THE VIEW FROM THE EMBASSY OF MYANMA (r)

[omg94@xxxxxxxxxx]

> data evolved from the WHO and Anti-AIDs
>Organizations in Asia will  easily reject the defamatory statement that
>Myanmar is the epicentre  of  AIDs  in  South  and  South East  Asia .

"Myanmar has one of the most
           serious epidemics in the region, with an estimated half a
           million people infected with HIV by 1996".

source: The Status and Trends Of the Global HIV/AIDS
  Pandemic Official Satellite Symposium, July 5 - 6, 1996 

Jointly organized by 

               The AIDS Control and Prenvention (AIDSCAP) Project of Family
Health International 

  The François-Xavier Bagnoud Center for Health and
  Human Rights of the Havard School of Pubil Health 

  UNAIDS The Joint United Nation Programme on
  HIV/AIDS 

see: http://www.unaids.org/unaids/document/epidemio/status.html

 "In Myanmar, HIV infection among sex workers rose from 4% in 1992 to over
20% in 1996, while two-thirds of injecting drug users are infected. Among
pregnant women in the general population, an estimated 2% are infected". 

source: Report on the Global
     HIV/AIDS Epidemic December 1997,
26 November 1997, UNAIDS and WHO
see http://www.unaids.org/unaids/document/epidemio/report97.html

"HIV infection among military recruits tested in Rangoon and Mandalay has
increased from 0.6% in 1992 to 0.9% in 1996...estimated number of adults
and children who died of AIDS since the beginning of the epidemic: 86,000"

source: 'Myanmar', UNAIDS/WHO epidemiological Fact Sheet, June 1998.

I can do some more research if you like, SPDC.  How about deliberate rape
of women, forced labour, environmental problems, child soldiers, ethnic
cleansing.....
Why not engage in an immediate and efective dialogue with ALL parties?

Why not stop killing your OWN people?

Why not grant autonomy, within a democratic Southeast Asian Burma within
ASEAN and an increasingly globalised world, to those ethnic groups such as
the Karen who request it, in order to avoid the problems of 1948+.

SPDC, YOU hold the key to the future.  Talk to Daw Aung Suu Kyi, talk to
other groups.  Burma is a country with great potential but YOU are pouring
it down the toilet.  CHANGE.  Work TOGETHER to build a safe, peaceful and
prosperous future for all the people of the country, and indeed the region.

I am not a Burmese citizen, I am English/Welsh.  I do not seek to preach to
the country of Burma, only Burma can solve its problems, but there is no
harm in taking help from other countries. Please, SPDC, make the right
decision, and please, people of Burma, work together for the future.  The
unity of the pro-democracy movement, demonstrated by the common calls for
the recognition of the 1990 elections, and for freedom of movement of 
Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, from both Burmans and other peoples, is admirable,
and is the only way forward, I feel.

Cheers,
Owain Gower, 
Student.