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Please reconsider if you are planning a trip to
Myanmar(Burma)! OCTOBER 30 2002 UPDATE: Although Aung San Suu Kyi has been released from house arrest, the country is still very much repressed by the military. Please read below for details.
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Reverend Desmond Tutu on Burma T The Burmese junta has refused my requests to visit Burma to meet with my fellow Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, democracy leader Daw Aung San
Suu Kyi. But on the Burmese frontier, I have met with Burmese refugees forced to flee their homes. In terrible and terrifying detail, they told me of the tragic realities of life
under military rule in Burma. Through censorship and repression, the dictators seek to disguise to the world the true nature of their brutal rule. But the facts cannot be hidden, and we outside Burma cannot look away
and ignore the plight of Burma's peoples. Our religious and philosophical teachings tell us that human suffering anywhere must be accepted as our own suffering. And our worldly experience convinces us that only
practical political action can help end that suffering. The foundation for action is information and education. In South Africa, global support for the anti-apartheid struggle grew as more and more
people came to understand the realites of the minority regime. Increased awareness grew into a groundswell of grassroots support for change in South Africa. And it was this popular sentiment that finally convinced
governments around the world to take effective action to demand reforms leading to peaceful transition to majority rule. International knowledge regarding the situation in Burma is rising. This
booklet will increase that awareness, and with it, the basis for action. It provides concise background facts about events in Burma. And perhaps more important, it offers contacts for the growing global network of
activists who are using e-mail and the World Wide Web, as well as more traditional means, to inform, energize, and demand international action to promote peaceful change in Burma. many people may right now be
reading this in its electronic version and can gather more information and contact local and international activists with just a few computer keystrokes... In South Africa, we gratefully learned that the people's voice raised is
indeed a most powerful tool. It is time we raised our voices together to demand that our governments and the world community take effective action to bring respect for human rights and democracy to Burma.
Desmond M. Tutu |
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Burma's military regime launched a major international
campaign in 1996-97 to attract tourists to what is indeed one of the world's most diverse and beautiful lands. Yet large parts of Burma remain off-limits to tourists because of
military operations, narcotics trafficking in border areas, and construction of a contentious gas pipeline across southern Burma. And many tourism-related projects have involved massive forced labor, arbitrary property seizures,
compulsory relocations, and other human rights abuses. Why the ruling army junta, the State Peace and Development Council (known until November 1997 as the State Law and Order Restoration
Council, or SLORC), wants more tourists to come to Burma is no secret. The generals themselves declare that gaining hard currency is their prime motivation. They also hope that a large influx of international
tourists will bring global respectability and credibility to a military dictatorship with one of the world's worst human rights records. Little-visited and relatively unspoiled by mass tourism, Burma is now
promoted as a new and exotic holiday destination. Some people argue that increased tourism in Burma will open the country to liberalizing influences. But most visitors have scant opportunity to discover the
realities of everyday life in Burma. Traveling between first-class hotels and tourist sights in air-conditioned comfort, they meet few ordinary Burmese. Even chance encounters are constrained by the people's fear
of military intelligence agents, whose pervasive presence is a principal tool of the junta's harsh rule. Groups promoting democracy in Burma urge tourists to stay away from the country and boycott the junta's "Visit Myanmar Year." Many travel agents and tour operators have publicly declared that they will not book or operate tours to Burma. Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, Nobel Peace Prize winner and leader of Burma's democracy movement, agrees that tourists should not visit Burma until there is a restoration of democratic rule. "We think it is too early for either tourists or investment or aid to come pouring into Burma," she told visitors to her Rangoon residence in November 1995. "We would like to see that these things are conditional on genuine progress towards democratization." Large-scale forced labor has been reported on several major tourist development projects, including rebuilding the moat surrounding the
Golden Palace in Mandalay, constructing a new dam at scenic Inle Lake in Southern Shan State, a railway line near Pagan's temple complex, and building or upgrading airports around the country to accommodate
passenger jets for tour groups. The United Nations and human rights groups have documented the harsh conditions and often brutal treatment that accompany forced labor in Burma today. "It's this 'Visit
Myanmar Year' which is responsible for a lot of forced labor," Daw Aung San Suu Kyi has observed, ". . . for building up facades that will look impressive for the tourists." A 1995 United Nations report on Burma's
human rights situation agreed, stating, "Many of the measures the government has taken to prepare the country for foreign tourists reportedly constitute violations of human rights," including forced labor
on tourist sites and infrastructure. Another common abuse is reported in Mandalay and other cities: the There are also practical reasons for tourists to think twice before visiting
Burma. Because of the country's instability, many travel insurance policies specifically exclude Burma from any coverage. And the country's medical infrastructure has all but collapsed. Many people concerned for
the Burmese peoples' rights are choosing to postpone their visits to the country. Other people concerned for their own health and welfare have decided to do the same. A regularly updated, on-line version of this is available at:
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION:
Burma Project, Open Society Institute Alternative Asean Network on Burma, c/o Forum Asia Burma Action Group Burma Centrum Nederlands Info Birmanie
Tourism Concern PUBLICATIONS: Burma Action Group. Alternative Guide To Burma. London: Burma
Burma Debate. vol. I, no.5. (November/December 1995). Tourism Concern. Our Holidays Their Homes:Tourism and The above information taken from The Burma Project website, freely available to copy and link with. For further information please follow the links provided here. |
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"The cause of liberty and justice find simpathetic
responses in far reaches of the globe. Thinking and feeling people everywhere, regardless of color or creed, understand the deeply-rooted human need for a meaningful existence... Those fortunate
enough to live in societies where they are entitled to full political rights can reach out to help the less fortunate in other parts of our troubled planet. Young women and young men setting forth
to leave their mark on the world might wish to cast their eyes beyond their own frontiers to the shadowlands of lost rights... Please use your liberty to promote ours."
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Tourism in
Aung San
