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BurmaNet News: August 5, 1996 (r)
- Subject: BurmaNet News: August 5, 1996 (r)
- From: strider@xxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Mon, 05 Aug 1996 04:06:00
------------------------ BurmaNet ------------------------
"Appropriate Information Technologies, Practical Strategies"
----------------------------------------------------------
The BurmaNet News: August 5, 1996
Issue #481
HEADLINES:
==========
NATION: AMNUAY SEEKS BURMA BANK LICENCES
ASIAWEEK: A BODY OF MANY PARTS
AP DOW JONES: LEGO TO CONTINUE IN BURMA
NYT - LETTER TO THE EDITOR: MYANMAR SANCTIONS
ASIAWEEK: SECOND THOUGHTS ON SANCTIONS
WALL STREET JOURNAL: BURMESE CONSUMERISM
FEER: AIDS EPIDEMIC RAGES BUT JUNTA SAYS NO TO NGO'S
THE NEW LIGHT OF MYANMAR: "FOR EASIER ACCESS"
MYANMAR ALIN: GO BACK TO WHERE YOU CAME FROM
PRESS RELEASE: 8888 CONCERT, PHOTO AND ARTS EXHIBITION
ANNOUNCEMENT: FREE BURMA DAY IN BERKELEY, CA
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
NATION: AMNUAY SEEKS BURMA BANK LICENCES
August 3, 1996
Nitsara Srihanam
DEPUTY Prime Minister Amnuay Viravan will lead a Thai delegation
to Burma on August 5 asking that country to issue branch licences
to six Thai bankers.
A source from the commerce ministry said Arnnuay, also the
foreign minister, is also visiting Burma to discuss the opening
of the border check-point. Thailand has been asking the Burmese
authorities to relax their regulations to allow Thai and Burmese
traders to freely exchange their goods through the check point.
Senior officials yesterday and today are attending a joint
Thai-Burmese committee meeting to prepare Amnuay's trip to
Burma. The source said the trip is aimed at boosting economic
cooperation between Thailand and Burma, which is expected to be a
part of Asean in the next few years.
In addition, Amnuay will also ask his Burmese counterpart to
grant banking licences to six Thai banks which are keen to open
branches in the country. The six banks are Thai Farmers Bank,
Siam Commercial Bank, Krung Thai Bank, Thai Military Bank, Bank
of Ayutthaya and Bangkok Bank. The Burmese authorities earlier
said they would allow only one Thai bank to operate a branch in
the country.
The source said that Amnuay's visit could create a better
atmosphere in the economic relationship between Thailand and
Burma. The source said that during this trip Amnuay is scheduled
to meet with the joint trade committee formed between the
countries. Meanwhile, AFP also reported that the inadequate
economic reform in Burma might hinder the country's chance of
getting assistance from the Asian Development Bank (ADB).
Burma's economic development and foreign exchange policies are
not sufficiently up to standard to merit assistance from the
Asian Development Bank (ADB), a senior bank official said yesterday.
Noritada Morita, director of the ADB's programmes department
(West) said that Burma was lagging behind the pace of economic
reform across Southeast Asia.
He said while there had been tremendous progress in economic
reforms m the region, economic and development policy in Burma
was "at present, not necessarily up to our standards."
Speaking at a media conference announcing two new regional
environmental projects for the Greater Mekong River Basin
to be organised under the auspices of the ADB, Morita pinpointed
Burma's foreign exchange policy as a shortcoming in the ruling
military's government's macro-economic management. He said that
the official rate of the local currency, the kyat, set at about
six kyat to the US dollar, made it difficult to assess the
viability of projects and evaluate which are "bankable."
The going market rate of the kyat is more than 150 kyat to the dollar.
He said that in principle the ADB had no difficulties in helping
to fund Burma in regional projects together with Cambodia, China,
Laos, Thailand and Vietnam.. The question was whether it would be
a safe investment.
Although Burma remains one of ADB's 56 members, it received its
last loan from the bank in 1986 and its last technical assistance
grant in 1987.
The ADB's 1995 annual report said that the bank was monitoring
economic developments in Burma and that an "operational strategy
will be formulated when appropriate."
ADB sources have said that the United States, a major ADB member,
is opposed to any resumptions of loans because of the political
situation in Burma.
*********************************************************
ASIAWEEK: A BODY OF MANY PARTS
August 2, 1996
In promoting regional security, ARF must be open to all players
long before last week's session of the Asean Regional Forum
opened, there had been a great deal of curiosity about how Mr.
Warren Christopher, the American Secretary of State, would broach
what most commentators had thought would be Topic A at this
year's ARF meeting: Myanmar and the repressive practices of its
ruling Slorc, Would he come in with six-shooters blasting, or
would he, in deference to Asian sensitivities, make polite con-
versation instead about Indonesia's prospects in Olympic bad-
minton?
At the dinner for the seven Asean foreign minister and 14
dialogue partners, Mr. Christopher did bring up the subject
politely but firmly. He assert that Slorc's actions, including
its treatment of Myanmar's citizens and political opposition,
were not entirely an internal matter. Narcotics trafficking, said
to be abetted by authorities, hurts everyone and the refugees
that frequently spill over into Bangladesh and Thailand create
problems. Not surprisingly, Mr. Chiristopher's sentiments were
echoed by the Irish foreign minister, Mr. Dick Spring, represen-
ting the European Union. The EU wanted a credible inquiry into
the mysterious death of an honorary consul of several smaller
European nations, in a Yangon prison just a few weeks before.
This despite Western countries having signed off on Myanmar's
participation in ARF at a previous meeting in May.
What was surprising was the frankness with which the Asian
delegates took up the issue. Their reaction was "some what
stronger than I had expected," said Mr. Alexander Downer,
Australia's foreign minister. His Indonesia counterpart and the
conference host, Mr. Ali Alatas, later conveyed some of the
concerns about Slorc's harsh policies to Mr. Ohn Gyaw, Myanmar's
foreign minister, in a private meeting. But plainly, Asean puts
its primary aim of regional harmony above worries - shared by
some of its own members - over domestic politics in particular states.
That oneness and Asean's confidence in its own interests and
positions have also enabled the association to make ARF the only
security framework in which all of the world's great powers - the
US, Russia, China, India, Japan, and, as EU members, Britain and
France - are represented, a line-up even the UN Security Council
cannot match. And the Asean forum, along with the Post-Ministe-
rial Conferences, tackled big-power issues like the nuclear test
ban and proposed environmental and labor standards under the
World Trade Oragnisation. Yet Asean retained and even strengthened its
role in the proceedings. ARF and the PMC are still Asean's party.
The grouping's staunch defense of its decision to welcome
Myanmar helped in no small way to ensure its preeminence.
Openness to other political system is crucial to Asean's very
existence, Ranging from Brunei's absolute monarchy to fall apart
if members began applying their own standards to each other. This
willingness to deal with one another regardless of internal
policies has enabled the group to weather, for instance, the
sweeping change in Manila a decade ago. Hopefully, the expected
entry of Myanmar under no political preconditions will have
ensure that it stays in Asean even after Slorc passes from the scene.
*********************************************************
AP DOW JONES: LEGO TO CONTINUE IN BURMA
August 2, 1996
COPENHAGEN -- The Lego group, Denmark's biggest toy maker, said
Thursday it plans to go on selling its plastic building bricks in Burma, in
spite of recent pressure from a human rights group, the Burma
Committee, to stop doing business there.
Last month, the Danish chapter of the Burma Committee managed to force
the Danish brewing company, Carlsberg A/S, to pull out of plans for a
joint venture brewery in Burma by threatening to initiate a boycott of the
beer group.
The toy manufacturer Lego Systems A/S also published a letter, which it
had sent to the Burma Committee a day earlier stating, although the
Burmese market was '.. now and in the future of insignificant meaning for
the Lego Group,' it felt that only the Danish government should conduct
Danish trade and foreign policy.
Further, the company argued it was impossible for a single company to
carry out an effective boycott in the current well developed and liberal
international trading environment.
Lego's products are sold in Burma by the East Asiatic Company, a large
Danish commercial trading group.
The toy company concluded the only Lego shipment ever made to Burma
in October 1995, had an export value of just 60,000 kroner and that there
were no current plans for further deliveries.
*********************************************************
NYT - LETTER TO THE EDITOR: MYANMAR SANCTIONS
August 3, 1996
from zaliwin@xxxxxxx
BurmaNet Editor's Note: New York City is considering selective purchasing
legislation which would bar the city of New York for buying goods and
services from any corporation whihc is investing in Burma. This letter
is from a City Council member who supports the legislation. Selective
purchasing laws have already been passed in 6 cities and the state of
Massachusetts.
MYANMAR SANCTIONS
To the Editor:
I agree with your call for sanctions against Myanmar, formerly Burma
("Destructive Engagement in Myanmar," editorial July 30). In fact, I, along
with several of my New York City Council colleagues, have sponsored
legislation that would deny city contracts to corporations that do business
in Myanmar.
This bill has been heard in committee and is awaiting information from
the Mayor's Office of Contracts to move forward. While the Giuliani
administration has opposed our bill, we hope that position will change.
Similar legislation has been passed in the cities of Berkeley, CA and
Madison, WI, and by the state of Massachusetts.
I applaud the courage of the Burmese people in standing up against the
human and civil rights violations perpetrated by the State Law and Order
Restoration Council, the illegitimate government of Myanmar.
I join the Nobel laureate Daw Aung San Suu Kyi in calling for an
international campaign styled after the anti-apartheid sanctions that brought
freedom to South Africa. I hope that my bill and similar legislation on the
state and Federal level would help launch international support for Mrs. Aung
San Suu Kyi's democracy movement.
Thomas K. Duane
Council Member, 3rd District
New York, July 30, 1996
***********************************************************
ASIAWEEK: SECOND THOUGHTS ON SANCTIONS
August 2, 1996
Embargoes have done little for democracy
MYINT THEIN, a US-based Burmese activist, is determined to keep
the press on the Slorc, Myanmar's ruling junta. "Last Year we did
not have the votes, he told Asiaweek regarding his group's
lobbying efforts in the American Congress for an economic embargo
of Myanmar. "This year we obtained conditional sanctions. Next
year we will get five additional votes plus more for full
sanctions." Under the bill, the US president could block new
American investment in Myanmar if Daw Aunt San Suu Kyi, the
country's crusader for democracy, is "physically harmed, re-
arrested for political acts or exiled" or if "large-scale" repre-
ssion or violence is committed against the opposition.
Suu Kyi, with whom Slorc has refused to meet, wants the world to
pull their money out now. The way the generals have treated her
and her followers have given the Nobel laureate every reason to
call for punishment. The way Suu Kyi has conducted herself during
her nation's painful subjugation, should lead all who care for
Myanmar to hear her out and use their influence to press Slorc to
do the same. Only real dialogue between the winner of the
country's first free election since 1960 and the junta that con-
ducted then ignored it, can bring Myanmar lasting peace and progress.
But while the world should lay attention to democrats like Suu
Kyi, it should ponder carefully whether to heed their call for
sanctions. However justified one's anger at a regime's abuses may
be, the key considerations in imposing an embargo should be its
likely effectiveness in bringing about democracy and its cost in
terms of hardship for ordinary citizens and disharmony between
neighboring countries. That there are hardly any other options to
pressure a repressive government options to pressure a repressive
government is no reason to impose sanctions that would have
little effect on the oppressor and only impovership the oppressed.
It may be helpful for boycott advocates to consider the role
embargoes have played in spreading democracy. Of the six Asian
lands where freedom has made great strides in the past decade,
not one was subjected to sanctions. Pakistan, the Philippines,
South Korea, Taiwan and Thailand were all US allies that it was
careful not to destabilise or antagonise. Bangladesh too escaped
the stick now being brandished at China and Myanmar. Indeed, it
is the nations thrashed or threatened with embargo - China,
Myanmar, North Korea, Vietnam - that remain autocracies,
tolerating little dissent.
Sanctions played a minimal role in bringing freedom to the Soviet
bloc. There was no boycott pointed at his head when Mikhail
Gorbachev decided that it was time for glasnost. And amid the
wave for democracy that swept Latin America, embargoes were
imposed only a few places (indeed, Uncle Sam often found itself
siding with dictators). In some countries - Cuba under Fidel
Castro, Panama under Gen. Manuel Noriega, Haiti under Gen. Rual
Cedres - the US felt sanctions didn't work fast enough, so it
mounted, supported or threatened invasions.
Undeniably, economic embargo did help get South Africa to end
apartheid, Vietnam to withdraw from Cambodia, and Serbia to make
peace in Bosnia. But where governments are asked to risk their
power - and what is democracy's essence if not the people's right
to change their leader? - then sanctions rarely deliver. The UN
embargo has forced Saddam Hussein to grudgingly cooperate with
arms inspectors, but he continues to ruthless suppress dissent.
Hanoi has given up control of Cambodia, but not of its own
people. Even in South Africa, when the black major took over, the
former white leader, F.W de Klerk, became one of two powerful
vice-presidents.
Certain policies of the West further complicate the global
crusade for democracy. It has long spread repressive allies like
Brunei and Saudi Arabia from criticism while targeting rivals
like China and Iran. In recent years it has looked the other way
while Islamist election winners, seen to be anti-West, are denied
their right to rule in Algeria and, temporary, in Turkey. The
actions of private American consultants during Russia's
presidential elections show that even democracy's champions will
countenance black propaganda, media muzzling and, nearly, the
voiding of polls just to keep their chose czar in power. All this
makes it harder to refuse many a despot's claim that democracy is
just one more ploy by the West to dominate other nations with its
wealth, media clout and political savvy.
Since the European Renaissance, there has been one proven formula
for modern democracy: the creation of a confident class of citi-
zens with ample means and learning, assertive of their right and
dignity, and ready to fight for them. It is this social flowering
- often achieved under authoritarian rule - that has made
Europe, the Americas and, increasingly, Asia democratic. Even in
China, tens of millions are gaining more control over their lives
through independent associations, village elections and court
action - all made possible greater wealth and education. While
limited sanctions with specific aims may work, large does over
many years may just destroy a nation's moneyed spiral to freedom.
*********************************************************
WALL STREET JOURNAL: BURMESE CONSUMERISM
August 2, 1996
By Fara Warner
Burmas' consumers are partial to Chinese toothpaste, they watch television
almost every day, and they choose Pepsi over most other drinks except for
tea, according to a new survey that dispels the notion that Burma has been
shut off from the consumerism gripping Asia.
The first A.C. Nielsen SRG Media Index survey of Burma -- also called
Myanmar-- shows moreover that almost any consumer product is available
in the capital city, Rangoon. "You can buy and rent laser disks of the latest
movies, young people drive sports cars, jewelry shops are bustling," says Jan
Standaert, resident advisor for the Nielsen SRG Myanmar Project. "There are
a lot of Burmese yuppies."
Nielsen, a unit of Dun & Bradstreet Corp., is working with Rangoon-based
Myanmar Marketing & Research Development Co. to condust consumer surveys in
Burma. The survey of 3,100 people throughout the country was conducted in
November and December 1995 and released this week.
This is Nielsen's first look at Burma's 45 milion people, but Mr. Standaert
says he sees parallels to Vietnam five to 10 years ago. "But the Burmese
have more televisions."
Half of those surveyed in Rangoon own a television set (80% are color sets),
and 31% own televisions in the whole of Burma. But viewers are limited to
two state-run channels that broadcast almost the same programming, Mr.
Standaert says. The survey showed that the most popular shows are
Burmese movies, the national news, documentaries, local news and
sports. In Rangoon, 47% of viewers watch television every day,
compared with a countrywide figure of 28%.
Twenty-three percent of Rangoon residents own a videocassette recorder,
compared with 13% countrywide. Radio use is widespread, with 72%
ownership in Rangoon and 56% countrywide. Bicycles are the preferred
choice of transportation outside the city, with 56% owning a bike
countrywide, compared with 26% in Rangoon.
But ownership of other durable products such as cars, motorcycles and
telephones is very low, even in Rangoon. Only 8% said they owned a
tleephone, 4% owned a car and 3% a motorcycle in Rangoon. For the
whole country, only 2% own a telephone, 7% own cars and 6% own
motorcycles. But Mr. Standaert says in the year since he arrived in
Rangoon, traffic jams have become more frequent.
As for consumer goods such as beer, tobacco and toiletries, local and
Chinese brands are generally most often used, but international brands
are growing in popularity, Mr. Standaert says.
Duya, a local cigarette brand, is the most popular, followed by Lucky Strike,
London and State Express 555. Fuhuana, a Chinese toothpast brand, is the
most popular, followed by Unilever Group's Pepsodent and Close-Up and
Colgate-Palmolive Co.;s Colgate. Mandalay, brewed locally, is the most
popular beer, closely followed by Heineken and Tiger brands.
*********************************************************
FEER: AIDS EPIDEMIC RAGES BUT JUNTA SAYS NO TO NGO'S
August 1, 1996
by Bertil and Hseng Noung Lintner
Village fairs in Burma's Shan State used to be joyful occasions, with young
people dancing to the beat of drums and gongs while older folk thronged
market stalls and makeshift eating places. The old festivals have not
disappeared. But now the occasion for gathering in the Shan village is
often one of sadness, such as cremation of a young person.
Aids is out of control in northern-Burma, where the number of infected
people has reached 350,000-400,000. According to the Southeast Asian
Information Network, many are prostitutes that have returned from brothels
in Thailand. Others are drug addicts. Aids is said to be rampant in Burma's
many prisons, where disposable syringes are unheard of, homosexuality
is common and Heroine is quite freely available.
The HIV-Aids epidemic in Burma will feature at the ongoing 9th
International Conference on Aids in Vancouver, which has attracted
1000's of medical experts as well as HIV sufferers. They will hear that
the military Junta has failed to take measures strong enough to stem the
epidemic. But outsiders who could help often can't do so because the
generals who run the country don't welcome foreign non-governmental
organizations (NGO).
At least one International NGO which assists with the prevention programs
spent more than 10 months in 1994-1995 waiting for required memorandum
of understanding from the government, which in the end failed to materialize.
The NGO then pulled out of Burma; but as it still hopes to work there it asks
not to be named. The International Committee of the Red Cross quit the
country in mid-1995, citing the Junta's refusal to allow visits to political
prisoners.
A recent published report by the United Nations International Drug
Control Program estimates that 60%-70% of all intravenous drug users
in Burma are infected with HIV virus. In Myitkyina in Kachin State, in
the far north of Burma, for instance, heroine is easily available in every
market and 91% of drug addicts are said to be HIV positive.
American State department sources say that Burma's annual production of
Heroine has skyrocketed from 53 tonnes in 1987 to about 190 tonnes today.
Most of the Heroine is exported, but large quantities are also sold locally
all over the country. That's especially so in the north, where the drug is
sold close to producction sites and relatively cheap. In Shan state, local
village officials say heroine abuse is the most serious social problem
facing young people today.
The Southeast Information Network points an accusing finger at the
authorities for the spread of the epidemic: "In an authoritarian state
where government control of virtually all sectors of economic and social
life is the norm, the high rates of heroine use among Burma's youth
point either to the fundemental inability of the government to exert
control, or an involvement, at least on some levels, of the government
in heroine availability."
Local people agree. "Heroine is sold right under the noses of the local
army and police. It's everywhere," says Nang Leun, a young Shan women.
The situation doesn't seem to be very different in Rangoon. "If you hold
a meeting to discuss human rights, you get 15 years jail. But you can sell
heroine in the college dormitory and nobody will bother you," says a pro-
democracy student veteran now living in the Thai-border area.
But even young people who have never seen heroine are affected by the
HIV virus. Na Mi, a teenage hilltribe girl from Kengtung in eastern Shan
state, is a case in point. She was lured away from her village and sold into
prostitution in Thailand when only a child. After being kept in a Bangkok
brothel for several years, she caught the HIV virus. Today, she lies in a
hospital bed in Chiang Mai, weak, pale and with possibly only a few more
months to live.
Na Mi us not alone. Local officials in Chiang Mai estimate that between
25% and 35% of those entering the sex industry in Northern Thailand are
immigrants from Northern Burma, and 40%-60% are already HIV
positive. As many as 80% of all women entering the sex industry will
sooner or later acquire HIV, local sources say. Women returning from the
Thai sex industry with HIVhave been found in the Chinese province of
Yunnan, in the Shan state and even in central Burma.
Under the circumstances, Na Mi is luckier than others. At least she is in
a clean hospital in Chiang Mai, where medication is available. The
contagious-disease ward in the local hospital in the border town of
Tachilek, by contrast, is extremely basic and suffers from an acute shortage
of medicine.
A Doctor who has spent time doing Aids research in Burma says that
international organizations are already playying a key role in containing
Aids in Thailand and India-two other countries where Aids has spread
rapidly but where the rate of new infections is showing signs of slowing.
But closed isolated Burma remains the wekest link in the epidemic chain
in Asia. He believes Burma's HIV epidemic "is poised to devastate the
country for years to come."
**********************************************************
THE NEW LIGHT OF MYANMAR: "FOR EASIER ACCESS"
July 23, 1996, p. 6 (Editorial)
[Begin Text] There are local correspondents of foreign wire services and
other media who seek to source their despatches abroad. There are their
counterparts who come to Myanmar on various assignments and go after
news through various sources to file them as quickly and authentically as
possible.
Since Myanmar opened its doors to visitors, including newsmen, after the
advent of the State Law and Order Restoration Council, means of helping
newsmen gather news was devised, including the formation of the
Information Committee for the express purpose of helping newsmen get
what they needed. There were regular Friday noon news briefings when
local correspondents and others who happen to be visiting could attend
and seek answers they were looking for, or file reports based on what the
Government could release. In the absence of such briefings or proper sourcing,
journalists wander around, getting whatever they could,forming opinion
on whatever is told them by those they could easily meet.
Ministers and lower-echelon staff were made available and the foreign
Press was occasionally taken on trips to important points where news
broke to allow them to have a firsthand account of what had been taking
place. Fair enough if these men in the write business or the TV people
reported what they saw without the kind of bias that would have them
slant the stories. Often, the situation was different.To allow both local
correspondent and foreign correspondents to get a fair share of what
they might fileabout Myanmar's political, social, economic and other
developments, the State Law and Order Restoration Council has
reconstituted the Information Committee to help newsmen by providing
easier access and has made arrangements to revive the Press briefings.
The Committee has been expanded, bringing in top- and middle-echelon
leaders in Government, managing directors, directors general and others
from all ministries who will pool resources, group subjectwise and hold
regular briefings, with liaison and contacts helping out those who wish to
attend.
It is the State Law and Order Restoration Council's bid to help those who
would like the world to see the true side of the coin, not only the side
Myanmar-bashers want others to see. Our journalist friends will then be
able to write more objectively, in accord with tenets.
**********************************************************
MYANMAR ALIN: GO BACK TO WHERE YOU CAME FROM
July 20, 1996 by Myo Chit Thu
This article appeared in a Burmese language government daily,
Myanmar Alin.
[Translated Excerpt] Unprecedented stability and tranquility now prevail
in Myanmar. The government's constructive undertakings are achieving
positive results in all aspects. [passage omitted on return of jungle-based
armed groups to the legal fold, achievements of the StateLaw and Order
Restoration Council; and implementation of political, economic and social
objectives.]
Foreign countries are also intensively investing in a peaceful and stable
Myanmar. As political stability and economic development gain momentum,
a force is working to destroy the interests of the people and the country.
This destructive force is vociferously telling the international community
not to invest in Myanmar, not to grant it financial aid, not to visit Myanmar,
and not to allow Myanmar into ASEAN.
This force has no regard for national interests. It relies on foreign elements,
and it will dance accordingly when the strings are pulled by the neo-
imperialists. Like the maxim [a wife] offering a sword to a thief, this
destructive force will do anything to please the imperialists. [passage
omitted on mass rallies held to support the SLORC's constructive
development works and to denounce destructionists, and unveiling of
the people's desire billboards in states and divisions]
Local and foreign investors held a seminar on Visit Myanmar Year and
Economic Development at the International Business Center on Prome
Road in Yangon on 16 July. The seminar was attended by responsible
personnel of the local and foreign enterprises, business representatives,
and invited guests. At the seminar, the discussions of the foreign
investors were very valuable and encouraging. I believe six foreign
investors in their representations said they could not tolerate the acts
of destructionists who hold negative views and rely on foreign elements.
Allow me to present some of them. [passage omitted on positive remarks
made by Mr. Sulistyo, managing director of the Basa Myanmar Tobacco,
about his business in Myanmar and its economy.] Mr. Sulistyo's remarks
show he has goodwill toward Myanmar. We can say he is a person with
clear vision, and his remarks have to be given importance because he is
an experienced foreign entrepreneur.
Mr. Sulistyo is from Indonesia. At the seminar, he presented the future
of Myanmar's economy by comparing it with Indonesia's development.
He said it took 30 years forIndonesia to reach the present stage and
added that, with the aid of high technology, Myanmar can reach Indonesia's
stage of development in less than 20 years. He added that there are good
opportunities for foreign investments here. His remarks are so encouraging!
Although he is a foreigner his goodwill for Myanmar is obvious because
he is working for mutual cooperation. He is totally different from those
who hold negative views and rely on foreign elements.
The destructive force is an obstacle for the country when efforts are
being made to build a modern and developed nation. That is why,
I have few words for those who lead the destructive force:
"Go back to the place where you came from"
*********************************************************
PRESS RELEASE: 8888 CONCERT, PHOTO AND ARTS EXHIBITION
August 2, 1996
A diverse Burmese cultural festival to mark the historic anniversary of
the 1988 popular uprising for democracy will be held on August 8-10 at
the Thai-German Cultural Institute. The festival, which aims to promote
a deeper understanding between the neighboring Thai and Burmese people,
includes an exhibition of contemporary paintings, a group documentary
photo exhibit, and a colorful performance of traditional Burmese dance
and music.
The dance repertoire highlights the graceful oil lamp dance, the
marionette impersonation and Thingyan Yein-a group performance of the
Water Festival dance. Musical accompaniment by Sai Wain-uses indigenous
Burmese drums and brass gongs. A sampling of the rich Burmese theatrical
heritage will also feature musical opera and modern skits depicting the
history of the democracy movement.
Burmese and ethnic food will be served with refreshments and native
handicrafts and educational material on Burma may be purchased. Tickets
are B 88/students; B 188 and are available at:
"Nai In" Bookstore-Ramkamhaeng, Taa Prachan
"Duang Kamol" Bookstore-Siamsquare
"Asia" Bookstore-Sukhumvit Soi 21
"Goethe" Institute-Thai-German Cultural Foundation
Performance times are 6:00-9:00 p.m. nightly at the Thai-German Cultural
Institute located at Sathorn Road. For more information or ticket
reservations please call 216-4463(TACDB) or 287-2822, 213-2410(Gothe
Institute).
The event is sponsored by the Thai Action Committee for Democracy in
Burma(TACDB).
***********************************************************
ANNOUNCEMENT: FREE BURMA DAY IN BERKELEY, CA
August 1, 1996
Bay Area Burma Roundtable
Burma: The South Africa of the Nineties
For More Information,
Call Jane Jerome at 408/467-2721
The Bay Area Burma Roundtable, in cooperation with the
National Coalition for Corporate Withdrawal from Burma, invites
the general public to a day of seminars on the political situation in
the Southeast Asian nation of Burma, also known as Myanmar.
The conference will be held Saturday, August 10, on the fourth
floor of the University of California, Berkeleys Martin Luther King,
Jr. student union, located at Telegraph and Bancroft, from 9 a.m.
to 4:30 p.m.
Workshop topics will cover the general political, environmental
and human rights issues, along with activist responses to these
wrongs, in the form of campus, local, national and international
organizing of shareholder resolutions and selective purchasing
laws, boycotts and other tactics to enhance the prospects for
peace and democracy in Burma, a country held hostage to the
violent whims of the ruling military regime, SLORC.
Speakers include experts living on the border with refugees,
academicians and grassroots lobbyists, members of the socially
responsible investment community and others well acquainted
with the broad range of issues confronting the peoples of Burma.
Burma is being called the South Africa of the 90s as concerned
activists have taken to implementing sanctions against the
repressive regime in response to Aung San Suu Kyi, 1991 Nobel
Peace Prize laureate and leader of the National League for
Democracy, which won the 1990 elections whose results have
been disregarded by the countrys military dictatorship. Suu Kyi
has asked the international investment community to stay out of
Burma, as corporate involvement serves only to strengthen the
regime financially and underwrite its severe oppression of the
people in Burma, through forced labor, forcible relocation,
extrajudicial execution, torture and rape, campaigns against
ethnic minority groups and the silencing of dissent by banning
freedom of speech, association and the press.
Admission to the event is free and the public is welcome.
Registration begins at 8:30 a.m.
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