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

Letter From Burma



Burmese Relief Center--Japan
DATE:January 31, 1995
TIME: 9:47PM JST
SUBJ:Letter from Burma

We have just received this letter from a friend in Burma.  We
would like to share it with you.  Of course, the author must
remain anonymous.

Dear Friends, 
     Happy New Year. I would like to encourage efforts to
organize and publicize against Visit Myanmar Year '96, The
sheer amount of hype for VMY '96 is amazing-Pre-VMY Trade
Fairs (with nothing a tourist could possibly want to buy), VMY
Logo Contest, VMY product endorsements, ad nauseam. Rumor
also has it that Mr VMY, Minister of Tourism Kyaw Ba has
recently okayed 10 new major hotels for Upper Prome Road--just
what the city needs.  According to one of the Thai engineers
working on the Novotel Mandalay construction project (right
next to Mandalay Hill) their company had to court his favour for
two years and had to pay him a "gift' amounting to 10% of their
budget.  With ten new hotels, KB will turn quite a nice profit, I'm
sure.

Traveling in Upper Burma in December, a student I know was
struck by how many tourist guides-guest house owners quietly
suggested that they hoped VMY '96 failed--and these are people
who stand to make money from increased tourism. They were
also curious: just how could the government make Westerners
come visit now, when they couldn't in years past?

In Mandalay, work on the moat continues.  The entire moat has
been dredged and is being rebanked (at regulation 45-degree
angles) in ugly  concrete and stone by teams of forced labour. 
The army's idea of tourist appeal?  Many workers have been
brought in from Mandalay Prison (though the Army also uses its
own men now too, after the bad press in the NY Times last
summer).  Many more of the labourers are from surrounding
villages.  I spoke with one of the villager conscripts.  He was an
old Indian man (60+), a farmer from a village north of
Mandalay.  He said the Army conscripts 5000 villagers (or even
poor Mandalay locals) for 10-day shifts at no pay.  They must do
service or pay 100Ks per head per day, and they must bring their
own tools, blankets, mats, firewood, cooking implements, and
food, (if second-time service, they receive 500Ks total food
allowance).  The labourers are housed in zayats or lesser temple
buildings, work from 7:30AM to 5PM.  Add to this the mass
demolition of house facades facing onto the moat-road earlier this
year and the horrible reconstruction job on the Palace--cast
concrete pillars not even sanded smooth to resemble teak,
"carving" with no detail or depth--and it's not hard to see the
Army will justify anything in the name of "beautification" for the
coming tourists.

In Pagan (Nyaung U), a tourist guide told a friend about local
concern among the young men about Army plans to build a
railroad from Pakkoku to Sagaing.  They were expecting the
Army to begin conscripting labourers from nearby villages in
January.  (Incidentally, the upper terraces to the eight of the
largest major temples in Pagan have been closed to all visitors
since November--these are the temples that most people take their
photos from! And of course, they didn't reduce the FEC$10
entrance price.  Rumors of a Light and Sound Show to come.)

On my trip to Myitkyina, I was stopped repeatedly by Military
Intelligence and Immigration, even with proper authorization and
identity papers.  Over three days, I was routinely questioned
twice a day--where did I go? whom did I meet? how did I know
them? what did we talk about and for how long? where did I eat?
how many photos did I shoot? of what?  Tourists like to go see
the confluence of the Upper Irrawaddy Rivers, why didn't I? 
Tourists like to visit Indawgyi  Lake, again why not me?  Did I
meet with the opposition Council of Ethnic Minorities?  No, I
wouldn't even know where to find them.  Minorities meeting a
foreigner would be highly suspect, also highly visible; if they
were doing their job, they wouldn't need to ask.  Myitkyina is
supposedly an approved "white area," but the regional authorities
haven't changed since BSPP days, much less can conceive of
tourists actually visiting.  The train service to Myitkyina--not the
trains or the track--has just been privatised, so they can up prices. 
No insurgent threat anymore, but that doesn't much improve the
safety--shortly after I took this route, the same train plummeted
into a gorge killing 102 people.  The upper class carriage now
shows Chinese karaoke videos.

I was informed by one Immigration Officer that there should be
"no problem" to go overland to Bhamo, so I ferried across the
river to Wainmaw to check car departures, and immediately I
was stopped by other Immigration Officers.  They claimed no
knowledge of the first "Immigration Officer" who gave his okay
to cross (probably MI).  But there I was, staring at a brand new
road--80 mi (5 hrs) straight to the Chinese border--counting a
long queue of Chinese trucks hauling bicycles and machinery and
who knows what else to be exchanged for loads of Burmese teak,
listening to two local workmen talk about the Chinese bridge
slated for early '96.   Everyone whispers about all the Chinese
crossing over from Yunnan with forged Burmese Nationality
Cards.  Why doesn't the Immigration squad ever question them?

The next day four Immigration Officers saw me off at the station. 
One Inspector actually walked up and down the carriage aisle
until the train pulled out. When we stopped midway at Mogaung,
jumping off point for jade-prospecting, half the passengers got
off.  A Kachin woman in the seat across started telling me that the
hills of Pakan up there are crawling with Yunnan Chinese who
buy favour from the Army, yet speak neither Burmese nor
Kachin.  Mining concessions have been sold from right under
Buddhist temples, etc.  The influx is escalating tremendously.

During his visit to Burma, Li Peng  negotiated the '96 return tour
of the Sacred Relic of the Buddha's Tooth, loaned from Yunnan
earlier in the year "as a token of good will." (China later
requested $500,000 for transportation costs, a monk in Mandalay
told me).  A "Sweet Tooth" for Visit Myanmar Year?  Or
perhaps Myanmar dim-sum? All for now.