BurmaNet News: August 1, 1996

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------------------------ BurmaNet ------------------------
"Appropriate Information Technologies, Practical Strategies"
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The BurmaNet News: August 1, 1996
Issue #479

HEADLINES:
==========
AP DOW JONES: THAI FM TO VISIT BURMA
BKK POST: AMNUAY TO DISCUSS DISPUTES ON BURMA 
UPI: NEW BURMA LAW ON VIDEOTAPES
BKK POST: LETTER - BURMA SANCTIONS
ANNOUNCEMENT: PLAY BY BURMESE STUDENT IN AUSTRALIA
ANNOUNCEMENT: NEW NLD VIDEO INFO AVAILABLE
WASH POST: BURMA: NO PLACE FOR TOURISTS
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AP DOW JONES: THAI FM TO VISIT BURMA
July 31, 1996

RANGOON -- Thailand's Foreign Minister Amnuay Virawan will lead a 
43 member delegation Sunday to Burma to discuss cooperation between 
the two countries, officials said Wednesday.

The delegation will include officials from various Thai ministries, 
including the deputy minister of commerce and deputy secretary general 
of  Prime Minister Banharn Silpa-archa's office.

The third meeting of the Thai-Myanmar Joint Commission for Bilateral 
Cooperation follows Burma's admission last week to the Association of 
Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) as an observer.

The regular meetings reflect warming ties between Thailand, one of 
Southeast Asia's economic powers and an ASEAN founder, and the 
military regime, which calls the country Myanmar.

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BKK POST: AMNUAY TO DISCUSS DISPUTES ON BURMA VISIT
July 31, 1996
Mae Sot, Tak

THORNY issues including border demarcation disputes are to be 
raise in a meeting of the Thai-Burmese joint committee in Rangoon 
next month.

Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Amnuay Viranvan said 
during his inspection trip to Mae Sot yesterday that border 
disputes will be discussed in the meeting on August 5-6.

Amnuay, who is chairman of the joint committee, is scheduled to 
visit Rangoon at the invitation of his Burmese counterpart at the 
Foreign Ministry.

Main issues to be discussed include the digging in the Moei River 
on the Thai side and the deadlock over construction of the Thai-
Burmese Friendship Bridge, said the foreign minister.

Last year, Rangoon accused Thailand of illegal encroachment which 
it claimed had altered the Moei River borderline.

Burma suspended construction of the bridge on the Myawaddy side 
on June 6 last year. It demanded the removal of construction 
materials, rock filling and all buildings on the river bank as 
preconditions for talks.

The reclaimed area on the Thai side has since been altered but 
Burma is yet to agree to resumption of construction on the bridge.

Thailand has also asked Burma to stop planting stakes along the 
river and to dismantle concrete barriers.

Amnuay yesterday led his delegation that included Deputy 
Permanent Secretary for Foreign Affairs M.R. Thep Thevakul, 
Treaties and Legal Affairs Department Director-General Somboon 
Sangieumbu, Tak Governor Kasem Nakkharat and other officials to 
inspect the bridge and areas under dispute in Mae Sot district.

He was briefed on the border situation by Col Suvit Maenmuen, 
commander of the 4th Infantry Regiment. (BP)

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UPI: NEW BURMA LAW ON VIDEOTAPES
July 31, 1996

RANGOON, - Foreign diplomatic missions and United Nations agencies 
based in the Burmese capital will need government permits if they want 
to hold public exhibitions of imported videotapes, according to a new law 
promulgated Wednesday by Burma's military government.
        
Diplomats are to submit imported videotapes to the video censor board for 
scrutiny.
        
The board will decide whether the videotapes may be shown in their entirety, 
after objectionable parts have been expunged, or only to a restricted audience 
within the premises of the diplomatic mission or U. N. agency.
        
The new Television and Video Law also requires private operators of video 
businesses to obtain licenses from video business supervisory committees to 
be formed in Burma's 14 states and divisions.
        
The law forbids exhibition of any videotape, whether locally produced or 
imported, which has not been passed and certified by the video censor 
board.
        
Anyone found violating this provision of the law is liable to be punished 
with up to three years' imprisonment and/or a fine of up to kyats 100,000 
($16,700).
        
The videotape concerned will also be confiscated.
        
The same punishment is prescribed for the distribution, hiring or exhibition 
for commercial purposes of copied television programs of the government; 
and for copying, distributing, hiring or exhibiting for commercial purposes 
a videotape passed by the censor board and held under license by another 
video business operator without the permission of that operator.
        
Officials said the aims of the new law were to raise the standard of the video 
business and to prohibit decadent videotapes inimical to Burmese culture 
and traditions.
        
The law will affect thousands of video businesses throughout the
country that exhibit uncensored imported videotapes along with
locally produced ones.
        
The law also forbids private TV transmitters not authorized by 
the government, a ban punishable by five years' imprisonment for
those who disregard the prohibition.
        
********************************************************         

BKK POST: LETTER - BURMA SANCTIONS
July 31, 1996

SIR: The Burmese Resistance is extremely grateful to Senators
McConnell, Moynihan, D-Amato and Loahy for leading the fight on
the US Senate floor to help restore freedom and democracy in
Burma. This debate on Burma was nationally televised live on C-
Span2 for eight hours. Many Americans now are educated and
informed about the plight of the forty million hostages in Burma.
Even the senators opposing sanctions against SLORC looked ashamed
when Senator Moynihan blasted SLORC "for murdering James Leander
Nichols for owning a fax machine."

The oil lobby did not have the votes and abandoned their proposed
Johnson (Louisiana) Nichols (Oklahoma) amendment which would
oppose sanctions against SLORC.

The State Department offered a compromise conditional sanctions
bill which was accepted by the US Senate.Investment sanctions
will be activated against SLORC if : the government of Burma has
physically harmed, re-arrested for political acts or exiled Aung
San Suu Kyi or has committed large-scale repression of or
violence against the democratic opposition". In others words
investment sanctions would be activated if SLORC refuses Aung San
Suu Kyi to convene her next NLD Congress.

The conditional sanctions bill is less harsh, initially, than the
McConnell proposal. But in the longterm it may be more effective
in promoting democracy and freedom in Burma.

The White House has sent two Special Presidential Envoys to Asia.
They also sent the very powerful White House National Security
adviser to Thailand to discuss the political situation in Burma.
We have also received private assurances from the highest levels
at the White House. We are now fully and completely confident
that the flag of freedom will soon fly proudly in Burma.

Myint Thein
Dallas, Texas

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ANNOUNCEMENT: PLAY BY BURMESE STUDENT IN AUSTRALIA
August 1, 1996

SWINBURNE UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY
Small Companies and Community Threater Students presents:
FOUR PLAYS
	
Four Plays is an excite production that first year students have written, 
directed and produced by themselves. Be drawn to the raw talent and 
creative marvels of four very different short plays.

The fourth Play: Be confronted by Ko Naing's "TEARS FROM THE HEART". 

Ko Naing is a Burmese student who is studying in Swinburne University of 
Technology in Melbourne, in Australia. His play is against the oppressive 
political powers that were and still are, Burmese people fight for 
democracy and human rights. We, Small Companies and Community Threater 
students from the university, follow one man's struggle during 1988 
student uprising against military dictatorship, his vision, his pain and 
his truth.


THE VENUE: Four Plays will be performed at the "new" David 
	         Williamson Threater, St John St, Prahran campus,
                       Swinburne University of Technology, Melbourne.

THE TIME: "Tears From The Heart" will be started at 12:30 pm,
                    Wednesday 7th August.

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

ANNOUNCEMENT: NEW NLD VIDEO INFO AVAILABLE
July 31, 1996 (abridged)

Released by ISBDA on July 30, 1996

        Information Service on Burmese Democracy Affairs  announces that 
we have received a new NLD video documentary for distribution.  Also, 
we would like to apologize our subscribers for unable to distribute the NLD 
tapes in June because we did not receive any tapes last month as one of our 
carriers surface-mailed all the tapes from Thailand. We hope arrival of these 
tapes be after a few weeks from today. The single video in this announcement 
has arrived here by air much quicker than the previouly shipped ones. 

Please find the Ordering Information after the list of available video tapes.

=====================================

NEWLY ARRIVED  REGULAR VOLUMES

Volume # 50  (NEW ARRIVAL) 
NLD People's Forum:  Speeches and answers to the questions of the people
who assembled at University Avenue during May-June crackdown peroid. 
Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, U Tin Oo and U Kyi Maung gave speeches and 
comments on the accelerated repression.  

<ENGLISH SUMMARY by Daw Suu>.
Recording Dates: June 1, 2, 1996.

========================
Please check full list of video tapes announced available at ISBDA at 
worldwide web URL:
http://sunsite.unc.edu/freeburma/analoginfo.html
========================

ORDERING INFORMATION

Unless otherwise specified the price for each Volume  is US$15.00 
which includes tape, copying, handling and air-mailing from the US. 

Friends who interested in sharing these tapes must send return address  to
ISBDA, 108 N. Hidalgo #305, Alhambra CA91801, USA  with enclosed 
check or international MO payable to Htay H. Kyi.

Please clearly mention the tape Volume  numbers in your order and we will
immediately air-mail your after recieving your payment.  Remember that a 
short email notice to  ktint@xxxxxxxxxxxxx as you mail the order quicken the
process.

All video tapes are recorded by home video camera system on NTSC VHS
format. (For Camcorder players, 8 mm Video Copies are also available here
at ISBDA upon special request: No additional charge is necessary for this
service)

Burmese students and refugees  should send a written request to ISBDA for
getting these videos at high discount rates. 

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

WASH POST: BURMA: NO PLACE FOR TOURISTS
July 25, 1996
By Jeff Greenwald 

Lacking the mythical panache of Tibet, Burma (renamed Myanmar by the 
military government that seized power in 1988) remains one of Asia's 
most obscure and oppressed nations. The history of the country called the 
"Golden Land" by Western adventurers who visited five centuries ago has 
been tarnished by corruption, ethnic "cleansing" and the slaughter of 
peaceful demonstrators -- including students and Buddhist monks.

There is a growing trend in favor of disengagement from Burma, an echo 
of  the strategy used against South Africa during apartheid. On June 25, 
Massachusetts became the first state to enact legislation barring state or 
local companies from dealing with the country. Corporations like Pepsi, 
Un\ocal and Arco, which have struck deals with Burma's notorious State 
Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC), are under fire from 
universities and human rights groups nationwide.

Ignoring these developments, Burma's ruling junta is promoting 1996 as 
"Visit Myanmar" year, with a goal of half a million tourists. Roads are 
being resurfaced, railroads are being improved, and new hotels are 
springing up all over Yangon (Rangoon) and Mandalay.

This glitzy tourist infrastructure -- as the Burmese activist and 1991 
Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi has noted -- is being built at 
enormous human cost. The clearing of the moat around Mandalay Palace, a 
potentially huge tourist attraction, required more than 20,000 forced 
laborers. Railway construction has enslaved more than 100,000 
villagers, in rotating shifts, since 1993. SLORC is confiscating family 
farmland to make room for golf courses and beach resorts, and bulldozing 
entire neighborhoods to clear space for foreign-financed hotels. Uprooted 
residents are being moved to "New Towns," located in inhospitable areas; 
others are being relocated to "human zoos," where tourists can photograph 
them more conveniently.

Yet tour operators like Mountain Travel continue to sell Burma as an 
upbeat, exotic destination. Publishers like Passport Books continue to 
release up-to-date Burma guidebooks, whetting the appetites of travelers 
everywhere. And they do this in full awareness that every dime spent on 
visa fees and foreign exchange fattens the coffers of a murderous, 
exploitive regime.

Travel and tourism has become one of the world's largest industries, able 
to make or break some national economies. What would happen, one 
wonders, if we travelers recognized -- and used -- this power? What 
might be possible if the vast community of globe-trotters joined together, 
agreeing not to give our money to governments that torture and abuse their 
citizens? And suppose we began this overdue experiment with a complete 
boycott of travel to Burma?

Tourism is a drop in the bucket of Burma's foreign exchange, the lion's 
share coming from a thriving heroin trade and lucrative deals with 
American and French oil companies. The argument has been made (by 
guidebook publishers and expedition companies, mainly) that a travelers' 
boycott will have no impact on the SLORC leadership.

Not directly, perhaps; but a boycott of tourism to Burma might have 
secondary effects well worth the effort. It would demonstrate that world 
travelers constitute a unified force whose members value human rights 
above the transient pleasures of sightseeing. It would encourage opposition 
leader Aung San Suu Kyi, demonstrating widespread support for her 
democratic goals. It would send a signal to Congress, which is considering 
official sanctions against SLORC. Finally, a well-publicized tourist boycott 
would increase global awareness of the situation in Burma -- casting the 
companies doing business with SLORC into the light and increasing the 
pressure for total divestment.

Burma is one of Asia's loveliest countries, and the appeal of its jungles, 
beaches and Buddhist pagodas is undeniably seductive. But it is 
unconscionable to visit those sights for pleasure when such travel 
supports a government notorious for political executions and drug 
trafficking. How many of us would have traveled to Germany in the 1930s, 
aware that our tourist dollars were supporting the Nazi regime?

"We are totally against the `Visit Myanmar' campaign," said Aung San Suu 
Kyi during an interview with the Kyodo Japanese news agency on July 9. 
"This is tantamount to supporting authoritarianism in Burma." I suggest 
we honor Suu Kyi's wish. Let the luxury hotels lie empty and the tourist 
palaces collect dust. Let us turn our backs on Myanmar's greedy despots 
and demonstrate our support for Burma's struggling democracy movement 
by voting with our wings.

Jeff Greenwald is an Oakland-based travel and science writer. 

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