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Subject: [theburmanetnews] BurmaNet News: June 2, 2000





______________ THE BURMANET NEWS ______________
        An on-line newspaper covering Burma 
______________ www.burmanet.org _______________

June 2, 2000

Issue # 1544


This edition of The BurmaNet News is viewable online at:



NOTED IN PASSING:

(1) "...there might have been recourse to so-called forced labor when 
work was being carried out on infrastructure...[but]  these practices 
had ceased." 

Lt. Gen. Khin Nyunt to the International Labor Organization (See AP: 
MYANMAR GOVERNMENT SAYS MIGHT CHANGE LAWS ON FORCED LABOR)

(2) ""Whichever village I order, that village has to do [forced 
labor] . You have no right to ask this and that or feel envious. Your 
duty is to do what you are told the best you can."

Commander of Light Infantry Battalion 416 to villagers in the Shan 
State.  (See SHRF  MONTHLY REPORT: FORCED LABOUR IN TA-KHI-LAEK)

(3) "We were dismayed to find reference to your recent donation to 
the Burma Relief Centre in the article in the Daily Telegraph on May 
27, "Burma guide blacklisted." This has led us to question your 
organisation's motives in donating to us."

Pippa Curwen, Director of the Burma Relief Center in a letter 
returning a donation to Lonely Planet publications (See THE BURMA 
CAMPAIGN UK: LONELY PLANET'S ATTEMPT TO OFFSET CRITICISM OF ITS BURMA 
GUIDE BACKFIRES )


	
*Inside Burma

SHRF  MONTHLY REPORT: DISPLACED FARMERS SHOT DEAD, THEIR GRANARIES 
BURNED, IN KUN-HING

MIZZIMA: BURMA RETURNED 71 BANGLADESH NATIONALS

SHRF  MONTHLY REPORT: FORCED LABOUR IN TA-KHI-LAEK


*International

AP: MYANMAR GOVERNMENT SAYS MIGHT CHANGE LAWS ON FORCED LABOR  

BURMA PEACE FOUNDATION: ILO BURMA UPDATE

AFP: WHITE HOUSE UNVEILS LIST OF DRUG KINGPINS 

THE NATION: ARMY, KAREN FORCE IN TENSE STAND-OFF 



*Opinion/Editorials

THE TORONTO STAR: BURMA TYRANNY AND THE QUESTION OF SANCTIONS

THE BURMA CAMPAIGN UK: LONELY PLANET'S ATTEMPT TO OFFSET CRITICISM OF 
ITS BURMA GUIDE BACKFIRES

LONELY PLANET: ON LONELY PLANET BOYCOTT





__________________ INSIDE BURMA ____________________
	

SHRF  MONTHLY REPORT: DISPLACED FARMERS SHOT DEAD, THEIR GRANARIES 
BURNED, IN KUN-HING       
  
 MAY 2000

SHAN HUMAN RIGHTS FOUNDATION


On 7.4.00, 3 displaced farmers were shot dead and their camps and 
granaries were burnt by SPDC (State Peace and Development Council) 
troops from IB72 at their farms in the forest 2-1/2 miles south of 
Kun-Hing town, Kun-Hing township.         

The victims were among the displaced farming populations who had been 
forced to move to the outskirts of the town from the surrounding 
rural villages a few years ago by SLORC/SPDC (SLORC = State Law and 
Order Restoration Council) troops.          

Having been farmers all their life, many of them have since then been 
trying to grow crops in places somewhat distant from the town because 
land for farming was not available near it, though some have turned 
to some other means of livelihood such as wage labourers and peddlers 
of food stuff and small things.         

There were 5 families farming close together in the area where the 
event took place. The heads of the families were: 1. Lung Na-Ling 
(m), aged 35, originally from Loi Yarng village, Kun Pu tract 2. Lung 
Wi (m), aged 30, originally from Na Saai village, Loi Keng tract 3. 
Zaai Zaam Khaa Laai (m), aged 20, originally from Maak Laang village, 
Saai Khaao tract 4. Lung Kung-Na (m), aged 43, originally from Naa Ho 
Kho village, Loi Kheo tract 5. Lung Sara Wi (m), aged 62, originally 
from Kung Ke village, Loi Ke tract         

These 5 families had been able to grow different crops such as rice, 
bean, sesame and vegetables in different seasons for 2-3 years and 
had managed to stockpile some of their unhulled rice at their camps 
where they stayed and worked during busy times, about 60-80 baskets 
per family,  from which they drew a little at a time for their 
regular consumption.         

On the day of the incident, a column of about 170 SPDC troops from 
IB72, from Loi Kaw township in Karenni State, led by Maj. Aung Win, 
that was patrolling the area came upon some farms and, seeing some 
farmers in their camp huts, shot at them without any warnings or 
questions.         

Some farmers managed to run away and escaped, but 3 of them were shot 
and beaten to death. They were:  1. Lung Sara Wi (m), aged 62, got 
hit with a bullet in the head before he could run and instantly 
killed  2. Lung Na-Ling (m), aged 35, wounded in his upper right 
thigh while running away and died on the way before he could reach 
his house  3. Zaai Zit-Ta (m), aged 21, son of Lung Sara Wi, got 
caught alive and beaten to death in their farm          

After shooting the farmers, the troops searched the camps and took 
away what they wanted, and burned down all the huts and granaries 
they found and continued to search the area for 7-8 days  before they 
marched towards Kaeng Tawng areas in Murng-Nai township. 




____________________________________________________



MIZZIMA: BURMA RETURNED 71 BANGLADESH NATIONALS


Dhaka, June 1, 2000
Mizzima News Group

The Burmese authorities had handed over 71 Bangladeshis who were 
arrested by Burmese border forces last year to Bangladesh Defence 
Rifles (BDR) personnel recently.

The Bangladeshis who were arrested in November 1999 allegedly inside 
the Bangladesh territory were returned after a recent flag meeting of 
the two countries held at Maung Daw Township of Arakan State, the 
Taknaf BDR sources revealed yesterday.

All 71 Bangladesh nationals arrived at Taknaf border police station 
and returned to their homes last week. Most of them stay at St. 
Martin Island (Shinma Phyu Kywan), Moheskhali (Mahazo Kywan), Ukhiya 
and Nikkochari.

It may be mentioned here that according to BDR sources, more than two 
hundred Bangladesh nationals are still in Burma jails, mostly in 
Arakan State.

At the flag meeting, the Bangladesh delegation also urged the Burmese 
counterparts to take back those Burmese nationals who had already 
served their prison terms but still languishing in Bangladesh jails. 

Total 500 Burmese citizens are now in various jails in Bangladesh and 
more than two hundreds of them have already served their prison terms 
but remains in the jails as Burmese authorities refused to take them 
back.

Some Burmese prisoners had attempted to commit suicide and some had 
revolted against the jail authorities, as they become frustrated. 

As per the prison rules in Bangladesh, a foreigner who completed the 
prison term has to be handed over to his or her respective country's 
diplomatic mission in Bangladesh. Although Bangladesh Home Ministry 
has several times written to the Burmese mission in Dhaka, there has 
been no positive result yet.


____________________________________________________


SHRF  MONTHLY REPORT: FORCED LABOUR IN TA-KHI-LAEK

 MAY 2000

SHAN HUMAN RIGHTS FOUNDATION


        On 5.4.00, SPDC troops of Ta-Lur-based LIB316 issued an order 
requiring the villagers of Huay Tai village and Pa Saang Mai village 
in Ta-Lur tract, Ta-Khi-Laek township, to prepare the ground of the 
military farm for cultivation for 3 days, 6-8.4.00.         Some 
villagers, confused over why only their 2 villages were required to 
go and not the other villages in the tract, went and asked the 
Commander of the troops, only to be angrily scolded by 
him.      "Whichever village I order, that village has to do [forced 
labor] . You have no right to ask this and that or feel envious. Your 
duty is to do what you are told the best you can", said the 
Commander. The villagers dared not say anything more and did as they 
were told.


__________________ INTERNATIONAL __________________
		

AP: MYANMAR GOVERNMENT SAYS MIGHT CHANGE LAWS ON FORCED LABOR  

GENEVA (AP) 
June 2, 2000

Anxious to stave off unprecedented sanctions from the International 
Labor Organization, the Myanmar government has promised to tackle the 
problem of forced labor, according to a letter released 
Friday.   ''We have taken and are taking the necessary measures to 
ensure that there are no instances of forced labor in Myanmar,'' said 
the letter from Labor Minister Maj. Gen. Tin Ngwe to ILO Director 
General Juan Somavia.   

''Myanmar would take into consideration appropriate measures, 
including administrative, executive and legislative measures, to 
ensure the prevention of such occurrences in the future,'' it 
continued.   The letter was given to an ILO team of experts, who 
visited Myanmar May 23-27, and who will report next week to the 174-
nation U.N. agency's annual conference.   It was the first time that 
the Myanmar government had given such a clear commitment to change 
its policy. But diplomats in Geneva said it was unclear whether 
authorities in Rangoon were serious about mending their ways or 
whether the letter was just a delaying tactic.   

The ILO conference is under orders from its executive body to take 
``any such action as it may deem wise and expedient'' to get Myanmar 
to comply with rules banning forced labor and slavery.   The ILO 
statutes have no provisions for expelling a member. But the 
organization could tell member governments, unions and employers to 
review relations with Myanmar to ensure they aren't abetting forced 
labor. This might have implications for the tourist industry as there 
are widespread allegations that the military has forced civilians and 
prisoners to work on construction projects for foreign visitors.   

Never before has the ILO gone so far to punish a member country.   
Already last year, the Geneva-based body suspended assistance to 
Myanmar's government following its refusal to act upon a 1998 ILO 
commission report that there was widespread and systematic use of 
forced labor.   In the past the military regime has repeatedly denied 
it uses forced labor. On the eve of the ILO team's visit, the 
government said the U.N. agency was a front for ''neocolonialist 
Western powers and internal traitors.''   

A detailed report of the visit released Friday showed government 
officials were more open and cooperative than in the past -- although 
noncommittal about action to stop forced labor and generally sticking 
to the official line that the problem didn't exist.   Lt. Gen. Khin 
Nyunt, Myanmar's powerful head of military intelligence, conceded 
that ''there might have been recourse to so-called forced labor when 
work was being carried out on infrastructure,'' but that ''these 
practices had ceased,'' the report said.   

''Myanmar did not wish to remain an island among other states,'' the 
report quoted the intelligence chief as saying. ''It wanted to 
develop relations with its neighbors, the international community and 
international organizations.''   In addition to meeting many 
government officials and foreign diplomats, the ILO team held talks 
with opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi. She stressed 
the ''continuing gravity'' by the military and the enlistment of 
child soldiers.   Suu Kyi's party, the National League for Democracy, 
overwhelmingly won elections ten years ago. But the military, which 
has ruled Myanmar, also known as Burma, since 1962, never allowed the 
parliament to meet and has refused to hold a dialogue with Suu Kyi.


____________________________________________________

		
BURMA PEACE FOUNDATION: ILO BURMA UPDATE

31 MAY 2000

On the first day of its 88th session in Geneva,  the International  
Labour Conference (ILC) decided to refer to its Selection Committee 
the "procedure for the consideration of the  action recommended by 
the Governing Body under  article 33 of the Constitution 

Implementation of  recommendations contained in the report of the 
Commission of Inquiry on Forced Labour in Myanmar (Burma)".  This 
Committee will discuss the issue on Thursday 8 June
and recommend action to be taken by the Conference.

The Committee will have before it the report of the ILO technical 
mission which visited Rangoon last week, along with a background 
document (see below).

I imagine that the discussion will centre round whether the meetings 
the mission had with the Burmese officials indicated a serious 
intention on the part of the SPDC to get rid of forced labour, and if 
so, what the ILO's response should be. The Committee could, for 
instance, recommend the immediate adoption of one or more of the 
measures a-e proposed by the Governing Body in March (see below). Or 
it could recommend that the Conference give the SPDC more time.

In my view, the critical question would be whether the SPDC can 
demonstrate a credible willingness to bring an immediate end to the 
requisitioning of forced labour by the military
(the Commission of Inquiry's 2nd recommendation)

The report of the technical mission will probably be issued this 
Friday. 

The full text of the background document is in PDF format, available 
at:
 
http://www.ilo.org/public/english/standards/relm/ilc/ilc88/pdf/pr-
4.pdf 

David Arnott, Geneva 31 May.


____________________________________________________


AFP: WHITE HOUSE UNVEILS LIST OF DRUG KINGPINS 

[BurmaNet adds?the article below identifies Wei Hsueh-Kang as 
Chinese.  He is ethnically Chinese but heads the United Wa State 
Army.]

WASHINGTON, June 2 (AFP) - Top underworld figures from Mexico, China 
and Myanmar have made a new US list of international drug kingpins 
released by the White House Friday.   Wei Hsueh-Kang of China and 
Chang Chi-Fu of Myanmar are mentioned in the roster of the world's 12 
leading drug traffickers compiled in accordance with the so-called 
Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act signed by US President Bill 
Clinton last December.   The "black" list, which triggers automatic 
US sanctions against those mentioned in it, includes six members of 
Mexican drug cartels.   Among them are brothers Benjamin and Ramon 
Arellano Felix of the Tijuana Cartel, brothers Jose and Luis Ignacio 
Amezcua Contreras, Rafael Caro Quintero, and Vicente Carrillo Fuentes 
of the Juarez Cartel.   Abeni and Oluwole Ogungbuyi of Nigeria and 
Noel Timothy Heath and Glenroy Vingrove Matthews of St. Kitts and 
Nevis are also mentioned in the document.   Under the Kingpin Act, 
the individuals mentioned in the list must be denied access to the US 
financial system and barred from transactions involving businesses 
and individuals.   They and their immediate family members also must 
be denied US visas, their assets in US banks must be frozen, and US 
citizens are barred from any dealings with them.   "This action 
underscores our determination to do everything possible to fight drug 
traffickers, undermine their operations and end the suffering that 
trade in illegal drugs inflicts on American and people around the 
world," White House spokesman Joe Lockhart said in a statement. 


____________________________________________________


THE NATION: ARMY, KAREN FORCE IN TENSE STAND-OFF 

June 1, 2000


THAI soldiers and the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA) were 
involved in a tense stand-off across the Moei River yesterday shortly 
after members from the pro-Rangoon rebel force fired five shots at 
the Thai troops.  

Thai soldiers had been chasing after a stolen truck that had crashed 
through a border guard-post moments earlier.  

Both sides glared at each other across the river, the natural 
boundary between Thailand and Burma, unable to decide what to do with 
the 10-wheel truck stuck in the middle of the river.  
Police said two men stole the truck from Mae Sot yesterday afternoon 
and sped towards the DKBA-controlled area on the Burmese side of the 
Moei River. About 20 armed men from the Karen force were waiting for 
them on the bank as they plunged into river in an attempt to drive 
across the frontier.  

Officials said the water was flowing too quickly because of heavy 
rain in recent weeks and the two men decided to jump out and swim to 
the other side.  Thai Border Police unit 346 has reported the 
incident to the Thai-Burma Joint Border Committee in Myawaddy, just 
across from Tak's Mae Sot district.   Authorities said a total of 10 
trucks have been stolen from Thai villages in the recent months. They 
believed DKBA was responsible for the thefts.  

Meanwhile, authorities detained a Thai and two Burmese nationals in 
Ranong yesterday for listening to unauthorised frequencies.   Somchai 
Prasarnyudh, the Thai national, admitted to being hired by Thai 
fishing companies to monitor Burmese and Thai government 
frequencies.  





_________________OPINION/EDITORIALS________________


THE TORONTO STAR: BURMA TYRANNY AND THE QUESTION OF SANCTIONS

May 31, 2000,



Timothy Garton Ash

Ten years ago, the people of Burma voted overwhelmingly for the 
National League for Democracy, headed by Aung San Suu Kyi. 

But the military junta refused to recognize the result, and the 
people of Burma have suffered a further decade of oppression by a 
brutal and corrupt army-state. When I travelled there this spring, I 
found a land of fairy-tale beauty but also an all-pervading climate 
of fear. Burma is at once a dream and a nightmare. I met people who 
had spent years in solitary confinement, half-starved and forbidden 
to read or write. 

What is to be done about a place like this? The U.S. and Britain have 
spearheaded a policy of ostracism and pressure. The British 
government has recently urged Premier Oil to reconsider its position 
in Burma. A motion tabled in the House of Commons this week ''calls 
upon the British government to exert the maximum possible pressure on 
the regime." 

I believe this approach is absolutely right. The best way of 
explaining why is to address three serious objections to it. The 
first objection is: hypocrisy and double standards. We are so 
outspoken in criticizing Burma's human-rights record, yet so mealy-
mouthed when it comes to China's. We go to war to stop Serbia's rape 
of Kosovo, yet utter weasel words about Russia's rape of Chechnya.


Now the beginning of an honest answer to this objection is: yes, 
these are double standards. However, the proper conclusion is not 
that we should soften our criticism of Burma or Serbia. It is that we 
should be more outspoken in our criticism of China and Russia. Yet it 
does not follow that we should act identically: for example, urging 
our oil companies to get out of Russia and China. Different 
circumstances do require different measures. You can't treat large, 
powerful countries exactly the same as small ones.

In the morally imperfect world of international relations, it's not 
wrong to mix considerations of national interest with those of 
principle. And it is correct to distinguish between regimes that may 
be open to critical engagement, and those, like the Burmese one, that 
seem deaf to it. If their attitude were to change, so could ours.

The second objection is: ''it hasn't worked." People who know Burma 
well are understandably distressed by the country's downward spiral 
into a morass of worsening poverty, drug abuse, AIDS and educational 
backwardness. Ten years of the hard Anglo-American line, discouraging 
foreign investment, development loans and tourism, have, they argue, 
hurt the people while not bringing the regime to the negotiating 
table. Since ''it hasn't worked," perhaps a softer line would be 
worth a try? Anyway, some benefits would surely ''trickle down" to 
ordinary men and women.

Burma's largest neighbour, China, supports (and profits from) the 
military regime Again, the arguments are so familiar. And again, one 
has to say that there are some regimes, and some moments, when such a 
softening would be apt - for example, in encouraging a  dictatorship 
down a path of reform upon which it has tentatively  embarked. But my 
judgment is that this is not such a regime or such a moment. In fact, 
the real problem is not that there has  been too much pressure, but 
that there has not been enough, either internally or externally.

For all the brave efforts of Aung San Suu Kyi and her National League 
for Democracy, the domestic opposition has not been able to organize 
the kind of sustained pressure on the rulers that the ANC achieved in 
South Africa and Solidarity in Poland. Meanwhile, the relatively 
united front of Western policy is undermined by the fact that Burma's 
largest neighbour, China, supports
(and profits from) the military regime, while its other large 
neighbour, India, is ambiguous, and several wealthy Asian countries, 
including Japan and Singapore, continue to invest in Burma.

This leads directly to the third objection, which is that such a 
policy is an expression of Western moral imperialism, imposing our 
values on Asia. Burma has other values - yes, those famous ''Asian 
values."  To this there is a brief and sufficient answer. The policy 
advocated by the U.S.
and Britain is the one favoured by the democratically elected 
representatives of Burma. Aung San Suu Kyi made this very plain to me 
when we spoke in Rangoon earlier this year.

Of course, there are Burmese friends of democracy who think 
otherwise, and it is always a slippery undertaking to say what ''the 
people" in a dictatorship want. It seems to me, the views of those on 
the ground, fighting for democracy in the place itself, should be a 
major, if not the determining, consideration. Those views will not 
always be for embargoes and sanctions. 

Take the Serbian opposition, for example, which is currently under 
fierce attack from the Milosevic regime (although you would hardly 
know it from our regular news diet, any more than you would learn 
about Burma's ongoing misery) . Divided though that opposition has 
been, virtually all of its representatives have spoken to agree that 
most Western sanctions are now counter-productive. 

The best way to help the cause of democracy in Serbia, they argue, 
would be a controlled lifting of the sanctions that hurt the people, 
combined with a careful explanation to the Serbian people of why this 
was being done and a simultaneous tightening of sanctions targeted 
specifically at Milosevic and his henchmen. While I am not over-
optimistic about the chances of such an approach, I am convinced that 
this is worth a try. What is sauce for the Burmese goose may
be arsenic for the Serbian gander.

Meanwhile, I had to laugh when, shortly after I visited Burma, the 
Yugoslav foreign minister arrived there, amid effusive declarations 
of mutual admiration and support. Rogue states of the world, unite!

We should remember Burma. We should remember Serbia. And, because we 
want the same things for both of them, we should do different things 
about them. 

Essayist and author Timothy Garton Ash is a Fellow of St. Antony's 
College, Oxford.




____________________________________________________



THE BURMA CAMPAIGN UK: LONELY PLANET'S ATTEMPT TO OFFSET CRITICISM OF 
ITS BURMA GUIDE BACKFIRES 

June 1, 2000

Lonely Planet's attempt to offset criticism of its Burma guide 
backfires 

On Friday May 26 The Burma Campaign UK and Tourism Concern launched a 
new arm of their existing campaign opposing tourism to Burma - 
calling for a boycott of all Lonely Planet publications (LP) until 
the company withdraws its Burma guide from the market.  
In anticipation of the boycott campaign launch outside Lonely 
Planet's London offices, the company displayed poster-size laminated 
copies of a letter written by a small organisation called the Burma 
Relief Centre on the outside of the building. The letter thanked 
Lonely Planet for a recent donation. Lonely Planet's press pack also 
carried copies of this letter and recent press articles have made 
reference to it.  

The Burma Relief Centre, based in Thailand has since sent the 
following letter to Lonely Planet: 
Dear Maureen Wheeler, 30/5/00

We were dismayed to find reference to your recent donation to the 
Burma Relief Centre in the article in the Daily Telegraph on May 
27, "Burma guide blacklisted." This has led us to question your 
organisation's motives in donating to us. It appears that you had 
intended to publicise the donation to offset criticism of your 
organisation's promotion of tourism in Burma. 
As you are aware (from our very first correspondence with your 
organisation ten years ago), we are against the promotion of tourism 
in Burma under the current dictatorship. We believe that foreign 
tourism is one of the factors sustaining the regime, and prolonging 
the kind of misery we are witnessing daily along the border. Thus, we 
would prefer not to be complicit in any defence that your 
organisation is making regarding this issue. 
We realise that we were mistaken in accepting your donation, and 
would like to return it immediately. We will send you a bank draft 
made out to "Lonely Planet Publications" for the amount you had 
donated to us, or we can wire the money back if you provide us with 
your bank account details. 

Yours sincerely,


Pippa Curwen
Director
Burma Relief Centre


____________________________________________________


LONELY PLANET: ON LONELY PLANET BOYCOTT

[BurmaNet Editor's Note: This is the email response of  Lonely Planet 
to a  message  (text available below) regarding a boycott of Lonely 
Planet because of its Myanmar (Burma) Guide]


Lonely Planet has been publishing information about (Myanmar) Burma 
for over 
25 years. Burma appeared in the first edition of South-East Asia on a 
Shoestring in 1975. Our first Burma guidebook was published in 1979 
and the 
7th edition was published earlier this year. The oppressive military 
junta 
(SLORC/SPDC) has never liked Lonely Planet for stating the truth 
about their 
regime and would be overjoyed if one of their most long-standing and 
most 
widely-available critics were to be silenced. We have always 
withstood 
pressure from unpleasant governments to censor our books but recently 
SLORC/SPDC have been joined by the Burma Campaign UK and Tourism 
Concern in 
the UK who would also like to see our book off the shelves and have 
suggested that travellers boycott all Lonely Planet guidebooks until 
we 
withdraw it from sale. 

Tourism Concern and the Burma Campaign UK's contention is that our 
publication encourages travel to Burma and that any visitors to Burma 
will 
aid and encourage the military government. Furthermore, they contend, 
the 
NLD (National League for Democracy), which overwhelmingly won the 
election 
in 1990 but has never been allowed to take power, has stated that 
tourists 
should not visit Burma while the military remains in control and that 
Lonely 
Planet should respect that NLD policy by withdrawing our guidebook.  
We do not agree that withdrawing our book from sale is a useful or 
effective 
way of helping to better the lot of the oppressed people of Burma. 
Our 
guidebook commences with a two page section headed 'Should You Visit 
Myanmar.' This section outlines the reasons for and against visiting 
the 
country and, if a decision is made to visit the country, the ways to 
minimise supporting the military government and maximise the positive 
effects for the general population. This introductory section states: 
'Anyone contemplating a visit to Myanmar should realise there are no 
clear-cut answers'. The accuracy of that simple statement is 
underlined a 
few pages later by a two page statement by Ma Thanegi, a pro-
democracy 
activist and former political prisoner, stating why he (SIC*) feels 
that isolation 
and boycotts are not the answer to the country's problems.  

Tourism Concern and the Burma Campaign UK have also claimed that our 
guidebook contains a number of errors of fact. Every one of these 
points can 
be answered and if anyone would like copies of our comprehensive, 
point by 
point response to questions raised by the Burma Campaign UK and 
Tourism 
Concern we will be happy to send copies by email, fax or post.  

We support the role of organisations encouraging steps towards 
democracy in 
Burma but we do not agree that our guidebook should be withdrawn. 

[*BurmaNet Editor's Note: Ma Thanegi is female]


  -----Original Message-----
  From: JOIE WARNOCK [mailto:Joie_Warnock@xxxxxxxxx]
  Sent: 28 May 2000 00:22
  To: go@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
  Subject: Why is your research so poor?


  To whom it may concern: 

  I am planning a trip to Southeast Asia this August and have 
recently purchased your wonderful guide for Bali and Lombok. I had 
planned to make a further purchase of a more general guide for the 
region from you.    However, it has been brought to my attention that 
you have published a travel guide to Burma and have made some very 
insensitive and remarkably uninformed remarks regarding the 
deplorable situation in Burma and are in fact thumbing your noses at 
the call by pro-democracy groups to boycott tourism to Burma.   What 
has deeply offended me is your comments about forced labour in Burma 
being on the wane. Exactly what planet are you getting your research 
information from?   Even a cursory search on the web would yield 
reems of up to date information from reputable human rights watch 
organizations on the deplorable forced labour conditions currently in 
Burma.   I will be taking my business elsewhere.
  Yours sincerely,
  Joie Warnock



________________


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coverage of news and opinion on Burma  (Myanmar).  


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