Letter to the editor

[OKKAR66129@xxxxxxx]

                     Embassy of the Union of Myanmar
                                 Ottawa
28  July  1998
The Editor
The Globe and Mail

Dear sir,

The "Opinion" carried by the Globe and Mail (July 28, 1998) entitled
"Dog days in Burma" and what it tried to forward are in fact distortions
bordering on malicious political slander.   It is obvious that the
reports of credible international organizations such as the World Health
Organization (WHO), the United Nations Drug Control Programme (UNDCP)
and even European and North American NGOs working within Myanmar
(Medicine du Monde, PSI etc.) have been completely ignored but
apparently drawing its information from insignificant dissident groups
over the border such as Shan Human Rights Group and so-called "ethnic
leaders" who are in fact closely linked to the currently drug
trafficking remnants of the former Mong Tai Army.

The truth according to the WHO and anti-AIDS  NGOs in Myanmar are that
the country has one of the best anti-AIDS programmes in South and
South-East Asia and the fact that the United States Drug Enforcement
Agency has resumed financial assistance to the Myanmar anti-drug effort
last May go entirely against the "opinion" of the Globe and Mail.
Blowing up a political stand-off created and led by Mrs. Suu Kyi Aris
into an international outcry is another matter.  It is nothing new that
certain Western governments and its media continue to support the wife
and mother of British citizens (who, by the law drafted by her own
father in 1947 does not qualify to stand any election) which Asian
nationalists will view with suspicion and continue to reject.
 Will the Globe and Mail for a change take notice of the credible
international organizations mentioned above and base some of your
opinions on their reports as well.





OHN KYAW
MINISTER-COUNSELLOR
Embassy of the Union of Myanmar
Ottawa


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