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Tour goes ahead despite protests




Tour goes ahead despite protests 

       Source: South China Morning Post.

       WILLIAM BARNES in Bangkok 

       The prestigious Asia Society is going ahead with a tour of Burma
this weekend in the face of protests from the
       opposition and activists in America. 

       A key organiser of the trip is Hong Kong press tycoon Sally Aw
Sian, a society trustee who was born in
       Burma in 1931. 

       The New York-based body has responded to criticism with a statement
that "continuing to isolate Burma is
       questionable". 

       But Carol Richards, an activist with the Los Angeles Burma Forum,
said: "How can wealthy Asia Society
       patrons justify enjoying a vacation on the backs of Burmese forced
labourers? To do so is shameful." 

       The society told its members that its "caravan to explore Myanmar's
[Burma's] past and present" will feature
       privileged access to special sites. 

       The popular opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi has repeatedly asked
tourists to stay away until there is
       genuine progress towards democracy. 

       The society used Ms Aw in its defence. "One of our trustees born in
Burma and living in Hong Kong has
       established Buddhist temples, shrines and hospitals as a private
donor." 

       She has, it added, "agreed to help us witness such special events
as a religious ordination ceremony and go to
       one of the very fine Buddhist sites in the mountains outside of
Mandalay". 

       The US Department of Labour published a report last October which
said there were many "credible allegations
       that forced labour was used during the recent rapid development of
tourism infrastructure". 

       A spokesman for the government in exile warned the society's
president Nicholas Platt, who is leading the
       tour, that "as you are fully aware", the country was run by an
autocratic and brutal military regime. "The roads
       you will travel on, hotels you will sleep in and waterways you will
float down are the product of brutal forced
       labour, not the result of any substantive progress," U Myint Swe of
the National Coalition Government of the

       Union of Burma said. The society responded that the trip was
necessary to pursue its mission of educating
       Americans about Asian cultures and contemporary affairs. 

       "The current Government and its predecessors have imposed isolation
as an instrument of control for many
       decades and Burma has suffered as a result." 

       The statement said "helpful catalysts for change" could come from
the visit. 

       Ms Aw's father, Aw Boon Haw, was born the son of a medicine shop
owner in Rangoon in 1882. 

       A wild boy, he was returned to his ancestral province of Fujian
after beating up a teacher. His younger brother
       Boon Par later asked him to return. 

       Boon Par was presented with the recipe for a soothing camphor and
eucalyptus oil ointment when he was an
       apprentice to an old medicine man in Rangoon. 

       Aw Boon Haw's genius for promotion ensured that Tiger Balm
eventually became the universal Chinese
       remedy for headaches, bites and muscle pain. 

       The Asia Society will visit Burma from Saturday until March 7.
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