------------------------ BurmaNet ------------------------ "Appropriate Information Technologies, Practical Strategies" ---------------------------------------------------------- The BurmaNet News: October 17, 1995 Issue# 253 Noted in Passing: Of course I prefer my Shakespeare and Charles Dickens but these days I have to read whatever trash comes my way. - Kyaw Min, a resident of Rangoon, on the difficulty of finding and buying decent books. (quoted in: BKK POST: WHY KYAW MIN READS TRASH INSTEAD OF CLASSICS) HEADLINES: ========== BKK POST: WHY KYAW MIN READS TRASH INSTEAD OF CLASSICS INDEPENDENT REPORT: NOTES ON BURMA TOURISM NATION: UN HUMAN RIGHTS INVESTIGATOR VISITS BURMA'S MINORITIES ISBDA: JAPAN TO CONSTRUCT SOLAR POWER STATIONS IN BURMA INDEPENDENT LETTER: TO UNHCR(GENEVA) AND THAI PM ---------------------------------------------------------- Produced with the support of the Burma Information Group (B.I.G) and the Research Department of the ABSDF {MTZ} The BurmaNet News is an electronic newspaper covering Burma. Articles from newspapers, magazines, newsletters, the wire services and the Internet as well as original material are published. The BurmaNet News is e-mailed directly to subscribers and is also distributed via the soc.culture.burma and seasia-l mailing lists and is also available via the reg.burma conference on the APC networks. 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Look under the International Political Economy section, then select Geographic Archive, then Asia, then Burma. ---------------------------------------------------------- BURMANET SUBJECT-MATTER RESOURCE LIST BurmaNet regularly receives enquiries on a number of different topics related to Burma. If you have questions on any of the following subjects, please direct email to the following volunteer coordinators, who will either answer your question or try to put you in contact with someone who can: Arakan/Rohingya/Burma- Michael W. Charney: GoMaha@aol.com Bangladesh Border Campus activism: tlandon@ewu.edu Boycott campaigns: [Pepsi] wcsbeau@superior.ccs.carleton.ca Buddhism: Buddhist Relief Mission: brelief@gol.com Chin history/culture: plilian@asc.corp.mot.com Fonts: tom@cs.colgate.edu History of Burma: zni@students.wisc.edu Kachin history/culture: 74750.1267@compuserve.com Karen history/culture: Karen Historical Society: 102113.2571@Compuserve.com Mon history/culture: [volunteer needed] Naga history/culture: Wungram Shishak: z954001@oats.farm.niu.edu Burma-India border [volunteer needed] Pali literature: "Palmleaf": c/o burmanet@igc.apc.org Shan history/culture: [volunteer needed] Shareholder activism: simon_billenness@mail.cybercom.net Tourism campaigns: bagp@gn.apc.org "Attn. S.Sutcliffe" World Wide Web: FreeBurma@POBox.com Volunteering: christin@ksc.net.th [Feel free to suggest more areas of coverage] ************************ BKK POST: WHY KYAW MIN READS TRASH INSTEAD OF CLASSICS October 16, 1995 Cut off form new books by years of censorship and economic stagnation, the Burmese are desperate for a good read. S.SATYANARAYAN reports on the widespread information famine in Rangoon. Sitting in his ramshackle hut in suburban Rangoon, at 45 Kyaw Min is too old to be reading teenage novels and yet he is enjoying the experience. Given the sheer shortage and high cost of English-language books in Burma, he has little choice. "Of course I prefer my Shakespeare and Charles Dickens but these days I have to read whatever trash comes my way," he explains. It is a dilemma common to thousands of educated Burmese who do not know that concept of choice when it comes to information. They have been shut out from the rest of the world by three decades of military rule and subject to severe censorship. The rising prices of published material is only the latest addition to their cup of intellectual woes. Since the opening up of the economy in 1990, prices of almost all essential commodities have risen several-fold and books have been a major casualty. In a country where the highest government salary does not exceed 3000 kyat (12,500 baht), the starting price for English-language books is 600 kyat (2,083.25 baht), well above the reach of most citizens. The scarcity of foreign exchange has also held back imports of newly-published material, leaving already bare bookshops even emptier. "Leave alone literature, many educational institutions in the country don't even have textbooks for their students in several subjects," says a Rangoon University lecturer. He says many schools and colleges now lend out the same set of textbooks to students year after year to overcome shortages. Burma's 45-plus universities and colleges produced 27,000 graduates last year, of whom nearly 2,000 were engineers and health professionals. But the lack of up-to-date educational material and research literature is creating a large pool of qualified yet ignorant manpower. Most citizens blame the military rulers for the dismal state of educational institutions and the failure to nurture the intellectual capabilities of the people. "Before the coup, Burma was easily east Asia's most forward-looking economy with a large number of very skilled and educated personnel", says Dr Sein Win, who remembers how several Burmese universities once had standards comparable with those in the West. Apart from stifling all intellectual discussion in educational institutions, the military - which came to power through a coup in 1962 - is also accused of taking the country back in time by banning the teaching of English at the primary school level and implementing a "Burmese only" policy. Though the policy was relaxed in the late 1980s, the damage had been done with the creation of an entire generation of students with little knowledge of English. Another major factor preventing intellectual development has been the backwardness of the economy, which has been unable to create enough jobs for the number of qualified people. It is common in Rangoon to see post-graduate students working as taxi drivers and engineers running roadside shops. "The biggest problem in Burma is the fact that most of the officials overseeing educational affairs come from military backgrounds with little education or understanding of it," says a Burmese writer. Throughout the military's reign, students and teachers, he points out, have been the regime's main opponents and are seen by it as a "natural enemy." Since the 1988 pro-democracy agitation, which was largely led by students the military authorities have been trying to "depoliticise" campuses. Re-opened in 1992 after three years' closure, universities are now under strict surveillance for signs of "dissident" activity, which includes publishing any literature, organising debates and staging plays and song performances. But one of the dilemmas facing the military regime is that its attempts to open up the economy is also inadvertently exposing the population to foreign influences. With foreign investment worth US$2.5 billion (62.5 billion baht) flowing in since 1990 and thousands of visitors entering the country every year, it is experiencing increasing difficulty in controlling the influx of uncensored information in the form of books, video and audio cassettes. A good example of the problem confronting the regime concerns its decision a few years ago, under pressure g form the tourism lobby, to allow the setting up of satellite dishes by hotels catering to foreign tourists. In April this year the government stopped issuing licences and cracked down on the scores of illegal dishes that had sprung up all over the country. Worried that rising inflation might spark off political riots, the regime has also started jamming the programmes of the British Broadcasting Corporation and Voice of America. Radio has become the main means by which many Burmese keep abreast of events in and outside Burma. "In this day and age no regime can keep its people in the dark forever. It is a losing game", says an Asian diplomat in Rangoon. Censorship, he points out, could not keep the regimes of Eastern Europe from collapsing under the weight of their own lies. _ Gemini news ******************** INDEPENDENT REPORT: NOTES ON BURMA TOURISM (Notes by Kevin Heppner, also of Karen Human Rights Group) Despite the situation in Burma, a growing number of tour groups are planning tours capitalizing on SLORC's "Visit Myanmar Year 1996". Some tour companies appear to have picked up on the SLORC's promotions and are fervently promoting these tours. In the USA, one such tour company is: Thomas P. Gohagan and Company 224 South Michigan Ave., Suite 220 Chicago, Illinois 60604 Tel: (312) 922-3002 Gohagan has mainly been targetting University Alumni associations, getting them to offer tours to their members in the $5,000-7,000 range, centred around a cruise up the Irrawaddy River from Rangoon to Mandalay on the MV "Road to Mandalay". There are currently reports that Alumni Associations at Northwestern (Evanston, IL), Yale, Michigan (Ann Arbor), Indiana (Bloomington), University of Southern California, and many other Universities are currently promoting the tours to their Alumni (a full list would be useful if available). UCLA was also planning a tour, but cancelled it after being briefed on the situation in Burma. Gohagan is not only hitting Alumni Associations, but is also hitting groups interested in Art and Culture - the Chicago Art Institute is reportedly also planning a tour. Gohagan is supplying the glossy literature for the Associations to use, customized with the Association's name inserted. Of course, no mention of any problems is made - "Myanmar" is characterized as a beautifully "serene" country coated with flower blossoms and gold. The first sentence reads "To find an unspoiled country today may seem impossible, but Myanmar, called Burma in the days of the Raj, is such a place." Is that Ne Win's Raj they mean? But Gohagan encloses an explanation for the name change: "Within the last decade, the government, wishing to preserve the nation's indigenous character, has reverted to calling the country and the main cities by their original Burmese names, which may cause confusion." People from Burma may be interested to read that "Myanmar has absorbed the best of its neighbors' cultures and, poised between India and China, has developed a character that is distinctly its own." You can "Visit the villages of Mingun and Sagaing, their hillsides decorated with temples and fragrant blossoms. Marvel at the 12th- and 13th-century temples and pagodas along the Bagan (Pagan) plain." And so on. A photo of a monk on a quiet street is captioned referring to the "serenity" of the country, noting that the rural areas are "especially serene". No war. No military. No politics. No problems. These words don't even occur once - except in the fine print on the back page, where Gohagan includes a standard disclaimer stating "We can assume no responsibility nor liability in whole or in part for any delays, ..., acts of God, circumstances beyond our control, force majeure, war, quarantine, political conditions, ..., accident, sickness, injury or death to person or property, or mechanical defect, failure or negligence of any nature howsoever caused ..." - about 50 things are listed for which Gohagan refuses to be responsible, but I'll leave them out for brevity. You'd think, though, that since the traveller assumes full risk and responsibility in the event of war, they might appreciate being told that Burma has been at civil war for the past 47 years. In order to stop these tours, Gohagan is an obvious target, but there is probably a greater chance of success by going after the Alumni and other associations who are planning to go. This approach already worked with UCLA. While Gohagan probably has no ethics whatsoever, the Alumni Associations are vulnerable to pressure from their own members and from the student body at their Universities (after all, student fees probably support the Alumni Association in most cases). It is imperative that action begin IMMEDIATELY, as many of these tours are scheduled for Jan/Feb 1996, and by December bookings will probably be fairly solidly confirmed. Gohagan's tour includes short stops in Thailand and Hong Kong (where you can "Attend a specially arranged presentation at the exclusive China Club to learn about the changeover in governance in 1997."!) - so maybe you can push them to replace Burma with India or some other place. The best way to start is to check at your own University or Alma Mater whether they have a trip planned, and if they do then get to work. Usually there is a Professor who gets a free trip to be the "expert" guide along the way. Of course, they will probably try to come back with the usual arguments people use to rationalize their visits to poor countries, like "If lots of tourists go then this will improve the situation in the country, because the government will have to hide its abuses from the tourists, and because I'll learn about the situation and tell my 3 friends when I get home and this will be a big help to these poor people." So here are some counter-arguments: 1) SLORC tightly restricts where you can go, so you still can't see the supposedly "serene" rural areas or meet the people who live there. In popular places like Pagan, the SLORC forcibly relocated 5,000 people off their land specifically so you COULDN'T meet them. If people try to talk to you, they face possible arrest and interrogation under torture. The Gohagan tour is exactly what SLORC likes best: a group of people led by guides with an interest in hiding the dark side of the situation, spending great chunks of cash in a short time period and travelling on a luxury cruise ship up the river - thereby ensuring that they will have no contact whatsoever with local people. 2) US$300 buys 2,500 assault rifle bullets. Each person has to hand over US$300 in hard currency to SLORC on arrival. In return you receive "Foreign Exchange Certificates", which you generally exchange for Kyat with street traders. Either way, SLORC keeps your $300. To carry your 2,500 bullets to the frontline or rural areas, SLORC will conscript 1.2 adult males (average load for an adult male porter is 2,000 bullets), or 2 women, or 2 children under 15, or 2 people over 60, as forced porters. These porters may die along the way from the ordeal and have to be replaced. In the rural villages, your bullets will be loaded into the magazines of SLORC soldiers and fired, usually at unarmed civilians. Many will be used to kill livestock and uncooperative villagers in areas where there is not even any fighting. SLORC's soldiers are mainly conscripted teenagers, so we will take a very conservative estimate that they will only hit people with 1 in 100 bullets. That still leaves 25 people maimed or killed with your $300. Of this 25, a maximum of 5 will be ethnic opposition soldiers. The rest will be defenceless villagers. Anyone who believes this is worth it as long as they tell 3 friends about Burma when they get home had better have Boutros Boutros-Ghali, Bill Clinton and Colonel Sanders high on their list of friends. Better yet, why not just tell your 3 friends and NOT go? 3) Tourism causes forced labour in Burma. The forced labour to clear the muck out of the bottom of the Mandalay Palace moat for the viewing pleasure of tourists has been well-documented. At least 20,000 civilians and close to as many convicts in shackles have been used for this. When commenting on the use of convicts, don't ignore what they are in prison for: I have met many convicts who have escaped such forced labour projects, and the following is a list of some of the most common "crimes": trying to sell goods on the open market without a SLORC "license"; getting in an argument with a policeman or soldier in a teashop; throwing a rock at an army truck; writing graffiti; being a retired opposition soldier; being out after curfew; or being caught with pro-democracy magazines. Other forced labour projects for "Visit Myanmar Year" currently ongoing include: the construction of a ring road around Mandalay, construction work on the Rangoon-Pegu road (where mostly women and children are breaking rocks), work to develop the airports at Mingaladon and Bassein, and dozens of other forced labour projects, each including thousands of people. Forced labour was stepped up this year on the southern (Tavoy-Ye Pyu) section of the 110-mile Ye-Tavoy railway in Tennasserim Division. The railway, which has enslaved over 100,000 villagers in rotating shifts since 1993, is far from finished - but labour intensified in this southernmost 10-mile section this year so that SLORC could officially "open" this section. SLORC officials told the villagers this was so tourists flying into Tavoy in 1996 would think SLORC has built a railway all the way north to Rangoon. There is even a sign at the beginning of the railway saying this. Of course, tourists are not to be allowed to go up this railway. 4) Tourism projects are causing forced relocation. It is well known that 5,000 villagers from Pagan were forcibly relocated by SLORC a few years ago to keep them away from tourists. Similar relocations continue to occur. SLORC is now confiscating or planning to confiscate prime farmland in some parts of the country to build golf courses and beach resorts, evicting the villagers without compensation. In Rangoon and Mandalay, SLORC has forcibly relocated entire neighbourhoods out of the city into "New Towns" (swamps and dustbowls with no facilities far from people's jobs in the city) with little or no compensation, and is bulldozing the neighbourhoods to make room for foreign-financed hotels and factories. The new hotels are given priority access to the already insufficient water and power supplies, causing surrounding neighbourhoods to suffer water shortages and blackouts. 5) SLORC is reportedly conducting forced relocation to build a "Human Zoo" near Rangoon. SLORC does not want to allow tourists access to remote areas, so it is forcing some ethnic people from remote areas to move to the human zoo so tourists can photograph them. Possibly the worst case of this involves Kayan women (also known as Padaung, the women often put brass rings around their necks and legs starting in childhood, eventually leading to an exotic "long-neck" appearance). Being from remote highland forests, these women will suffer severely from the hot and dusty lowland climate - but worse yet, the emotional and psychological effect of being uprooted from their villages, forced into a foreign society and paraded like circus animals in front of tourists will be devastating if not fatal. 6) People are suffering from SLORC's attempt to "beautify" the cities for tourists. Everyone in cities and provincial towns is now subject to SLORC orders forcing them to paint their houses to specification and build fancy cement walls and iron gates in front of their houses to impress foreign visitors. Families who cannot afford to do this are evicted from their homes and forced to "New Towns" and their house is given to a military family, for whom the SLORC pays for the work to be done. To avoid eviction, many families must go into multi-year debt to comply with this order. In Mandalay, SLORC wanted to widen the avenue in front of Mandalay Palace so tourists would have a better view - so they brought in heavy equipment and bulldozed the front half off of all the houses across the street, reportedly without compensation. 7) Some of the hotels being built in Rangoon are owned by Lo Hsing Han, a Chinese warlord from Shan State with close ties to SLORC. Lo is known worldwide as one of Burma's leading heroin traffickers, and there is evidence that several of the tourist hotel projects in Rangoon are being used to launder heroin money. Burma now supplies about 60 percent of the world's heroin. Any points which can be added to the above list would be appreciated. Just to make all of this worse, SLORC's Tourism Minister Lt. Gen. Kyaw Ba even went so far as to announce that 1996 might have to start in October instead of January, simply because all of the (forced labour) tourism projects won't be finished in time. As long as SLORC sees tourism as a potential cash cow, the reasons not to go to Burma as a tourist can only grow longer. ********************************* NATION: UN HUMAN RIGHTS INVESTIGATOR VISITS BURMA'S MINORITIES October 15, 1995 Associated Press A visiting United Nations human rights investigator, Prof Yozo Yokota of Japan, travelled on Friday to one of the country's eastern ethnic states to meet minor he went to Myitkyina, the capital of Kachin state, 950 kilometres north of Rangoon. From there he will travel to Kyaington in Shan State. The investigator for his fifth mission here since 1991. In Rangoon he met with government officials and politicians, including dissident leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who was released from house arrest in July. The Unite demned Burma's military government for human rights abuses and failing to make democratic reforms. The US State Department has charged that some of the most egregious human rights violations take place in the ethnic states along the country's eastern border. litary government, tomorrow before departing the next day. (TN) ******************* ISBDA: JAPAN TO CONSTRUCT SOLAR POWER STATIONS IN BURMA October 16, 1995. Japanese business and technology newspaper Nikkan Kogyo Shimbun reported today that Japan's Ministry of Trade and Industry (MITI) is planning to launch a feasibility study program on the development of new electric power stations in Burma and other five countries in Asia. The program is administered by a nominally government-controlled organization named as the New Energy Development Organization (NEDO) and it will take one year to find out possibility of solar energy power station establishment in Burma while model business-operation areas are being constructed in the mean time. This type of program is said to be intended for transfer of Japanese technology to Burma and also to increase number of environment-friendly electric power generators in the region. The report did not mention total cost of the project or the estimated cost per one unit of electricity if the program is considered successful. _The Solar Energy for Third World?_ Regarding this new energy issue, ISBDA would like to share the following facts to the readers: By means of modern technology, the Electricity generated by any safely operated solar power system will cost about US$ 10.00 for one Watt energy. About 150W is generally considered as minimum requirement for a household in a Third World Country. With this energy running a set of TV & Video and a fluorescent lamp is possible if they exist there in their home. A lucky Burmese citizen usually earns US$ 200. per year, which is just enough to by Japan's solar energy of 20 Watts. _Even in Japan_ A Japanese usually consumes 1000 times more than a Burmese does in terms of electricity. This large consumption rate led Japan to invest in a new project called SUNSHINE PROJECT. After recent NEDO guided Sunshine projects conducted in Japan, the government persuaded Japanese consumers to install solar electric generators at their homes to cover part of their electricity consumption. Due to extremely high cost (US$18/Watt), most consumers could not effort to install the new system even the government offered last year to support some 50% of the initial cost. >From these facts, ISBDA can say that Burmese people will need to return all their earning for more than a decade to Japan via SLORC as their newly installed power system can keep a television set on. ********************** INDEPENDENT LETTER: TO UNHCR(GENEVA) AND THAI PM October 12, 1995 (Editor's Note: The Editor of BurmaNet strongly disagrees with Dr. U Ne Oo's proposal. It is not safe for the Burmese refugees to return to Burma at this time. The recent arrest of Ye Htut and the continued imprisonment of numerous political prisoners in Burma clearly indicates the SLORC's attitude toward those who have been involved in political activities. Moreover, the repatriation of the Rohingyas, which Dr. U Ne Oo refers to, has been a disaster. Not only have refugees been repatriated against their will, but also many who returned were promptly taken off as porters for the SLORC army.) From: Dr U Ne Oo 48/2 Ayliffes Road, St Marys SA 5042, Australia To: Ms Sadako Ogata UN High Commissioner for Refugees Case Postale 2500, CH - 1211 Geneva 2 Depot, Switzerland Dear High Commissioner RE: Repatriation of Burmese Refugees from Australia and Thailand ---------------------------------------------------------------- Firstly, I should like to thank the High Commissioner for your continuing attention to the situation of refugees from Burma. I also wish to express my sincere appreciations to the Branch Offices of UNHCR in Canberra and Bangkok in particular, for their continuing assistance to ensure the safety of the refugees residing in Thailand. As a Burmese refugee, I am particularly encouraged that the UNHCR become increasingly interested in addressing the root causes of human displacements regarding Burma. I have recently received the newsletter from UNHCR about the repatriation of Rohingyas to Burma. In spite of precarious situation existing in my home land, it has always been the refugee's dream that one day we will be able to return to Burma. In this connection, I have enclosed my appeal to the Government of Australia to promote a Memorandum of Understanding with UNHCR for the repatriation of Burmese refugees from Australia. I also appeal the UNHCR to promote a formal Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Royal Thai Government for the repatriation of Burma's refugees from Thailand. My appeal to the Royal Thai Government to cooperate with UNHCR in promoting an MOU is also included for your information. Our refugee communities shared the view that the cease-fires that followed by the political settlement by various parties to the conflict as the important factor for building a long-lasting peace. Therefore, appeals have been made to the United Nations Security Council to implement a nationwide cease-fires in Burma. In order to deter the build-up of military machinery in Burma, which has been a major source of instability to that country, the UN Security Council have been urged to implement international arms embargo. I wish the UN High Commissioner to assist and support us in implementing these measures. I further wish to request the UNHCR to make adequate funding for various Quick Impact Projects that currently implementing in Arakan State, West of Burma. I also wish to advocate the increasing of UN personnel within Burma for monitoring returnees/refugees. Finally, I thank you for your kind attention to Burmese refugees and Burma matters. We, the refugees, are in much hope that we will soon be able to live in Burma peacefully. Yours respectfully and sincerely U Ne Oo Copy to: [1] Dr Pierre-Michel Fontaine, The Regional Representative for Australia, Branch Office of UNHCR, 9 Terrigal Crescent, O'malley ACT 2606, AUSTRALIA. [2] Mr Ruprecht von Arnim, The Regional Representative for Thailand, Branch Office of UNHCR, P.O. Box 2-121, Rajdamnern, Bangkok 10200, THAILAND. /* -----------" Letter to the Thai Prime Minister "------------ */ Dr U Ne Oo 48/2 Ayliffes Road St Marys SA 5042 AUSTRALIA October 12, 1995. Mr Barnharn Silapa-acha Prime Minister Government House Thanon Nakhon Pathon Bangkok 10300 Thailand Dear Prime Minister I am a Burmese national presently residing in Australia and I firstly should like to thank you and your administration for continuing humanitarian support for the refugees and displaced people from Burma. Burmese nationals are grateful to the Royal Thai Government and, particularly, the people of Thailand for their understanding and tolerance towards Burma's refugees. We sincerely appreciate your Government's cooperation with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees for arranging better security for the Burma's Karen refugees. I should like to call your kind attention to the situation of Burmese students who were detained for their non-violent activities in the Special Detention Center in Bangkok. These Burmese students are still at young age and the previous administration had taken action against their youthful behaviour in protesting the Myanmar Military Government. I appeal you to release those students from Special Detention Center. I further appeal the Royal Thai Government to promote a Memorandum of Understanding with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees for the organized repatriation of refugees to Burma. Various refugee community from Burma have already expressed their interests in voluntary repatriation to Burma. Therefore, I appeal your government to cooperate with the UN High Commissioner for Refugees in solving Burma's refugee problem. Finally, I thank you for your kind attention to this matter. Your respectfully and sincerely U Ne Oo. **********************