Peace News on Boycott Visit Myanmar

[brelief@xxxxxxx]

Subject: Peace News on Boycott Visit Myanmar Year

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Peace News
May, 1996

Miss out on Myanmar, boycott Burma

Breathtakingly beautiful and steeped in aeons of past culture
Burma may be, but it is also a country where, only a few years
ago, thousands of unarmed pro - democracy protesters were
shot on the streets in a military crackdown by SLORC, the
ruling military junta still regarded as one of the worst in the
world.

Visitors to the country can find themselves using roads and
railways built by forced labour and visiting cultural sites
whose inhabitants have been expelled and forcibly re-located. 
Political prisoners have been used to develop tourist attractions
in places like Mandalay Hill in central Burma, for example.  

SLORC, busy waging war on its own people, uses the foreign
exchange brought into the country by tourists to sustain its anti
- democracy campaign.  They have decided to call 1996 the
"Year of the Tourist" as part of their drive to attract ore hard
currency from the West.

The Burma Action Group, guided by the democracy
movement in Burma, is calling for a tourism boycott of the
country until democratic reforms have been instituted.  It is
also calling for divestment by companies operating in Burma.

Burma -- the alternative guide is available for 3.99 pounds
from Burma Action Group UK, Collins Studios, Collins Yard,
Islington Green, London N1 2XU (tel. 0171 359 7679; fax
0171 354 3987)


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