Subject: BurmaNet News January 26, 1997 Date: Sat, 25 Jan 1997 19:52:11 -0800 (PST) From: strider@igc.apc.org Reply-To: Conference "reg.burma" To: Recipients of burmanet-l ------------------------ BurmaNet ------------------------ "Appropriate Information Technologies, Practical Strategies" ---------------------------------------------------------- The BurmaNet News: January 26, 1997 Issue #621 Noted in Passing: They want to show the people they could crush them at any time. - Rangoon-based diplomat re: SLORC tanks in downtown Rangoon (see REUTER: TANKS SHOW GENERALS WARY) HEADLINES: ========== DVB: NORWEGIAN PARTY LEADER MEETS OPPOSITION LEADER REUTER: TANKS SHOW BURMA GENERALS STILL WARY THAILAND TIMES: SLORC USES MINORITIES TO BUILD ROAD BOSTON GLOBE: OP-ED: IMPOSE SANCTIONS ON BURMA NEW YORK TIMES: BEARING THE BURDEN IN INDONESIA BANGKOK BUSINESS DAY: BURMESE COLLABORATION ON AIDS LA TIMES: UNOCAL REPORTED LOSS OF $497 MILLION REUTER: PEPSICO INC LEAVES RESTAURANTS, LOOKS OVERSEAS ANNOUNCEMENT: BURMASONG SITE UPDATED ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- DVB: NORWEGIAN PARTY LEADER MEETS OPPOSITION LEADER AUNG SAN SUU KYI January 21, 1997 dvb@sn.no Source: Democratic Voice of Burma, Oslo, in Burmese 1100 gmt 21 Jan 97 Text of report by Burmese opposition radio It has been learned that in her meeting with Mr Kjell Magne Bondevik, Norwegian Christian Democrat Party chairman, opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi urged the international community to take action against the SLORC [State Law and Order Restoration Council] because the political situation in Burma is deteriorating. Mr Bondevik is a member of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Norwegian parliament, a former foreign minister, and is active among international parliamentarians involved in the restoration of democracy in Burma. His attempt to visit Burma last year did not materialize because of SLORC's refusal to grant him a visa. He entered Rangoon as a Christian pastor on 16th January, however, and held a meeting with opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi for over an hour on Friday afternoon [17th January] at the house of U Kyi Maung, National League for Democracy [NLD] vice-chairman. Mr Bondevik recounted his meeting with Aung San Suu Kyi to the Democratic Voice of Burma. He said that the SLORC currently seems a little bit nervous after all the student demonstrations and has further oppressed the NLD. He said Aung San Suu Kyi has urged the international community to exert more pressure on SLORC to hold a dialogue with the NLD. Mr Bondevik said he has also explained PD-Burma, an international Parliamentary Delegation on Burma striving to achieve democracy there, to Aung San Suu Kyi. PD-Burma was formed in 1996 with 15 international parliamentarians. He said Aung San Suu Kyi hopes the new UN secretary-general will be more active and try to implement all the UN resolutions on Burma. He said Aung San Suu Kyi also called for US economic sanctions against the SLORC, for a repeal of the low tariffs on Burmese goods in Europe, and for ASEAN to refuse Burma as member. Mr Bondevik has also explained his meeting with Aung San Suu Kyi to the current Norwegian foreign minister. The Norwegian government has decided to continue pressuring the SLORC and to actively participate in the international community for democracy in Burma. Daw Aung San Suu Kyi thanked the Norwegian government for its recognition of Burma' s democracy movement by awarding her the Nobel Peace Prize and the Rafto Memorial Prize. Mr Bondevik noted the situation in Rangoon is still tense, with many police and soldiers visible. He said 20 people allegedly accused of involvement in recent student unrest had been sentenced to seven years in prison, and family members were not even allowed to attend their trials. He remarked it is time for international action against the SLORC. Aung San Suu Kyi has expressed her readiness for dialogue and mentioned that the Defence Services will also play a significant role under a democratic government. ***************************************************************** REUTER: TANKS SHOW BURMA GENERALS STILL WARY OF DEFIANCE January 24, 1997 RANGOON, Jan 24 (Reuter) - The tanks in the street say it all -- public demonstrations against Burma's military government will not be tolerated. The ruling generals may have no immediate plans to use the five tanks which have been parked in front of City Hall since student protests in December. But diplomats say their presence is meant to intimidate people and remind them who is in charge. ``Why do you think they are there?'' asked a diplomat. ``It's a mind game. They're playing psychological games with the people. ``They want to show the people they could crush them at any time, and constantly remind them of that,'' he said, noting the tanks are parked in the middle of Rangoon near the Sule Pagoda. ``It's intimidation.'' Burma's State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC) has made it clear it does not want a repeat of last month's demonstrations when several thousand students took to the street in a week-long series of protests against the government. STUDENT UNREST, BOMBINGS PART OF A LARGER MASTER PLAN? Some diplomats say the SLORC might fear the demonstrations and the bombing of a Buddhist shrine on Christmas Day are connected and part of a plot to try and topple the SLORC. ``If these two incidents are part of a larger master plan, then they're in trouble,'' an Asian diplomat said. ``If they are just isolated incidents it's not so bad. ``But I certainly think there are some elements in Burma that want to destabilise the SLORC,'' the diplomat added. In order to avoid international outcry, the SLORC has opted for a ``soft'' approach, diplomats say. So far the intimidation and increased police presence on the streets has worked -- at least outwardly. Most major universities have been closed since the protests and students have not had an opportunity to plan any future demonstrations. But most diplomats say the sudden nature of the protests, and the way they were staged one after another in different parts of the capital Rangoon showed they were well-organised and likely to resume. ``The students have been quiet for so long,'' said one diplomat. ``There must be someone behind it, and I don't think we've seen the end of it yet.'' SUU KYI AN OBVIOUS TARGET FOR AUTHORITIES The protests took many by surprise, including the SLORC. ``You would think with their intelligence ability they would have sensed something was going on,'' said the Asian diplomat. ``But the students caught the SLORC by surprise. They have been in power for so long, maybe they were over-confident.'' The SLORC has accused democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) party of being involved in and politicising the unrest. Suu Kyi has denied involvement but said she supports the students' quest for justice. Some top government officials have also hinted there might be a connection between the unrest, the bombings and the NLD. The demonstrations, held partly to protest police brutality and demand the right to form students unions, were the largest act of defiance against the government seen since national demonstrations in 1988. The SLORC seized power in 1988 after crushing the uprisings in a bloody crackdown that left thousands dead or in jail. Since then, most democracy supporters have been afraid to take to the streets or publicly admit their abhorance of the regime and their support for Nobel Peace laureate Suu Kyi. ``We are afraid to speak the truth here,'' said one Burmese man who supports Suu Kyi but like many others will not show it publicly. REVIVED DEMOCRACY MOVEMENT COULD ADD TO SLORC'S WORRIES The protests, which angered the SLORC even more because they were staged just a month after it launched ``Visit Myanmar Year,'' are a sign that people are growing increasingly weary of the military leaders and their way of governing, diplomats said. Suu Kyi, who has been under virtual house arrest since the December unrest, has also said she is fed up with the SLORC's repressive tactics and its failure to hold talks with the opposition. She has vowed the NLD will be more aggressive in its quest for democracy this year. Suu Kyi, who was released from six years of official house arrest in July 1995, says the NLD plans to continue its work despite repeated crackdowns and arrests of NLD members. The NLD will even begin to actively seek to increase the party's membership this year, despite a 1991 law banning parties from increasing in size, Suu Kyi says. Diplomats say this move, on top of the bubbling student unrest, paints an uneasy picture for the SLORC in coming months. ``I don't know what this all means,'' said one diplomat. ``But something is going to happen here. This will not just go away.'' ************************************************************* THAILAND TIMES: SLORC USES MINORITIES TO BUILD BORDER ROAD January 24, 1997 BANGKOK: Burma's ruling junta has ordered 1,000 people to build a road along the Thai-Burmese border opposite Mae Hong Son province in an apparent attempt to utilize the route in its new offensive against Karenni rebels in Kayah state, according to a Thai military source. The military regime is rushing to complete the road which will serve as a route to transport food and weapon supplies to its troops stationed in the area. Begun only last month, the construction is coming to a close; the source said. Burmese troops are currently waging a war to eradicate the Karenni National Progressive Party (KNPP) in Kayah state following a breakdown of cease fire agreement last year. 'I he agreement was reached in March 1995. Members of ethnic Karenni, Karen, Mon. and Arakanese groups have been coerced to work on the road's construction, said the source. Human rights groups have repeatedly alleged that the Burmese junta is using forced labor to build a number of construction projects. The source said it is expected Rangoon will use the road to inspect the illegal logging trade between the KNPP and Thai merchants. Both sides have been fighting each other for the control of lucrative logging business in the border areas. KNPP Supreme Commander Gen Ba Thu said his troops were well-prepared for future attacks by Rangoon's troops, the source quoted the KNPP leader as saying. Clashes in the months leading up to the road's construction have resulted in heavy loss of life on both side. ***************************************************************** BOSTON GLOBE: OP-ED: IMPOSE SANCTIONS ON BURMA by Dennis Bernstein and Leslie Kean January 24, 1997 "The attack was a deliberate attempt to harm u sbadly or even kill us," said Aung San Suu Kyi, Burma's Nobel laureate and democracy leader, over a scratchy phone line from Rangoon. She was referring to the Nov. 9 attack on her car by a stone-throwing mob of 200, who also smashed her windows with iron bars. Carefully orchestrated by the military junta known as SLORC--the State Law and Order Restoration Council--the violent ambush took place in an area tightly controlled by government forces, which in this case stood by without intervening. Not surprisingly, Suu Kyi was confronted by SLORC's thugs on her way to a meeting with supporters of the National League for Democracy, Burma's elected democratic party. As urgently acknowledged by Suu Kyi in a telephone conversation from Rangoon on Jan.10, the time has come for the imposition of US sanctions. The SLORC is escalating its repression against her party, committing gross human rights violations and incorporating its booming heroin trade into the permanent economy of the country. "If the restrictions on the work of my party and on me personally are not removed in the very, very near future--in a matter of days--I think the US should start thinking seriously of sanctions," Suu Kyi said. In September, President Clinton signed the Cohen-Feinstein amendment of the omnibus appropriations bill, which included provisions setting a new policy course for Burma. The bill authorizes the administration to impose sanctions "if the Burmese government has physically harmed, rearrested for political acts or exiled Aung San Suu Kyi or has committed large-scale repression of or violence against the Democratic opposition." Suu Kyi believes these conditions have already been met. "It had been more than a month sicne my road has been blocked off," she said. "The situation is as bad as now as it has ever been." About 100 members of her party have been arrested in the last two months alone. Through decisive action, the United States could also address the devastating impact of Burma's booming drug trade on Americans and other countries around the globe. Burma is the largest heroin exporter in the world, responsible for 60 percent of the heroin sold in the United States. Heroin exports have more than doubled since the SLORC takeover eight years ago, and the junta is working publicly with major drug traffickers. Narco-dollars fund 50 percent of teh export economy, as reported by the US Embassy in Rangoon. A year ago this month, the SLORC struck a deal for the "surrender" of legendary drug kingpin Khun Sa and provided him with profitable business opportunities in Rangoon. Suu Kyi indicated that she has doubts that counter-narcotics assistance from the United States or other counteries can be productive. "It's very difficult to have any faith in the sincerity of SLORC's interest in stamping out drug baron," she said. "They are far more aggressive in their attitude toward the National League for Democracy than against drug traffickers." Tragically, the upsurge in heroin use has been accomplished by a burgeoning AIDS epidemic--not surprising in a nation in which dozens of addicts share a single needle. According to a fomer SLORC mining official, workers at government-controlled jade mines are paid with drugs insted of cash. Suu Kyi is concerned about the widespread use of heroin on Burma's university campuses. "The implication is that the government is more interested in stamping out political activities on campus, but they seem to be able to get away with taking drugs, which are easy to obtain." Time is running out. The longer the United States and other nations hesitate, the more entrenched the SLORC becomes. As the drug trade becomes increasingly embedded itself while keping the nation addicted to drugs. Althogh Aung San Suu Kyi has just made her strongest request yet for sanctions, it is up to President Clinton to follow through on the sanctions law that he signed more than three months ago. Since the conditions for its implementation have been met, American credibility is being damaged while the SLORC acts with impunity in its challenge to US resolve. Through sanctions, Clinton must send a clear message to Burma's ruling generals that repression pf democracy and drug trafficking will not be tolerated by the world community. ----------------- Dennis Bernstein is an associate editor with Pacifica News Service. Leslie Kean is coauthor of "Bruma's Revolution of the Spirit: The Struggle for Democratic Freedom and Dignity." ***************************************************************** NEW YORK TIMES: BEARING THE BURDEN IN INDONESIA January 21, 1997 As reprinted in the Japan Times on January 23, 1997 [BurmaNet Editor's Note: A comparison of Indonesia and Burma is instructive. In both countries, the authoritarian regimes have sought to isolate the leaders of the pro-democracy movements by arresting and intimidating the leaders' important, but internationally unknown, supporters rather than the leaders themselves. By doing so, they are able to limit international condemnation yet still weaken the opposition movements.] Few people outside Indonesia have hard of Muchtar Pakpahan, but his problems are a good index of how the country's democrats are faring. The government is carrying out the most severe persecution in years of independent organizations and leaders such as Pakpahan, who is the head of the nation's largest independent labor union. There has been little international outcry, and most of that from trade unions, partly because the Suharto government is currently not bothering Megawati Supkarnoputri, the daughter of Indonesia's first president and the leader of the opposition to President Suharto. When the government engineered Megawati's removal as head of her party last June, Indonesians rioted. Afterward, she was repeatedly called in for questioning. Since she has come to symbolize Indonesia's democracy movement, as Aung San Suu Kyi does in Myanmar, her safety is taken internationally as a sign that all is well. The current trials of political opponents are evidence of the government's anxiety over Indonesians' support for the opposition, especially because parliamentary elections are scheduled for May. The government arrested Pakpahan on July 30, just after the riots, and charged him with inciting them. Unable to find evidence for the charge, the government is instead trying him for subversion. He faces a long prison term and possibly the death penalty for criticizing Suharto's rule. Indonesia's brutal occupation of East Timor and the nation's economic gap between the rich and poor. Pakpahan is important not just as a political activist but as head of an independent trade union in a country that has repeatedly used troops to put down attempts by workers to strike or unionize. Besides Pakpahan, 12 labor or student leaders are being tried on charges of subversion. The government is putting pressure on Pakpahan's lawyer, Bambang Widjojanto, to testify against his client. The government is also monitoring the activities and auditing the books -- in one case going back to the 1970s -- of environmental and human rights organizations. Harassment of nongovernmental organizations is not the kind of repression the world gets excited about. Americans, especially, like to think of political events in terms of their effect on people we have heard of. But the real measure of a country's political health is the fate of those the world does not know. ********************************************************** BANGKOK BUSINESS DAY: BURMESE COLLABORATION ON AIDS PREVENTION REPORTED December 2, 1996 Report by "contributing writer" Rachel Sacks] Myanmar [Burma] has recently joined the regional front against the HIV/Aids epidemic. Unusually blunt comments have recently emerged from the head of the Myanmar National Aids Program, denouncing human rights abuses against people living with Aids (PWA) and insufficient attention to HIV in Myanmar. This vocalization builds upon the tentative steps taken over the past year by Myanmar-based Catholic agencies toward partnerships with Thai and other international Aids organizations. Such outreach represents the latest stage in the regionalization of national responses to Aids in Asia. National efforts are being increasingly absorbed into regional programs to more effectively confront the fluid nature of the epidemic's spread. While no single country has yet succeeded in winning the war against Aids, Thailand's success in controlling its spread within the country's borders offers an international model of integrated response. Long ago placing the Prime Minister as the official head of the National Aids Program, Thailand boldly asserted the urgency of structural response to HIV/Aids as a national issue which requires ongoing attention. This demonstration of the urgency of action has been heeded by Myanmar's Catholic infrastructure. Throughout 1996, the Myanmar Council of Churches (MCC) has increasingly cultivated relationships with international agencies to assist the development of the National Aids Program and the NGO response to Aids in Myanmar. One recent effort was carried out by Norwegian Church Aid (NCA), at the invitation of the MCC. NCA assembled a team of experienced Aids prevention and care workers to evaluate Myanmar's immediate programming needs. Susan Lindner, a member of the NCA needs assessment team, is a Planning Officer for the Chiang Rai branch office of the Population and Community Development Association (PDA), a Thai-based non- governmental organization (NGO) specializing in integrated rural development programs. "Norwegian Church Aid would like to begin cross-border Aids programs in Myanmar to share experiences gained in Thailand," Ms. Lindner explained, illustrating the importance of regional partnerships in Aids prevention. While the NCA team met primarily with church officials, the team consulted with a number of Christian-based NGOs, church groups, private clinics, and students' and women's groups in Yangon [Rangoon]. Based on these visits, Ms. Lindner cited a "grave, urgent" need for more concentrated HIV prevention efforts. "All people in Myanmar require basic Aids education, in addition to counseling and care for PWA," she explained. Yet, at present, programs limit their focus to particular subpopulations considered "high-risk." Eleven NGOs are directing their efforts to serve youth, commercial sex workers (CSWs), injecting drug users (IDUs), and migrant laborers. Aids is spreading rapidly in Myanmar. The National Aids Program has estimated that 450,000 people are already HIV-positive, and yet the country is still in the early stages of its response. For example, Myanmar cannot yet guarantee its hospital population a safe blood supply. While most countries have already confronted the repercussions of an insufficiently screened blood, Myanmar's slow structural development has prolonged the inability of health professionals to address this dangerous situation. One Aids prevention and care specialist, Father Dan Boyd, of Bangkok's Welcome House, testified to the gravity of this problem In February of 1996, he, too, was invited by the MCC to conduct a study tour of the Aids situation in Myanmar. He visited Kachin state, becoming the second foreigner to set foot in that area in 30 years. "In Kachin state, I saw precisely four huge, horse- like sized syringes in the Kachin hospital, Fr Dan related. These four syringes were used on one patient after another, with no intermediate sterilization. Aggravating this already shocking risk, the hospital was located near a jade mine, at which a large migrant labor force was served by a fast-growing commercial sex industry (CSI). The link between migration and HIV is even more evident and problematic for Myanmar as it is for other countries in the Asian region. Myanmar's National Aids Program preceded the conclusions of this month's international meeting in Chiang Mai in its identification of labor migration as a major area of concern. Referring to the high prevalence of HIV in Thai border towns and in Mandalay, the National Aids Program has indicated the importance of transient populations in the epidemiology of the disease in Myanmar. "Many NGOs are targeting border areas, which is appropriate with borders like Thailand and India," Ms. Lindner observed. "However migration in Burma is coming from even the most remote areas to border towns. It is imperative that strategies be formulated for rural areas. HIV/Aids programs must become standard components of all health education for MDs and the general population alike." As with Thailand's experience in internal migration and the spread of HIV, Myanmar's structural development can provide a key to stemming the tide of HIV infections in that country. PDA's own TBIRD (Thai Business Initiative in Rural Development) program demonstrates the importance of private sector involvement in national development and health efforts. Yet, in the interim, a more immediate need for basic public education exists. According to Ms. Lindner, training, IEC (information, education and communication) materials, availability of condoms, and government support and funding for Aids and medical infrastructure are all areas requiring serious attention. While she saw billboard campaigns against Aids, Ms. Lindner cited an official attitude of denial. Today's international focus on the elusive search for a cure or vaccine has not reduced the urgent need for ongoing prevention efforts within every subpopulation for each generation. Regional efforts such as the UNICEF Mekong Region project, new Unaids projects, and international NGO partnerships are the best means to achieve this goal. However, such regional efforts require the interest and participation of national structures. In the case of Myanmar, this participation is complicated by international responses Myanmar's political situation. With so many obstacle overcome, can Myanmar hope to control its Aids epidemic? "The Myanmar Council of Churches, with a membership of 600,000, has the potential to implement HIV/Aids projects effectively at the village level," Ms. Lindner stated. Regional assistance and pressure is the key to developing this potential. ******************************************************* LA TIMES: UNOCAL REPORTED LOSS OF $497 MILLION January 24, 1997 >From Times Wire Services Unocal reported a fourth-quarter loss of $497 million, or $1.98 a share, contrasted with net income of $49 million, or 16 cents, in the year-ago quarter. It also reported a loss from discontinuing operations of $500 million, or $1.99 a share, relating to the pending sales of its 76 Products unit, contrasted with a gain of $16 million from discontinuing operations, or 6 cents, a year ago. ******************************************************** REUTER: PEPSICO INC LEAVES RESTAURANTS, LOOKS OVERSEAS January 24, 1997 (abridged) By Brendan Intindola NEW YORK, Jan 24 (Reuter) - After years of fighting shrinking returns in the crowded restaurant market, PepsiCo has decided to return to its roots -- soft drinks and snacks -- and meet rival Coca-Cola Co head-on overseas. Enrico told a conference call with analysts that the company chose to spin off to shareholders the KFC, Taco Bell and Pizza Hut operations in a single company after "a great deal of reflection." PepsiCo's varied businesses were "not benefitting with a common corporate structure. The conclusion was we would be limiting ourselves on both sides" as a single corporation, he said. Price wars and saturation of the domestic fast-food market with mushrooming outlets has stoked competition and pared margins, particularly in the last two years, analysts said. Enrico emphasized that the new PepsiCo, expected to emerge by the end of the year, will be particularly focused on strengthening Pepsi-Cola sales outside of the United States, a market long considered Coke's big strength. "We want to be aggressive on the international front. We are not going to catch Coke in Japan or Germany, but in places like China, India and Eastern Europe, there are billions of customers up for grabs and there is going to be a whole new story there," Enrico told the analysts. An international offensive would be well-financed, he added, since PepsiCo "will be flush with cash" after the spin-off because of an expected special dividend the restaurant company will pay to PepsiCo. PepsiCo, in turn, will deliver the combined fast-food chains to shareholders debt-free. PepsiCo executives declined to say how large a dividend from the new company may be. Pepsico entered the restaurant business in 1977 with the purchase of Pizza Hut. Taco Bell was acquired in 1978, and KFC became part of Pepsico in 1986. ********************************************************* ANNOUNCEMENT: BURMASONG SITE UPDATED January 24, 1997 From: Dear Friends, The BurmaSong site has gotten a long-overdue updater. All of the songs, except for one to be introduced at the Free Burma Coalition Conference in about ten days, are now available as RealAudio files (texts will follow). The links are there for ordering tapes from the Burma Relief Center, Japan. All funds go to help Burmese refugees. Other RA files, English and Burmese, are there was well as a number of links (still growing) to other sites. The URL is still: http://users.imagiawre.com/wtongue Peace and Courage, Wrightson ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------ 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: Campus activism: zni@students.wisc.edu Boycott campaigns: [Pepsi] ai268@freenet.carleton.ca Buddhism: Buddhist Relief Mission: brelief@gol.com Chin history/culture: [volunteer temporarily away] Fonts: tom@cs.colgate.edu High School Activism: [volunteer needed] History of Burma: zni@students.wisc.edu International Affairs: Julien Moe: moe@interport.net 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 Aung San Myint: aungsan@giasd101.vsnl.net.in Pali literature: "Palmleaf": c/o burmanet@igc.apc.org Pipeline Campaign freeburma@irn.org Resettlement info: refugee_help@mail.serve.com Rohingya culture volunteer needed Shan history/culture: Sao Hpa Han: burma@ix.netcom.com Shareholder activism: simon_billenness@mail.cybercom.net Total - France Dawn Star: cd@utopia.EUnet.fr Tourism campaigns: bagp@gn.apc.org "Attn. S.Sutcliffe" volunteering: refugee_help@mail.serve.com World Wide Web: FreeBurma@POBox.com Geographical Contacts: Massachusetts simon_billenness@mail.cybercom.net [Feel free to suggest more areas of coverage] --------------------------------------------------------------------------- FREE BURMA WEB PAGES: http://FreeBurma.org This single page serves only as an easy to remember URL and departure point to resources promoting the establishment of democracy in Burma. Please write to FreeBurma@pobox.com to add a site or for further information." - Glen, system administrator FREE BURMA COALITION: to get involved in the Free Burma Coalition, send a message to: zni@students.wisc.edu or visit their homepage, accessible through: http:// FreeBurma.org There is also an e-mail list-server especially for Free Burma activists BURMANET SUBSCRIPTION INFORMATION: 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. It is produced with the support of the Burma Information Group (B.I.G) and the Research Department of the ABSDF. We are also grateful to many other friends around the world who send us articles to post. The BurmaNet News is e-mailed directly to subscribers and is also distributed via the soc.culture.burma and seasia-l mailing lists. For a free subscription to the BurmaNet News: send a message to: majordomo@igc.apc.org a. For the BurmaNet News only: in the message, type: subscribe burmanews-l b. For the BurmaNet News and 4-5 other messages a day: in the message, type: subscribe burmanet-l (NOTE: all lower case letters, last letter is a lower case "L", not the numeral one). Letters to the editor, comments or contributions of articles should be sent to the editor at: strider@igc.apc.org **************************************************