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Breaking News (Part 2)



                             April  17, 1998, Friday 
 
SECTION: TRANSPORTATION; Pg. 10A 
 
LENGTH: 625 words 
 
HEADLINE: Myanmar bans foreign couriers; DHL venture spared 
 
BYLINE: BY P.T. BANGSBERG 
 
 BODY: 
   The military-backed regime in Southeast Asia's most reclusive state is 
ordering all foreign air express companies to cease operations, except a joint
venture between DHL International and its own postal monopoly. 
    Authorities in Myanmar (formerly  Burma)  issued the directive 10 days ago
without warning and without what some foreign courier services said Thursday
was
much explanation. Among those told to shut down starting Monday are Federal 
Express Corp., United Parcel Service Inc., TNT Express Worldwide and Overseas 
Courier Service Inc. 
    ""We have received the letter and are studying it,'' said Julia Khang, 
spokesman for FedEx in Singapore, the regional headquarters. ""Beyond that, we
don't know much.'' 
    FedEx, a unit of FDX Corp. of Memphis, has daily service between Singapore
and Yangon (Rangoon) operated with Myanmar partner Indo-China Express Inc. Ms.
Khang said the business is a mix of documents and goods. 
    Other companies confirmed receipt of the decree and said they were
discussing
it with the regime in Yangon. Some said they might have to advise customers of
an interruption of service until the matter is resolved. The sole exception to
the blanket ban appears to be a joint venture between the DHL International
Ltd.
unit of DHL Worldwide Express and Myanmar Posts and Telecommunications. The 
government directive said 11 other foreign companies were operating without 
official sanction. Several have been working in the country for five or six 
years - FedEx since 1983 - and those contacted said they received authority
from
the Ministry of Trade. 
    DHL International began negotiating its arrangement six years ago, but
wasn't
approved until 1996. Its regional office in Singapore didn't return calls 
seeking comment. Myanmar, the wealthiest country in Southeast Asia when it won
independence from Britain 50 years ago, has been isolated for several years 
after its current government seized power in a 1990 rebellion, rejecting 
election results. 
          The regime retains a tight grip on political dissent, keeping the
key 
opposition leader under effective house arrest, and shuns the outside world 
except for seeking investment. 
    One observer suggested the move against foreign express carriers is
designed 
to control the flow of political information in and out of the country, and 
perhaps ensure that no scarce foreign currency departs. 
    With inflation galloping and the local currency, the kyat, plummeting, the
ruling council ordered that only state-run banks could deal in foreign
currency.
It recently stripped seven private banks of their licenses to handle such 
transactions. Air cargo industry executives say Myanmar's courier business
isn't
great - perhaps $1 million a month - but it was growing as commerce grew, 
despite the difficult conditions. 
    ""Limiting courier and express service to a single entity will inevitably
put
up costs,'' one executive said. 
   The number of private businesses in Myanmar increased by more than 4,000
last
year, official figures show, to 23,464. Foreign investment in Myanmar is put
at 
$6.6 billion at the end of 1997. Of the country's $725 million exports in the 
first 10 months of 1997, the private sector contributed 75 percent, the 
government says. Myanmar runs a heavy trade deficit and is encouraging import 
substitution. 
    A spokesman at another carrier, who requested anonymity, said it seemed 
Yangon is trying to force operators to work with the postal agency, which
offers
an express mail service. Such a requirement ""allows closer control,
obviously, 
and diverts revenues to government coffers,'' he said. 
    U.S. businesses have been forbidden to open new ventures in Myanmar since 
President Clinton imposed sanctions nearly a year ago. 

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News World Communications, Inc.   
                              The Washington Times 
 
                     April  19, 1998, Sunday, Final Edition 
 
SECTION: Part E; TRAVEL; Pg. E4 
 
HEADLINE: The way things were - and still are 
 
BYLINE: Richard Slusser; THE WASHINGTON TIMES 
 
DATELINE: MANDALAY,  BURMA  
 
    MANDALAY,  Burma  - At 10 a.m., our bus bumps along a road of potholes 
beside the Irrawaddy River.  In soft, innocent tones, a Southern lady speaks: 
"Can somebody tell me, please, what all these boys in robes are carrying bowls
for?" 
    "It's lunchtime, lady," comes the answer from another American on the bus.
     "Ohhh," says the woman, immediately aware of her faux pas, that the boys
are
from a Buddhist monastery and that they, like the older monks, are begging for
their one meal of the day. 
     Most of the Americans I talk with in  Burma  seem to have read something
on 
the history and culture of  Burma  and are aware that the monks beg for food 
daily and take what they are given to the monastery for the common meal. 
    Many also know that all males are expected to spend some time in a 
monastery, and some have heard that often men return to the monastery briefly 
after the death of their mothers or on other occasions for devotion and 
introspection. 
 
    The military-controlled political reality of  Burma  occasionally is
touched
upon in conversations between travelers and at times with some of the Burmese 
people.  Usually the Burmese say nothing about politics, at least to
foreigners.
I don't ask; I am not here on a mission but because I want to see this
country. 
   In Washington, I hear more about the Burmese government than I do in 
 Burma.  
    When I told people in Washington that I was coming to  Burma,  their 
reactions usually were questions such as: 
   * Is it safe to go there? 
   * Are you taking out special insurance? 
   * How can you go there with  Burma's  human rights record? 
    In  Burma,  I am reassured about my answers.  As for safety, I never feel 
threatened, something I cannot say about Washington, where I have survived, 
unharmed, gun and knife threats.  As for insurance, no, nothing special. 
    As to human rights, I answer that I do not see why  Burma  is being
singled 
out when Americans still go to China, that during apartheid Americans still
went
to South Africa and that before the Berlin Wall was demolished Americans
eagerly
visited Moscow, Prague and Berlin.  I am not a political traveler. 
     I notice much more police presence in Washington than in Rangoon (now
called
Yangon), except that on the morning when we leave for a flight from Rangoon to
Pagan, soldiers are stationed at intersections along the main road to the 
airport.  It turns out that this is the route a foreign dignitary is to take 
from the airport - which is closed to all air traffic for about an hour
because 
of the VIP's arriving flight. 
     So I have come to  Burma,  and I don't want to leave, for there is so
much I
haven't seen.  To come back, I'm sure I could be ready in no time at all.  It
is
a fascinating country, and I rank my trip with a safari in Zimbabwe five years
ago. 
      Burma  is a series of surprises and wonders, a land of disarming beauty
and
hard work, where today is as much yesterday as it is tomorrow, where the old
way
of doing things is still the way they are done. 
     I am surprised to see everybody wearing sandals and what we roughly group
as
flip-flops, and I am amazed that about 99 percent of the men and women wear 
longyis, the ankle-length skirt fashioned from a tube of fabric and tied at
the 
waist in front - in the center for men and at the side for women. 
     The exception seems to be construction workers and children, but I notice
quite a few construction workers wearing longyis, sandals and hard hats. 
     On one evening outing we stop by a small store that has a big selection
of 
longyis in silk as well as cotton.  The clerk says she has one large enough 
for me. 
     I select a gold-and-black-check longyi, try it on and tie it (a technique
I 
have mastered through observation), and my colleagues say it is fine.  I buy
it.
     When we return to our boat, the Road to Mandalay, I try on the longyi
again 
and look in the mirror.  "Oh, no," I say to myself.  "Take out the seam, and 
this will become a tablecloth." I accept this mistake calmly. Perhaps a little
of  Burma  has rubbed off in one week. 
 GRAPHIC: Photos (color), A lone boatman moves his goods on the Irrawaddy
River. 
Young Buddhist monks (right) carry native lacquerware bowls on their rounds
near
Mandalay as they ask for food for their only meal of the day., Both By Richard
Slusser/The Washington Times 
 
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
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