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Burmese Magazine Apologizes For Pri



Subject: Burmese Magazine Apologizes For Princess Article

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A magazine believed to be published by Burmese military intelligence has


apologized for an insulting reference to Thailand's Princess Sirindhorn.  The


June issue of Myetkhin'thit (translated as The New Grasslands or The New


Sward) apologized for an insult published in its February issue.  A rough


translation of the apology is reproduced here:


 


>From the June, 1994 issue, #50


 


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                                APOLOGY


 


 


     In the February 1994 issue, Myetkhin'thit #46, in Hpo Kan Kaung's


     article on p. 135, column one, line 15, a conversation between


     fictional characters defamed a neighboring country's state figure.


 


     Regarding the case, Myetkhin'thit's editorial staff did not


     carefully edit, thus this is our responsibility.  We have already


     warned the responsible person in order that this kind of incident


     does not reoccur in the future.


 


                                             Editorial group


 


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In the original article, a fictional Vietnamese character is quoted as


telling a fictional Thai character that:


 


     Though your girl is not Maha Chakri Sirindhorn, you believe that


     she is more intelligent and more patriotic.  Sirindhorn is a well-


     known person as she was born from the Thai King; however, if she


     were born from an ordinary farmer or fisherman, she would have


     become a prostitute.


                         (Myetkhin'thit, Feb. 94, p. 135)


 


The article was one installment in a serial and the characters were


discussing poverty in Thailand.  The context was a comparison between


differing fates of a Thai girl if she were born to a poor family or the royal


family.


 


As a rule, Thais take great offence to demeaning references to the Royal


Family, and especially to one as popular as Princess Sirindhorn.  A brief


mention of the article was made in the May 11 issue of Asiaweek:


 


     Thai-Myanmar ties stand to freeze over once a Burmese publication's


     attacks on Thailand, its social system and, most shockingly, a


     princess go public.  One respected royal recently visited Myanmar


     [Princess Sirindhorn visited Shan State in early 94].  Observers


     say the slanderous item in the magazine Myetkhin'thit could not


     have appeared without knowledge of government censors.  Why would


     SLORC want to bash one of its few global supporters; especially a


     nation it's banking on to get it observer status in ASEAN?  One


     explanation may be anger over alleged Thai poaching of Myanmar fish


     and lumber.


                                            page 2


 


 


When news of the article came out, no official statement was issued by the


Thai government but a Foreign Ministry source privately stated that the issue


was "resolved."


 


In a 1993 report by the PEN American Center detailing censorship in Burma,


described Myetkhin'thit this way:


 


 


     There is one recent newcomer to the publishing scene that does not


     have to contend with the multiple obstacles of checks on authors,


     the filling in of forms with biographical details of all


     contributors, predistribution scrutiny, silver-inking, or torn-out


     or glued-together pages: This is a new monthly literary magazine


     called Myet-khin-thit (A New Sward).  In early 1990, a group of


     students that had fled to the Indian border returned and gave a


     press conference during which one of them, U Soe Hla Thin,


     expressed a wish to start a magazine in which they would reveal


     their experiences.  Shortly after, Myet-khin-thit appeared, edited


     by a certain Hpo Kan Kaung.  This person is suspected of being a


     military intelligence official who had been detailed to join the


     fleeing students and then "return to the legal fold: with them as


     part of his duties.  The first issue of this magazine carried the


     supposedly true story of Papima, a girl student who went to the


     jungle with a group of friends, and who had her morals, her world,


     and finally her life destroyed by contact with the evils of Bangkok


     and the Karen National Union and the Democratic Alliance of Burma


     rebel forces in the jungle.  The story, intended to persuade those


     who took part in the democracy movement to abandon their struggle,


     has since been made into a lengthy TV file and is shown at frequent


     intervals on Burmese television.


 


     Myet-khin-thit is characterized by stories that criticize and


     attack the student movement, written supposedly by students from


     Rangoon University or the Rangoon Institute of Technology.  It also


     frequently features articles that describe in minute detail rape,


     corruption, and murder in foreign countries, with the aim of


     discrediting these very countries that are calling on the SLORC to


     respect the rights of Burmese citizens.


 


               Anna J. Allott, 


               "Inked Over, Ripped Out: Burmese Storytellers and the Censors"


               A PEN American Center Freedom-to-Write Report.  


               PEN American Center: New York, NY.  1993 (p. 19)


 


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