BurmaNet News: May 24-25 2003

[editor at burmanet.org]

May 24-25 2003 Issue #2244

INSIDE BURMA
AFP: Myanmar jails three democracy activists
SHAN: Shan politician released
AFP: Myanmar to introduce online visas: report
Dictator Watch: Forced to Facilitate Their Own Oppression

ON THE BORDERS
Nation: Mae Sot Horror: Six men burned to death
Kaladan: 175 Rohingya Refugees Repatriated
AFP: Myanmar junta links bomb attack to Thailand's organised crime crackdown

MONEY
AFP: Development slated for Kandawgyi area in Myanmar capital: report

GUNS
SCMP: India woos Myanmar with weapons deal

REGIONAL
Mizzima: Illegal Burmese workers arrested in Bangkok
BP: Surakiart Stays On Message

INTERNATIONAL
WP: Burma in the Balance; Should you go?


INSIDE BURMA

Agence France Presse   May 24, 2003 Saturday
Myanmar jails three democracy activists

Myanmar's military government has jailed three members of democracy
campaigner Aung San Suu Kyi's party for inciting public unrest, sources
said on Saturday.

The three, including one candidate elected in Myanmar's unrecognised 1990
election, were jailed on Thursday, a National League for Democracy (NLD)
source told AFP. "Three people have received jail terms for alleged
anti-government activities," the source told AFP on condition of
anonymity.

Win Myint Maung, Win Maung and Tin Hlaing were apparently jailed after
authorities raided a house and found incriminating evidence.

The jail terms, handed down in the Sagaing division of central Myanmar,
come with Nobel Peace Prize-winner Aung San Suu Kyi due to pass through
the area as part of an ongoing tour.

The NLD won general elections in 1990, taking 392 of 485 contested seats,
but the ruling military junta has refused to recognise the victory.

Aung San Suu Kyi was released last May from 19 months of house arrest, but
human rights activists say Myanmar still has 1,200 to 1,300 political
prisoners despite a series of releases last year.
_____________

Shan Herald Agency for News   May 25 2003
Shan politician released

Sai Nood a.k.a Sai Nyunt Lwin, Joint Secretary General-1 of the Shan
Nationalities League for Democracy, was somewhat quitely discharged from
prison after more than three months in custody last Tuesday (20 May)
according to reports coming from the north.

Sai Nood himself confirmed the fact by receiving the phone call by
S.H.A.N.. "I didn't have to sign anything and no conditions were imposed
on me," he replied to S.H.A.N.'s query. "It was only disciplinary action,
they said, for some of the things I was supposed to have done." he did not
elaborate.

At the press conference held on 10 February, a few days after he and 11
others were taken into custody, junta officials had charged him of typing
out a pamphlet, titled 'The United Front of Students and Sangha', which
were then made into a thousand photocopies for distribution. The arrests
took place while Amnesty International was on its first official visit to
Rangoon.

His surprisingly swift release was reportedly effected by the official
request to Senior General Than Shwe in March by the Joint Action
Committee, a political setup established by the SNLD together with two
Shan ceaserfire groups, Shan State Army "North" and Shan State National
Army.

Sai Nood automatically took back his official position in the party upon
his freedom. The party's executive committee meeting on 7-8 March, held a
month after his detention, had also left his office vacant, though a
4-member secretariat was created to assist its leader, Khun Toon Oo.

His happy comeback was reportedly celebrated by party members at the Hso
Khanfah Park in Zaylarn, Muse Township, the next day.

The Shan Nationalities League for Democracy won the most seats in Shan
State in the 1990 general elections.
____________

Agence France Presse   May 25, 2003
Myanmar to introduce online visas: report

Military-ruled Myanmar is set to become the first country in Asia to
introduce online visas for visitors arriving by air, according to a media
report here.

The project is to be implemented within the next few months, an official
involved in the project, who declined to be named, said in a report in the
forthcoming Monday edition of the Myanmar Times. "We are holding
discussions with the 12 airlines which fly to Myanmar to finalise
arrangements for the system," he was quoted as saying.

Visa applications will be made at visa.gov.mm, with those approved
receiving a print-out to present to immigration officers on arrival, the
official added.

The only countries currently offering online visa applications were
Australia, Canada and Russia, according to the official.

Myanmar has a notoriously strict immigration policy, especially with
regard to international media and members of non-government organisations
(NGOs) operating within the country.
____________

Dictator Watch   May 21 2003
FORCED TO FACILITATE THEIR OWN OPPRESSION: Concentration Camps,
Consolidated Villages, Forced Labor, Food Paucity
Township “X”
Mergui – Tavoy District, Burma
Article by Saw Takkaw
Photos can be viewed at
http://www.dictatorwatch.org/articles/forcedlabor.html

Members of the Karen ethnic minority living in the vicinity of this road
project are not only forced to provide labor for its construction but also
to finance it. Over the past five years, Burmese military authorities have
extorted an estimated 50,000,000 Kyat (50,000 USD) from Karen civilians in
Township “X” for the road’s construction, thus earning the project the
ignominious title “the 50,000,000 Kyat road” among the local population.

The road project is approximately fifty kilometers in length and runs
alongside a string of forced relocation camps (concentration camps *) and
consolidated villages. A forced relocation camp is established when
several villages are forcibly depopulated and then relocated to a specific
location (hence the term “concentration camp”). In a consolidated village,
people who live on the outskirts of a village are forced to move to its
center. Consolidated villages are closely monitored by local Burmese Army
units. Forced relocation camps have a large on-site military presence, and
are highly susceptible to abuse, including forced labor, and confiscation
of property without compensation.

Formerly, this area was under the control of ethnic and pro-democracy
resistance forces. However, in 1997 the Burmese Army launched a massive
offensive in the region and quickly routed the lightly armed resistance
groups. Since the offensive, Karen ethnic minority civilians in Township
“X” have been viewed by the Burmese Army as a conquered, subject, and
suspect people, and in accordance with the SPDC’s infamous “4 Cuts”
campaign, have been herded into concentration camps and consolidated
villages. Within these confines the Karen live in fear and humiliation.

Even though resistance activity in Township “X” has steadily decreased
over the years, SPDC abuses against the Karen in the area, according to
local human rights teams, have actually increased. ** Unable to endure
these conditions, some families choose to flee from the concentration
camps and consolidated villages, but they do so under great peril and
uncertainty. Escapees can expect pursuit by Burmese troops, who will fire
upon them without warning, for the SPDC does not want the outside world to
know about the true human rights situation in Burma (particularly in
remote border areas). Also, due to the Thai government’s disregard of
internationally accepted principles concerning asylum of persecuted
persons and refoulement, flight to neighboring Thailand may lead to
arrest, maltreatment, and subsequent repatriation. Forced repatriation may
entail pushing asylum seekers, including the elderly, sick, and nursing
mothers, into war zones or in some cases handing them over directly to
Burmese authorities. The other option for escapee families is to try to
survive as IDPs in the jungle free-fire zones, where more than likely they
will never receive aid from relief organizations (which characterizes the
failure of the international community to protect and assist the world’s
now staggering IDP population). The fact that Karen families are willing
to take such flight risks is itself testament to what the Karen are facing
in “pacified” areas.

Because the Karen in these camps and villages must toil up to four days a
week on forced labor projects, they are unable to attend to their farms
and other means of supporting their families. What little money they are
able to acquire is often subject to seizure under threat by the Burmese
Army. Burmese troops garrisoned in Township “X” are apportioned rice from
their command, but may of their other food requirements are commandeered
from the villagers. Villagers are allowed to farm only in areas designated
by the Burmese Army (usually in close proximity to the concentration camps
and consolidated villages), and sometimes they must farm in poor soils.
Recent periods of unfavorable weather have led to crop failure, further
exacerbating the villagers’ already tenuous existence. Escapees from
concentration camps in Township “X” have confirmed these findings, and
have stated one of their motivations for taking flight was food paucity.

Making matters worse, the road the villagers are forced to labor on and
finance is not a development project that will benefit the local
population, but a military road. Upon completion, the road will be used to
re-supply Burmese Army bases in the mountains, further consolidating their
control of the region. This road will no doubt lead to a larger military
presence in the area – which according to current paradigms in Burma will
also lead to further persecution of the local population. Tragically,
these villagers are forced to facilitate their own oppression.

* These sites in Karen State (Tenasserim Division) are commonly referred
to by human rights groups as “forced relocation camps.” I believe this
definition is no longer applicable, for the term forced labor camp carries
with it a sense of impermanence – and many Karen have already been
interred in the camps for over four years. Also, because of the scale and
the nature of the human rights abuses that routinely occur in the camps,
in particular the organized and mass use of forced labor, the term forced
relocation camp is euphemistic, not clearly conferring the harsh
conditions evident in the camps. Therefore, I will encourage human rights
workers in the region to use the term “concentration camp” in place of
forced relocation camp not to sensationalize the situation or for
propaganda purposes, but simply because the term concentration camp is
more accurate and appropriate. It is also interesting to note that
concentration camp has been used by human rights groups in describing
alike sites in Karenni state for at least the last ten years.

** According to one local resistance leader, the annual and marked
decrease of military activity (e.g., ambushes) by resistance groups in
Township “X” has emboldened SPDC troops who, now unafraid, have gradually
ventured from their fortified areas thereby leading to an escalation of
harassment and oppression of Karen villagers and IDPs.

Photo note: These photographs were taken covertly in the area discussed
above. Human rights abuses perpetrated against the Karen in this region by
the Burmese Army occur frequently and on a massive scale. Members of Karen
human rights teams risked their lives to take the photos.


ON THE BORDERS

The Nation (Thailand)   May 24, 2003
Mae Sot Horror: Six men burned to death
Victims said to be missing Burmese last seen a week ago being beaten by
'uniformed Thais'

The charred bodies of six men found near Mae Sot yesterday are believed to
be those of Burmese workers last seen more than a week ago allegedly being
beaten by a group of uniformed Thai officials, including police.

The bodies, found in Huay Kalok village in Mae Sot district, had been
burned along with huge tyres.

Tak police commissioner Maj-General Sawek Pinsinchai said he could not
confirm that the bodies were of those of the six men who have been missing
since May 14.

Sawek said the bodies were discovered in Mae Sot, where the missing men
had been working on a construction project.

Pol Colonel Sonkran Sangkorn, commissioner at the Mae Sot police station,
described the crime as "hideous" and said his men would give the case
utmost priority, regardless of the victims' nationality.

Relatives of the six missing migrant workers had made a formal complaint
to the National Human Rights Commission this week about the disappearance
and presumed death of the men.

In a formal written complaint to the commission, a copy of which was
obtained by The Nation, the relatives said the men went missing on May 14
in Thambon Mae Pa, near Mae Sot, in Tak province.

The complaint quoted a witness who claimed to have seen "Thai men in
khaki, tan and camouflage uniforms" lead the six Burmese men into a forest
area.

In the letter to the commission, the relatives wrote: "The missing persons
were last seen in the custody of uniformed Thai police. These same police
had administered beatings on the six men after other Thai nationals had
beaten the men earlier."

Sources at the Law Society of Thailand said the same appeal had also been
filed at its office.

"Because local Thai officials are clearly involved in the disappearance of
the men, we hesitate to lodge formal complaints through local channels out
of fear for our own safety. Even now, we are afraid for our safety. We are
staying in a safe house," the letter said.

"Official complicity in this case, combined with the knowledge that local
authorities in Mae Sot rarely, if ever, protect Burmese migrant workers,
means that the only possibility for recourse on our behalf is through
national organisations such as the National Human Rights Commission," it
continued.

The missing men were identified as Min Hein, 28, Thein Naing 33, Aye Min,
22, Ah Nge Lay, 19, Maung Maung, 24, and Ah Nyar Thar, 22.

Physical abuse and discriminatory practices against Burmese migrant
workers is rife in Thailand, where more than one million of them currently
work at backbreaking jobs shunned by locals.

There have been a number of reports over the years about Burmese workers
who have gone missing and later turned up killed, allegedly by their
employers.

One highly publicised case involved a Burmese domestic worker who was
beaten and burnt and died later in hospital. The Rangoon government
intervened and strongly criticised the working conditions in the country.
___________

Kaladan News   May 25,2003
175 ROHINGYA REFUGEES REPATRIATED

Chittagong, May 25: A group of 175 Rohingya refugees belonging to 27
families returned to their homes in Burma on 21st May from Nayapara and
Kutupalong refugee camps, according to the Daily Star correspondent, Cox’s
Bazar.

Repatriation officials of Bangladesh government and UNHCR representatives
saw them off on the bank of Naff River at Teknaf.

Burma immigration officials received them at Kayan Chaung reception center
Of Maungdaw Township.

With this, 2,33,903 Rohingya refugees have so far returned to Burma, the
officials said. More 21, 482 are waiting for repatriation at the two
camps. Another 160 refugees are expected to return on 26th May. A total of
1150 refugees will return home this month, they said.

Over 2.5 lakh (0.25 million) Rohingyas crossed the border and took refuge
in Teknaf and Ukhia Upazilas (sub- districts) in 1991 to 1992 to escape
persecution by Burma’s military regime.

“This is done forcibly by Bangladesh authorities, and there is no rights
to say anything against the repatriation for UNHCR except seeing the on
going repatriation process with blind eyes,” said another refugee to our
correspondent preferring not to mention his name.
___________

Agence France Presse   May 25, 2003
Myanmar junta links bomb attack to Thailand's organised crime crackdown

Myanmar's military junta on Sunday linked a series of bomb attacks in one
of its border towns last week to Thailand's forthcoming crackdown on
organised crime.

Four Myanmar nationals, including two policemen, were killed Wednesday in
separate blasts in Tachilek, which lies opposite Thailand's Mae Sai town.
The junta immediately blamed the Shan State Army (SSA), one of few rebel
outfits still fighting against Yangon rule, who denied responsibility. In
its Sunday statement, the junta said that the bomb attacks were a result
of tensions in the build-up to Thailand's planned blitz on "influential
figures" or gangsters due to begin July 1.

"We are already seeing the counter-measures taken up against both
governments by these elements," the statement said.

"Recent bomb attacks on the border town of Tachilek... had proved to be an
obviously desperate attempt to derail the friendship, cooperation and
joint efforts our two nations (have) enjoyably achieved," the statement
said.

The junta also refuted months-old claims that the United Wa State Army
(UWSA), a Yangon-aligned group, had put a price on Thai Prime Minister
Thaksin Shinawatra's head, and insisted they were not behind the attacks.

In March, amid a three-month drugs war which ended April 30, security for
Thaksin was beefed up after the government said a bounty had been placed
on his head by a group outside the country.

Drug lords from Myanmar's UWSA, blamed for producing most of the
methamphetamines that flood Thailand, were cited as suspects at the time.

The issue returned to the spotlight last week after Thaksin revealed his
intelligence agencies had warned him to stay away from large gatherings.
He has since cancelled two public engagements.

"As the allegation launched against the Wa leaders of masterminding the
assassination plot against Prime Minister Thakins failed, the 'influential
figures' have concocted the recent second attempt to blame the Wa people
for the bomb blast in Tachilek and ambush of a truck convoy," the
statement said.

Thailand's Deputy Prime Minister Chavalit Yongchaiyudh was cited in a
weekend report as saying the UWSA were more likely to be responsible for
the bombings than the SSA.

Local media reported that gunmen on Thursday attacked a convoy of eight
Thai-owned trucks 30 kilometres outside Tachilek, injuring two.

Thailand and Myanmar saw relations spiral to a low in May 2002 after
similar attacks in the area last year, with Yangon accusing Thailand of
assisting the SSA during border clashes with Myanmar troops.

Relations were normalised in August after Thailand's Foreign Minister
Surakiart Sathirathai made a fence-mending visit.


MONEY

Agence France Presse   May 25, 2003
Development slated for Kandawgyi area in Myanmar capital: report

An area adjacent to Yangon's famed Shwedagon Pagoda is slated for a
multi-million dollar development project to begin in July, according to a
media report here.

Some 93 hectares (230 acres) surrounding the Kandawgyi, or Royal Lake, in
military-ruled Myanmar's capital, is set to be transformed into a major
park, a report in the forthcoming Monday edition of the Myanmar Times
said. Yangon authorities, as well as two private companies, Zaykabar and
the Woodlands Group, are reportedly overseeing the development.

"The project is estimated to cost at least 2.5 million dollars but might
go as high as five million dollars," managing director of Woodland Group U
Win Aung was quoted as saying.

The new park will feature a cable car, walking trails, boat club, museum,
aquarium, a fountain shooting water to a height of 50-metres (164-feet)
and other facilities, according to the report.

The cable car will operate 19 metres above ground level along a 1.2
kilometre triangular route linking the shore with two islands at the
eastern end of the lake, while a wooden boardwalk will skirt more than one
kilometre of the southern edge of the natural lake, the report said.

Myanmar's military government has embarked on several beautification
projects ahead of 2006, when it is due to host an Association of Southeast
Asian Nations (ASEAN) leaders summit.

The United Nations expressed concern earlier this month over the junta's
plans to build a 60-metre observation tower at the ancient city of Pagan.

UNESCO, the UN's cultural body, is in the midst of protracted negotiations
with Yangon to list Pagan as the country's first World Heritage site.


GUNS

South China Morning Post (Hong Kong)   May 24, 2003
India woos Myanmar with weapons deal
By S. N. M. Abdi in Calcutta

India is exporting arms to Myanmar for the first time - cementing New
Delhi's growing ties with the military junta which it once shunned for its
terrible human rights record.

The Defence Ministry has confirmed the sale of 80 howitzers to the Myanmar
military, but refused to divulge prices or the terms of payment.

"The arms exports reveal that Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee's
government has pulled out all stops to befriend the military dictatorship
in order to counter Chinese influence in Myanmar and Southeast Asia," said
retired Lieutenant-Colonel J. K. Dutt, strategic affairs and international
relations expert at Calcutta's Jadavpur University.

He said the arms deal marked the beginning of a new phase in India-Myanmar
relations.

Ironically, Indian Defence Minister George Fernandes is seen as a personal
friend of Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

His official residence in New Delhi is a meeting point for activists of Ms
Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy living in exile in India.

He is believed to have opposed the deal but gave in under pressure from
the Prime Minister's Office and Foreign Ministry.

Colonel Dutt said that howitzers produced by Indian ordnance factories
were suited to Myanmar's hilly terrain, which is strikingly similar to
India's north-east bordering Myanmar.

"The guns have a high trajectory which can clear hilltops and low
mountains," he said.

According to a source, the arms consignment was despatched overland in
Indian army trucks from the Eastern Command's 33rd Corps headquarters at
Binaguri in Bengal.

Until now, China was the main weapons supplier to the Myanmar military.

The junta has a "very favourable" purchase agreement with China for buying
tanks, armoured personnel carriers, rocket launchers, missiles, fighter
planes, ships and submarines.

Analysts say the ruling junta's 500,000-strong army is far too big
considering that the economy is in a shambles and Myanmar has no external
enemies to contend with.

India claims it is wooing the generals because it needs Myanmar's help to
fight insurgent groups in the northeast and smash drug cartels. "But
India's real worry is Myanmar's military ties with China, which it is
desperately trying to weaken by supplying arms to the generals," Colonel
Dutt said.

REGIONAL

Mizzima News (www.mizzima.com)    May 25, 2003
Illegal Burmese workers arrested in Bangkok
By Zaw Lwin Oo

A number of illegal Burmese workers in Bangkok were arrested by the Thai
authorities in recent days.

"On May 23, we arrested more than 1500 illegal Burmese workers and
repatriated them to Burmese territory", said a Bangkok immigration
officer.

Every days thousands of Burmese illegal workers are arrested and detained
in immigration detention centres in Bangkok.

Gen. Khin Nyunt, Secretary One of the Burmese State Peace and Development
Council, promised the Thai Foreign Minister, Surakiart S0athirathai, at a
meeting last week that the Burmese government would recall its illegal
workers. On 1 May, the Thai government stated that it would resort to
systematic arrests and repatriation of illegal Burmese workers.

"In spite of being arrested, we do not want to return to Burma where we
would have to grapple with the minimum wage, the scarcity of jobs and
incomes insufficient to meet our expenses", said some illegal Burmese
workers. An illegal worker earns at least 100 Bahts (2000 Kyats) per day
in Bangkok, compared to a maximum of 500 Kyats per day in Burma.

About 1.5 million illegal workers from Burma currently work in Thailand.
According to observers, the Thai government's forcible repatriation of
Burmese workers will mean a loss of cheap workers willing to work
over-time, a blow to the Thai economy. Repatriations would also have an
effect on the Burmese job market.
____________

Bangkok Post   May 25, 2003
Surakiart Stays On Message
By Jeff McMillan

In a speech at the Foreign Correspondents Club of Thailand, the Foreign
Minister put a bright glow on everything from relations with Burma to a
luncheon with George Bush.

Frosty relations between Thailand and the United States have renewed
during Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra's committed purge of
evil-doers'', even though George Bush has his sights on sainthood for
exactly the same policy. Is it a tough-love rivalry or is the US staying
on-message for human rights violations?

Reverse tape to December 2001 when Thaksin was officially greeted at the
White House. President Bush asked, Anybody care to talk to the Prime
Minister?'' No questions were directed to Thaksin, the meeting was a Q & A
for the press to learn more about Osama bin Laden. Foreign Minister
Surakiart Sathirathai addressed a packed FCCT room on Tuesday night
stressing robust international relations and good-tidings with the US and
regional neighbours.

Mr Surakiart assured journalists Thaksin would receive a warm reception
when he travels to the US in June. President Bush has not confirmed that
he will attend Thaksin's business luncheon. Some suggest that Thaksin
should postpone his trip to Washington and wait for a formal invitation.

Bush has been making the rounds recently thanking those who supported his
war on Iraq. He warmly greeted Philippine President Gloria
Macapagal-Arroyo when she made an official state visit to Washington, only
the third by a foreign leader in Mr Bush's presidency. Thailand has openly
supported the US since 1833, when the two nations first became treaty
allies, but did not openly support war efforts in Iraq.

A ROBUST SPEECH

Surakiart presented a robust foreign policy speech, as ambitious in tone
as the prime minister's strict agenda to eradicate influential figures
from power. From his speech On Challenges Ahead,'' Surakiart spoke of
opening up a corridor with Burma by, cultivating mutual neighbourly
relations and the joint fight against opium.''

Just two days before, Surakiart had met with Burma's number three leader
Gen Khin Nyunt to discuss anti-drug approaches. It was perhaps an omen
that a series of bombs exploded at the border just hours after the
conclusion of the well-crafted speech, further clouding relations already
frayed by insurgencies.

Surakiart stressed the importance and relevance of Asean and remarked on
the importance of cooperation on the Korean Peninsula, encouraging a
preventive diplomacy'' on which North Korea has agreed to attend meetings
next month.

Surakiart announced that an Asian Bond Market would be launched, mirroring
the European Bond Market. This coincides with a time of weak financial
markets. The minister announced that Europe was on board and Apec leaders
were involved. No details were given.

Like most countries that didn't openly support the war in Iraq, Thailand
seems to be enjoying more reticent relations.with Washington. Surakiart
says of the perception: Not true _ the dissatisfaction is a
misunderstanding. We share intelligence and cooperation.''

But there is no denying that in the buildup to the Iraq war Thailand did
not show the United States the type of deference it has grown accustomed
to. And Thaksin's visit to France may also have rankled. His visit to
France, which led to invigorating the textile industry, potentially hurt
his chances with Bush in June _ as the US is trying to figure ways to
punish former allies for not supporting the war.

The prime minister's visit to France was intended to forge a strategic
partnership with a country which is not only important in its own right
but also an important player in the EU,'' the foreign minister said.

Thaksin believes in self-reliance, Bush is torn between the old-boy''
network and the good'ol boy'' of Texan fame. Self-reliance in America fell
out of step with Ben Franklin.

But Thaksin is good at playing hardball and it could come down to who
needs who more.

Thaksin and Bush, both former corporate cowboys and now world leaders with
enormous egos and ambitious agendas may have a meeting after all. Thailand
can claim that a peaceful, Buddhist country can't support war in good
conscious or karma. It remains to be seen whether buddying with France at
the present time could be considered inexcusable.

Surakiart concluded with remarks about Thailand's place in the world.

We are working with development partners and the international community
to extend development assistance to those in need,'' Surakiart said.
Translation: Thailand wants to be perceived as a leading Asian economy in
charge of its own destiny.

Foreign Minister Surakiart is a loyal team player sharing Thaksin's common
vision in the belief that running multiple plans in succession will yield
the highest success. Diplomacy is rarely stagnant.


INTERNATIONAL

The Washington Post   May 25, 2003
Burma in the Balance; Should you go? The politics of travel to Asia's most
controversial destination
By Steve Hendrix, Washington Post Staff Writer

It would easy to mistake this postcard-perfect sunrise over Burma's
ancient city of Bagan for a travel cliche. But it's not a cliche. It's a
metaphor. Take a closer look:

A ros horizon backlights a black skyline of spires and domes. A thin
morning fog lies on the plain, torn by temples that rise beyond number
above the treetops. They stretch to every horizon, squat pagodas to
soaring Buddhist cathedrals, more than 2,000 shrines dating to an
11th-century religious building boom. Watching the tide of dawn creep
across this antique world is like meditating on a just-opening lotus
blossom.

In the quiet, a bulge detaches itself from a temple to the north and
floats smoothly into the brightening sky. The bulge resolves into three
separate hot-air balloons that drift tranquilly among the holy ramparts. A
flare of gas lights up a cluster of tourists peering over a gondola,
followed a beat later by the soft roar of propane. From high on a temple
ledge, other foreigners click shutters and murmur appreciations at the
surreal and beautiful scene of -- here comes the metaphor -- tourism
taking off in Burma.

More and more international visitors are making it to this long-shunned
corner of Southeast Asia. The government's own statistics -- notoriously
suspect -- show almost a half-million foreigners arriving last year, more
than doubling since it began a major tourism push in 1996. No matter how
inflated those figures, outside observers agree that tourism is climbing,
particularly after last year's bombing in Bali sent travelers in search of
alternate Asian beaches.

"Last year was our best year; we were up 20 percent," says Juergen Voss,
the German manager of the high-end Bagan Hotel, a plush resort on the
banks of the Irrawaddy River and in Bagan's archaeological district.

As he sips club soda on a hotel terrace, small groups of German and French
guests arrive at the hotel's masonry gates, mostly retirees on package
tours. They climb down from donkey carts, patting the animals and tipping
their local drivers for a few hours of sightseeing among temples as
stirring as better-known sites like Angkor Wat or Tikal.

"Myanmar is becoming very popular," says Voss. "It's a completely new
destination for Westerners."

More people are coming, but the question is, should they? Arguably more
than any other country, Burma presents the conscientious traveler with a
dilemma: Will my visit help or hurt the local people?

Burma, also known as Myanmar, enjoys both pearl and pariah status in
Southeast Asia. It's a largely preindustrial preserve of stirring
panoramas, ornate Buddhist architecture, connoisseur-class artisanship and
culture that is deep and welcoming, even by the graceful standards of the
region. And it's all under the control of what human rights activists say
is one of the most vicious governments on Earth.

Many of those activists -- led by Burma's own indomitable opposition hero,
Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi -- say tourist dollars prop up
an all-controlling regime that's guilty of torturing and killing
dissidents, wholesale narcotics trafficking, forcing citizens to build
roads and hotels, conscripting children to fight in the army and holding
more than 1,000 political prisoners. But others, who also condemn the
atrocities, argue that tourism is just the kind of "engagement" with the
outside world that will improve the lives of some ordinary Burmese,
increase global awareness of Burma's plight and, ultimately, hasten the
regime's fall.

"My opinion is that tourists should go," says David Steinberg, director of
Asian studies at Georgetown's School of Foreign Service. "I'm a great
admirer of Aung San Suu Kyi, and I'd very much like to see her come to
power. But I disagree with her on this point. Tourism provides a rare
channel of communication for the Burmese, it provides jobs and it allows
foreigners to learn about this culture."

Jeremy Woodrum doesn't buy it. "They're one of the world's most brutal
military regimes, cut and dried, and tourism provides them with a
significant amount of hard currency," says Woodrum, director of the
Washington office of the Free Burma Coalition. "We think tourists who
travel to Burma play right into the regime's hands."

The flying tourist loop in Burma is small and well established, limited to
the few areas where foreigners are allowed to wander: Bagan for the
ancient temples; Mandalay, Burma's second-largest city, for a brief homage
to Kipling; and finally over to the floating villages of lovely Inle Lake.
(More recently, many visitors are adding a side trip to Ngapali or one of
the other beach resorts appearing on the Andaman Coast.)

But almost all visits begin in the capital, known as Rangoon to Westerners
and Yangon to locals. And all visits begin with a government shakedown:
Foreigners at the airport must exchange $ 200 for an equivalent handful of
Monopoly script known as Foreign Exchange Credits, a dollar-pegged tourist
currency accepted only by major hotels, restaurants, shops and a few savvy
cab drivers. (Reports are common that officials will, for a little side
gratuity, lower the $ 200 minimum substantially.) The street currency is
the kyat (pronounced "chat"), with a laughable official exchange rate of
about six kyat per dollar. The real rate, available through ubiquitous
freelance money changers and hotel concierges, fluctuates around 1,000 to
1,200 kyat to the dollar.

The streets of central Rangoon are crowded with bicycles, cars and trucks
overloaded with passengers. Buddhists monks are everywhere, walking the
streets and jammed robe-to-robe in pickup truck beds. Rangoon feels like a
slow-motion version of Hanoi before its boom -- tree-lined, lush and
largely decrepit. (It's without Hanoi's handsome French architecture but
also without its nerve-jangling swarms of motor scooters.) Near the
crowded downtown, bottles with flowers line the curb as a signal that
someone has rationed gasoline to sell. At one corner, evening headlights
play across a massive tree trunk that's draped in vines and packed with
small figurines and fairylike houses -- the fanciful shrines to spritelike
Buddhist spirits called nats.

On Mahabandoola Street, shabby taxis wait for Westerners to emerge from
the labyrinthine Scott Market, the main tourist shopping zone for silks,
carvings and Burma's signature lacquerware bowls and platters. A couple of
boys scurry across a dangerous intersection, struggling under the weight
of the 10-foot wooden sign they carry -- it reads "Neurosurgery" in neat,
hand-painted letters. Nearby, in a vacant lot, a group of shirtless young
men perform gravity-defying tricks with a chinlon, a woven cane ball that
players keep aloft with feet only. It's what Hacky Sack would look like if
they played Hacky Sack in "The Matrix."

Rangoon's biggest tourist attraction by far is the colossal Shwedagon
Pagoda, a mountainous Buddhist shrine that dominates the capital horizon.
A group of a dozen Westerners, having paid their $ 5 fee and dutifully
removed their shoes, shuffles along in bare feet as a backward-walking
Burmese narrates in French. Like most men in Burma, he wears a
Western-style button-up shirt over the traditional wraparound sarong
called a longhi. Many of the women, even the urbanites of Rangoon, wear
the traditional Burmese swipe of pale mud on their cheeks, a natural
sunscreen made from bark called thanakha.

The circling tourists flow slowly around the many locals engaged in a
hundred acts of reverence -- palms together, heads to the ground -- in
front of countless placid Buddha statues. Shwedagon is very much a working
holy place for the Burmese. Its centerpiece is a bell-shaped golden spire
that towers over Royal Lake. The surrounding open-air complex is filled
with acres of smaller shrines and domes called stupas. Tourists and
supplicants alike enter through one of four grand arcades, long staircases
lined with vendors selling flowers and souvenirs. The air is rich with
chanting, incense and the coo of doves roosting on curlicue rooflines.
Bells jingle and the occasional boom of a gong startles the birds and
shivers the ribs of tourists.

It's tranquil and grand. But some of the larger Buddha heads are wrung
with jarring halos of Vegas-style flashing lights. And it's all so
supersized, you wonder if this is the cathedral Oral Roberts might build
if he were to accept Siddhartha as his personal savior. A sign advises
foreigners that "it is not allowed to wear the short pants, shameless
dresses and not good looking dresses."

A middle-aged man in a green plaid longhi watches Shwedagon's evening
exodus. "How do you find Myanmar?" he asks. "It is very beautiful, yes? Do
people in America think Myanmar is a bad place?"

It's a question you get from almost every Burmese you talk to, an eager
request for impressions. This man, like most locals interviewed for this
story, is willing to discuss the country's problems if his name is not
printed. Typically, he condemns the government -- "They are only for
themselves." -- and whispers devotion to Suu Kyi -- "She is our great
lady." Asked if he thinks tourists should come to Burma, he seems
surprised by the question. "They should come," he says. His brother works
at a hotel, he says by way of explanation.

Whether or not they agree with her on the tourism boycott, Suu Kyi is
clearly -- if quietly -- beloved by the Burmese. After her party won a
landslide victory in the 1990 general election, the junta ignored the vote
and put her under house arrest until 1995. She was arrested again in 2000
and released last May with a promise of meaningful political negotiations
with the regime. But a year has passed, no real negotiations have begun
and Suu Kyi continues to be harassed. One tourist from New York reported
walking through Bagan with her Burmese guide and being invited in for tea
by a local woman. "I had my guidebook and there was a picture of Aung San
Suu Kyi in it," she says. "The government media never shows her, so they
all gathered around and their faces just lighted up."

Ironically, Suu Kyi herself has become something of a Rangoon tourist
attraction. Taxi drivers coming in from the airport will vaguely point out
the road along Inya Lake that leads to her house or her opposition party's
headquarters a few blocks from Shwedagon. The storefront office, next to a
woodcarver's shop, is always under the watch of sunglass-wearing military
intelligence officers. Still, it's something of a dare among informed
backpackers to go in and purchase small handmade pins baring the likeness
of the laureate. I visited the office without incident, but other tourists
have reported being stopped and questioned afterward, and having their Suu
Kyi souvenirs confiscated.

"Many, many people are becoming dependent on tourism," says a Burmese who
works in the travel industry. This person recalls the period of violent
political oppression in 1988 when tourism completely dried up. "In Bagan,
there is almost nothing but tourism. People in Bagan were in the river
looking for gold. Without tourists to buy lacquerware, there is no money
for food."

Today in Bagan, a short flight from Rangoon, there are plenty of tourists
to buy lacquerware, hire donkey carts and shop the many micro-markets that
locals set up around the temples. Many of the peddlers hawk their wares
inside the shrines, with T-shirts, knockoff ceramic idols and calligraphy
laid out for sale at the very feet of giant Buddhas. Often it's young
girls doing the selling, wheedling and haggling with an ad hoc vocabulary
of English, French, German and Japanese. "Good price, good price." For
many, it's the only schooling they get.

A few years ago, the government uprooted the main village of Bagan and
moved it a few kilometers outside the tourist zone where most of the
temples are concentrated. But every day, dozens of locals walk or bike
back to sell to the tourists or work in the hotels. In some of the major
stupas, like the giant Shwezigon Paya, vendors push with surprising
aggressiveness -- sometimes turning a sales pitch into a plea for money.

Even so, with literally thousands of ancient structures packed into the
region, it's easy to find solitude in one of the world's great
archaeological wonders.

"It's as good as I've seen anywhere," says Gerald Lewis, a well-traveled
officer of a U.S. Christian relief agency based in Bangkok. "I'm surprised
by how intact it all is."

Lewis and his wife, visiting on a weekend vacation, are staying at the
Bagan Hotel. It's a comfortable place of rolling lawns, huge tropical
plantings and polished teak rooms. During the high season from January
through April, the hotel is often completely booked. This weekend, it's
filled with three separate bus-based groups of Germans. ("Here come the
Panzer Divisions" is how one waggish Irish guest announced a group's
arrival at the lavish outdoor breakfast buffet.) The hotel is privately
run, as is the major hotel next door and most of the other properties in
the region. Once all government-controlled, the regime recently opened the
door to private foreign investment, and Japanese, Thai and German
companies came in. Although the government owns most of the land and all
hotels must have a Burmese partner, Voss, the Bagan Hotel's manager,
insists the government takes nothing from his revenues beyond a 10 percent
tax. It's a promising development, but democracy activists say the regime
still has ways of getting a cut.

"There just aren't many people with money to invest in these enterprises
who aren't in some way connected to the regime or the drug syndicates,"
says John Jackson, head of Britain's influential Burma Campaign. "Burma
just doesn't have a very broad-based middle class."

One hotel that seems truly independent from the regime is perched on
skinny bamboo pilings at one end of another major Burmese tourist zone,
Inle Lake. Reachable only by boat, Golden Island Cottages is a spider web
of long sturdy piers connecting dozens of bamboo bungalows to a roomy
central lodge. Each cottage sports a private veranda, an immensely
pleasing place to muse on the sunrise over the lake's misty waters and,
even better, the lake's unique fleet of fishermen. An Inle fisherman,
using a huge conical net, is famous for the one-footed way he finesses his
wooden dugout around the shallows; with his paddle wrapped around one
ankle he works the net with his free hand (think of how you wield a broom
wrapped around one arm with the dustpan in the other).


The cottages were built not by the military regime but by one of the many
local tribes that has waged civil war against it. The Pa'O people, from
the mountains surrounding Inle Lake, had been fighting an armed insurgency
when the government allowed them to build this hotel as part of a
ceasefire in the mid-1990s. The whole community donated money, labor and
materials, and it opened in 1996 with 40 rooms. Now, the hotel employs 58
people and is second only to jade mining as a source of revenue for the
Pa'O tribe. A committee of 30 elders dispenses the money for road
building, scholarships and other basic needs Rangoon can't meet.

"This money goes directly to our people," says a Pa'O who is part of hotel
management. "We didn't even have electricity before tourists started
coming."

The hotel is nearly full. This time it's a British tour group that arrives
in canoe after canoe, each being greeted at the landing by a traditional
drum and cymbal band. (Every arriving boat gets this treatment; it's very
welcoming but a bit much if you're just dashing back for some forgotten
sunscreen.) Over the next two days -- in long canoes driven by unmuffled
two-stroke motors -- the Brits will ply the lake's chief attractions:
villages built over the water; whole farms constructed on floating rows of
sod; silk looming workshops, blacksmith shops, cigar factories; an overly
touristy floating market; and finally, a floating monastery where monks
with a lot of time on their hands have taught house cats to jump through
hoops.

"My favorite was the jumping cats," says Daniel Hill, a 15-year-old from
Melbourne, Australia, sitting in the hotel's open-air dining room. It's
past dusk and the red and yellow lights on the cottages cast long neon
streaks across the black water. His mother, Rikki Hill, brought Daniel and
his sister to Burma after reading that tourism was beginning to open here.
She was aware of the boycott but decided to come anyway.

"By the end of two weeks, yes, I think we've contributed to the local
economy," she says. "It's all well and good for people to get on a high
horse, but some of those same people will go to China or Indonesia or
Malaysia where things are also not too good."

It's a fair question. Ask an activist why Burma deserves a tourism boycott
when other oppressive states don't -- China, Tibet and Cuba come to mind
as popular destinations with dodgy human rights records -- and they cite
the dynamic role of Suu Kyi.

"There are three key factors that make Burma unique," says Jackson of
Burma Campaign. "You have an elected party that's never been allowed to
take power that is asking people not to come. You have a government that
tries to promote tourism specifically to raise desperately needed hard
currency. And you have systemic, pervasive human rights abuses used to
build the very infrastructure tourists use when they go there."

How firmly committed Suu Kyi is to the boycott is a matter of debate,
according to Western diplomatic sources in Rangoon. Clearly, her party is
not about to give up any bargaining points before the regime begins
long-promised, long-delayed negotiations. But Suu Kyi has softened her
opposition to certain kinds of humanitarian aid to Burma. And on tourism,
her spokesman seemed to allow a little wiggle room in a recent phone
interview, suggesting that some kinds of targeted tourism are more
acceptable than others.

"My party's official position is that unless we have a dialogue [with the
government] we will not change our stance," said U Lwin. "My personal view
is that it is up to the individual tourist. Does their money go to the
local people? Sometimes, yes. But most of them are not serious. They are
looking at the countryside on a bus."

"In Burma," he says, unnecessarily, "things are a little bit different."

DETAILS:

The call to boycott tourism to Burma is voluntary, not official. The U.S.
government maintains strict trade sanctions against the country but
doesn't prohibit travel there. And Burma is not on the State Department's
current list of countries travelers should avoid. However, the department
does warn about political tensions: "Popular unrest and violence continue
to be possible. U.S. citizens traveling in Burma should exercise caution
and check with the U.S. Embassy for an update on the current situation."
Details: www.travel.state.gov/burma.html.

For more information on the boycott, contact the Free Burma Coalition in
Washington (202-547-5985, www.freeburmacoalition.org) or Britain's Burma
Campaign (www.burmacampaign.org.uk).

If you decide to visit Burma, here are some things to know.

GETTING THERE: Several major Asian airlines fly into Rangoon, including
Thai Airlines via Bangkok and Singapore Air's Silk Air through Singapore.
Round-trip fares from Washington are all over the map, but seem to range
within $ 2,000 to $ 5,000. One way to save money is to shop for bargains
to Asia, then add on the relatively cheap hop to Rangoon (about $ 200 from
Bangkok right now).

VISAS: Burma grants 28-day tourist visas for $ 20; contact the Myanmar
Embassy in Washington (2300 S St. NW, 202-332-9044).

CURRENCY: At the airport in Rangoon, all arriving foreigners are required
to exchange $ 200 in cash for dollar-pegged Foreign Exchange Credits,
which are accepted by hotels, larger restaurants and shops. For the kyat,
the official exchange rate of six to a dollar is universally ignored in
favor of street rates closer to 1,000 to 1,200 kyats to the dollar.

WHERE TO STAY: Whether Burmese hotels are controlled, directly or
indirectly, by the military regime is a matter of mystery and debate. Here
are some that purport to be as independent as possible: the Savoy (129
Dhammazedi Rd., www.savoy-myanmar.com) in Rangoon, pricey but excellent at
$ 210 a night during the high (dry) season of January to April; the Bagan
Hotel (www.myanmars.net/baganhotel; about $ 55 a night in high season), a
comfortable tropical hotel in the archeological zone of Burma's ancient
city; and Golden Island Cottages (011-95-1-571513; $ 42 a night), built by
a local hill tribe on pilings in Inle Lake.

WHAT TO EAT: Burmese food reflects the country's crossroads status between
Thailand and India -- rich curried stews, chicken, fish and pork satays,
stir-fried vegetables. Excellent Thai and Chinese food is also readily
available, particularly in Rangoon. Market lunches cost about $ 3 per
person, nice restaurants, $ 10; five-star places, $ 20.

TOURS: The easiest, and probably most common, way to visit Burma is with
one of the many package tours. Two that reportedly make in-country
arrangements in a politically sensitive way are Rangoon-based Myanmar
Travel (www.myanmartravel.net), offering eight-day and longer tours
staring at $ 860 per person, double occupancy; and New York-based Absolute
Asia (800-736-8187, www.absoluteasia.com), with eight-day itineraries
beginning at $ 1,860.

Activists, however, say group travel often sends the most hard currency to
the regime. Independent travel, on the other hand, allows tourists more
chances to target their spending. You may have to make some of your plans
after you arrive. Many Rangoon travel agents are savvy and sensitive
enough to help you book, for example, privately run Air Mandalay over
government-run Myanmar Airways; ask a hotel concierge to recommend a
travel agent.