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GEO 30 pages on Burma, French Oct i



Subject: GEO 30 pages on Burma, French Oct issue, fashion style

TO GEO MAGAZINE (Prima Press) EDITOR JEAN-MARC MARTY, Paris, France

<hr>
Headline: GEO (Fr) Burma Cover Story: Exceptional Photo Story October 
Issue
Keywords: NLD ban,  Prima Press,National League for Democracy (NLD), 
Aung San Suu Kyi, human rights, political prisoners, torture, murder, 
execution, rape, Slorc abuses, forced labor, forced relocation, NLD 
Congress 9/96,NLD arrests, NLD crackdown 9/96, GEO Magazine (10/96)
Date: october 7, 1996 
Source: GEO, Euro-Burmanet
Section: ebn
Rubrique: main

With life-size photo-posters of the Burma cover plastered throughout 
Paris, the October issue of GEO magazine (Prima Press) features  the 
golden Shwe Dagon pagoda by advertising and fashion photographer Jean 
Larivière. GEO Editor in chief Jean-Luc Marty allows only slight 
reference to the political turmoil overwhelming the country, and chooses 
not to dismay  GEO's  numerous advertisers promoting travel packages to 
Burma (cited below) while describing  the dossier as  the " occasion of 
a 'voyage-histoire' (travel story ) to better know a country goldened by 
the ruling junta. " 

The black and white photos disclose no pictures of military, police, or 
generals as thought reserved for the editing floor. Nothing apparently 
unpleasant. Nothing to displease the Slorc authorities. Even no picture 
of the "impressive courage" of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi.  A  black and white 
photo showing looking porters on the sandy banks of the Irrawaddy 
discreetly avoids reference to forced labor, torture  or death. Even 
many of the black and white images look treated, or softened as though 
to ease the pain of the brutal Burmese reality, and cast it in a grainy, 
obscure mental fog.

These results  of the writer and photographer, their self-censored 
rendering of a human castotrophe failed to conceal its editors 
disjuncted point of view, as much out of place as the story is warped 
out of perspective. 
The article is full of inaccuracies, such as  "The forest covers still 
almost half of the country ." The true figure of deforestation  and 
ecological disaster is closer to 70 % of the land stripped  by Asian 
logging companies from Thailand, Mayalsia, Indonesia and Japan, 
including Mitsubishi among them. Hardly a mention off the "Visit Myanmar 
Boycott ". Only generalised words of the " blood and terror " of 1988 
that left 10,000 unarmed Burmese dead. No mention of the Genocide of 
Mons, Karens, Karenni, Shans and other ethnic tribes. Under Slorc heroin 
production has doubled, flooding Europe and the United States. It is no 
little irony that as the French nation bears witness to the images of 
the Shwe Dagon pagoda,  it ignores, as does the "travel story", the 
rising tumult of the Burma masses under the leadership of Daw Aung San 
Suu Kyi. 

How could an editor bow to such jounalistic over-sightedness of the 
facts before  its readers, if not to pay hommage to the Slorc junta. 
Unlike GEO's readers, the declarations by the European Union, United 
Nations, Amnesty International and other human rights organisations have 
not passed out of view. And even during publishing, the European Union 
has prepared eye-witness documentation on the Slorc national policy of 
forced labor and massive forced relocation. All that and more is 
suppressed in  GEO's treatment of Burma.

Last month another press report from Rangoon portrayed a slightly more 
realistic view of the Shwe Dagon Pagoda:

" On September 27,an unknown number of people marched to Shwe Dagon 
Pagoda the following day after the so-called 'pre-emptive crackdown' on 
September 27th. They marched to the holy site from two different routes. 
The security forces, involving the feared Lon Htein, soldiers, police, 
and traffic police, blocked the roads leading to the pagoda. Reportedly 
the Lon Htein were taking video pictures of the marchers. Also present 
on the scene were the officials of diplomatic missions in Rangoon.

According to the sources the largest confrontation was at Shwe Gonedaing 
near the Shew Dagon. At Kaba Aye Pagoda Road SLORC troops used violent 
means to control those who were fleeing.

All of those apprehended were said to be sent to Insein Prison.

The houses of Daw Suu and U Ba Win have been completely closed-off to 
all visitors. These two houses are situated face to face on University 
Avenue."

Obviously, GEO's editors need to be better informed. Have they been 
reading the newspapers at all? Even the choice of Burma at this time is 
highly suspect. One wonders if they were paid to do it? And sending a 
fashion photographer and writer Jules Merleau-Ponty to deliver an 
innocuous vaccination against the culture shock by the generals, was 
insipid at best. 

Geo Magazine
Editor in Chief Jean-Marc Marty	
15 rue Galvani
75809  Paris Cedex 17
Tel (33 1) 40 55 4716
fax (33 1) 40 55 4796

Travel Agencies Advertising with the GEO Burma Story

Orient Express Voyages SA (Mandalay Cruise ship with Kipling library!)
Ms. Venice Simplon
75  Ave des Champs Elysées
75008 Paris
FRANCE
Tel (33 1) 45 62 00 69
Fax (33 1) 4953 07 75

Voyage " Burmese Dreams " at 15 000 FF (17 days)
La Maison de l'Indochine
76, rue Bonaparte
75006 Paris 
FRANCE
Tel (33 1) 40 51 95 15
Fax (33 1) 46 33 73 04


Metta, thank you, peace, happiness and long life. Virtually yours, 

Dawn Star  (Paris)  <cd@xxxxxxx>

Burmanet / TOTAL Coordinator (France) 
Euro-Burmanet  (Paris, France) 
Free Burma Coalition
http://wicip.org/fbc/ 

NCGUB
815 Fifteenth Street NW
 Suite 910
Washington, DC 20005
<ncgub@xxxxxxxxxxx>

Democratic Voice of Burma (DVB)
P.O Box 6720
ST.Olavs Plass
0130 Oslo, Norway
Tel: 47-22-200021, Tel/fax:47-22-362525

Norway NCGUB you must make e-mail address to 
level one (1)maung@xxxxxxxxxxx (the PM office e-mail)
level two (2)NCGUB Europe, U Nwe Aung  e-mail 
<101564.2652@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> 

US President  Bill Clinton < president@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>

All members of the House can be reached via the Congressional 
Switchboard at (202) 224-3121. 
While some members have E-mail, electronic communication is not as 
effective as a
telephone call or fax.

President William Clinton
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Ave. NW
Washington DC 20500
(202) 456-1414

Warren Christopher
Secretary of State
Department of State
2201 C. Street NW
Washington DC 20520
(202) 647-4000

National Security Advisor Anthony Lake
National Security Council
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Ave. NW
Washington DC 20500
(202) 456-9481

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

Your  pass into the following sites, and much more. 

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

Help support our effort. Write now, to : 

Mrs. Emma BONINO
EC HUMANITARIAN OFFICE 

The European Commission
Directorate General 1B
External Relations
(Directorate 1B, D, Division 3)
Rue de la Lois/Westraat 200
B-1049 Brussels
Belgium

EC Humanitarian Office Website : http://europa.eu.int/en/comm/echo/echo
Fax:32-2-299-1047

Join the Free Burma Coalition. Call 608-256-6572 or email: 
zni@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

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Help support  the TOTAL WORLDWIDE BOYCOTT by donating funds to 
EURO-BURMANET: Email cd@xxxxxxx

Send letters and cut-up UNOCAL / TEXACO / ARCO / TOTAL charge cards to:

Roger Beach, CEO 
Unocal Corporation 
2141 Rosecrans Blvd., Suite 4000 / El
Segundo, CA 90245 
Tel: 310-726-7600

Gary Jones, CEO 
Total North America 
Total Tower, 900 19th Street 
Denver,
CO 80202 
Tel: 303-291-2000

Send your letters now : 

TOTAL  SA
Thierry Desmarest, CEO, President of Exploration and Production,
HQ: 24 Cours Michelet 92800 Puteaux France
Tel: 33-1-41-35-40-00  Fax: 33-1-41-35-64-65

E-mail : 
Paris France,  : <hourcard@xxxxxxxxx>
New York City  <TOTALNYC@xxxxxxx> , <roberth@xxxxxxxxx>


All members of the US House of Representatives can be reached 
at  the Congressional Switchboard: (202) 224-3121

While some members have E-mail, electronic communication is not as 
effective as a
telephone call or fax. Sent a letter, mark Free Burma Now, on the 
envelop. Its effective.

President William Clinton
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Ave. NW
Washington DC 20500
(202) 456-1414

Warren Christopher
Secretary of State
Department of State
2201 C. Street NW
Washington DC 20520
(202) 647-4000

National Security Advisor Anthony Lake
National Security Council
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Ave. NW
Washington DC 20500
(202) 456-9481

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
TOTAL WORLDWIDE BOYCOTT TOTAL WORLDWIDE BOYCOTT TOTAL WORLDWIDE BOYCOTT 
http://www-uvi.eunet.fr/asia/euro-burma/total/
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