LA Times article on Burmese Expatri

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Subject: LA Times article on Burmese Expatriates in America

                     Copyright 1996 Times Mirror Company
                               Los Angeles Times

                     March 11, 1996, Monday,  Home Edition

SECTION: Part B; Metro; Metro;  Page 1

LENGTH: 1666 words

HEADLINE: Burmese Press Their Cause Here Resistance: Expatriates are becoming
more organized and vocal in their opposition to the military junta that rules
their homeland. Living with the memory of protesters slain in 1988, many toil at
menial jobs while campaigning for democracy.

BYLINE: K. CONNIE KANG, TIMES STAFF WRITER

BODY:
When KoLatt lies down to sleep in his modest room in Alhambra after a long day's
work as a packer, he often pictures the magnificent rain forests and
sun-drenched beaches of his beloved Burma.

   More often than not, however, his memories of the lush jungles and tranquil
waters are pushed aside by another image--the bloodied faces of his classmates,
slaughtered by soldiers during the 1988 pro-democracy protest at the University
of Rangoon.

   It is the remembrance of the 49 friends murdered before his eyes that keeps
KoLatt packing boxes by day and working the telephone and fax machine by night.

   "Because I'm alive, I owe it to them to continue the movement to free
Burma," said KoLatt, 32, his gentle demeanor belying a steely determination.

   KoLatt belongs to a small but growing Burmese expatriate community of about
10,000 in Southern California that is becoming more organized and vocal in its
resistance to the military junta in Myanmar.

   Like KoLatt, many Burmese activists toil at menial jobs, beneath their
training and education, because they want more time to give to the cause. They
live together in cooperative arrangements to reduce expenses. And, like KoLatt,
their dream is to return to a democratic homeland.

   For KoLatt, a slender man with a shock of black hair, his whole life revolves
around the lonely struggle. Awake or asleep, he says, Burma is on his mind.

   "I love my country even more since I came to America," he said, adding:
"Please call it Burma, not Myanmar. That's the name the military gave to try to
fool the world."

   KoLatt's readiness to make sacrifices for democracy is not an easy thing for
Americans to comprehend, says anthropologist Carol Richards, a Burma specialist
and co-founder of the Los Angeles-based Burma Forum, an organization that
coordinates the movement in California. Most Americans take freedom for granted
because they haven't had to make life and death choices for democracy, she said.



   Democracy is a guiding power by which KoLatt lives.

   "Every decision KoLatt makes, including the one to talk to The Times, is
based on whether it will benefit the people of Burma," said Richards, who has
worked closely with him for the past five years.

   "Ironically, every decision he makes to help Burma takes him one further step
from going back home--another clang of the door closing."

   KoLatt, a devout Buddhist, is not afraid.

   On his chest, he wears a button with a picture of his hero, Aung San Suu Kyi,
the Burmese opposition leader who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991 while she
was under house arrest.

   It reminds him: "Fear is a habit. I am not afraid. Free Suu. Free Burma."

   And, on his back, he wears a shirt that says:

   I am wounded,

   But I am not dead as yet.

   Let me down

   and let me bleed a while.

   Tomorrow,

   I will rise and fight again.

   *The 1988 military crackdown forced KoLatt and thousands of pro-democracy
proponents to flee. Most live as refugees on Myanmar's borders with Thailand,
Bangladesh, India and China, where many of Burma's indigenous peoples also
dwell.

   Others managed to get away to Japan, Europe and North America, where they
maintain an international network that stretches from Los Angeles to Tokyo and
New York to Paris.

   They are succored by non-Burmese human rights activists, such as Richards,
who befriend and help them overcome the barriers of language, culture and
institutions and offer Western know-how.

   In the United States alone, more than 80 campus and community groups support
the Burmese movement.

   A focus of their campaign has been Unocal, the Los Angeles-based energy
company, and its prominent role in building a $ 1-billion pipeline in Myanmar.

   Critics say the pipeline will enrich the illegitimate regime, plunder one of
the largest remaining tropical rain forests and disperse villagers along its
route--charges denied by Unocal.



   "We are trying to speak for the people who cannot speak," KoLatt said. He
said forced labor is being used in the project--a charge denied by Unocal.

   "It's an uphill battle because giant corporations, such as Unocal, have all
the resources," said Richards. "We're just volunteers trying to bring the issue
to public light."

   A boycott campaign against Unocal gas stations and demonstrations in front of
the company headquarters are part of the pro-democracy campaign here.

   Much that goes on, however, is unseen--a vigil of nameless people reaching
across geographical, linguistic and cultural boundaries.

   The work is risky for Burmese nationals.

   Despite the 10,000 miles that separate him and Burma, KoLatt feels the long
arm of the State Law and Order Restoration Council, or SLORC, a panel of
soldiers who rule the country now known as Myanmar.

   Informants watch his movements, have his picture taken at demonstrations and
monitor his mail and phone calls to Myanmar, he said.

   Officials with the Myanmar Embassy did not respond to Times requests for
comment on the allegations or the activities of the resistance movement.

   His activities have made relatives back home targets of government
surveillance, too.

   "Sometimes agents show up at their home after midnight to check who is
sleeping under the mosquito nets," he said.

   When KoLatt called his sister earlier this year, she told him not to contact
her again, he said.

   Since the former student leader eluded authorities in the fall of 1988, his
activist brother was imprisoned and his mother died of a heart attack after
visiting her youngest son in prison. Soon afterward, his father fell ill and
died. And his older brother, a physician, has been missing ever since.

   KoLatt's career is on hold, too, because his homeland comes first. Though
KoLatt studied botany at the prestigious University of Rangoon, he cannot
consider moving on from his $ 55-a-day job because he has to take so much time
off from work.

   Where would he find another employer who'd let him work when he can? he asks.

   *Though his blood family in Myanmar is all but gone, KoLatt has found
spiritual kinfolk in a Burmese couple in Alhambra.

   KoLatt met Khin Maung Shwe and Taw Myo Myint in the jungles after his escape,
when he was ill with malaria. They nursed him back to health.

   When Maung and Taw, who also were active in the 1988 anti-government
protests, came to the United States, KoLatt followed them.



   Today, their Alhambra home is both a center for what they call "Our Movement
for Democracy," and home away from home for unmarried Burmese who gather to
share food and to work for a better day.

   The couple's American-born daughter, Stephanie, 4, is everyone's niece.

   Maung, a former manager of the state-run Salt Industry Corp., now works
nights as a chemical technician so he can work the phone and fax machine and
demonstrate days.

   The advent of the Internet has made it easier to communicate with activists
inside Myanmar when they slip out to the Myanmar-Thailand border.

   Maung and KoLatt cannot afford a computer, so they rely on Richards and UCLA
students.

   International phone calls, faxes, printing leaflets and posters drain their
limited budgets. But they persist.

   Their efforts appear to be paying off.

   The cities of Santa Monica, Berkeley and Madison, Wis., have banned contracts
with companies doing business in Myanmar. UCLA will no longer sponsor its
"Burma Passage" tour. USC's Student Academic Senate has unanimously condemned
USC Alumni's "Road to Mandalay" tour and is urging the alumni group to do
likewise.

   Some American businesses, including Levi Strauss, Macy's, Eddie Bauer and Liz
Clairborne have pulled out of Myanmar.

   But the formidable target is Unocal.

   Unocal, Total, a Paris-based oil company, and a Thai firm are partners with
Myanmar in the Yadana pipeline project that would transfer natural gas to
Thailand.

   "The pipeline is the centerpiece of the regime's economic development plan,"
said Richards.

   By going ahead with the project, activists charge that Unocal is, in effect,
in partnership with the brutal government and helping it to remain in power.

   Not true, said Unocal spokesman David Garcia, emphasizing that the company
stays out of Myanmar's internal affairs.

   Garcia, who visited Myanmar in January, accused critics and the press of
ignoring "positive benefits" of the project.

   For example, he said, villagers along the pipeline welcome a chance to become
economically self-sufficient.

   In Mawgyi, 75 villagers in January completed a 2.3-acre shrimp farm with the
money provided by Unocal and its partners, Garcia said.



   "Reception to our programs has been very positive," Garcia said.

   *Meanwhile, SLORC is tightening its rein on Aung San Suu Kyi, activists say.

   "Immediately after her release, there was much euphoria and attention of the
international press, but in the last few weeks, the government has tightened its
rein on her," said Burma Forum co-founder Louisa Benson, quoting her contacts in
Myanmar.

   "The government realizes that information is power, and people listen to what
Aung San Suu Kyi has to say. They are limiting people who can visit her,
including U.S. congressional staffers."

   There has been a flurry of bad news from Myanmar, activists say.

   When Maung, whose parents and six siblings live in Myanmar, recently called
home, he was told not to call again.

   The prospect of losing contact with his family is heartbreaking, he said.

   But his wife, Taw, said the couple reconfirmed their vow to the movement by
remembering: "Forty million Burmese are more important than one family."

   A proof of the couple's conviction is their daughter, who participates in all
the protests with her parents.

   Instead of nursery rhymes, Stephanie chants, "Democracy is our duty," and
"Unocal out of Burma."

   Dressed in a longyi--a Burmese sarong--Stephanie hands out leaflets and
recites slogans at every event.

   Even stern-looking passersby are charmed when Stephanie walks up to them, and
hands them a leaflet with a big smile on her innocent face.

GRAPHIC: PHOTO: Burmese expatriate KoLatt wears a T-shirt that bears a statement
on behalf of the resistance against the military junta.  PHOTOGRAPHER: GENARO
MOLINA / Los Angeles Times PHOTO: Stephanie Htet Taw, 4, hands out leaflets at
Unocal Corp. headquarters in L.A.  PHOTOGRAPHER: GARY FRIEDMAN / Los Angeles
Times PHOTO: At a shrine in his home, KoLatt prays for those living under
military rule. He is part of a growing expatriate community here.  PHOTOGRAPHER:
GENARO MOLINA / Los Angeles Times PHOTO: Khin Maung Shwe, daughter Stephanie, 4,
and wife Taw Myo Myint with poster of patriot Aung San Suu Kyi.  PHOTOGRAPHER:
GENARO MOLINA / Los Angeles Times PHOTO: (A2) LOOKING HOMEWARD: A growing
expatriate community is becoming more vocal in its resistance to the military
junta in Myanmar. Above, activist KoLatt prays for his country.  PHOTOGRAPHER:
GENARO MOLINA / Los Angeles Times

LANGUAGE: English

LOAD-DATE: March 16, 1996


                     Copyright 1996 Intertec Publishing
                        Defense and Security Electronics

                        March 4, 1996 /  March 10, 1996

SECTION: WORLDWIDE AIRCRAFT REVIEW; Pg. 16

LENGTH: 467 words

HEADLINE: Russia Courts Myanmar in E. Asian Sales Push

BYLINE: By ANTON ZHIGULSKY, Defense News Correspondent

DATELINE: MOSCOW

BODY:
   Myanmar could be the next East Asian nation to sign up for Russian-built
fighters, with Victnam and the Philippines also being heavily courted by Russian
marketeers.

   With the 1993 sale of 18 Russian-built MiG-29s to Malaysia, Russian officials
from Rosvoorouzhenie have stepped up marketing efforts in East Asia and the
Middle East, where nations are beginning to modernize their increasingly
obsolete fighting forces.

   In the latest development, Russia is holding active negotiations with
Myanmar, formerly called Burma, for an unspecified number of MiG-29 fighters.

   In a Feb. 20 interview, a senior Russian industry source said, "Negotiations
started late last year and could be fruitful."

   The industry source declined to say how many planes Myanmar would like to
buy, but said the contract could be comparable with "last year's Indian
contract."

   Last year, India bought 10 fighters for about $ 220 million.

   On Feb. 10, the Moscow-based daily newspaper Segodnya reported that Myanmar
also is interested in Russian combat helicopters, particularly the Mi-34, an
export version of the Mi-24 helicopter used in the Afghanistan conflict.

   Burma was Russia's major client until 1970, when it turned to China for
defense and security needs.

   In another development Russia also is trying to renew cooperation with its
old partner, Victnam, which once was one of Moscow's biggest clients in the
region, with a complete arsenal of Russian-built hardware and Russian-trained
forces.

   Those contacts were broken in 1992 and only small deliveries of spare parts
have been made since.  Russian industry officials said the last major delivery
was made in 1989, when Russia sold amphibious landing craft to Hanoi.


   Other potential East Asian customers, according to government and industry
sources here, include the Philippines, Indonesia and Thailand, as well as with
Malaysia, which is considering additional MiG-29 purchases early in the next
decade.

   Despite Russia's heavy marketing efforts in the region, some industry experts
say they doubt that Moscow's chances in the region are very high.

   "Southeast Asia was traditionally the sphere of Western, mostly American
influence," Alexander Kulik, head of the Moscow-based Center of Strategic and
Military Studies, said in an interview Jan. 20.

   "Competition is extremely hard.  With the exception of only a few countries
that were our big clients, I don't think that Russia will have major success in
this region," Kulik said.

   In addition to efforts in East Asia, Russia is considering resumption of
full-scale relations with Iran, a former client state in the Middle East.

   According to an industry source, Iran is ready to buy more fighters but the
start of negotiations is pending a final political decision on resuming arms
sales to Iran.