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Information Sheet N0.A-0632(I)



                             MYANMAR INFORMATION COMMITTEE
                                                     YANGON

                                           Information   Sheet

                            N0.A-0632(I)              1st  October 1998 	

(1)		(Continuation of  Yesterday)   

		Attitude of the Nationalities Peace Groups 
			
		Today, a translation of the declaration of the Democratic Kayin Buddhist
Association (DKBA), a splinter group of KNU, issued on 19-9-98 is stated as
follows:   The declarations of other peace groups will also be made public.

Declaration on the Attitude of the Democratic Kayin Buddhist Association in
connection with the acts of the National League for Democracy

Date 19-9-98

1.		Democratic Kayin Buddhist Association (DKBA) is a nationalities
organization striving for ensuring peace in Kayin State and development of
Kayin nationals.

2.		The National League for Democracy in its declaration No 58 (9/98) issued
on 16-9-98 stated that a ten-member committee representing the
representatives-elect was formed comprising  U Aung Shwe, chairman of the NLD.
Foreign news agencies announced that nationalities organizations supported
that declaration.

3.		Democratic Kayin Buddhist Association (DKBA) does not support party
politics. It is an organization which is promoting national politics as
historic duty. Hence, it does not support whatsoever the NLD's formation of a
"committee representing the representatives-elect". Attempts to call the
Hluttaw (Parliament) runs against the law and DKBA believes the NLD's
declaration that the committee "has the right on behalf of the
representatives-elect as invested by the representatives-elect" is meaningless
act.

4.		NLD's attempt to call the Hluttaw is an unlawful  act and it is aimed at
causing disintegration of national unity and disturbing stability and peace.
Hence DKBA has no trust in the declaration of the NLD.

5.		DKBA believes that the Tatmadaw at present is striving for stability and
peace and development in the country. DKBA hereby declares its total support
of the Tatmadaw (Military) government's endeavours.

Central Executive Committee
Democratic Kayin Buddhist Association 

(2)		Myanmar Delegation Leaves for Washington

		A Myanmar delegation led by Minister for Finance and Revenue  left for
Washington by air on 30 September to attend the 53rd Annual General meeting of
World Bank and International Monetary Fund to be held in the United States of
America.

                                       SPECIAL FEATURE

		This office is presenting an open letter from Mr. Nicholas Greenwood to Mr.
Derek Fatchett, MP, Foreign Office Minister of State of Britain for your
information.
AN OPEN LETTER TO :	DETEK FATCHETT, MP FOREIGN OFFICE MINISTER OF STATE,
					FOREIGN & COMMONWEALTH OFFICE
					LONDON SWIA 2AH
					Fax No: 0171 839 2417 
					--------------------------
>From:					Nicholas Grfeenwood, 36c Sisters Ave, London SWll 58Q,
					      Tel/ Fax: 0171 223 8987
Date:					30th September 1998
=====================================================
Dear Mr. Fatchett,
		Permit me to respond to your recommendation "that it is inappropriate for
tourists to visit Burma at present", which appeared in the Daily Telegraph on
19/9 and which has just been faxed to me. I happened to be in Myanmar (ex-
Burma) at the time - my 21st trip to the country in less than eight years -
and would respectfully suggest that I am rather better qualified than your
good self to advise whether or not tourists should travel to Myanmar. 

		My aims and fervent beliefs have always been - and always will be - to
assist those with a genuine interest in Myanmar to develop a greater
understanding of a country for which I have a deep passion. Furthermore, I
have always made it clear that it is the wishes and ambitions of All the
citizens of Myanmar - and not just the privileged few with access to Western
media - that should be both respected and fulfilled. My latest trip, for
example, took me to the little known town of Dawei in Tanintharyi Division,
Southern Myanmar, and I can assure you that had I conducted a poll among the
residents of Dawei as to whether or not they wished tourists to visit their
town, 100% would have said "Yes".  And So I put it to you:  is your advice
representative of the wishes of the vast majority of citizens of Myanmar or
those of only one woman? 

		Permit me also to mention a group of foreign travellers who were so moved by
the somewhat inadequate schooling facilities in the town of Nyaungshwe in
Southern Shan State that they have provided funds to upgrade the facilities.
I, too, have contributed in a small way to an orphanage in Myeik. Such
projects rely wholly on voluntary donations, and their very existence and
survival would be greatly jeopardised by your rash call for boycotts and
economic sanctions.

		As an editorial in the "Far Eastern Economic Review" of May 8th 1997 put it
so succinctly:

		"Of the many arguments against economic sanctions, the one we have always
found the most persuasive is the simplest: They don't work. The threat of
sanctions, of course, has worked to squeeze concessions out of countries
desperate for business, but in this they represent the economic equivalent of
Mutual Assured Destruction. In other words, sanctions work only as a bluff.
Once invoked, everyone loses.

		Burma is its own best argument against isolationism. This southeast Asian
nation, one of the jewels of the region at its independence, managed to reduce
itself to a third-world basket case through a self-imposed policy of closed-
door self-sufficiency... Nor is Burma alone here ....hroughout this period
sanctions imposed by Washington made not a dent...  and arguably made a bad
situation worse by  denying their citizens the salve of opportunity.  Even in
a place like Iraq, soundly defeated by the Americans in the 1991 Gulf War,
sanctions have failed to temper its... practices or its nuclear ambitions.

		The sanctions announced by Madeleine Albright carry even less credibility
for one thing, they are so clearly half-hearted, applying only to new
investment.  Even worse, the effect of imposing sanctions on a small fish like
Burma while letting the much bigger Chinese fish off the hook is not to
advance the cause of human rights in the former but to discredit U.S. policy
towards the latter."

		These  views, with which  I wholeheartedly concur, are  echoed  by Marvin
Ott, Professor of National Security Policy at the National War College and
Director of the Southeast  Asia Colloquium at the Institute of National
Strategic Studies, National Defence University in the U.S.  Writing in "
Burma: Prospects for a Democratic Future " ( Washington, D.C., 1998), Ott
states:

		" Any policy, if it is to be maintained, must meet two related tests.
First, is it working?  Does it have a reasonable prospect of doing so?
Second, is it appropriate to changing circumstances and realities? The current
U.S. policy of isolation and sanctions fails both tests. The policy of
quarantining Burma has failed.  Isolation is not an effective sanction ....
More recently, the SLORC has been accepted by ASEAN. Again, a policy of
isolation is obviated - this time by a host of U.S. friends and allies that
have adopted contrary policies.

		Ironically, to the extent that U.S. policy does have an impact, it will do
so in ways that are anathema to American values and interests.  Successful
sanctions will weaken a highly vulnerable economy, leaving the regime with
little choice but to rely more heavily on Chinese support and on revenue
generated from narcotics. Heroin may be an intractable problem.  Still, it is
hard to imagine how any effective attack on the industry can be mounted
without the full and willing cooperation of the  authorities in Rangoon.
Contrary to the hopeful analogies suggested by some proponents of sanctions,
Burma is not a Southeast Asian reincarnation of South Africa. The South
African white elite was vulnerable to Western sanctions for a number of
reasons including the fact that the surrounding black African states supported
their  imposition. No such regional support exists in Southeast Asia. "

		Myanmar expert and Director of Asian Studies at Georgetown University, David
Steinberg- a former member of the Senior Foreign Service of the U.S.
Department of State and representative of the Asia Foundation in Myanmar-makes
a number of similar, highly valid points, in the final chapter of the same
book:

		"Continued opprobrium from foreign sources and Burmese expatriates likely
will hinder  the regime from undertaking the most extreme excesses, but such
activities in themselves will not change the government - a change that  will
come,  when  it does, internally. This opprobrium, many have suggested, should
be demonstrated by applying  sanctions to Burma  on the South African  model.
Sanctions, even if universally and officially applied, often do not work, and
unilateral or  partial sanctions may appease a foreign nation's conscience,
but are ineffective. China would veto any UN proposed sanctions on Burma. The
King of Thailand expressed his strong opposition to them as unenforceable and
hurting his nation.

		Although the moral issues in South Africa and Burma may appear similar, and
Nobel laureates Nelson Mandela and Aung San Suu Kyi may invite comparisons,
the effects are unlikely to be analogous. South Africa's economy was highly
integrated into the West's, its neighbours, indeed most of Africa, were
opposed to its policies, and its leadership trained in  Western milieux which
put greater pressure on them, Burma, on the other hand, is composed of some
40,000 essentially traditional and self-sufficient villages with leadership
generally internally educated. Burma's neighbors oppose sanctions. Sanctions
would force out major, responsible international  businesses, and leave much
of the remainder to laundered funds from the narcotics trade. Unilateral
sanctions imposed by the United States would occupy the moral high ground, but
be ineffective economically and not induce the changes that are desired."

		I have taken travellers from as far afield as Bhamo and Myitkyina in Kachin
State to Kyaing Tong in Eastern Shan State and to Myeik in Tanintharyi
Division. As part of my commitment to the people of Myanmar,  I shall continue
to advise tourists to visit Myanmar.

I believe it is fitting to conclude with the words of Alistair Horne writing
in The Spectator of April 5th 1997:

		"Our trip had begun with a call on Suu Kyi.... But, for all my admiration
for this gallantly heroic lady, I am not quite sure whether she is right to
tell foreign tourists not to come. If I have a guilty conscience, it is about
what the Raj's war did to her country- not about disregarding her plea now.
For open windows let in air and light."

		I would urge you, therefore, in the strongest possible terms to reconsider
your ill-conceived and misguided advice.
Yours sincerely



Nicholas Greenwood
TRAVEL WRITER & TOUR CONSULTANT (MYANMAR)


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