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DenverPostLetter 7Jul96



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Letter published in The Denver Post, 7 Jul 96. (letters@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx)

World must protest atrocities in Myanmar

Earlier this year I visited refugee camps inside Myanmar* along its 
borders with China and Thailand, but beyond the reach of the junta's writ 
and the range of its army.  Conditions I saw there pained me immensely.  
Victims of rape, torture, murder, arson and enslavement all told the same 
tale of unbearable conditions that visited them in their villages.

Two deserters from the Burmese army who looked like 12-year-olds but who 
were actually 16 said they were regularly beaten by drunken officers, 
ordered to burn homes and granaries and rape village women they 
encountered on patrols.

In the south where Unocal, Texaco and Total Petroleum of France are 
jointly building a natural gas pipeline, ethnic Karens, Mons and Tavoyans 
have been forced out of their ancestral homelands, which stand in the path 
of the pipeline.  

Many villagers have died working under inhumane conditions clearing the 
jungles, and building roads and rail for the project.  How can American 
and other corporations be party to such unconscionable acts of violence 
all in the pursuit of profits?

Inge Sargent's traumatized life is a metaphor for my tortured homeland.  
But I have faith that the people of Myanmar will prevail in their 
nonviolent quest to tryst with destiny and realize the dream of democracy. 
The military has run out of options.  It has only its weapons to rely on 
to continue the repression of the people.

"There have always been murderers and tyrants," said Mahatma Gandhi.  "In 
the end they all fall."

                                                       U Kyaw Win
                                                       Boulder


(*The editors changed Burma to Myanmar.  This letter was written in 
response to the front page piece,"Princess with a Cause," which was 
published in The Denver Post, on Sunday, 30 June 1996).