is distinctly its own." You can "Visit
the villages of Mingun and Sagaing, their hillsides decorated
with temples and fragrant blossoms. Marvel at the 12th- and
13th-century temples and pagodas along the Bagan (Pagan) plain."
And so on. A photo of a monk on a quiet street is captioned
referring to the "serenity" of the country, noting that the rural
areas are "especially serene". No war. No military. No politics.
No problems. These words don't even occur once - except in the
fine print on the back page, where Gohagan includes a standard
disclaimer stating "We can assume no responsibility nor liability
in whole or in part for any delays, ..., acts of God,
circumstances beyond our control, force majeure, war, quarantine,
political conditions, ..., accident, sickness, injury or death to
person or property, or mechanical defect, failure or negligence
of any nature howsoever caused ..." - about 50 things are listed
for which Gohagan refuses to be responsible, but I'll leave them
out for brevity. You'd think, though, that since the traveller assumes 
full risk and responsibility in the event of war, they might appreciate 
being told that Burma has been at civil war for the past 47 years.

In order to stop these tours, Gohagan is an obvious target, but
there is probably a greater chance of success by going after the
Alumni and other associations who are planning to go. This
approach already worked with UCLA. While Gohagan probably has no
ethics whatsoever, the Alumni Associations are vulnerable to
pressure from their own members and from the student body at
their Universities (after all, student fees probably support the
Alumni Association in most cases). It is imperative that action
begin IMMEDIATELY, as many of these tours are scheduled for
Jan/Feb 1996, and by December bookings will probably be fairly
solidly confirmed. Gohagan's tour includes short stops in
Thailand and Hong Kong (where you can "Attend a specially
arranged presentation at the exclusive China Club to learn about
the changeover in governance in 1997."!) - so maybe you can push
them to replace Burma with India or some other place. The best
way to start is to check at your own University or Alma Mater
whether they have a trip planned, and if they do then get to
work. Usually there is a Professor who gets a free trip to be the
"expert" guide along the way.

Of course, they will probably try to come back with the usual
arguments people use to rationalize their visits to poor countries, 
like "If lots of tourists go then this will improve the situation in 
the country, because the government will have to hide its abuses 
from the tourists, and because I'll learn about the situation and tell 
my 3 friends when I get home and this will be a big help to these 
poor people." So here are some counter-arguments:

1) SLORC tightly restricts where you can go, so you still can't
see the supposedly "serene" rural areas or meet the people who
live there. In popular places like Pagan, the SLORC forcibly
relocated 5,000 people off their land specifically so you
COULDN'T meet them. If people try to talk to you, they face
possible arrest and interrogation under torture. The Gohagan tour
is exactly what SLORC likes best: a group of people led by guides
with an interest in hiding the dark side of the situation,
spending great chunks of cash in a short time period and
travelling on a luxury cruise ship up the river - thereby
ensuring that they will have no contact whatsoever with local
people.

2) US$300 buys 2,500 assault rifle bullets. Each person has to
hand over US$300 in hard currency to SLORC on arrival. In return
you receive "Foreign Exchange Certificates", which you generally
exchange for Kyat with street traders. Either way, SLORC keeps
your $300. To carry your 2,500 bullets to the frontline or rural
areas, SLORC will conscript 1.2 adult males (average load for an
adult male porter is 2,000 bullets), or 2 women, or 2 children
under 15, or 2 people over 60, as forced porters. These porters
may die along the way from the ordeal and have to be replaced. In
the rural villages, your bullets will be loaded into the
magazines of SLORC soldiers and fired, usually at unarmed
civilians. Many will be used to kill livestock and uncooperative
villagers in areas where there is not even any fighting. SLORC's
soldiers are mainly conscripted teenagers, so we will take a very
conservative estimate that they will only hit people with 1 in
100 bullets. That still leaves 25 people maimed or killed with
your $300. Of this 25, a maximum of 5 will be ethnic opposition
soldiers. The rest will be defenceless villagers. Anyone who
believes this is worth it as long as they tell 3 friends about
Burma when they get home had better have Boutros Boutros-Ghali,
Bill Clinton and Colonel Sanders high on their list of friends.
Better yet, why not just tell your 3 friends and NOT go?

3) Tourism causes forced labour in Burma. The forced labour to
clear the muck out of the bottom of the Mandalay Palace moat for
the viewing pleasure of tourists has been well-documented. At
least 20,000 civilians and close to as many convicts in shackles
have been used for this. When commenting on the use of convicts,
don't ignore what they are in prison for: I have met many
convicts who have escaped such forced labour projects, and the
following is a list of some of the most common "crimes": trying
to sell goods on the open market without a SLORC "license";
getting in an argument with a policeman or soldier in a teashop;
throwing a rock at an army truck; writing graffiti; being a
retired opposition soldier; being out after curfew; or being
caught with pro-democracy magazines. Other forced labour projects
for "Visit Myanmar Year" currently ongoing include: the
construction of a ring road around Mandalay, construction work on
the Rangoon-Pegu road (where mostly women and children are
breaking rocks), work to develop the airports at Mingaladon and
Bassein, and dozens of other forced labour projects, each
including thousands of people. Forced labour was stepped up this
year on the southern (Tavoy-Ye Pyu) section of the 110-mile
Ye-Tavoy railway in Tennasserim Division.

The railway, which has enslaved over 100,000 villagers in rotating 
shifts since 1993, is far from finished - but labour intensified in this 
southernmost 10-mile section this year so that SLORC could officially 
"open" this section. SLORC officials told the villagers this was so 
tourists flying into Tavoy in 1996 would think SLORC has built a 
railway all the way north to Rangoon. There is even a sign at the 
beginning of the railway saying this. Of course, tourists are not to be 
allowed to go up this railway.

4) Tourism projects are causing forced relocation. It is well
known that 5,000 villagers from Pagan were forcibly relocated by
SLORC a few years ago to keep them away from tourists. Similar
relocations continue to occur. SLORC is now confiscating or
planning to confiscate prime farmland in some parts of the
country to build golf courses and beach resorts, evicting the
villagers without compensation. In Rangoon and Mandalay, SLORC
has forcibly relocated entire neighbourhoods out of the city into
"New Towns" (swamps and dustbowls with no facilities far from
people's jobs in the city) with little or no compensation, and is
bulldozing the neighbourhoods to make room for foreign-financed
hotels and factories. The new hotels are given priority access to
the already insufficient water and power supplies, causing
surrounding neighbourhoods to suffer water shortages and
blackouts.

5) SLORC is reportedly conducting forced relocation to build a
"Human Zoo" near Rangoon. SLORC does not want to allow tourists
access to remote areas, so it is forcing some ethnic people from
remote areas to move to the human zoo so tourists can photograph
them. Possibly the worst case of this involves Kayan women (also
known as Padaung, the women often put brass rings around their
necks and legs starting in childhood, eventually leading to an
exotic "long-neck" appearance).

Being from remote highland forests, these women will suffer
severely from the hot and dusty lowland climate - but worse yet,
the emotional and psychological effect of being uprooted from
their villages, forced into a foreign society and paraded like
circus animals in front of tourists will be devastating if not
fatal.

6) People are suffering from SLORC's attempt to "beautify" the
cities for tourists. Everyone in cities and provincial towns is
now subject to SLORC orders forcing them to paint their houses to
specification and build fancy cement walls and iron gates in
front of their houses to impress foreign visitors. Families who
cannot afford to do this are evicted from their homes and forced
to "New Towns" and their house is given to a military family, for
whom the SLORC pays for the work to be done.

To avoid eviction, many families must go into multi-year debt to
comply with this order. In Mandalay, SLORC wanted to widen the
avenue in front of Mandalay Palace so tourists would have a
better view - so they brought in heavy equipment and bulldozed
the front half off of all the houses across the street,
reportedly without compensation.

7) Some of the hotels being built in Rangoon are owned by Lo
Hsing Han, a Chinese warlord from Shan State with close ties to
SLORC. Lo is known worldwide as one of Burma's leading heroin
traffickers, and there is evidence that several of the tourist
hotel projects in Rangoon are being used to launder heroin money.
Burma now supplies about 60 percent of the world's heroin.

Any points which can be added to the above list would be
appreciated. Just to make all of this worse, SLORC's Tourism
Minister Lt. Gen. Kyaw Ba even went so far as to announce that
1996 might have to start in October instead of January, simply
because all of the (forced labour) tourism projects won't be finished 
in time. As long as SLORC sees tourism as a potential cash cow, 
the reasons not to go to Burma as a tourist can only grow longer.

 *********************************

NATION: UN HUMAN RIGHTS INVESTIGATOR VISITS BURMA'S MINORITIES
October 15, 1995   Associated Press

A visiting United Nations human rights investigator, Prof Yozo Yokota of Japan, travelled on Friday to one of the country's eastern ethnic states to meet minority leaders and investigate living conditions, the government news agency reported.

he went to Myitkyina, the capital of Kachin state, 950 kilometres north of Rangoon. From there he will travel to Kyaington in Shan State. The investigator for the Geneva-based UN Human Rights Commission arrived in Burma on Oct 8 for a 10-day visit. It is 


his fifth mission here since 1991.

In Rangoon he met with government officials and politicians, including dissident leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who was released from house arrest in July. The United Nations, along with many Western nations and international human rights organizations, has con

demned Burma's military government for human rights abuses and failing to make democratic reforms.

The US State Department has charged that some of the most egregious human rights violations take place in the ethnic states along the country's eastern border. Yokota is scheduled to meet Lt-Gen Khin Nyunt, considered the most influential member of the mi

litary government, tomorrow before departing the next day. (TN)

*******************

ISBDA: JAPAN TO CONSTRUCT SOLAR POWER STATIONS IN BURMA
October 16, 1995.

Japanese business and technology  newspaper Nikkan Kogyo Shimbun reported
today that  Japan's Ministry of Trade and Industry  (MITI) is planning to launch 
a feasibility study program on the development of new  electric power stations in 
Burma and other five countries in Asia. 

The program is administered by a nominally government-controlled
organization named as the New Energy Development Organization (NEDO)  and
it will take one year to find out possibility of solar energy power station
establishment in Burma while model business-operation areas are being
constructed in the mean time. This type of program is said to be intended
for transfer of Japanese technology to Burma and also to increase number of
environment-friendly electric power generators in the region. The report
did not mention total cost of the project or the estimated cost per one
unit of electricity  if the program is considered successful.

_The Solar Energy  for Third World?_

Regarding this new energy  issue,  ISBDA would like to share the following
facts to the readers:

By means of modern technology, the Electricity  generated by  any safely
operated solar power system will cost about US$ 10.00  for one Watt energy.

About 150W is generally considered as minimum requirement for a household
in a Third World Country.  With this energy  running a  set of TV & Video
and a fluorescent lamp is possible if they exist there in their home.
A lucky Burmese citizen usually earns  US$ 200. per year, which is just
enough to by Japan's solar energy of 20 Watts. 

 _Even in Japan_

A Japanese usually consumes 1000 times more than a Burmese does in terms of
electricity. This large consumption rate led Japan to invest in a new
project called SUNSHINE PROJECT. After recent NEDO guided Sunshine projects
conducted in Japan,  the government persuaded Japanese consumers to install
solar electric generators at their homes to cover part of their 
electricity consumption. Due to extremely  high cost (US$18/Watt), most 
consumers could not effort  to install the new system even the government
offered last year to support some 50% of the initial cost.

>From these facts,  ISBDA  can say that Burmese people will need to return 
all their earning  for more than a decade to Japan via SLORC as their newly
installed power system  can keep a television set on.

**********************

INDEPENDENT LETTER: TO UNHCR(GENEVA) AND THAI PM 
October 12, 1995

(Editor's Note: The Editor of BurmaNet strongly disagrees with Dr. U Ne
Oo's proposal.  It is not safe for the Burmese refugees to return to Burma 
at this time.  The recent arrest of Ye Htut and the continued imprisonment
of numerous political prisoners in Burma clearly indicates the SLORC's
attitude toward those who have been involved in political activities.  Moreover,
the repatriation of the Rohingyas, which Dr. U Ne Oo refers to, has been a 
disaster.  Not only have refugees been repatriated against their will, but also
many who returned were promptly taken off as porters for the SLORC army.) 

          48/2 Ayliffes Road, St Marys SA 5042, Australia


To: Ms Sadako Ogata
       UN High Commissioner for Refugees
       Case Postale 2500, CH - 1211 Geneva 2 Depot, Switzerland

Dear High Commissioner

RE: Repatriation of Burmese Refugees from Australia and Thailand
----------------------------------------------------------------
Firstly, I should like to thank the High Commissioner for your continuing
attention to the situation of refugees from Burma. I also wish to express
my sincere appreciations to the Branch Offices of UNHCR in Canberra
and Bangkok in particular, for their continuing assistance to ensure the
safety of the refugees residing in Thailand. As a Burmese refugee, I am
particularly encouraged that the UNHCR become increasingly interested in
addressing the root causes of human displacements regarding Burma.
I have recently received the newsletter from UNHCR about the repatriation
of Rohingyas to Burma. In spite of precarious situation existing in my
home land, it has always been the refugee's dream that one day we will
be able to return to Burma.

In this connection, I have enclosed my appeal to the Government of
Australia to promote a Memorandum of Understanding with UNHCR for the
repatriation of Burmese refugees from Australia. I also appeal
the UNHCR to promote a formal Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with
the Royal Thai Government for the repatriation of Burma's refugees
from Thailand. My appeal to the Royal Thai Government to cooperate with
UNHCR in promoting an MOU is also included for your information.

Our refugee communities shared the view that the cease-fires that followed
by the political settlement by various parties to the conflict as the important
factor for building a long-lasting peace. Therefore, appeals have been made
to the United Nations Security Council to implement a nationwide
cease-fires in Burma. In order to deter the build-up of military machinery
in Burma, which has been a major source of instability to that country, the
UN Security Council have been urged to implement international arms
embargo. I wish the UN High Commissioner to assist and support us in
implementing these measures.

I further wish to request the UNHCR to make adequate funding for various
Quick Impact Projects that currently implementing in Arakan State, West of
Burma.  I also wish to advocate the increasing of UN personnel within Burma
for monitoring returnees/refugees.

Finally, I thank you for your kind attention to Burmese refugees and
Burma matters. We, the refugees, are in much hope that we will soon be able
to live in Burma peacefully.

Yours respectfully and sincerely





U Ne Oo

Copy to:

[1] Dr Pierre-Michel Fontaine, The Regional Representative for Australia,
Branch Office of UNHCR, 9 Terrigal Crescent, O'malley ACT 2606, AUSTRALIA.

[2] Mr Ruprecht von Arnim, The Regional Representative for Thailand,
Branch  Office  of  UNHCR,  P.O.  Box  2-121,  Rajdamnern,  Bangkok  10200,
THAILAND.

/* -----------" Letter to the Thai Prime Minister "------------ */
Dr U Ne Oo
48/2 Ayliffes Road
St Marys SA 5042
AUSTRALIA

October 12, 1995.

Mr Barnharn Silapa-acha
Prime Minister
Government House
Thanon Nakhon Pathon
Bangkok 10300
Thailand

Dear Prime Minister

I am a Burmese national presently residing in Australia and I firstly
should like to thank you and your administration for continuing
humanitarian support for the refugees and displaced people from Burma.
Burmese nationals are grateful to the Royal Thai Government and, particularly,
the people of Thailand for their understanding and tolerance towards
Burma's refugees. We sincerely appreciate  your Government's cooperation
with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees for arranging
better security for the Burma's Karen refugees.

I should like to call your kind attention to the situation of Burmese
students who were detained for their non-violent activities in the
Special Detention Center in Bangkok. These Burmese students are still
at young age and the previous administration had taken action against
their youthful behaviour in protesting the Myanmar Military Government.
I appeal you to release those students from Special Detention Center.

I further appeal the Royal Thai Government to promote a Memorandum of
Understanding with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
for the organized repatriation of refugees to Burma. Various refugee
community from Burma have already expressed their interests in voluntary
repatriation to Burma. Therefore, I appeal your government to cooperate
with the UN High Commissioner for Refugees in solving Burma's refugee
problem.

Finally, I thank you for your kind attention to this matter.

Your respectfully and sincerely

U Ne Oo.

**********************