------------------------ BurmaNet ------------------------ "Appropriate Information Technologies, Practical Strategies" --------------------------------------------------------- The BurmaNet News: Nov 3, 1995 Issue #269 Noted in Passing: Yangoon Airways... will give access to the whole country bringing.. all the peoples and their unspoiled culture within the reach of every visitor from the East or the West. - Transport Minister Lt Gen. Thein Win (quoted in: BKK POST: THAI FIRM TO PROVIDE FLIGHTS IN BURMA) HEADLINES: ========== THE ALERT LITERATURE CLUB: MEDIA RELEASE S.H.A.N. : BANHARN TIGHTENING ANOTHER SCREW ON SHANS BKK POST: THAI FIRM TO PROVIDE FLIGHTS IN BURMA BKK POST: TALKS OVER 'FRIENDSHIP'BRIDGE STILL DEADLOCKED BKK POST: SLOW 'CART RIDE' INTO BURMESE HINTERLAND ---------------------------------------------------------- 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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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 volunteer needed Bangladesh Border Campus activism: zni@students.wisc.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] *********************** THE ALERT LITERATURE CLUB: MEDIA RELEASE 16 October, 1995 The Birth of the Alert Literature Club: The Alert Literature Club (ALC) came into existence on 15th October, 1995 with the initiative and activer participation of literary democracy activists on the Southern Burma border with Thailand. The ALC has laid down the following aims and objectives. Aims of the ALC: 1. To oppose military dictatorship in Burma. 2. To encourage the development of democracy in Burma. Objectives of the ALC: 1. To help provide moral encouragement for the people of Burma who are still struggling against military dictatorship and for the development of democracy. 2. To support the Burmese democracy movement through the use of political literature. 3. To help increase mutual understanding and respect and coordination and cooperation between all the democratic forces of Burma. Policies of the ALC: 1. While we share a commitment to the cessation of the military dictatorship and the restoration of democracy in Burma, we are a group of independent, literature-loving individuals, and we do not represent any political organization. 2. The ALC respects all democratic organizations and individuals and will always endeavor to keep lasting cordial relations with them. 3 The ALC will try to use literature (the ALERT publications) to alter the thinking of any person or organization in Burma whose attitudes and work are antagonistic to the ALC's aims. Future Plans of the ALC: 1. To continue to publish and distribute the "ALERT PAPER" series. 2. To print and publish "The Alert Annual Magazine" in 1996. 3. To write, translate, and publish any book which fits clearly with the ALC's aims. 4. To publish and distribute educational pamphlets, booklets, and bulletins for the development of border refugees and internally displaced persons in Burma. 5. To cooperate closely with all literacy groups and democracy forces inside and outside Burma. Criteria for the Selection of Manuscripts: 1. Any contributions which the Editors' Board considers inconsistent with the principles laid down by the ALC will not be selected. 2. However, if such contributions based on sensitive matters are considered by the Editorial Board as being constructive to the cause, they may be selected, and the Board will accept full responsibility for them. 3. An author may be a member of a political organization, but his or her contributions to the ALERT PAPER will not be considered as necessarily reflecting their organiation's policies. 4. The Editorial Board will give precedence to manuscripts which are of good quality, regardless of their length. 5. Contributions from new writers are also very much welcomed. 6. Writings which are clear and comprehensible to the grassroots population will be especially appreciated. Sructure of the ALC Advisory Board: Mahn Aung Htay (Independent Karen Historical Research Association) U Myint Aung Soe (Alliance for Democratic Solidarity, Union of Burma, [ADSB]) Dr. Kyaw Nyunt (People's Progressive Front [PPF]) U Yarn Aung (People's Defense Force [PDF]) ALERT PAPER Publication Committee Chief Editor Zaw Win Maung (People's Progressive Front [PPF]) Consultant Editor Mahn Htat Khaung (Independent Karen Historical Research Association) Editor (Burmese) Shwe Thway (Individual) Editor (English) Nai Aung Mon (Project for Mon People Empowerment [PMPE]) Co-Editor (1) Lu Maw (People's Defense Force [PDF]) Co-Editor (2) Aung Moe (Democratic Party for New Society [DPNS]) Co-Editor (3) Khaing Mar Kyaw Zaw (Karen National Union [KNU]) Art/Design (1) Maung Maung Oo (People's Defense Force [PDF]) Art/Design (2) Nai Win Ta Mot (New Mon State Party [NMSP]) Art/Design (3) Min Pauk Pauk (Project for Mon People Empowerment [PMPE]) Information (1) Phone Kyaw (ABSDF, No. 102 Battalion) Information (2) Ba Khet (Free Trade Union of Burma [FTUB]) Distribution (1) Aye Maung (Free Trade Union of Burma [FTUB]) Distribution (2) Pyi Oat (NLD-LA) Invitation for Manuscripts: The Alert PAPER Publication Committee is trying to publish the following ALERT Papers over the next year. 1. The ALERT PAPER Vol. 3 (December, 1995) - to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the first university student strike (1920) - universary diamond jubilee occasion 2. The ALERT PAPER Vol. 4 (February, 1996) - to critically examine SLORC's "Visit Myanmar Year 1996" 3. The ALERT PAPER Vol. 5 (March 13, 1996) - to commemorate the 8th Burma Human Rights Day, "Bo Phone Maw Day" 4. The ALERT Annual Magazine (8-8-96) - to commemorate the 8th Four-Eights (8-8-88) Great People's Movement Any contribution, either in Burmese or English, to the above series is very much welcomed. Also, letters of suggestion to the ALERT PAPERS will be greatly valued. Hence, the ALC would like to request all comrades and friends of Burma to write and send manuscripts to the ALERT PAPER. The ALC would also like to ask all friends to distribute the information. Sections in the ALERT PAPER: Short Stories, Articles, Plays, Poems, and Essays Cartoons and Caricatures Personal Experiences and news reports (human rights, womens' rights, the environment) General Section (revolutionary art, democracy postcards, songs, advertisements, etc.) NOTE: The ALERT PAPER is published with the help of individual contributions and is distributed free of charge. Mailing Address: P.O. Box 42 Sapan Mai Bangkok, 10200 Thailand ******************************************** S.H.A.N. : BANHARN TIGHTENING ANOTHER SCREW ON SHANS 31 October , 1995 Hit hard by reports of breaking up, the almost three-month old Banharn government of Thailand has decided to turn into a drug fighter for a way out, with special emphasis on amphetamines, a government source disclosed. Naturally, the Shan armed groups, which include the Mong Tai Army and the United Wa State Army, whose strongholds along the Thai border are reported to be producing amphetamines are going to receive special attention, he said. The Thai official, who requested his name not be revealed, told S.H.A.N. the embattled government would not consider the Shan proposal in September to act as a mediator between the Shans and the ruling Burmese junta for a negotiated settlement of their problems. The reason, he said, was because of continued suspicion by the Burmese of Thai motives especially with regard to the Shans. Shans and Thais belong to the same ethnic stock known as Tais. The tightening of the screw would begin in November, he added. "We are not doing this to please either the Burmese or the Americans. It is to protect our own people from your amphetamine invasion." ***** BKK POST: THAI FIRM TO PROVIDE FLIGHTS IN BURMA 2 November 1995 Rangoon, AFP A THAI company yesterday signed a joint venture agreement here with state-run Mynamar Airways to provide domestic airline flights in Burma. The agreement, signed by officials of Thailand's Krong Sombat Co Ltd, calls for the new airline, called for Yangoon Airways Ltd, to be operational within six months. The new airlines will open more destinations in Burma they foreign visitors and mean they have three carriers to choose from. Transport Minister Thein Win said at the signing ceremony. "Yangoon Airways, together with its predecessor Mandalay, will give access to the whole country bringing.. all the peoples and their unspoiled culture within the reach of every visitor from the East or the West," Lt Gen. Thein Win said. Burma, officially called Myanmar, has designated 1996 "Visit Myanmar Year." Yangoon Airways initially will fly two Fokker 50 aircraft to southern and northern destinations in Burma. (BP) *************** BKK POST: TALKS OVER 'FRIENDSHIP'BRIDGE STILL DEADLOCKED November 2, 1995 BORDER problems and the alleged murder of Burmese seamen are issues which have blocked progress in the latest bilateral talks on resuming construction of the Thai-Burmese "friendship" bridge across the Moei River, said a Third Army Region source. Deputy Army Commander Gen. Chetha Thanajaro held the discussions with Burmese authorities in Mae Sot District, Tak province, on Monday. The talk on the bridge issue, which took place for the third time, reportedly failed to produced any concrete results. The source said Burma is still dissatisfied with reclamation work on the Thai side, which has change the river currents, and the fact that 120 Thai stalls have not yet been removed from the bank. The alleged murder of six Burmese seamen by Thai colleagues early Thai colleagues early in August was another factor hampering the talks, the sources said. Third Army Region Commander Lt Gen. Thanom Wacharaphut said yesterday that the Burmese representatives at the talks were not empowered to make any decisions; therefore, Gen. Chetha would have to meet with Burmese authorities at a higher level later. "We will try to solve the issue as soon as possible but we also need co-operation from all parties concerned," Lt Gen. Thanom said. Tak Deputy Governor Saneh Chalermphol confirmed that border problems have caused construction of the bridge, which the link Tak with Burma's Myawaddy, to be halted. The Burmese Government ordered construction, which was nearly completed, halted on June 7 this year. To stop soil on its side of the Moei River, Burma had earlier sunk stakes which changed the river currents and made them affect the Thai side. Thailand subsequently carried out reclamation work on its bank and sunk stakes which irritated Burma. (BP) *************** BKK POST: SLOW 'CART RIDE' INTO BURMESE HINTERLAND 2 November 1995 Story By Ken Scoot "ALTHOUGH Australia and New Zealand were fine in their ways, Burma was the best," my retired father wrote on his return to England earlier this year. We had recently spent sometime together and one of the places we toured was Burma, a country I had been fortunate enough to visit both in 1985 and 1988. Despite living under a bloody military dictatorship for six years, ordinary Burmese people seemed to be as resilient and generous in spirit as they were 10 years ago. But there were changes - some good, some evident before we even arrived in Rangoon. In Bangkok it took 15 minutes to apply for and receive our one-month Burmese visas (cost: 470 both). Myanmar International Airways, with its shiny new Boeing 737s, was at least consistent: exactly 40 minutes late both into and out of Rangoon. On the taxi ride into the Burmese capital, the buildings were cleaner and freshly painted, boulevards wide and tree-lined with coloured curbstones and there were not too many cars around - but more than before. There were new business centres like pyramids, iron-ribbed shopping malls rising at intersections, and bill broads for luxury apartments, Lucky Strike, Fosters, Daewoo and Apple computers. And slogans-lots of slogans all over the country. Large white-on-red affairs with Orwellian messages such as "We Love Our Nation", and "Love Your Mother - Respect the Law". Law or not, driving is still a lottery. Burma is a right-hand-drive country and - inscrutably - most car are right-hand-drives, including the giant Chinese-made FAW army trucks that loom menacingly over battalions of sinewy riskshaw peddlers. (General Ne Win allegedly changed the country to right-hand-drive during the Burmese way to Socialism years after consulting his astrologer.) There are many indicators of an economy not just poor, but skewed in ways that would make free-market economists fume. In Rangoon petrol costs six baht a gallon but car owners are rationed to (missing) gallons per week. There are very few petrol stations up-country. Fuel costs 46 baht a gallon on the black market, which is bigger than the official economy anyway. Our upcountry fuel stop was at a family-run wooden guesthouse in a back street of Phu. Two sister with painted toenails and taut pink longyis expertly syphoned petrol into our minibus. Where other families kept pigs below their house, this family stored leaking petrol barrels. The menfolk sat on top of the upright cans, smoking green cheroots while the daughters worked. In this semi-desert terrain, only the ubiquitous toddy palm tree does well, providing a sources of wooden furniture and mat roofing, while its sweet milky fruit can be turned into alcohol or a laxative depending on preparation. In the cool hills of eastern Mandalay near the old British hill station of Maymyo there were productive fields. Strawberries, onions, tomatoes, cabbages, apples, potatoes, coffee, silk, cotton and corn grow in "factories" - little more than co-operative allotments - to feed lowland demand. In the Maymyo hills and in Western Shan state around the Inle lake, the Chinese border is still 240 kilometres to the east. But its massive and ominous presence is felt like a hovering rain cloud about the burst. In the uplands Chinese culture asserts itself in the increasingly pallid facial feature of the hill folk, the stirred food, and in the imported goods in Kalaw, Taunggyi and Maymyo market. Beyond Maymyo, exhaust-belching trucks heave logs to the Chinese border, returning with bicycles, beer, electrical goods, soap powder and medicines. As the imported consumer goods cost more than the exported raw commodities, Burma is always short of cash. There were poignant reminders. At a lunch stop in blighted Magwe, young mothers with naked babies at their breasts fought over the few kyats notes we put into their bowls, then used the same bowls to feed their children the leftover of our soup. Girls worked down the street sharing the same headscarf. We saw labourers equipped with baskets and brooms building roads. Our guides said the roadbuilders were paid 50 kyat (12 baht) a day. The pleasures of local people tend to be simple upcountry: a one-kyat (25 satang) cheroot, a 240 kyat (57 baht) bottle of Mandalay rum with a label and bottle - but alas not the taste - like Jonnie Walker Red. The father north you go the cheaper beer becomes as it is smuggled in from China. Everywhere the corporate influence of Thailand is pervasive. Burmese men spike their local rice whisky with Kratin Daeng energy drink. The smiling faces of Thai middles Bird and Siriam endorse Mekhong and Saengthip whiskies. At the Yuzana supermarket in Rangoon, retailers sell small bottles of Singha beer for 58 kyat (14 baht) - for a profit. With the economy running on square wheels, mass tourism is being introduced as a last-ditch effort to spread real money around the country. The General wants package tourists, not backpackers. Visit Myanmar Year 1996 constitutes a major U-turn for a military oligarchy conspicuously paranoid about national and cultural dissolution. Should the tourists have clean consciences? Amnesty International reported in May that 50 cents of every tourist dollar spent in Burma goes directly to the junta. Well, that's 50 cents to the people too. The impact of group tourism is beginning to change mystical Pagan, where broad roads are being built between the crumbling 12th-century monasteries. The Shwedagon temple now has bright fairly lights on it. Entrances to all the major monasteries have hawkers, albeit with an impressive range of bronze, lacquerware and sandalwood curios. Whispers of "Change money"? permeate the dusky corridors of the sacred chapels. At the Shew Zan Daw temple, known for its sunset views, the driver of a 25 seater Marco Polo Reisen tour bus honked the horn while a European tourist on the top tier of the temple shouted down an order for another soda. At the top of the Sulamani temple, three Russian tourists with a Bangkok airport duty-free bag drank rum and Coke from tall glasses. While the Burmese knelt to pray, foreigners knelt to get a better angle for their palmcorders. Sacrilege? Certainly, although a lot of Burmese apparently pray for lottery wins. A new museum is being built in Pagan and there are rumours of a luxury hotel. The existing choice is fine: around 400 to 500 baht a night for a clean, carpeted twin room including breakfast, about par around the country. Burmese nationals get rooms for half price. At Inle Lake, dinner with the "Four Sisters" is reason enough to go to Burma. Each evening a fishing family opens its wooden home on the lake's upper reaches. They serve chicken and fish curries, mixed vegetables and popadoms to cross-legged guests sitting by candlelight in the Spartans living room. While visitors feast from bowls that are never allowed to empty, the Four Sisters (actually three; one has married a German and lives in Europe) mingle with the six or so diners as the relatives look on, nodding and smiling. It is difficult to know who is more wide-eyed, the hosts or the lucky guests. At the end the visitors leave whatever money they feel is appropriate. It's like a dream. As is the lake, the market and temple at Phoung Daw Oo, midway down the 14 mile lake, is a living tapestry. The rich variety of hill-tribe ethnicity and natural products grown in Shan state meet in a collision of colours. It is cold in the mornings, with temperatures falling to a few degrees Celsius. Nevertheless, the counter at the Joy Hotel had a snorkel and mask for hire. The British legacy is just as curious. At Maymyo the creaking 1904 Canada-Craig Hotel - a mock-Tudor affair now call the Thiri Mying - is run by an ex-Gurkha who organises a collection each evening so guests can enjoy a fire in the lobby. The hotel only has 13 guest rooms. Yet at check-in no one was really sure if any were available. It took staff 20 minutes to find out from the piles of ledgers on the desk. In the draughty dining room I asked a fellow tourist at a table if lunch was till being served. He replied; "Yes, but you have to order it." I found the waiter in a store room and ordered the tough roast beef lunch with watered-down Houses of Parliament brown sauce, washed down with warm Mandalay beer ("our beer is chilly in the winter"). The Candada-Craig is rightly a national institution. All of Maymyo is an early 20th century period piece. Well-kept botanic gardens and horse-drawn carriages tell of the genteel pastimes of former British administrators. Today the superlative range of Shan artefacts, woodcarvings and tapestries at about half Chiang Mai prices is reason enough to visit. The main retailers are Muslim traders whose predecessors had migrated from what is now Bangladesh to set up business in the hills during British rule. After three decades of near isolation, Burmese English is quirky, tending to the "so many mangoes hanging" variety. We were befriended by a Burmese women in Rangoon who did her best to organise our upcountry travel saying: "First I will do for you, later I will do other things." We were in no position to smirk. She spoke fluent Japanese and we couldn't say a word in her native tongue. The cuisine in Burma isn't quite as engaging as the people. Despite wonderful ingredients, they tend to smother everything in oil. Some meals were glorious exceptions. The dinner at the Golden view Restaurant in Rangoon was fit for an ambassador and surpassed only by open-air culture show and view of the illuminated Shwedagon pagoda. If you are debating whether to go to Burma, go. Go independently. Go respectfully, preferably as an independent traveller, not a package tourist. Go despite Slorc. The Burmese people at this stage seem to be grateful for contact and friendship with foreigners. Indeed, exposure to foreigners and a measure of tourism-generated wealth may yet have a civilising effect on the junta. As outsider looking at Buddhist Burma we can only hope that the middle way of tolerance will again prevail. (BP) ****************************************