Euro-Burmanet (Paris) please post,

[cd@xxxxxxxxxx]

Subject: Euro-Burmanet (Paris) please post, iht nytimes stories 

Free Burma supporters, friends and concerned activists, =

Bad Press Alert ,  International Herald Tribune, 2 september, and 3 septemb=
er.
Sometimes the IHT will print anything anyway, even when it means well. It h=
appenned again.
Euro-Burmanet, in Paris,  encourages you send immediately voiced outrage an=
d indignation, and astonishment to the publisher and editor in chief of the=
 International Herald Tribune, for having edited and published the followin=
g news item and article as it appeared , having been edited from the NYTime=
s story, evidently published in the NY Times the previous day (as is often =
the case with the IHT cutting  already published news). The IHT is 50% owne=
d by the NY TIMES - but doesnt carry near the same paper space

" (Colonel Kyaw Thein, a senior military intelligence officer, said the aut=
horities would take necessary or appropriate " measures against the movemen=
t led by Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, " if and when required ". =

Hopes for a dialogue have faded, and the struggle between the military rule=
rs and their democratic opponenets is now one of enlightened confrontation.=
 "

And please get it straight, this from a liberal centrist to the right flip =
flop editors desk ! One wonders if the written press is bent on informing o=
r misinforming. Thankfully, there is the net to tell the difference!
Read the IHT headlines, read the story, look at the slant, how the paper is=
 playing into the hands of the dictators, airing their views, virtually giv=
ing them a plausible world stage to project and justify their defiance of f=
orums of international law and justice. As though Daw Aung San Suu Kyi is w=
eary or tired ! If anything she is weary and tired of only  the imbeciles w=
ho publish such slanted misinformation to the benefit of the Slorc henchmen=
=2E Euro-Burmanet, in the interest of objectivity and the record of IHT's r=
eporting, urges you to ask them too look closely at their editorial and new=
s line, and get focused on consistency, and unswerving accuracy, true to th=
e heat and mind of the work and legacy of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi. Let the IHT=
 and the international press learn from her example, and benefit and grow f=
or peace, but certainly not to encourage hardliners in this most unfortunat=
e way. (Yours truly Dawn Star used to edit and write for the paper in the h=
eadquarters office in Paris there, and  can tell you that  it is one of the=
 most staunchy, and zany  bunch of guys and women with a wierd sense of hum=
or ever to hit the  keyboards, a virtual cross between a morgue and a monas=
tery. Wake them up a bit and make some noise !

Remember, despite the courageous stance of Heineken and Carlsberg, among ot=
her companies, neither the  EU ministers nor the White House or its senator=
s of both parties have acted in ways to deter what Warren Christopher calle=
d " the new tide of repression ". That tide is mounting, but so is the cour=
age of its resistance.
However, the courage of Western democracies  is adrift and in doubt, theref=
ore giving Slorc more room to move thus cramping the space of the expressio=
n of freedom in Rangoon.

Ask them that if they do not have enough information on Slorc's Ohn Gyaw, D=
avid Abel, the propaganda  "Information Minister " Aye Kyaw, then to look a=
t Euro-Burmanet, and just get it. They don't have to appease any dictators =
either. Its clear that in order to gain access in Rangoon, one has to pleas=
e the masters.

Thank you, Dawn Star, Paris, Euro-Burmanet =

Write the publisher Richard McClean, the Executive editor Michael Getler, a=
nd the News Editor Walter Wells. Ask them to pay more heed to accuracy in r=
eporting on the democratic resistance movement, instead of its concern for =
selling advertising supplements to its asean customers, (Malaysia, Indonesi=
a, Thailand, Singapore etc)
IHT <iht@xxxxxxx

Dawn Star (Paris)
cd@xxxxxxx

Burmanet TOTAL  Coordinator =


Euro-Burmanet
(Euro-Burmanet is an ind=E9pendant interactive news network for information=
 -sharing and freedom of expression in support of the democratic struggle f=
or human rights in Burma.)

The Free Burma Coalition
http://wicip.org/fbc

http://www-uvi.eunet.fr/
http://www-uvi.eunet.fr/asia/euro-burma/
http://www-uvi.eunet.fr/asia/euro-burma/nld/
http://www-uvi.eunet.fr/asia/euro-burma/total

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
JOIN THE WORLDWIDE TOTAL BOYCOTT


IHT, Monday, 2 september 1996
Brigadier General David Abel, Burma's minister for national planning and ec=
onomic development, warning that Western govenmental perssure to call for f=
resh national elections was misguided : 'The Americans are too impatient. I=
f we force down the whole process, peace won't last long and Myanmar could =
turn out like Bosnia Herzegovina. We know our problmes more than they do, w=
e have to solve the problems in our own way, and we are solving them. =



Sept 3 1996, IHT, page one, with photo of Slorc's Aye Kyaw (Information Min=
ister) and " U Ohn Gyaw " foreign minister
Burma Taking A Firmer Line Critics' Window of Freedom Seems to Be Swinging =
Shut =

by Seth Mydans (New York Times Service)

Rangoon - It was raining hard, but for an hour applause and whistles and la=
ughter came from under a sea of black umbrellas as Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, a =
spray of pink flowers in her hair, taunted the military government, saying,=
 " Why are you so afraid of us ? "

Within the weekend crowd of 2,000, squatting on both sides of University Av=
enue as trafic crept by, people hunched over small tape recorders, risking =
arrest to spread the words of the leaders of the hard-pressed democratic mo=
vement in Burma, whose government prefers the name Myanmar.

For 13 months, since it released her from six years of house arrest, the go=
vernment has permitted =


page 10 IHT
Aung San Suu Kyi, 51, to hold regular weekend rallies at her front gate in =
the capital, even as it continues to arrest her supporters and attack her i=
n the press.

But in recent months the positions of the two sides have been hardening, an=
d foreign diplomats here say this small window of freedom that has been acc=
orded Daw Aung San Suu Kyi may be closing.

(The military government renewed attacks on the democracy movement Monday a=
n accused members of the National League for Democracy of joining forces wi=
th dissident exiles bent on destabilizing the country, Reuters reported.

(Senior military officials said at a monthly government news conference tha=
t they had recently made arrests and seized documents that proved some Nati=
onal League for Democracy members had been colluding with exiled " subversi=
ves " who wanted to unsettle the government.

(Colonel Kyaw Thein, a senior military intelligence officer, said the autho=
rities would take necessary or appropriate " measures against the movement =
led by Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, " if and when required ". =

Hopes for a dialogue have faded, and the struggle between the military rule=
rs and their democratic opponenets is now one of enlightened confrontation.=


" We are increasing the momemtum of our work, and they are increasing the m=
omemtum of arrests. " Daw Aung San Suu Kyi told foreign reporters before he=
r speech Saturday.

A Western diplomat who comes every week to the ralleies said he found her t=
hese days to be " more tense, more stressed ".

" She is under a lot of pressure, ", he siad. " She has to keep the momentu=
m up, but fatigue is setting in.Some of her leaders are old. Some are in pr=
ison. Some have died. She knows she will lose a waiting game ; there is not=
hing more to wait for. "

For its part, the junta continues to whittle away at her supporters with ar=
rests and prison sentences.

Stepping up its pressure, it has begun identifying and detaining the more d=
emonstrative members of the crowds at her weekly rallies, said one of her c=
hief lieutenants, U Tin Oo.

The military has already proved its stubbornness, quashing a popular uprisi=
ng in 1988 with mass, killings and discarding the results of a free electio=
n in 1990 when the National League for Democracy won 85 percent of the seat=
s in Parliament.

Some people, though, like a doctor who stood under an umbrella with a tape =
recorder in his had, say they come to her rallies every week.

" I have relatives in Australia and they are rich and well-educated, " the =
doctor said. " Just because I live in Burma, why can't I be rich and educat=
ed too ? "

The rallies have also become a tourist attraction and the crowd Saturday wa=
s sprinkled with visitors from the United States, France, Japan, Spain, Ger=
many and Britain, aiming their cameras as Daw Aung San Suu Kyi as she laugh=
ed and gesticulated in the rain.

Around the city, though, a number of people said they did not dare to atten=
d, including some who work for government enterprises and said they had bee=
n ordered to stay away. But word spreads, as a chemist said, " from mouth t=
o mouth ". =


" I have been to see her twice and I like her ", he said.

" In Burma if you like someone you will follow them. "

Nevertheless, he added, the government was succeeding in eroding her popula=
rity with its continuing attacks in the press " like water dripping on a st=
one ". =


Daw Aung San Suu Kyi's main weapon now seems to be the support of Western c=
ountries, particularly the United States. But any moves the West may take, =
like an economic boycott, have already been undercut by the support that th=
e military government has received from its neighbors in the region.

Foreign analysts here say the government seems to have been emboldened by i=
ts indicuction in July as an observer member of the Association of South Ea=
st Asean Nations, the regional economic and political grouping.

Speaking ata the association's meeting in Jakarta in July, Burma's foreign =
minister U Ohn Gyaw, stated his government's position on human rights.

" We respect the norms and the ideals of human rights. But as in any other =
country in Southeast Asia, we have to take into consideration our culture, =
our history, our ethos. What is good in other countries cannot be good in o=
ur country. "

At her meeting with reporters, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi described the continuin=
g arrests of her supporters, since May, when the government detained more t=
han 250 members of her party before a gathering at her house that marked th=
e sixth anniversary of their aborted election victory.

Though she said all but 11 of those people had since been released, she not=
ed that at least 61 more had been arrested since May and about 25 had been =
tried and sentenced to prison terms.

" We want the whole world to know that there is no rule of law in Burma, " =
she said. " They are not interested in fair play. Their main drive is to cr=
ush the movement for democracy. "

Asked what she would do if the government moved to ban her rallies, Daw Aun=
g San Suu Kyi responded, " We would continue to hold the rallies. "