[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index ][Thread Index ]

BurmaNet News: August 6, 1997



------------------------ BurmaNet ------------------------     
"Appropriate Information Technologies, Practical Strategies"     
----------------------------------------------------------     
 
The BurmaNet News: August 6, 1997        
Issue #790

Noted in Passing:

The ceasefire "has given a relatively easy chance for [SLORC] to increase its 
conscription of forced labour from Mon State" - Mon Information Service
(see BKK POST: JUNTA FORCES MON LABOUR)

HEADLINES:        
========== 
KNPP: ABOUT 50 PEOPLE DIED BY POISONING WATER
BURMANET: SLORC OFFENSIVE IN KNPP AREA
BKK POST: JUNTA FORCES MON LABOUR, SAYS REPORT
SHAN REFUGEE UPDATE -- JULY 1997  
THAILAND TIMES: KNU AND ABSDF TO JOINTLY ESTABLISH
ASIA TIMES: TOKYO SENDS TOP-LEVEL OFFICIAL TO MYANMAR
THE HINDU: AUSTRALIA TO PRESS MYANMAR FOR REFORMS
THAILAND TIMES: LAO FM TO BURMA FOR MEETING
SEMINAR ON CONSTITUTIONAL PROTECTION OF THE ENVIRONMENT
DAVID STEINBERG: STASIS IN MYANMAR?
DAILY TELEGRAPH (UK): TOUR FIRMS MOVE BACK INTO BURMA
FBC: LIST OF UK-BASED COMPANIES TO BOYCOTT
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
---------

KNPP: ABOUT 50 PEOPLE DIED BY POISONING WATER
AT SHADAW FORCED RELOCATION CAMP
August 2, 1997  (Karenni National Progressive Party)

[BurmaNet Editor's Note: This information is based on the report of a 
Karenni who managed to escape from the Shadaw forced relocation camp in
Karenni State.  Since the KNPP-SLORC ceasefire, which lasted only 3 months,
broke down in late June 1995, the SLORC has forcibly relocated more than 100 
Karenni villages  in Northwestern Karenni State and has turned large areas of 
Karenni State into freefire zones.  Up to 20,000 Karenni were sent to the
Shadaw 
site, where they were forced to stay inside the camp, although there was not 
enough food or medicine for them.  Many have subsequently fled to the Thai 
border or are hiding out in the mountains.  There have been numerous reports 
of deaths in the camp due to malnutrition, unsanitary conditions, and the lack 
of medicine.  According to a recent arrival, the SLORC has also used poison to 
kill off the camp residents.  BurmaNet is seeking more information on this 
allegation.]

from the Government of Karenni Ministry of Public Relations and Information

SLORC Light Infantry Battalion No. 530 Commander ordered to the local 
germ reserach department services to put germicide powder in all wells and 
streams to kill germs at Shadaw in early July 1997.

After using water from those wells and stream, about 50 residents and 
villagers who having been forcibly relocated to Shadaw immediately died 
according to the report of an escaped villager from Shadaw forced relocation
camp on July 27, 1997.  The health workers at Shadaw could not find any
signs of disease.

[According to the escaped villager]
A similar incident occurred in August 1996 at Shadaw forced relocation 
camp and almost 300 people were dead by the use of poisoned water.

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

BURMANET: SLORC OFFENSIVE IN KNPP AREA
August 6, 1997

According to the KNPP, the SLORC has launched a new offensive against
the KNPP's Number 2 District with the objective of obtaining total control
of this district.  The SLORC has sent 4 battalions (Nos. 261, 102, 531, and 427)
to the Mawchi area, southeastern Karenni State, under the command of Lt. 
Colonel Ye Aung.  Before the operation began, General Maung Aye ordered 
the troops to kill all Karenni villagers that the troops met along the way, to 
take all the animals and use them for rations, to destroy all rice paddy barns 
and paddy fields, and to burn down all villages, especially larger villages.  
The entire population of the district is to be wiped out.  The KNPP has been 
blocking the SLORC troops and trying to prevent their advance into District 2.  
Between July 31 and August 4 there have been several skirmishes and 8 
SLORC soldiers have been killed.  The villagers are fleeing in advance of the 
SLORC troops' arrival.

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

BKK POST: JUNTA FORCES MON LABOUR, SAYS REPORT
August 5, 1997  AP

CONSCRIPTION 'WORSE' SINCE 1995 CEASEFIRE

The Burmese army is increasingly rounding up members of the Mon
ethnic minority for forced labour since the Mons signed a ceasefire with 
Burma's military government, said a report issued yesterday.

The ceasefire "has given a relatively easy chance for [the
military] to increase its conscription of forced labour from Mon
State", said the report issued by the Mon Information Service,
based in Bangkok. 
     
The report documents a litany of human rights abuses committed by
the Burmese army against ethnic minority peoples, including
forced conscription as porters to carry supplies for the army,
forced relocations and extortion. 

The Mon occupy the desperately poor, yet resource rich, Mon State
and Tenasserim Division on Burma's southern peninsula. Leaders of
the ethnic group, which had been fighting for independence for
nearly 50 years, signed a cease-fire agreement with the military
government in 1995.

A few Mon, along with ethnic Karen insurgents and armed former
students, are still waging a guerrilla style insurgency on the peninsula.

In order to tap the timber, mineral and gas resources of the
area, the government has been using forced labour to build
infrastructure such as road and rail lines to transform the
long-isolated region into a commercially viable corridor.

The government does not deny using forced labour, but insists
citizens participate willingly because it is a national tradition.

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

SHAN REFUGEE UPDATE -- JULY 1997  
by the Shan Human Rights Foundation

A HIDDEN REFUGEE CRISIS: OVER 30,000 SHAN REFUGEES FLEE 
RELOCATIONS AND MASSACRES 

Despite the onset of the rainy season, refugees are continuing to flow out
from central Shan State to Thailand to escape the SLORC's massive ongoing
forced relocation campaign and repeated mass killings of villagers. 

Intensified forced relocation

The forced relocation campaign, which began early last year, was aimed at
cutting off civilian support for the Shan United Revolutionary Army (SURA),
which operates with a force of about 3,000 in Central and Southern Shan
State. However, despite the relocation of over 600 villages in eight
townships last year, the SURA has continued to operate, and clashes between
SURA and SLORC troops occur frequently even near major towns. In apparent
frustration at this, the SLORC has over the last few months been
intensifying the relocation campaign, sweeping clear whole areas of the Shan
countryside, moving new villages, as well as villages already relocated, to
main roads and towns.   

For example, in the township of Laikha, where last year a total of only 80
villages were known to have been relocated, this year a further 87 villages
have been relocated, bringing the total of relocated villagers to over
25,000. Whereas last year the villagers were relocated to relocation sites
several miles outside the town, now all these villagers have been ordered to
move to the town of Laikha itself, so the countryside east of Laikha is now
totally depopulated. 

This pattern is also being repeated in other townships, for example in Murng
Kerng, where last year only 24 villages were known to have been relocated,
but this year on June 1, all the villages off the main roads were ordered to
move to the roads, and all these villagers were forbidden from cultivating
their fields.

The areas of forced relocations have also expanded to the south, in response
to SURA movement closer to the Thai border. In early June, 47 villages in
Murng Pan, totalling an estimated 10,000 people, were forced to move to
towns. This area had not been relocated last year. 

This indicates that at least twice the number of people affected last year
(which was well over 100,000) are being relocated this year, bringing the
figure of relocated villagers to over 200,000.
Refugees state that in some areas as many as 70% of the relocated
populations have fled to Thailand.

Repeated massacres

Refugees arriving in Thailand testify that it was not simply the loss of
their homes and livelihood that drove them to Thailand, but terror at the
unprecedented brutality of the SLORC troops in their area. Whereas last year
there were only isolated reports of killings during the forced relocations,
this year the SLORC troops are literally shooting anyone on sight who is
found outside the relocation areas.  

The June 1997 SHRF report detailed the killing by the SLORC of 58 civilians
in early June in the Kunhing area alone. They had been caught returning to
their old villages. In the July 1997 SHRF report, as many as 400 civilians
are reported to have been killed by SLORC troops in Kunhing since mid-June.
On July 3 and 4, 96 villagers from the Keng Kham area of Kunhing who were
found hiding near their villages were tortured by being suffocated with
plastic sheeting, before being killed and their bodies thrown into the Nam
Pang River. Over 100 villagers from Keng Kham were also massacred on July
22. They had been relocated to Kunhing and been given permission to return
to their village to fetch wood from their old houses, but were caught and
shot to death by another group of SLORC troops.
  
In an apparent attempt to terrorize the Shan population into submission,
SLORC troops have even been beheading civilians and lining their bodies
along the roadside. Drivers passing along the main road through Kunhing to
Kengtung and Tachilek on July 11 reported seeing beheaded corpses of 27 Shan
villagers lined up along the road. On July 12, 17 headless corpses were also
seen by drivers on the main road south of Kunhing.  

Refugee flow to Thailand

Interviews with refugees and local villagers at border crossing points over
the last few months indicate that numbers of Shan refugees crossing over
into Thailand, mainly into Mae Hong Son and Chiang Mai provinces, have been
as follows:
 
   average no. crossing    total per month
     per day  

May     260                approx. 8,000
June    200                approx  6,000
July    130                approx  4,000

(It can be assumed that the decrease in June and July is the result of
difficulty in travelling to the border during the rainy season.)

Thus, given the total of at least 16,000 that had crossed over in March and
April of this year (reported in the SHRF May refugee update), this means
that at least 34,000 Shan refugees have fled into Thailand in the last five
months. 

As last year, the refugees are mainly fleeing in family groups, including
the very old and young. They are almost all farmers, who state that they
would never have thought of coming to Thailand if they had not been driven
from their homes.

Situation of refugees in Thailand

There continues to be no official acknowledgement by the Thai authorities of
the Shan refugee problem, and no refugee camps have been allowed to be set
up on the Shan-Thai border. On May 29, 1997, 430 Shan refugees who had fled
from Shan State because of human rights abuses in March of this year, and
settled inside the Thai border in Mae Hong Son province, were forcibly
repatriated by Thai officials. The Thais claimed that the villagers were not
refugees because "there was no fighting in Shan State." 

Thus, refugees arriving in Thailand continue to be forced to survive by
working as illegal labourers. This is extremely difficult for families
needing to support children and elderly dependents. They are also in
constant fear of arrest, and are ripe for exploitation by unscrupulous
employers and corrupt officials. This situation has worsened in recent
months for various reasons.

First, in the rural border areas of Mae Hong Son and Chiang Mai provinces,
the high number of refugees searching for work has meant that there is less
agricultural work available. Thus many refugees who might have preferred to
stay in a rural environment similar to the lives they were used to have been
forced to come to towns to look for work.

Furthermore, the high number of refugees competing for construction work in
northern towns like Chiang Mai has meant that it is an "employers' market."
With a constant source of cheap labour available, employers find it easier
to cheat their workers, for example, letting workers work for one or more
months without pay, then calling the police to come and arrest them. They
can then easily find new workers to find their place.

Another problem for the refugees seeking work in Chiang Mai is that there
have been increasing crackdowns by the police on migrant workers without
work permits. The deadline for registering for these permits was the end of
last year, so new refugees have no recourse to these permits. Employers are
now preferring to hire workers with permits, which means new refugees have
fewer work options, and employers can take advantage of this to offer them
lower wages.

Thailand's economic crisis has also already been affecting the number of
construction projects in Chiang Mai. Construction is slowing down in the
large housing estates in the outlying areas of the town, where thousands of
migrant workers had been working, and few such new projects are being started.

All of these factors have led an increasing number of Shan refugees to move
further south, to find work in Bangkok and beyond. It is estimated that
about half of the refugees now entering Thailand from Shan State are being
taken by work agents straight down to Bangkok and other towns in the south,
to work on construction sites, factories, or even fishing boats, where work
still seems to be readily available.

Most Shan refugees state they would much rather not go as far afield as
Bangkok to seek work. They would prefer to work in Chiang Mai, where the
local culture is less alien, and where there are existing Shan communities,
which can relieve their feelings of trauma and isolation.

The difficulties for illegal Shans caught in Bangkok are also even greater
than for those caught in the north. They risk being deported to 3 Pagodas
Pass, from where it is extremely difficult for them to find their way back
to Shan State. In early July, social workers were alerted to the plight of 7
Shan girls between the age of 11 and 19, who were stranded in Sangklaburi
having been deported from Bangkok to 3 Pagodas Pass.

The SHRF is gravely concerned at the fate of the tens of thousands of Shan
refugees now scattered around Thailand, and calls for urgent measures to
solve this hidden refugee crisis.

Call for Action

The SHRF appeals to the international community to put pressure on the SLORC
to immediately stop the forced relocations and summary executions in Shan
State, and to let the displaced Shan villagers return home.

The SHRF appeals to the Royal Thai government to allow the Shan refugees
access to safe refuge in Thailand and the right to receive humanitarian
assistance.

August 4, 1997
The Shan Human Rights Foundation
P.O. Box 201, Phrasing Post Office
Chiang Mai 50200
Thailand 

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

THAILAND TIMES: KNU AND ABSDF TO JOINTLY ESTABLISH NEW STRONGHOLD
August 5, 1997
by Assawin Pinitwong

TAK: A exiled Burmese student group and the Karen National
Union(KNU) plan to set up a new base opposite Thailand's Mae Hong
Son province in a bid to renew their arms struggle against the
State Law Order and Restoration Council (SLORC), a Thai border
source said yesterday.

The source, who declined to be identified, said the planned base
is expected to be constructed 15 kilometers away from the Thai
territory or 10 kilometers up north of Dawn Gwin camp, a former
stronghold of the Burmese students.

The planned camp will be controlled by the KNU and the All
Burmese Students' Democratic Front (ABSDF).

The two dissident groups decided to join forces together in an
attempt to consolidate their efforts after the military junta
exerted severe pressure on the KNU, led by Gen Bo Mya during a
recent peace talks. The ABSDF has repeatedly called for a
round-table political dialogue with the ruling junta, pro-democracy forces 
led by Aung San Suu Kyi and ethnic minority groups.

Around 300 fully-armed students and the KNU's 5th Division have
prepared military and political measures to fight the Burmese
military regime, the source said. They also planned to call on
other countries to protest against the SLORC's human rights
abuses against their own people.

The two groups are expected to take more effective action against
the junta from their new base due to its strategic location which
is mostly mountainous area with an adequate supply of water.

The KNU has allied with the ABSDF since the students fled to the
Thai-Burmese border after the SLORC staged a bloody coup in 1988.
     
"Thailand, however, won't poke her nose into the matter, we will
only keep our eyes their movements so as to prevent any untoward
incident," the source added.

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

ASIA TIMES: TOKYO SENDS TOP-LEVEL OFFICIAL TO MYANMAR
August 1, 1997

Masahiko Komura, Japan's state secretary for foreign affairs, will
visit Myanmar in mid-August, becoming Japan's highest-level government
official to make a trip to the junta-controlled country, Foreign
Ministry sources said on Wednesday. 

The government plans to send Komura to Myanmar, Laos and Vietnam
from August 15 to 21, the sources said. 

In April, Japan dispatched Ryozo Kato, director-general of the
ministry's Asian Affairs Bureau, to Myanmar, and he was followed in
June by Hiroshi Hirabayashi, chief of the Cabinet Councillors' Office
on  External Affairs. 

Tokyo has suspended ministerial-level exchanges with Myanmar due to
delays in progress in democratization since the military government
took control of the country in September 1988. 

Komura, a former director-general of the Economic Planning Agency, is
a member of parliament belonging to the ruling Liberal Democratic
Party. He is expected to urge the Myanmar government to promote
dialogue with the National League for Democracy (NLD), Myanmar's
biggest opposition party, led by Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San
Suu Kyi. 

Japan is worried that Myanmar might become more isolated
internationally, as the United States and the European Union are
criticizing the country's entry this past week to the Association of
Southeast Asian Nations without progress on democratization, they said. 

At the ASEAN meeting in Kuala Lumpur on Tuesday, Japanese
Foreign Minister Yukihiko Ikeda urged Myanmar's ruling military junta
to promote dialogue with the NLD. In a meeting with his Myanmar
counterpart Ohn Gyaw, Ikeda said it was important for the government
to expand dialogue with the NLD concerning the future status of the country. 

Ohn Gyaw said that the July 17 meeting between NLD chairman Aung
Shwe and Khin Nyunt, first secretary of the junta, was held at the
request of the opposition with the view to avoiding possible future
problems. He indicated that the junta is ready to hold more such meetings. 

Ikeda suggested that the NLD be allowed to play a role in drafting a
new constitution aimed at bringing the country closer to democracy,
citing the party's landslide victory in the 1990 election. 

He warned the junta not to regard Myanmar's entry last Thursday into
ASEAN as an international seal of approval for the junta's rule.

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

THE HINDU: AUSTRALIA TO PRESS MYANMAR FOR POLITICAL REFORMS
August 5, 1997  (excerpt)
by V. Jayanath

SINGAPORE, AUG.4.
Australia  will depute a senior  official from the Ministry
of   Foreign  Affairs  and  Trade  to  Myanmar  shortly  to
encourage   the  process  of   constitutional  reforms  and
democratisation in that country.

The Foreign Minister,  Mr.  Alexander Downer,  told a press
conference  here  today.  "The  process  of  constitutional
reforms  in Myanmar is  painfully slow and  I have conveyed
this  to its Foreign Minister,  Mr.   Ohn Gyaw,  whom I met
recently in Malaysia".

He  said  Australia  would  like to  see  the  reforms move
forward  quickly and early resumption of a dialogue between
the State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC) and the
opposition National League for Democracy. "Besides the lack
of progress,  we are deeply concerned about the breaches on
human  rights and the  senior official should  also meet up
with   Ms.  Aung  San  Suu   Kyi",  Mr.  Downer  explained..

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

THAILAND TIMES: LAO FM TO BURMA FOR MEETING
August 4, 1997
DEUTSCHE PRESSE-AGENTUR  

BANGKOK: Lao Foreign Minister Somsavat Lengsavat will travel to
Rangoon to attend the third Lao-Burma Working Committee from
August 4-6, an official radio report said yesterday.

The meeting will review cooperation agreements signed between the
two countries last June, on border demarcation on other bilateral
issues and map out cooperation plans for the coming year, said
Lao National Radio in a broadcast monitored in Bangkok.
Also to be discussed will be preparations for the two countries'
integration into the framework of the Association of Southeast
Asian Nations (ASEAN), in which Laos and Burma became full
members on July 23. 

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

SEMINAR ON CONSTITUTIONAL PROTECTION OF THE ENVIRONMENT
IN BURMA: STATEMENT
July 30, 1997

A seminar on the Constitutional Protection of the Environment in Burma was 
held at Thammasat University, Bangkok, Thailand, from the 28th to the 30th 
July, 1997.  The seminar was organised by Forum Asia, Images Asia, Union
for Civil Liberty, and the Burma Lawyers Council.  In attendance were 
delegates from various deomcratic ethnic nationality organizations from Burma,
and legal and non-legal environmental experts from Thailand, Japan, the 
United States, Netherlands, Australia and New Zealand.

The seminar was convened due to the result of the growing concerns at the 
serious environmental devastation in Burma by the SLORC military regime and
other parties, bu the unstustainable development and exploitation of the
country's
oil and gas reserves, forest and marine resources, minerals, river systems, and 
agricultural lands.  This destruction is in addition to the ongoing
environmental
damage inflicted by the people as they exploit the natural resources out of 
ignorance, necessity, or desire for personal enrichment, or development.

The seminar expressed concern at the current environmental degradation in 
Burma, which is intertwined with the worsening political, economic and 
human rights situation in Burma, and acknowledged that these concerns can
be properly addressed only when a political solution is achieved in Burma 
with the restoration of democracy.  It was also acknowledged that in the 
meantime urgent measures must be taken to address the deteriorating 
environmental situation in Burma, and the need for the long term protection of
the environment by formulating avenues for its protection, conservation, and 
restoration; that such avenues should include the protection through the 
Constitution, designed to protect the rights of the people and to define the 
responsibilities of the government on the environment.

The seminar then made recommendations which included the following, 
with respect to:

1. the rights of all persons to a secure, healthy and ecologically sustainable
    environoments.

2. the rights of the local people to information and community participation
    and to their informed consent, in the decision making of the conservation,
    protection, restoration, development and management of their environment
    and their national resources, and to the monitoring of the same.

3. educating and encouraging the government authorities and the local
    people, to practice restraint and self=responsibility in the conservation
    proteection and the restoration of the environment.

4. enacting laws and regulations that will secure such notification and 
    disclosure of the details of all proposed developments which will affect
the 
    environment of individuals or the general population as a whole.

5. claiming and obtaining from the governmetn and responsible parties 
    reparation and just compensation for damage to, or loss of life, health
    and/or property where such claims arise out of the damage to their 
    environment.

6. every citizens' right of equal access to the use, management, and the 
    protection of the clean and healthy air and water in their environment.

7. recognising the rights of the indigenous peoples to control their lands,
    territories, natural resources and traditional way of life including their 
    right to preserve sacred sites.

For more information please contact
Burma Lawyers Council 
tel. 66-2-717-7314

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

DAVID STEINBERG: STASIS IN MYANMAR?
July 1997

(Dr David I Steinberg is Representative of The Asia Foundation in Korea. 
He was formerly a professor at Georgetown University, Washington DC, 
USA. He has long been a Myanmar watcher.)

"IT is as if a large truck were rushing headlong into a small Volkswagen",
as one anonymous observer in Yangon recently described the political situation 
in Myanmar, comparing the ruling SLORC (State Law and Order Restoration 
Council) to opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi and the National League for 
Democracy (NLD).

But is that confrontation inevitable and is it so one-sided? The strength,
citing its overwhelming popularity in the 1990 election that SLORC ignored and 
continuing evidence of anti-military feeling, and in spite of the determined
effort by 
the SLORC to whittle down its leadership and destroy its organisation. The
SLORC 
might also demur, claiming it is simply upholding the laws that it has enacted.

These views may not express the subtlety of the situation, but rather a
polarisation of opinion reflecting internal institutional views that are
incessantly 
externally promulgated.  Stasis may seem evident, but there are changes that
are 
apparent beneath the stalemate of surface confrontation and beyond the 
rhetoric. Understanding reality may require more nuanced views.

The SLORC seems at the moment to be in a position of enhanced power; 
it is most internally secure since its coup of Sept 18, 1988. The population 
at present seems disinclined to repeat the attempted revolution of 1988 that 
the coup repressed. Fifteen rebellions have ended through ceasefires that, 
however ephemeral they may eventually prove to be, have freed the military 
for broader deployment and control. The last major organised resistance, the
oldest ethnic rebellion of the Karen, has had its major bases near the Thai 
border destroyed, and its leadership is talking through intermediaries with the 
SLORC about a ceasefire that some of its commanders, although not perhaps 
its top leadership, desire.

The SLORC is reinforced by its admission into Asean, which may mean little
at home but does carry some external weight. Although the sanctions on new 
investments imposed by the United States convey considerable moral force at 
least internally within the US, their economic effects on Myanmar will be 
minimal; even their moral influence is diminished by the selective imposition 
of such an action against Myanmar, only one of many repressive regimes 
in the world. But as one Congressman, who believed sanctions would not 
be effective but who planned to vote for them, remarked, "It is difficult to 
vote in favour of the SLORC."

The economy in much of the country is vibrant and has evidently grown in 
the past few years, but whether its apparent growth, albeit unevenly
distributed, 
can be maintained without more basic reforms is questionable.

The SLORC has not addressed the fundamental economic problems that 
virtually all foreign observers recognise as required if economic growth is 
to continue.

These include a comprehensive devaluation of a currency over 30 times its
official value, control of the money supply to inhibit an annual inflation of 
some 30 per cent, rationalisation of inefficient public sector industries now 
put at even more risk by foreign competition, development of a competent and 
autonomous financial sector, and payment of public sector officials' salaries 
that will combat the cancer of corruption that is evident, ubiquitous, and even
necessary for survival. The most difficult and basic task for any Burmese
regime 
is freeing the economy from political influence without which economic
rationality 
will not prevail.

Chinese goods and influence are so apparent as to create concerns that should 
the SLORC falter economically it will be the Chinese, the most obvious of the 
newly rich, who will be the scapegoats for SLORC errors. Rumours are rife 
that drug money has been laundered into legitimate construction and other 
businesses.

There are also rumours that the SLORC itself is divided and in danger of
disintegrating into two factions reflecting the line military (led by General 
Maung Aye) and the support, specifically intelligence, wing (led by General 
Khin Nyunt). Veteran observers too describe the internal jealousies and
rivalries, 
but comment that these two groups need each other and the SLORC needs both, 
so that overt splits that would threaten the stability of military rule at
this juncture 
seem unlikely.

The NLD may feel that it is becoming marginalised with restrictions on its
activities and those of Aung San Suu Kyi. It walked out of, and then was
expelled 
from, the National Convention in 1995, that hand-picked body that was designed 
to do SLORC's bidding in writing a new, heavily scripted constitution. The NLD 
now seems to want to return because, even if the results are predetermined to 
ensure perpetual military control, it is at least a forum for internal
discussion, if
not public debate.

The military has taken two interlocking steps that will, it believes, ensure
its control over the society into the future. It has, through the National 
Convention and based on an Indonesian model, sought to ensure the 
military's domination of the leadership and the administrative mechanisms 
of the state through a constitution in which it will play the legal, leading
roles at all levels and in all branches of the government.

It has, in tandem to writing a new constitution, created a mass base of
support for the military and its policies through the formation and leadership 
of the Union Solidarity and Development Association (USDA), which now 
has over five million members.

The pattern is reminiscent of the military's strategy in its Burma Socialist
Programme Party incarnation in the early 1970s, when it expanded the party 
in preparation for the constitution of 1974. The USDA concentration on youth 
indicates the SLORC's intent for long-range control.

Splits in the foreign community's reaction to the SLORC regime and
recalcitrance in engaging in meaningful dialogue with Aung San Suu Kyi 
and the NLD are becoming more apparent as the SLORC consolidates its 
power. Entry into Asean puts the US at odds with that important body,
as well as with China, SLORC's major military and moral supporter.

Japan, which has been reluctant to break with the US on Myanmar in 
spite of strong internal pressures from its business community, has now 
expressed willingness to restart its most important foreign aid programme 
should the SLORC show even some modest (probably ineffective) signs of
dialogue. Korea, with no such scruples, has a major economic role, with
Daewoo Corporation being the most obvious of Korean conglomerates.

The military's role in the economy is likely to remain powerful through its
Myanmar Holdings Corporation Ltd, a wholly owned military venture, as 
well as through its direct management of numerous factories far beyond the 
immediate needs of military procurement, and at a local level through USDA-
owned businesses designed to provide support to those local branches of that 
ubiquitous organisation.

Similarly, there may be a movement to a multi-party political system as the
military forms a constitution at some indefinite date, even though elections 
do not a democracy make. Some very modest local autonomy given under 
the new constitution to a variety of ethnic groups, along a Chinese model, 
will not grant them national power or influence, but it may placate some local
concerns as will some controlled electoral process. The US call for SLORC
honouring the 1990 elections won by the NLD becomes more anachronistic 
over time.

There is ferment, not stasis, in Myanmar as events unfold. The SLORC at
first may not have planned to remain in such an obvious position of power 
for so long, but it was evidently shocked by the 1990 election and
anti-military 
attitudes, which it has been assiduously trying to change. It may continue in 
power until it feels its future (and that of the state in its terms) is
assured. But the
likely overall direction does indicate continuing military control in mufti
and in uniform. The immediate future seems stable, but the longer-range
problems 
remain unaddressed, let alone answered, and these will likely erode the
enforced 
tranquillity of the present.

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

DAILY TELEGRAPH (UK): TOUR FIRMS MOVE BACK INTO BURMA
August 2, 1997
by Tom Chosshyre

Tour operators are stepping up their programmes in Burma now that the
military regime's "Visit Myanmar Year" has ended.

Several companies pulled out and others issued warnings in their brochures
last year after Aung San Suu Kyi, leader of the country's pro-democracy
group, appealed to tourists not to visit because holiday cash helped to
sustain the regime.

Some British tour operators say that Suu Kyi's appeal applied only during
Visit Myanmar Year, which finished in March.

Human-rights activists believe this is a deliberate misinterpretation of
her views, and claim that the militay regime continues to use forced child
and adult labour to develop tourist sites.

A spokeswoman for Noble Caledonia, which organises cruises along the
Irrawaddy River, said that a letter expressing concern about human-rights
abuses had been sent to the Myanmar minister for tourim.

"We're not saying that Burma doesn't have its problems," she said.  "But we
feel that the money our tourists spend goes directly to gift shop owners,
taxi drivers and waiters; very little is going to the generals running the
regime,  Anyway, Visit Myanmar Year is over, so it's OK to send tourists
now."

Travelsphere has launched the first Burma programmes this year.  "We are
the biggest UK escorted tour operator in China, but since we advertised our
Burma holidays, three weeks ago, they have been selling faster than our
Chinese tours," said a spokesman.

"We are aware of the political situation, but it is up to the public
whether they visit or not.  It is sometimes better for a country like Burma
to have visitors, because it is then opened to other cultural influences."

Other tour operators increasing their involvement in Burma include Premier
Holidays and Magic of the Orient (both offering a new Irrawaddy River
cruise), and  Venice-Simplon Orient Express (which says bookings are up for
its Road to Mandalay cruise).

Worldwide Journeys & Expeditions is offeringBurma for the first time.
kuoni, Steppes East and Abercrombie & Kent are also hoping to increase
Burma sales next season.

Yvette Mahon, co-ordinator of the Burma Action Group, said: "Just because
Visit Myanmar year is over, it does not mean that tourists can flood back.
Aung San Suu Kyi has made it clear that she wants tourists to stay away."

Derek Fatchett, Britain's Foreign Affairs minister, has introduced some
punitive trade restrictions but has not called for a tourist boycott.
However, the Foreign Office said  the Government was considering further
sanctions to bring pressure on Burma's generals, who assumed power in 1988.

The Burmese government argues that tourism is a crucial part of its economy
and that there will be widespread suffering if tourists pull out.

A spokeswoman for the embassy in London said: "We do not think anti-tourism
campaigns are fair because they badly affect our economic develop."

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

FBC: LIST OF UK-BASED COMPANIES TO BOYCOTT
August 4, 1997

Most of the companies listed below are members of the Association of
British Travel Agents (ABTA), the UK's governing authority, who can be
contacted at

ABTA
55-57 Newman St.
London W1P 4AH
Tel:  0171-637-2444
Fax:  0171-637-0713


1) Noble Caledonia Ltd.
11 Charles St., London, W1X 8LE
Tel:  0171-355-1424
Fax:  0171-409-0834

Managing Director: A. Cochrane
Comments: Boat trips up the Irrawaddy River.

2)  Travelsphere Ltd.
Compass House, Rockingham Road, Market Harborough
Leics, LE16 7QD
Tel:  01858-410456
Fax:  01858-466477

Managing Directors:  R. Mackay & M. J. Edwards
Comments: Have just moved into Burma for the very first time. Downmarket.

3)  Premier Holidays
Westbrook, Milton Road, Cambridge, CB41YG
Tel:  01223-516677
Fax:  01223-516615

Managing Director: Chris May
Comments:  Their Burmese is the Swiss-run Rangoon based Insight Myanmar.

4)  Magic of the Oriented Ltd.
2 Kingsland Court, Three Bridges Road, Crawley
West Sussex RH10 1HL
Tel:  01293-537700
Fax:  01293-537888

Managing Director: T. Champion

5)  Worldwide Journeys & Expeditions
8 Comeragh Road, London, W 14 8HP
Tel:  0171-381-8638
Fax:  0171-381-0836

Managing Director: Nick van Gruisen
Comments: Upmarket. Moving into Burma seriously for the first time.

6)  Kuoni Travel Ltd.
Kuoni House, Dorking, Surrey, RH5 4AZ
Tel:  01306-740500
Fax:  01306-740719

Comments:  one of the biggest tour operators in the UK--very expensive and
with no morals whatsoever (Swiss origin)

7)  Steppes East Ltd.
Castle Eaton, Cricklade, Swindon, Wilts SN6 6JU
Tel:  01285-810267
Fax:  01285-810693

8)  Abercrombie & Kent Travel
Sloane Square House, Holbein Place, London, SW1W 8NS
Tel:  0171-730-9600
Fax:  0171-730-9376

Managing Director: M. Thompson
Comments: very expensive

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