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

BurmaNet News: August 5, 1996 (r)




------------------------ 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.   

**********************************************************