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I'd like to share two letters with you
that i read in today's (Sunday, Feb 11)
Bangkok Post:

"In The Quiet land"

In the quiet land, no one can tell
if there's someone who's listening for
secrets they can sell.

The informers are paid in the blood of
the land
And no one dares say what the tyrants
won't stand.

In the quiet land of Burma,
no one laughs and no one thinks out
loud.

In the quiet land of Burma, you can
hear it in the silence of the crowd.

In the quiet land, no one can say
when the soldiers are coming to carry
them away.

The Chinese want a road; the French
want the oil;
The Thais take the timber; and Slorc
takes the spoils.

In the quiet land of Burma,
no one laughs...

In the quiet land, no one can hear
what is silenced by murder and cov-
ered up with fear.

But, despite what is forced, freedom's
a sound
that liars can fake... and no shouting
can drown.

In the quiet land of Burma,
no one laughs and no one thinks out
loud.

In the quiet land of Burma,
you can hear it in the silence of the
crowd.




'In Burma, watch where you walk'

SIR: I would like people who are
thinking of visiting Burma to know
of a harrowing experience I had on
a holiday there in January.

I had just returned to Rangoon on an
overnight bus from Mandalay and was
walking to my guest house when my arm
was grabbed roughly by a person in a
white uniform, who I later found out
was a traffic policeman. After
haranguing me in Burmese, he proceeded
to haul me down the street. I had no
idea what was happening, and naturally
I was quite intimidated.

I tried to stop and ask the policeman
what was happening, but he did not even
acknowledge that I was speaking to him,
and he would not relax his tight grip on
my arm. I was dragged through crowds of
people in this humiliating way for
several hundred meters to a military
truck parked in a side street. There
were already about thirty Burmese people
in the truck, all clearly scared, and it
appeared that I was going to join them.
By this time I was extremely distressed,
but no one had yet said anything to me.

Luckily, however, I was spotted by a
local tourist guide, who I had earlier
hired to take me around Rangoon. He
explained to the police and army
personnel at the truck that he was
waiting to take me to a pagoda (a lie
on his part) and translated as police
told him that I had crossed the road in
the wrong place and would have to be
taken to police headquarters where I
would be charged with jaywalking.

My friend suggested that I don't say
anything which might upset them, and
after he had talked to them for about
ten minutes, and paid a small amount of
money, the policeman finally let go of
my arm and allowed me to leave.

As you can imagine, I was both angered
and humiliated by this incident. The
guide explained that, in Rangoon,
everyone must cross between yellow
lines painted on the road. These are
the equivalent of "zebra crossings"
which are found in most countries. As a
tourist who had only been in the
country for a few days, I had no idea
of this law. There were no signs
anywhere in English that I could see,
and there was no information in the
tourist literature that I had been
given.

I had no time to complain to anyone as
my flight was leaving that afternoon,
and my guide was too scared to
accompany anywhere to make a complaint.
If this is the way that tourists are
treated during "Visit Burma Year 1996"
it can only be a resounding failure.
I would suggest that anyone thinking of
visiting Burma thinks again.

Richard Samuels, Melbourne, Australia



I also want to say that a good friend
of mine, Mr. Wey Thaung, a Burmese
student refugee in Thailand, was
captured by the Slorc forces just a few
days ago, when he inadvertently
wandered onto the Burmese side of the
border at Three Pagoda Pass in
Kanchanaburi Province. Wey Thaung, a
very gentle and kind person, is at
great risk now, since he had been
associating with supporters of Aung San
Suu Kyi and the democracy movement
while he was in Thailand, and this is
known to the Slorc officials. Anyone
who can help bring his case to the
attention of international
organizations that might be able to
secure his release would earn a great
debt of gratitude from me and his many
other friends here in Thailand.