LETTER FROM A BURMESE SCHOLAR TO IU

[tmyint@xxxxxxxxxxx]

Subject: LETTER FROM A BURMESE SCHOLAR TO IU ALUMNI

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Wed, 6 Dec 95 18:08:48 PST
To: TMyint@xxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Fwd:IU Alumni Travel to Burma
Comments by: U Win@Counseling@OCC
Originally To: Internet[jtardy@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]
Original Date: Wednesday, December 6, 1995 at 5:44:51 pm PST
Originally From: U Win@Counseling@OCC


Dear Jerry Tardy:


I am disappointed that your office has refused to omit Burma from the
alumni association organized tour of Burma. 

Your argument that alumni should be allowed to go anywhere in pursuit of
truth is indeed noble.  But, in Burma, they would only be seeing what
SLORC wants them to see.  Truth?  You must, I am sure, be aware that SLORC
is proceeding at frantic pace to tidy up the country, dislocating huge
numbers of citizens (estimated at up to 500,000) from their homes which
have been destroyed to make way for construction.  Slave labor has been
employed to build roads, structures, and other sites and places tourists
would be seeing, travelling on, or staying in. 

The US$300 each tourist must has exchange for foreign exchange
certificates of equal value go directly into SLORC's coffers which
finances their heavy weapons and military hardware purchases to further
enslave the people and keep them at bay.  You should be reading recent
statements from the White House, US Ambassador Albright's piece in The New
Republic, Amnesty International's documentation of atrocities being
committed by SLORC. 


I have been an academic for thirty years.  True, the purpose of academe is
the pursuit of truth.  But embellishing the coffers of a repressive regime
is an extremely high cost that is totally unconscionable.  If truth is
indeed your goal, please invite the Burmese ambassador in Washington to
make an appearance on your campus and grant equal time to others who have
been monitoring the Burmese scene.  Such persons/organizations are Human
Rights Watch/Asia, Amnesty International, Physicians for Human Rights,
Lawyers Committee for Human Rights, AFL-CIO.  Leave out dissident-exiles
and Burma scholars Josef Silverstein, and a few others like me. 

If you wish to check my bonafides, you had only to speak to Ken Rogers on
your campus. 

I hope you saw the motion picture "Beyond Rangoon" for which I was special
advisor to Director John Boorman and his cast and crew on location in
Malaysia.  I also acted in two very small, different parts (Buddhist monk
at the Reclining Buddha and as Aung San Suu Kyi's attorney/aide at the
night rally).  I also refer you to the "Portrait" on page 8 of The
Chronicle of Higher Education, 29 September 1995.  I have a nephew, U Mya
Win, an MP-elect, who has been sentenced to 25 years in Insein Prison. 
Are your alumni visiting Insein Prison?  Perhaps they can inquire into my
nephew's condition.  The International Committee of the Red Cross has been
denied access to all the prisons in Burma.  I may never see him again on
this earth. 


Sincerely,


U Kyaw Win
Professor/Counselor
Orange Coast College
Costa Mesa, CA 92626
win@xxxxxxxx
(714) 432-5860