NEWS - SAILING THROUGH ETHNICIDE

[Rangoonp@xxxxxxx]

June 99 campaign alert by Project Maje <maje@xxxxxxxxxxx>

campaign alert; please distribute...(will post on Burmanet & FBC list)

SAILING THROUGH ETHNICIDE

     A little-known aspect of Burma tourism is the growth since 1997 of
scuba
diving tours to the Mergui Archipelago/Burma Banks area. Located off
Burma's
southern Tenasserim region, these islands in the Andaman Sea are
described
in websites and articles as "pristine," "breathtaking,"  "unspoilt and
fascinating," etc. The diving regions are reached on live-aboard sailing
or
motor yachts,
usually leaving from the southern Burmese towns of Kawthaung or Mergui.
Divers can observe a variety of marine life, including sharks, and
sea-kayaking
is now also offered in the area. Several scuba diving companies based on
the
Thai resort island of Phuket, plus some international tour agencies,
offer
this
access to Burma's Andaman Sea islands. Prices range around US$800 to
$2,200 for 5 to 8 day cruises.
     These trips are advertised as "eco tours" or "eco cruises" and the
exotic, untouched aspects of the area ("one of the last pristine
environments on
earth") are emphasized to attract "been everywhere" divers. Tour
operators
negotiated with the Burmese military for some three years for permission
to
run the tours, even though the Burma Banks dive site is in international
waters, as the regime
considers it all within the Myanmar Exclusive Economic zone.
      "Adventure Travel" magazine, in an article titled "The Last Eden"
touting the Mergui Archipelago tours, commented, "Amazingly, apart from
a
few 'sea gypsies,' there's not even an indigenous population," and "Not
only have the islands escaped development by the modern world, they
don't
even have a significant indigenous population."
      Some of the tour company websites use the Sea Gypsies as one of
the
attractions of their cruises: "The only humans you'll encounter are the
Moken Sea Gypsies who roam the area in their small boats, largely the
way
their
ancestors have done for centuries. They are very friendly and like to
visit
for a
chat or to barter some fish...Where we have contact with the
inhabitants,
Moken
seagypsies, this is on a basis of mutual respect and in no way degrading
for
them." -- Faraway Sail & Dive Expeditions.
      The small, endangered ethnic group referred to as "Sea Gypsies" or
"Moken," the Saloun people, traditionally have lived on boats in the

region and survived on ocean and island foods.  According to a
Thailand-based
environmental expert, "Most of the Salouns in Burmese waters have been
forced by Slorc to settle in permanent onshore camps, sort of like
relocation
settlements." Further sources have documented that at least 700 Saloun
families were forcibly resettled on land since 1993, in the Burmese
regime's effort to secure the Myanmar Exclusive Economic Zone for
activities
such as
petroleum drilling and commercial fishing. Reportedly Saloun men who
have
fled persecution in Burma have wound up working on Thai fishing boats,
and
some of the Saloun women have been reduced to working as prostitutes in
the
notorious AIDS-deathtrap brothels of the Thai port of Ranong.
      The effects of the dive tours on the remaining sea-roving Salouns
are
hard
to determine. What is readily apparent is that the tours work to the
advantage of
the very regime which obliterated the traditional way of life for most
Salouns
and many other indigenous peoples of Burma. An "Outside" magazine
endorsement of one of the tours added this caveat: "Burma's military
dictatorship began heavily courting tourist dollars. Be forewarned that
a
percentage of your trip fee will go to support this regime."
       The tour company websites mostly make only passing mention of a
"port and customs entry fee" sometimes including visa, which is paid to
the regime, varying between US$90 and $130. In one case, Fantasea Divers
posts a page
about its "Myanmar Entry Fee" (US$130 in "new undamaged and unmarked
bills," not including visa) specifying that it "is simply the amount
that
the Burmese authorities charge us for each passenger" and "The money is
divided between the [Tourism] Ministry, Kawthoung district and the
Southern
Army Command. It does not go into some general's Swiss bank account."
What is not noted on FantaseaÕs website (or any of the other dive
outfits') is the well-documented extraordinary human rights abuse record
of
the Southern Army Command of Burma -- enormous levels of forced labor,
village
burnings, ethnic cleansing, rape, torture, and murder of civilians. Why
giving even one dollar to
the Southern Army Command's bullet fund or a mere colonel's local bank
account would be justifiable for a pleasure cruise seems
incomprehensible.
       The tours usually are escorted by a guide/translator from the
regime's Ministry of Tourism. A bizarre self-satisfying combination of
individual concern
for preservation of the environment with blissful ignorance of the
wholesale
human and ecological mayhem committed by BurmaÕs regime seems to result.
The scuba tourist's Burma impression is one of "world-class dive-sites,"
"awesome creatures,"  "incredible photo opportunities," and of course
the
"seafood and cocktail extravaganza."
       In an article in "Nautica" (an "international yachting magazine")
about one of these trips, the author mourns a dynamite killing of
barracudas
and other fish as
"a massacre" and feels "sad and embittered" because of it, but is
apparently oblivious to the massacres of indigenous people by Burma's
military, taking place not far away in the Tenasserim area.

       One Phuket-based dive tour company, Seacats, publicizes its
refusal
to run
tours to Burmese waters due to safety concerns (citing disputes between
Thai
and Burmese naval vessels earlier this year) "without questioning the
ethics of operating in Burma in the first place." It is up to Free Burma
activists from around the world to raise those ethical questions to the
operators of the scuba tours.

Below are the addresses, phone, fax, email and websites for several tour
companies. Please contact some or all of them and express concerns
about:
 . Their payments to Burma's military regime
 . Their pleasure tourism in such an oppressed country
 . The effects on indigenous people of the area
The tour companies will probably reply that they are somehow helping to
preserve the environment by making it a tourist dive site; but they
should
be
made more sensitive about whether that justifies their relationship with
Burma's brutal regime. Are they really doing something to save the
environment or are
they just pushing the thrill of a new region for scuba divers before
such
tourism
is really appropriate? Your questions may make the tour operators
re-examine
the effects of their business.

BURMA SCUBA TOUR COMPANIES:
1) South East Asia Liveaboards (perhaps the original operator in the
area)
225 Rat-U-Thit 200 Year Rd., Patong, Phuket 83150, Thailand.

www.sealiveaboards.com   email: info@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
tel (66-76) 340-406. fax (66-76) 340-586. Mr. Graham Frost.
2) Fantasea Divers, PO Box 20, Patong Beach, Phuket 83150, Thailand.

www.fantasea.net    email: info@xxxxxxxxxxxx
tel (66-76) 340-088. fax (66-76) 340-309.
3) Faraway Sail & Dive, 45/10 Mu 9, Soi Sukee, Thanon Chaofa, Tambon
Chalong, Amphur Muang Phuket 83130, Thailand. tel/fax (66-76) 283-129.

www.far-away.net     email: info@xxxxxxxxxxxx
4) Siam Dive n' Sail, 121/9 Patak Rd., Mu 4, Karon, Phuket 83100,
Thailand. email: info@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
tel (66-76) 330-967. fax (66-76) 330-990. Mr. John Williams.
5) Andy Herrich Dive Expeditions, PO Box 16, Karon Post Office, Phuket
83100,
Thailand. www.genesis1phuket.com    email: genesis@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
tel (66-76) 330-969. fax (66-76) 331-002.
6) Divemaster, 110/63 Lardprao Soi 18, Lardprao, Bangkok 10900 Thailand.

www.sino.net/divemaster    email: divemstr@xxxxxxxxxxx
tel (66-2) 938-4216. fax (66-2) 938-4218.
7) Dive Asia Pacific, PO Box 244, Phuket 83000, Thailand.

www.dive-asiapacific.com    email: info@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
tel in US: 1-800-962-0395. In Thailand: (66-76) 263-732. fax (66-76)
263-733.
8) In Depth Adventures. US tel/fax 707-443-1755. Thai fax: (66-76)
263-286.

www.indepthadv.com   email: indepth@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
9) Asian Adventures, 231 Rat-U-Thit 200 Year Rd., Patong Beach, Phuket
83150, Thailand. tel/fax (66-76) 342-798. email:
info@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
10) Asia Transpacific Journeys (Colorado company that offers a tour from
a
Phuket outfitter; also has many tours elsewhere in Burma on land.)
tel (in US) 1-800-642-2742. Mr. Rusty Staff, president.

www.SoutheastAsia.com   email: info@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx