Major Slorc Promotion Project Under

[zni@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]

Subject: Major Slorc Promotion Project Under Threat

>
>To:win
>From:zni@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>Subject:Major Slorc Promotion Project Under Threat
>Cc:chochowin@xxxxxxx
>
>MAJOR SLORC TOURISM PROMOTION PROJECT UNDER THREAT
>
>
>Slorc has commissioned Charles Orchard, a British entrepreneur who has a
>trading firm in Rangoon, to produce a coffee table color photo book which
>is aimed at promoting 1996 Visit Myanmar Year. Major sponsors for the book
>include Serge Pun Associates which carried out recent refurbishing of
>Strand Hotel in Rangoon, and othet South East Asian investors.
>
>The book is to carry Foreward by Slorc's Tourism Minister Major General
>Kyaw Ba.  It will cover all the unusual destinations with photos taken by
>Burmese photographers and a text written by a Burmese writer.  The project
>managers are looking to publish two versions of the book: one is to carry
>the name "Burmese" to placate western readers and the other "Myanmar
>Naingan".
>
>Mr. Orchard, a major Slorc collaborator from Britain, has approached
>Gillian Cripps, an Oxbridge-educated Freelance editor and specialist in
>Cyprus, for editing work for the book project.  Although Ms Cripps
>initially agreed to work on the Slorc project (she didn't anything about
>SLORC), she is in the process of withdrawing from the project for two
>reasons.  First, she is concerned about the potential damage to her
>reputation by working on a Slorc project. Second, the likely controversy
>the book will cause is of major concern for her.  And third, she is also
>worried about the payment from her untrustworthy business partner, Slorc.
>
>It is learned that the book will be published by a Publishing Firm in
>Italy, where Mr. Orchard's Italian girl friend works.
>
>Slorc is getting smarter in hiring foreign hands for its whitewashing (PR)
>projects abroad. A few years back, it hired a Washington-based PR firm
>headed by Lestor Wolf, a former US congressman.  Recently there appeared a
>pro-Slorc article in Soc.culture.burma "MYANMAR-IT IS TIME FOR A MORE
>OBJECTIVE ASSESSMENT by M.S Dobbs-higginson.  It is unclear whether Mr.
>Dobbs-Higginson, former chairman of Maryll Lynch (Asia-Pacific Region), is
>Lestor Wolf's replacement or not.
>
>Source:  Nicholas Greenwood (Author of Burma Now and Then, Bradts, 1995).
>Nicholas Greenwood is a travel writer and activist on Boycott Visit
>Myanmar Year owing to the use of slave labor in tourism projects in Burma.
>For more information on tourism and slave labor, please contact: Sue
>Wheat, Burma Researcher, Tourism Concern, Southlands College, Wimbledon
>Parkside, London, SW 19 5NN UK.  Fax (0181)-944-6583 or Tel:
>(0181)-944-0464
>

_____________________________________________________________________________
"The struggle for democracy and human rights in Burma is a struggle for
life and dignity. It is a struggle that encompasses our political, social
and economic aspirations."

>From Daw Aung San Suu Kyi's opening keynote address at NGO Forum on Women,
Beijing 1995
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