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Aung San Suu Kyi blasts foreign tou



Aung San Suu Kyi blasts foreign tourists in Myanmar 

AFP, YANGON, Aug 24 

Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi has blasted foreign tourists to
the military state for doing nothing to help its political or long-term
economic situation. 

The 1991 Nobel laureate told AFP in an exclusive interview late Monday that
foreign visitors did not help to open the country which has been under
harsh military rule for decades. 

"Tourists don't bring new ideas. Most of the tourists who come (here) come
to enjoy themselves," the National League for Democracy (NLD) leader said. 

"There are some tourists who take the trouble to talk to various people to
find out what the situation in the country is like, but the great majority
of tourists, especially the ones who come to a place like Burma, knowing
Burma is a dictatorship, come here because they want to see something new." 

A strong advocate of economic sanctions against the regime here, Aung San
Suu Kyi also dismissed the potential benefits from tourism to the crippled
local economy. 

"I think any sound economist will tell you that to try to build a country's
economy on tourism is a very bad idea," she said. 

"It's a soft option and it has no long-term benefit. 

"And if you want to look at it from a social point of view, tourism brings
in as much ill as good." 

She also deplored the number of French tourists arriving in Myanmar,
formerly known as Burma. 

French made up the bulk of European arrivals here in 1998-99, with 14,064
compared to 17,000 the previous season, official figures show. 

"We have too many French tourists," Aung San Suu Kyi said. 

The United States and Britain officially discourage citizens from visiting
Myanmar, but arrivals from these countries rose over the same period. 

American arrivals rose from 9,300 in 1997-98 to 11,009 in 1998-99, while
British arrivals grew from 7,981 to 9,577. 

Western tourists are still small in number compared with Asian,
particularly Japan, Thailand, Taiwan and Singapore. 

The junta has set a target of 500,000 tourist arrivals for the new season,
although only 150,000 arrived last year. 

The junta has made tourism one of its priorities as the economy crumbles
amid alleged corruption, mismanagement, the repercussions of the Asian
crisis and international sanctions, particularly those imposed by the
United States. 

The junta is widely accused of gross human rights abuses and has ignored
the results of a 1990 election won in a landslide by the NLD under Aung San
Suu Kyi. 

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