BurmaNet News, September 25-27, 2004

[Editor]

September 25-27, 2004, Issue # 2567


INSIDE BURMA
Mizzima: Myanmar Dhana was not banned: editor
AFP: Opposition calls on ruling junta to release leaders and unite Myanmar
Thai News Service: Myanmar praises Thailand for social development

ON THE BORDER
Irrawaddy: 150 Karen to resettle in Sweden

DRUGS
AFP: Myanmar vows drug eradication despite Western 'interference': report
Bangkok Post: Meth still pouring in to Thailand

OPINION / OTHER
Nation: An Asem response to Burma’s rule?

PRESS RELEASE
US Campaign for Burma: Three more major tours to Burma called off

ANNOUNCEMENT
US Campaign for Burma: Vote for Aung San Suu Kyi in Time Magazine’s
“Living Asian Hero Award”: http://www.time.com/time/asia/2004/heroes/

______________________________________
INSIDE BURMA

September 25, Mizzima
Myanmar Dhana was not banned: Editor

A leading Rangoon based business magazine, Myanmar Dhana has not been
banned and is preparing publication of next month’s issue, the chief
editor Thiha Saw has told Mizzima.

Rumors spread last week that the magazine had been banned for six months,
allegedly for publishing photos of jailed student leader Min Ko Naing in
its September issue.

“Yes, there were the photos but we didn’t notice,” Thiha Saw told Mizzima
by telephone.
“The censorship permitted them also. Moreover we were not writing about in
politics in the text. But the rumor spread. Some may have tried to confirm
with us but maybe we were out that time, (and) they may think publishing
house was shut off ”,

Myanmar Dhana run a story called "Art and Artists", written by Soe Myint
Latt about the history of Burmese art, and how artists feel about art. The
writer interviewed some well-know artists including U Thet Nyunt, father
of Min Ko Naing. The background paintings were portraits of his son the
long-term imprisoned student leader.

But a writer, speaking on the condition of anonymity, but who writes
regularly for Burmese weekly journals and magazines, said,  “ It was
banned but they (Myanmar Dhana official) lobbied. I can’t tell you the
situation clearly right now”.

Another journalist who wished not to be named said, “ Possibly, the
censorship board had banned it but they (Myanmar Dhana) negotiated. They
may tell you they didn’t know who was in the photos and they were
permitted by censorship. After they succeeded (lobbying) they said it was
not banned.”

The Burmese military regime practices pre-publication censorship,
administered by the Literary Works Scrutinising Committee (LWSC) an
offshoot of the interior ministry.  It is headed by former Military
Intelligence Maj. Aye Tun. Any publication of topics and criticism that
irritate the generals such as AIDS, drugs, corruption, and human rights
are banned.

Recently, the privately owned fortnightly Khit-Sann, which covered current
affairs, was banned until further notice without giving explanation.
Censors told the editor Kyaw Win in August that the magazine was viewed as
too pro-American, according to Paris based Reporters Without Borders and
the Burma Media Association.

In a statement, SPDC denied that Khit-Sann had been summoned before
censors because of its content.

Media watchdog groups challenged Rangoon’s denial that the bi-monthly was
closed for political reasons. They said it was expanding and circulation
had increased by more than 30% in recent months, when the decision to shut
down the paper was taken on 1 September, that month’s second edition was
already finished and awaiting approval from the censorship bureau.
The editor of Myanmar Dhana remains publicly upbeat. “We are ready for
next month issue,” said Thiha Saw. “ Really, we were not banned”.

_____________________________________

September 27, Agence France Presse
Opposition calls on ruling junta to release leaders and unite Myanmar

Myanmar's opposition told the ruling military on Monday that the country
could only be united with the release of democracy leader Aung San Suu
Kyi.

The National League for Democracy (NLD), during a ceremony to mark the
16th anniversary of its founding, also called for the release of other
political prisoners including deputy Tin Oo and the convening of
parliament.

"The unification that is essential for the whole country depends on the
release of vice chairman Tin Oo, our national leader Aung San Suu Kyi and
other leaders of nationalities who have been detained under various
trumped-up charges," said NLD spokesman U Lwin in a speech.

"For over thirty years, instead of stabilising the country, the men in
power have worsened the situation," he said, warning of dire political,
social and economic consequences if the situation remained unchanged.

The NLD won elections in 1990 by a landslide but their victory was ignored
by the military, which has ruled the country since a 1962 coup.

The military instead announced a seven-part democracy "road map" last year
under intense pressure from the international community, which has imposed
economic sanctions on Myanmar.

Aung San Suu Kyi has remained under house arrest for more than a year, her
third period of detention, and her party boycotted what the junta
described as a democracy drive.

An NLD statement said the party was "always ready to engage in a dialogue
with the military at any time, any day and at any place within the
country, for the sake of attaining genuine democracy".

More than 500 NLD sympathisers and diplomatic observers from the US,
Britain, France and the UN attended the ceremony -- watched by official
security.

_____________________________________

September 27, Thai News Service
Myanmar praises Thailand for social development

Myanmar Prime Minister Gen. Khin Nyunt today applauded Thailand for its
social development in the Thai-Myanmar border region, saying that
Thailand's cooperation had helped Myanmar in reducing deaths from major
diseases in the area, according to Public Health Minister Sudarat
Keyuraphan.

Speaking to the Thai public health minister, who is currently in Myanmar
for a joint public health conference, Gen. Khin Nyunt described the two
countries as 'true friends', saying that cooperation on public health
issues in the border region was benefiting people on both sides of the
international divide.

Promising full cooperation with Thailand, the Myanmar prime minister
praised Bangkok for its collaborative work over the past three years,
which had seen a significant reduction in cases of malaria, tuberculosis
and AIDS in the border region.

He also thanked Thailand for providing free anti-retroviral drugs to
Myanmar AIDS sufferers, as well as condoms for the general population, and
for helping Myanmar stamp out drug trafficking.

Mrs. Sudarat said that Myanmar had requested Thai support in personnel
development, as well as more medicines and medical equipment.

Meanwhile, Thailand had asked Rangoon to cooperate in developing its
traditional herbal medicine, with Thailand's Department of the Development
of Thai Traditional and Alternative Medicine working with Myanmar
researchers to develop traditional medical products.

_____________________________________
ON THE BORDER

September 27, Irrawaddy
150 Karen to Resettle in Sweden

Sweden has agreed to grant residence to 150 ethnic Karen living in a
refugee camp in Thailand, near the Burma border, said Barbro Holmberg,
Sweden’s Minister for Migration and Asylum Policy, after meeting Thai and
Karen officials today.

Holmberg said she had come to inspect Mae La refugee camp, after the UNHCR
proposed that Sweden resettle some of the Karen living along the border.
She added that decisions on who to accept will by made on a case-by-case
basis. She also said the government would arrange housing and language
training for the refugees. She did not say when the refugees would leave
for Sweden.

More than 40,000 refugees live in Mae La—which opened in 1989—and all are
scheduled for resettlement in a third country. The Swedish government
would only accept refugees who have been assigned Person of Concern status
by the UN refugee office, Holmberg said.

Holmberg added that she would try to persuade other EU governments to
receive more refugees from Mae La camp.

Saw Khay Nay, a Karen refugee in Mae La, welcomes the opportunity to
leave: “There’s no future for us here. We study higher level education in
this camp but it is useless. If we go to a third country, we may be able
to contribute our skills to the community. But in this camp we are like
animals—we eat the food rations we are given, we have no work in the
daytime and we sleep at the night.”

The border camps are considered as temporary shelters for the displaced
people from Burma who have fled armed conflict and persecution by the
military.

_____________________________________
DRUGS

September 27, Agence France Presse
Myanmar vows drug eradication despite Western 'interference': report

Myanmar reiterated its commitment at the weekend to rid the military-run
state of narcotic drugs despite what it termed interference by
"neo-colonialists," state media reported.

Prime Minister General Khin Nyunt said the country was willing to boost
cooperation with neighbour states and others in eradicating the drug
scourge provided they shared like-minded determination with Yangon and did
not meddle in Myanmar's internal affairs.

In his address to the Central Committee for Drug Abuse Control, Khin Nyunt
reportedly accused some Western powers of using drugs and other issues as
excuses to interfere in Myanmar's internal affairs.

"Despite such interference and various other charges being levelled at us
by these neo-colonialists, we shall go ahead undeterred until we reach our
objective," Khin Nyunt was quoted as saying by the official Mirror
newspaper on Saturday.

The premier claimed the drug problem was a hangover of the colonial
British despite Myanmar winning independence more than 50 years ago.

"This inherited problem of drugs is a deep-rooted one posing great
difficulties and can hardly be solved overnight," he said.

"But Myanmar is committed to uprooting it from our soil entirely within a
specified period."

Yangon's 15-year eradication programme aims to rid the country of all
drugs by 2014, but it faces a massive challenge as methamphetamine
production in the country has surged in recent years to rank among the
world's highest.

Myanmar has significantly reduced its poppy cultivation and opium
production, according to the latest yield-survey statistics released by
the United Nations and the United States, which showed reductions in opium
production of up to 54 percent over the previous year.

Khin Nyunt said opium production decreased an impressive 89 percent since
1996, when 2,650 tons of the drug were produced.

But on September 16 US President George W. Bush maintained Myanmar on an
annual US narcotics blacklist despite acknowledging Yangon had taken
strides in cutting cultivation of poppy, the plant from which heroin is
derived.

The United States warned in March that while Myanmar had cut opium poppy
cultivation it remained the world's second-ranked supplier of the drug.

The Mirror also reported that Myanmar uncovered a total of 2,070
drug-related cases in 2004, and 2,884 persons involved were put on trial.

_____________________________________

September 26, Bangkok Post
Meth still pouring in to Thailand - Maxmilian Wechsler

A recent US State Department report salutes Thailand's progress in
shutting down international drug traffickers, but much remains to be done
on the home front

Despite stepped up efforts at suppression by Burmese authorities, huge
quantities of methamphetamines -- known in Thailand as ya ba (crazy drug)
_ are still made in clandestine labs in Burma and smuggled into Thailand
via the common border and through neighbouring countries. Intelligence
sources say that most of the estimated 800 million ya ba tablets produced
annually in Burma enter into Thailand.

According to Sai Kam (not his real name), who works for an anti-narcotics
group in Nam Hkam township of northern Shan State in Burma, it's actually
the Chinese in Burma, Cambodia, Laos and Thailand who control the
production, smuggling and distribution of ya ba, and they are well
organised and have a very efficient communications system.

"Cambodia and Laos also produce ya ba but in smaller quantities. Both
countries mostly serve as a transit point for the Burmese-made tablets
coming to Thailand, although production in Cambodia is increasing. Some ya
ba is also produced in Thailand," Sai Kam disclosed. Proof of this was the
raid on a methamphetamine laboratory at Muang Ek housing estate in Pathum
Thani province in May of 2003, when police seized 50 kg of methamphetamine
powder and drug-making equipment, along with one suspect. The police
estimated that the amount of powder was enough to produce several million
pills.

Sai Kam explained that the drug gangs had devoted their business to ya ba
production and trafficking to subsidise reduced profits due to decreased
opium and heroin output, and to satisfy the growing number of addicts who
couldn't afford the more expensive heroin. Ya ba has other advantages over
heroin, as it is not dependent on growing seasons, the precursor chemicals
are relatively easy to obtain, and production facilities can be moved
around when necessary. Most importantly, it yields a higher profit for the
investment.

"Northern and especially southern regions of Shan State, near to Thailand,
are the prime ya ba production areas. They are run and financed by
Chinese, Lahu, Pa-O and Shan gangs as well as various militias. The United
Wa State Army (UWSA) and the National Democratic Alliance Army (NDAA) have
shares in the business as well. Both are among the 17 armed groups which
have made ceasefire agreements with the Burmese military government. Most
of the groups are involved in the drug business," Sai Kam said.

In Special Region 1 of Northern Shan State on July 9 this year, local
security officials seized 5.6 million ya ba pills and 28 kg of ephedrine,
a key ingredient in making methamphetamines, in Laukkai township. The
Special Region 1 is administrated by a Kokang ceasefire group -- the
Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army _ led by Phone Kyar Shin.

Sai Kam charged that by making deals with the ceasefire groups the Burmese
government has given them authority over the areas, with disastrous
consequences.

"Because these groups are given autonomy, the central government may not
control the ethnic groups in some cases and lawlessness will prevail.
Autonomy (by the ceasefire groups) destroys traditional culture and
environment. People become drug addicts, kill each other, and it gives
opportunities to criminals as well as some top leaders of ceasefire groups
to get involved in the drug trade," said Sai Kam.

A PROFITABLE MARKET

Smuggling of ya ba into Thailand is getting more difficult to detect.
According to defectors from the Karenni People Nationalities Liberation
Front, which is a ceasefire group, ya ba tablets marked with the UWSA
brands "99" and "WY" are packed in plastic bags and forced down the
throats of cows before crossing the border from Karenni State to
Thailand's Mae Hong Son province, where the cows will be killed and the
bags retrieved. The defectors said that their group was running such an
operation. They paid around 17 baht per pill in Burma, and sold it for
20-50 baht in Thailand, depending on the quality.

Sai Kam gave some more details on how the tablets are smuggled, but said
the traffickers change routes and methods all the time: "The use of cows
and buffaloes is widespread along the Thai-Burmese border. Traffickers
also carry ya ba on horseback or in carts through jungle routes as well as
using cars, boats and planes. The pills will be concealed in tinned food,
timber, bamboo, fish, or packed in sacks of garlic or green tea, or
transported together with grass broom or tree bark, to mention only a few
methods."

"Thailand is a large and profitable market for ya ba, and therefore,
targetted by the producers and smugglers in neighbouring countries. They
figure out that instead of smuggling expensive heroin to the West, it will
be much safer to dump the ya ba pills on the Thai market. Of course, there
must also be a huge distribution network in the country," Sai Kam said
without elaborating.

The most vital chemical required to produce ya ba is ephedrine, which is
produced and smuggled into Burma and other countries from India and China,
which are the biggest producers. Trafficking of ephedrine and other
substances to make amphetamines is a profitable business in itself. China
and India have done their best to stop the smuggling, and there have been
many seizures. But the chemicals are still getting through somehow.

In Cambodia, the methamphetamine trade is flourishing with increased
production and smuggling, which inevitably brings more addiction. Many
experts agree that most of the more cheaply made methamphetamine which
enters Thailand, which had previously mostly originated in Burma, is now
produced in Cambodia.

The US State Department said in a March 2004 report: "Cambodia has
experienced a significant increase in recent years in the amount of
amphetamine-type stimulants (ATS) transiting from the Golden Triangle. The
United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) estimates that 100,000
methamphetamine tablets enter Cambodia each day, some 75 percent of which
are thought to be exported to Thailand. In addition, Cambodian authorities
believe that foreign crime syndicates, working in concert with Cambodian
nationals, have set up mobile laboratories within Cambodia that produce
ATS for local distribution and export to Thailand."

A UNODC report issued in June 2003 which surveyed methamphetamine
trafficking warns that Cambodia is poised to be ravaged as drug abuse
grows and transnational crime syndicates dig in.

The report says that seizures of methamphetamines in 2003 had increased by
about 50 percent from a year earlier, while an average of 10 to 20
kilogrammes of heroin is now estimated to be entering Cambodia from
southern Laos each week.

The report also warns that while most of the heroin is shipped out,
methamphetamine usage in Cambodia has jumped and the drug is now easily
available in virtually every urban centre of the country.

Speaking at a rally in June 2004 in Phnom Penh held to mark the United
Nations' International Anti-Drugs Day, Deputy Governor Map Sarin
acknowledged that criminal gangs were trafficking large amounts of drugs
through Cambodia, in particular methamphetamines.

The point was illustrated by the seizure of 600,000 methamphetamine
tablets by Cambodian authorities on September 14 from a speedboat in the
Mekong River near the northern border with Thailand and Laos. Two
Cambodians were arrested in the operation and another one on the next day.
An official described the pill seizure as the largest ever in the
country's history.

In October 2003, Cambodian police seized 35 kg of methamphetamines
destined for Australia and the United States. Five men, including a
Taiwanese national, were arrested.

Laos is also feeling the effects of the methamphetamine craze, with ya ba
pills smuggled from Burma and some local production, although this is
vehemently denied by the Laotian authorities.

According to the US State Department, methamphetamine seizures have became
"a growing problem" in Laos. And according to a Voice of America report,
Laos marked the International Anti-Drugs Day in July this year by
destroying over one million seized methamphetamine tablets.

Unfortunately, despite some significant successes by the Thaksin
government, it is clear that drug networks in Thailand have not been shut
down. Thai police have made several recent seizures in the millions of ya
ba tablets, such as the one on August 8 of this year, when around 4.4
million pills were discovered in Bang Na district of Bangkok.

There is no question that the current government is putting a vast amount
of energy and resources into drug suppression. According to Public Health
Minister Sudarat Keyuraphan, drugs seized from 1,166 busts weighing a
total of 2,569 kg, including 2,066 kg of methamphetamines (about 22
million pills), were burned in Ayutthaya in June this year. Another 22
tons of captured drugs held by the Food and Drug Administration are
awaiting destruction after their use in court proceedings against
suspected traffickers.

US President George W. Bush has just removed Thailand from the annual list
of illicit drug-producing and drug-transit countries, commenting in a
White House press release: "No heroin processing laboratories have been
found in Thailand for several years and Thailand is no longer a
significant direct source of illicit narcotic or psychotropic drugs or
other controlled substances significantly affecting the United States; nor
is it a country through which are transported such drugs or substances."

As a Bangkok Post editorial noted last week: "The recognition that
Thailand is no longer a major player in world trafficking ... is a major
milestone in the battle against illicit drugs."

However, the battle won't be won on the home front until the cross-border
flow of drugs which continue to ravage the lives of countless Thais is
stopped.

_____________________________________
OPINION / OTHER

September 27, The Nation
An ASEM response to Burma’s rule? - Zaw Oo

If history is any guide to current policy, Asean should reconsider its
push for Burmese participation at the upcoming Asia Europe Meeting (Asem)
in October.

In 1997, Asean admitted Burma irrespective of mounting international
criticism, arguing that the military regime would gradually transform
itself.

During the last seven years, the Burmese military regime, calling itself
the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC), found its Asean membership
so comfortable that it finally dared to attack and arrest democratic
opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, in May 2003. There remains a brutal
dictatorship in Burma leaning towards what EU Commissioner Chris Patten
has called “the explosive creation of another failed state”.

When Asean admitted Burma, it listed a number of geopolitical and economic
reasons.

First, Asean argued that membership could effectively keep Burma out of
the orbit of Chinese influence. Not only did Asean fail to stop Rangoon
from cosying up to Beijing, but nowadays the SPDC has become totally
dependent upon Chinese aid in shoring up its failing economy and bloated
military.

Second, Asean thought that Burma could slowly reform its planned economy
under Asean Free Trade Area obligations. No reforms yet. Alas, the SPDC
has sought a rent-seeking economic model in which it rewards cronies with
trade licences and industrial permits while opening up the country’s rich
natural resources to a fire sale. Some Asean countries may have benefited
exceedingly from its preferential access to Burma’s rich natural
resources.

Finally, Asean made the logical argument that cooperation was needed to
address transnational effects of domestic problems in Burma. To date, no
amount of cooperation has been able to stem the problems of increased drug
trafficking, a worsening HIV/Aids epidemic and the unending saga of
refugee and migrant outflows across Burmese borders.

The SPDC’s track record should be particularly instructive for the
upcoming Asem summit. Asean must also weigh the greater crisis coming in
2006, when Burma takes the chairmanship.

The US has already stated categorically that it will not go to Rangoon
under the present military rule, and the EU partners will stay away in
solidarity, causing a major diplomatic catastrophe for Asean.

The SPDC’s vision for the future state typically looks like a centralised
command system. It would be extremely imprudent for Asean to be
constrained by the principles of non-interference while allowing the SPDC
to consolidate their constitutional garrison state in Asean’s backyard.

Thus, a “ten minus one” formula should be considered for future affairs of
Asean. It is high time that Asean exercise the principle of “sufficient
consensus” to unhook the Burmese generals from playing hostage diplomacy.
Instead of pushing for automatic membership for Burma, Asean could make a
compromise with the European Union to delay Burmese participation.

In fact, the Asem summit provides a very timely opportunity for Asean to
extract real commitment from the Burmese military regime.

Zaw Oo is research director of the Burma Fund.

_____________________________________
PRESS RELEASE

Sept 27, US Campaign for Burma
Three more major tours to Burma called off

Seven Tours Cancelled in Two Months as US Senate, Hunger Strikers Take Action

Washington, DC: The US Campaign for Burma today welcomed the cancellation
of three major tours to Burma by leading institutions Stanford University,
the Wright Institute of Chicago, and the University of Wisconsin.  The
cancellations follow similar decisions over the last two
months by the world-renown Smithsonian Institution, Asia Society, American
Museum of Natural History, and University of Washington.  Burma's
democracy movement, led by the worlds only incarcerated Nobel Peace Prize
recipient Aung San Suu Kyi, has called for a boycott of tourism to the
country until there is an irreversible transition to democracy.

The cancellations took place as the United States Senate passed a
unanimous resolution calling on the UN Security Council to address the
situation in Burma, and as seven Burmese dissidents in exile launched a
hunger strike in front of the UN building, demanding Security Council
action.  The hunger strikers include a member of Aung San Suu Kyi's
political party, the National League for Democracy, who narrowly survived
a major massacre inside Burma on May 30th, 2003 during which up to 100 of
her supporters were beaten to death by agents of the ruling military
regime.  He subsequently fled the country.

"We are grateful that these institutions decided that now is not the right
time for up-scale tourism to Burma," said Han Lin, a Burmese dissident in
exile and a member of US Campaign for Burma, on Monday as he entered the
seventh day of his hunger strike across United Nations headquarters in New
York.

"Their decisions were based on support for democracy and human rights-now
the UN Security Council should take similar action and censure these
military thugs."

The Senate resolution, which received broad support, was led by a
bipartisan group of Senators including powerful Senate majority whip Mitch
McConnell (R-KY) and Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA).  A similar measure
has been introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives by Congressmen
Elton Gallegly (R-CA) and Tom Lantos (D-CA).

US President George W. Bush also cited Burma's freedom struggle and quoted
Aung San Suu Kyi in his recent speech before the United Nations General
Assembly, singling out the importance of change in the Asian country in a
speech focused mainly on the Middle East.

Tourism is linked to human rights abuses and benefits Burma's military
regime in a number of ways. First, the regime uses forced labor--a modern
form of slavery--to develop its tourist infrastructure. The International
Labor Organization reports that "the military treats the civilian
population as an unlimited pool of unpaid forced laborers and servants at
their disposal. The practice of forced labor is to encourage private
investment in infrastructure development, public sector works and tourism
projects." As a result of the military regime's use of forced labor, the
ILO has called for international sanctions on Burma, the first time the
organization has taken such action in its 80-year history.

Second, thousands of Burmese people have been forced from their homes to
make way for tourism developments or as part of so-called "beautification"
projects. These people are usually left without homes or shelter, so that
tourists can "enjoy" the areas where they used to live.
Third, Burma's regime, desperate to get its hands on dollars, milks the
tourism industry to maximize government intake. The country's Minister of
Hotels and Tourism, Major General Saw Lwin, admitted that the government
receives about 12 per cent of the income even of private tourism services,
while the military regime receives much larger sums from visa fees and
government-controlled entities.

Many prominent individuals, organizations, and companies have joined the
boycott of tourism to Burma, similarly to the 1980s boycott of South
Africa's apartheid government.

According to the popular "Rough Guides" travel guide: "There are
occasional instances where any benefits (from tourism) are overshadowed by
the nature of the social and political climate. Apartheid South Africa was
an example. Burma, with its brutal dictatorship, state control of the
economy and forced labor used to build its tourist infrastructure, is
another. As long as the military regime remains in power and Aung San Suu
Kyi - leader of the democratically elected National League for Democracy -
requests that tourists do not visit, Rough Guides will not publish a guide
to the country."

_____________________________________
ANNOUNCEMENT

September 27, US Campaign for Burma
Vote for Aung San Suu Kyi in Time Magazine’s “Living Asian Hero Award”

**Please circulate as widely as possible**

Dear Friends of Freedom and Human Rights,

A few weeks ago, we asked you to help raise awareness about the world's
ONLY imprisoned Nobel Peace Prize recipient Aung San Suu Kyi by voting
online in Time Magazine Asia's "living Asian hero" award.

Because you raised your voice, Aung San Suu Kyi was selected as one of 20
"nominees" for the award.

NOW, WE NEED YOU TO VOTE AGAIN BY GOING TO:
http://www.time.com/time/asia/2004/heroes/

The finalist will be announced in TIME's 2004 Asian Heroes special website
on October 4, 2004.

AFTER YOU VOTE, SEND A QUICK EMAIL TO: info at uscampaignforburma.org and let
us know, so we can keep track of how many people voted!