BurmaNet News, September 28, 2004

[Editor]

September 28, 2004, Issue # 2568


INSIDE BURMA
AFP: Myanmar to send low-level delegation to ASEM meeting: sources
Thai News Service: Thai universities hold educational seminar in Myanmar
AP: Myanmar opposition marches for political-prisoner release
Irrawaddy: Jailed MP moved to Rangoon hospital

ON THE BORDER
Mizzima: Land exchange hangs

BUSINESS
Xinhua: Middle East airline to link Myanmar

INTERNATIONAL
AFP: UN special envoy asks Myanmar's junta to launch dialogue with opposition
LA Times: No more delays in family's reunion

OPINION / OTHER
New Light of Myanmar: Global scholars do not accept economic sanctions on
Myanmar
Nation: Burma, where it's always 1984

______________________________________
INSIDE BURMA

September 27, Agence France Presse
Myanmar to send low-level delegation to ASEM meeting: sources

Yangon: Myanmar will not send its top leaders to an Asia-Europe summit in
Vietnam next month in a move likely to avert a diplomatic crisis over the
military regime.

The EU had threatened to boycott the October 8-9 meeting because of the
presence of the junta but after a round of talks finally agreed to turn up
if the junta sent a lower-level delegation.

The Myanmar team will include the deputy foreign minister Colonel Maung
Myint and possibly the new foreign minister Major-General Nyan Win,
currently in the United States for the UN general assembly, according to a
ministry source.

"They will send a lower level delegation to ASEM," the source told AFP.

The two men were promoted this month in a reshuffle that strengthened the
role of military hardliners in the regime's cabinet.

The EU has also threatened to tighten existing sanctions unless Yangon
took steps to improve its human rights record including the release of
detained democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, currently more than a year
into her third period of house arrest.

The European Union has a package of sanctions in place against Myanmar,
which has been ruled by the military since 1962, including a freeze on
Myanmar assets.

But if there is no progress by October 8 the EU is planning to tighten
them, notably by extending a visa ban to army officers, voting against
funding for Myanmar in global financial bodies and cutting investment in
state firms.

The ASEM summit gathers the EU and 10 members of the Association of
Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) plus China, Japan and South Korea.

_____________________________________

September 28, Thai News Service
Thai universities hold educational seminar in Myanmar

Thailand's Education Minister, Mr. Adisai Bodharamik, has led a team of
160 university officials to a three-day-exhibition-cum-seminar in
Myanmar's capital city of Rangoon to promote Thai college education to the
neighbouring country.

The seminar is being held on 24-27 September under a joint cooperation
between the two countries aimed to forge for closer bilateral ties in
education, said the Thai education minister.

At least 31 Thai universities, both private and state-run colleges, are
taking part in the seminar.

Thailand has aimed to become a regional educational hub, as it has viewed
education as another source of income to promote the country's economic
growth.

It has set to attract more foreign students from neighbouring countries to
attend its colleges.

_____________________________________

September 27, Associated Press
Myanmar opposition marches for political-prisoner release

Yangon: Members of Myanmar's opposition National League for Democracy
party defiantly marched to a U.N.'s office in Yangon on Monday to ask for
help in winning the freedom of pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi and
other political prisoners.

Marking the party's 16th anniversary, about four dozen people marched from
the NLD headquarters to the U.N. Development Program, a journey several
miles long.

Such demonstrations are rare but not unprecedented. The country's ruling
junta usually cracks down almost instantly on most forms of public
dissent.

Monday's march came after 400 party members, along with foreign diplomats,
U.N. officials, representatives of other political parties and the media
attended a ceremony at the NLD office, where they heard fresh calls for
the junta to free political prisoners.

Suu Kyi, party Vice Chairman Tin Oo and others have been detained since
May last year after a pro-government mob attacked Suu Kyi's convoy as she
toured northern Myanmar. After the attack, the government launched a
crackdown on the NLD, closing party offices throughout the country.

The group marched peacefully without placards and submitted a letter to
the U.N. office with three requests, said one demonstrator who took part,
speaking on condition of anonymity.

The letter, accepted by an unidentified U.N. official, expressed concern
and asked for help for protesters staging hunger strikes in front of the
U.N. headquarters in New York against the junta. It also urged the U.N. to
come to the aid of 30 people arrested at a protest in Thailand.

Thirdly, it asked the U.N. to recognize the results of a 1990 general
election, which the NLD won in a landslide.

The NLD also called for the convening of a "People's Parliament" that
would represent the victors of the 1990 election, after which the ruling
military refused to hand over power, and instead intensified its
repression of the party.

The NLD was founded in 1988 after widespread pro-democracy demonstrations
were violently suppressed by the military, which has been in power since a
1962 coup d'etat. U.N.-fostered efforts to promote reconciliation between
the NLD and the military have failed.

NLD spokesman U Lwin acknowledged the somber tone of this year's ceremony,
saying the party would have preferred a "merrier and grander celebration
but circumstances do not permit."

_____________________________________

September 28, Irrawaddy
Jailed MP moved to Rangoon hospital - Nandar Chann

Dr Than Nyein, 67, elected to parliament under the National League for
Democracy, or NLD, banner in the 1990 election, was hospitalized on Sunday
after falling ill while protesting the extension of his prison sentence by
going without food for a week.

In 1997 Than Nyein, from Kyauktan Township in Rangoon Division, and seven
other NLD members were sentenced to seven years in prison under the 1950
Emergency Provision Act 5/j, for helping party leader Aung San Suu Kyi
visit and meet with the public in Kyauktan. The act makes any activity
that may “undermine the security of the Union or the restoration of law
and order” a punishable offence.

Than Nyein completed his sentence in July, but his stay was extended for
60 days, under State Protection Act Article 10/A. He was scheduled to go
free on September 20, but a day prior to his release authorities extended
his sentence for another 60 days. The 1975 State Protection Act allows
officials to detain a person for several years without trial.

Than Nyein began his one-man hunger protest on September 19, after
authorities informed him that his sentence was extended. He was later
transferred to Tharawaddy Prison, 78 miles north of Rangoon. On Sunday, he
was moved to Rangoon General Hospital for treatment.

His wife, Khin Aye, said that he suffers from a gastric ulcer, nerve
damage and a worsening liver condition that requires urgent medical
attention. She said his health has deteriorated considerably while in
confinement.

The Thailand-based Assistance Association of Political Prisoners (Burma),
or AAPP, estimates that more than 1,400 political prisoners remain in
prisons across the country. Nearly 100 political prisoners who have
completed their sentences remain in detention.

“Such continued detention simply aims to let the political prisoners die
in prison,” says Tate Naing, the group’s secretary.

_____________________________________
ON THE BORDER

September 28, Mizzima News
Land exchange hangs - Surajit Khaund

The much-awaited proposal for the transfer of land between India and Burma
hangs in the balance due to a strong protest raised by an Indian
community.

The matter has been deferred for an indefinite period following angry
protests raised by the Tangkhul Naga community. India and Burma had agreed
to the transfer of land in some of  their border areas to attempt put an
end to border disputes. India had agreed to hand over a portion of land
near Chorokhunou opposite the Ukhrul district and similarly Burma has
agreed to transfer land near Tamu area.

But in view of strong protest from Tangkhul Naga community the Manipur
government has deferred the decision.

Chorokhunou is famous for the 1.20 lakh Tangkhul Naga who have long been
residing in the area. Many have started agitation and demanded immediate
revoke the decision for the land transfer.

Last month a meeting was held in Manipur, which was attended by senior
officials of the Indian government. Indian Home and Revenue department
officials attending the meet entrusted the Manipur government to make a
decision about the land transfer. The Manipur Government headed by the
state industry Minister Th. Devendra Singh instigated a sub-committee to
discuss the transfer.

The committee later deferred the decision.

Mr. Dwiju Mani Singh, Officer on Special Duty (OSD) Indo-Myanmar Trade
told Mizzima that the decision was deferred because of strong protests  by
the Naga community .Asked whether there was any possibility of taking a
final decision in this regard, he said that it was now up to the Manipur
government.

_____________________________________
BUSINESS

September 28, Xinhua News Agency
Middle East airline to link Myanmar

Yangon: A Middle East airline, the Qatar Airways, will launch direct
flight to Myanmar's capital of Yangon in early 2005 to promote the
regional air transportation, the Myanmar Times reported in this week's
issue.

Using airbus-319, the airline will fly twice a week between Doha and
Yangon on Tuesdays and Saturdays beginning Jan. 8, 2005, airline industry
sources was quoted as saying.

Meanwhile, the Sri Lankan Airlines has also planned to open indirect air
link with Yangon via Bangkok soon to promote the two countries' bilateral
ties and tourism industry and has set up an office in Yangon in the name
of APT Travel Services Co Ltd for the move, according to a recent official
report.

There has been a number of foreign airlines that fly Yangon including Air
China, Thai Airways International, Silk Air, Malaysian Airline System,
Biman, Indian Airlines, Mandarin Airlines, Lauda Air, Druk Airlines,
Phuket Airlines and Bangkok Airways.

There are also three Myanmar-foreign joint venture airlines flying
international routes which are the Myanmar Airways International, the
United Myanmar Airlines and the Air Myanmar.

Myanmar's domestic airlines are represented by one state-run Myanma
Airways and two joint ventures which are Air Mandalay and Yangon Airways.
The Air Mandalay has extended its flight to Thailand's Chaing Mai as a
regional one.

Meanwhile, one more domestic JV airline, the Air Bagan, is due to be
introduced in October.

_____________________________________
INTERNATIONAL

September 27, Agence France Presse
UN special envoy asks Myanmar's junta to launch dialogue with opposition

Washington: UN special envoy for Myanmar Razali Ismail held talks Monday
with Deputy US Secretary of State Richard Armitage and urged the military
rulers in Yangon to launch "meaningful" dialogue with the opposition.

US officials indicated Razali was continuing to prod the junta to embrace
democratic reforms.

He was the catalyst for landmark contacts between the military rulers and
pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi which began in October 2000 but
collapsed last year.

Razali and Armitage "both agreed on the need for the (Myanmar) authorities
to release Aung San Suu Kyi and other political prisoners, and on the
importance of beginning a meaningful dialogue on national reconciliation
and steps for the establishment of democracy," deputy US State Department
spokesman Adam Ereli told reporters.

Ereli said the two discussed recent political developments in Myanmar and
the UN special representative's "recent activities."

Aung San Suu Kyi has been under house arrest for more than a year, her
third period of detention, and the military had clamped down the
activities of her party, the National League for Democracy (NLD).

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

Razali's meeting Monday came as the NLD marked the 16th anniversary of its
founding Monday and called for the release of all political prisoners.

Myanmar launched a national forum earlier this year which it billed as the
first step in its "road map" to democracy but the process has been
rejected as a sham by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan.

Meanwhile, three more US organizations cancelled their tours to Myanmar
following a call by the democracy movement to boycott tourism to the
country until there is an irreversible transition to democracy.

The cancellation by Stanford University, the Wright Institute of Chicago,
and the University of Wisconsin follow similar decisions by the
Smithsonian Institution, Asia Society, American Museum of Natural History,
and University of Washington.

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

The UN Security Council should censure the junta, said Han Lin, a member
of the US Campaign for Burma, a Washington-based activist group. Burma is
the previous name of Myanmar.

_____________________________________

September 27, Los Angeles Times
No more delays in family's reunion - Lisa Getter

After nearly six years of legal obstacles, a Burmese man granted asylum in
the U.S. brings his wife and three children to safety

Tialhei Zathang kept his arms crossed in front of his chest, the only
outward sign that the former math teacher was nervous. He had not seen his
wife, his two sons or his daughter for nearly six years -- not since he
left them in hiding in India, after fleeing persecution in Myanmar, while
he sought asylum in the United States.

And now they were finally here.

Their plane arrived Thursday evening, 44 minutes late. Two hours later,
most of the people awaiting the flight to John F. Kennedy International
Airport had come and gone. Their friends or relatives had emerged from
behind the silver wall where Zathang knew his family must still be,
dealing once again with U.S. immigration authorities.

Zathang, 45, had his own experiences with those authorities -- part of a
tortuous journey to freedom that began Dec. 4, 1998, with his application
for political asylum. The long delays he encountered and the arbitrary
decision making along the way were detailed in The Times in 2001 as a
window into the problems plaguing U.S. immigration courts. He eventually
won asylum in 2002, which let him begin the paperwork that would allow his
family to join him.

But it took an additional 990 days for the reunion to occur.

He was sure his children would remember him, even though the two youngest
were 5 and 6 when he saw them last. He had tried to speak with them by
phone every week. Sometimes they had been able to talk for as long as five
minutes.

The last call was Wednesday, just before they boarded a Kuwait Airways jet
-- their first time on a plane -- for the trip from New Delhi to Kuwait to
London to New York.

While he waited, Zathang popped cough drops into his mouth to keep his
breath fresh, and leaned over the metal rail that separated the waiting
area from the arriving passengers.

The hall filled with Polish speakers awaiting a flight from Warsaw. And
suddenly, among them, Zathang spotted his elder son, Tialceu, 20. And his
wife, Hlawntial, more beautiful than in his few cherished family photos.
And Tlunaguk, 11, and Rinsang, who celebrated her 10th birthday Sept. 20.

In seconds, Zathang was over the metal rail. He would not kiss his wife --
not in public, as his society frowned on such displays. But he swiftly
embraced his children, who could not keep their hands off him. He put an
arm around his wife, briefly.

Zathang said his heart was pounding so hard it hurt. He put his hand on
his daughter's chest and felt her heart fluttering wildly too. Their
smiles were enormous. None of them had slept in days.

Meanwhile, his wife tightly hugged Jessica Attie, who had come to the
airport to be with Zathang. Attie had helped make this day possible. She
had handled Zathang's case all these years -- first as a Georgetown
University law student representing him in immigration court, later as a
lawyer with White & Case, a large firm that allowed her to work on the
matter at no charge.

"I am sure God has sent you to us," Hlawntial Zathang told Attie.

It has been an excruciating trip through America's immigration system for
Zathang and his family, one marked by bureaucratic errors, questionable
decisions and difficult hurdles. The final obstacle was a request by
immigration authorities this year that they undergo costly DNA tests to
prove they were related.

Attie, 30, handled the logistics, getting up at 3 a.m. to make countless
calls to India. She smoothed out complications that developed when
Zathang's forms were rejected because they were photocopies, not
originals. On that day alone, she said, she called India 15 times.

"It was my first case ever. There was something about it that resonated
with me," said Attie, who recently left White & Case for a job with
Brooklyn Legal Services, where she will work with the poor. "I was so
angry about how he was treated. It's embarrassing."

Zathang and his family fled Myanmar, the Southeast Asian nation once known
as Burma, in February 1998. He was an activist for democracy and a
practicing Christian -- both unpopular positions in his country, a
military dictatorship with a majority Buddhist population.

He had been arrested, detained and beaten once before. After being alerted
that he was about to be arrested again, Zathang and his family made their
way to India. There, they went into hiding after learning that Indian
officials were deporting illegal immigrants back to Myanmar.

Zathang decided to seek refuge in the United States, and purchased an
Indian passport on the black market.

Once in the U.S., he applied for political asylum. His case was assigned
to an immigration judge, Joan V. Churchill, who rarely approved such
requests. The government argued that because Zathang had traveled on an
Indian passport, he must be a citizen of India, not Myanmar, and was
committing fraud by claiming he was Burmese.

Unlike many applicants, though, Zathang had evidence and witnesses to
support his claims.

A University of Illinois linguistics professor testified that he had known
Zathang in Myanmar and that Zathang spoke a dialect found only in one part
of that country. One of Zathang's cousins, who had earlier been granted
asylum, described how he too had purchased an Indian passport. An exiled
member of the Burmese parliament told Churchill he had known Zathang for
20 years. And an article in an Indian newspaper, published in July 1998,
described Zathang's flight from his village and said that the police in
Myanmar were "seeking him for interrogation."

Churchill denied Zathang's application and ordered that he be returned to
India.

Partly because of publicity about the case, immigration officials
eventually conceded that he was from Myanmar, and the appeals board
overturned Churchill's ruling. That allowed Zathang to petition
immigration officials to allow his family to join him.

The government said it would take a little more than six months to process
the documents. A year went by before the application was approved Oct. 24,
2003.

But that didn't mean they could leave immediately.

To get the necessary visas for travel to the United States, Zathang's wife
and children had to be interviewed at the U.S. Embassy in New Delhi.

At the end of the interview, the officer in charge gave Hlawntial Zathang
a letter. "Our office has considered your case, but we still have some
doubts regarding your application," it said. "To resolve these issues you
may go for DNA test. This will expedite the decision on your case. This
test is completely voluntary. All costs associated with the test are your
responsibility."

To cover the $2,100 cost, White & Case donated $1,940. Zathang contributed
$160, all he could afford.

The tests proved that, as Zathang put it Thursday, "all my kids are my
real blood."

Officials at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, part of the
Department of Homeland Security, said the DNA tests, which technically are
voluntary, were necessary in certain cases to root out fraud. Bill
Strassberger, a spokesman for the agency, said the government had no
statistics on how often the tests were requested, but noted that they were
becoming a useful tool to detect instances of "families growing suddenly."

Immigration lawyers said the requests for DNA testing, the cost of which
is prohibitive for many immigrants, increased after the Sept. 11 attacks.
They said certain U.S. embassies -- particularly those in Africa, where
document fraud was more common -- were more likely to order the tests.

"A lot of people are getting caught up in this," said Erin Corcoran, a
lawyer with the asylum program of Human Rights First, a New York-based
advocacy group. "There's a paralysis that adjudicators and decision makers
have. They don't want to be culpable of letting the wrong person into this
country."

For Attie, whose father was killed by a drunken driver when she was a
teenager, the idea of losing six years of a father's presence was
overwhelming. "You see that family and you think the U.S. government did
everything in its power to keep them out," she said.

But now, at last, they have arrived. And Thursday, as Zathang loaded his
family's belongings into a van he and his cousin rented to make the drive
from Baltimore to pick them up, his children walked over to the young
lawyer to speak the few words of English they had learned.

"Thank you," Rinsang said.

"Thank you," Tlunaguk said.

"Thank you," Tialceu said.

_____________________________________
OPINION / OTHER

September 27, The New Light of Myanmar
Global scholars do not accept economic sanctions on Myanmar - Aung Moe San

No action is more inhuman than the act of cutting off all humanitarian aid
to and imposing economic sanctions on a country to cause hardship. In
other words, it is the worst violation of human rights that can also be
put down as economic terrorism. Moreover, it is an evil act bred by greed
and injustice.

In this regard, all the decent eminent scholars of the world are against
the acts of the US and its allies of the West imposing abhorable sanctions
on Myanmar.

Concerning the matter, I will now recall an article titled 'US needs to
re-think planned sanctions against Burma' by an economics professor of the
Global Environment Bureau of New York's Columbia University published in
The Nation, Bangkok, on 1 August 2003.

The following is a rough recount of the article:

"The act of pushing the nations that are practising isolationism to close
their door tighter will only harm the people and will be like warning the
governments of those nations to fasten their control over their people.
The US Senate and Congress decided to impose economic sanctions on
Myanmar. The most distinctive economic sanction in the world was the one
imposed on South Africa during the time the country was governed by
minority Whites. The world nations stopped doing business with South
Africa. Superficially, the sanctions seemed to work and helped accelerate
the downfall of the White administration in the country. However, much of
the loss that occurred due to the sanctions could not camouflage the big
success they had achieved, because it is certain that there were
alternative means to topple the White government.

"The failed economic plans of the authorities contributed to the economic
difficulties of Cuba, but the US trade sanctions on the country since 1960
are also the culprit of the issue. The economy of Haiti fell drastically
when the US imposed economic sanctions on it during the 1990s, with the
aim of setting up democracy in the nation. Iraq and North Korea also
suffered from economic sanctions. The wounds inflicted by the sanctions on
a country are obvious. But could they realize their aims? Economic
sanctions alone cannot bring down a single-party system government.

Instead, that makes the government further tighten its grip over the
country. Some of the hardship are the results of the government, but the
sanctions offer it the opportunity to put all the blame on foreign
countries for its own failures. Although sanctions hurt the economy and
public health of the respective countries, they are not able to bring down
a government. The sanctions cause internal instability and weaken the
government and reduce its revenue. On the other hand, public provision of
financial assistance to the opposition parties drops, the opposition
parties are cut off from internal support, and the international
watchdog's activities in the country also diminish.

"It is easy to boycott Myanmar, but hard to make political changes there.
Gradual shrinking of Myanmar's economy and cornering her cannot bring
political changes, instead they will intensify the suffering of the
people. Although the powers that impose the sanctions say they do not mean
to hurt the people, they also will not be exempt from responsibility for
creating the public suffering, a consequence of their actions."

Similarly, Bridget Wells, an associate professor of Advanced International
Relations Studies Department of Johns Hopkins University, wrote an article
'Sanctions worsen Burmese poverty' in the International Herald Tribute of
9 October 2003.

A brief account of the article is as follows:

"The US President's act of signing legislation to impose sanctions on
Myanmar is to protest the detention of the leader of the National League
for Democracy. However, the sanctions will only prolong public suffering.
The US policymakers are thinking that pressures on Myanmar military
leaders will lead to the release of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and later towards
flourishing of democracy in the nation. But it is a false assumption.
Because leaders do not make democracy, only people do. Sadly, the people
suffering hardship and facing insufficiency cannot lend support to the
flourishing of democracy.

"Because of the new law on imposing sanctions on Myanmar, the country is
likely to lose US $ 356 million in revenues and face dire consequences.
Many garment factory workers will lose their jobs, and will have to find
new areas for earning their living. The repercussions of the sanctions
will reach every sector and part of the nation."

Dr John Bashle, a long-time researcher of the US, David I Steinberg, a
professor of Georgetown University, Dr Robert Taylor, a former British
professor, U Kyaw Yin Hlaing, Associated Professor of Political Science,
University of Singapore, and Morton Peterson, a senior critic of
International Crisis Group took part in the talks on reviewing US-Myanmar
relations held in Washington on 25 March 2004.

Dr Bashle said that he assumed that the Myanmar military junta is changing
its attitude, that the US should act to serve its own interests instead of
imposing sanctions on Myanmar; that US citizens do not wish to see
unnecessary increase in the number of enemies because of its strategic
interest; that the US should be aware of the fact that Myanmar's
neighbours are doing brisk business with Myanmar, while the US has no
investments in the country.

U Kyaw Yin Hlaing said that sanctions do not work, and do not support
Myanmar, but only worsens her plight; that it cannot be said the sanctions
do not hurt the government, but they do hurt the people more; that if
their relatives and friends are included in the victims of the sanctions,
supporters of the sanctions will stop supporting them.

Steinberg said that the US government never acknowledges the good part of
the Myanmar military junta, that the US has never officially acknowledged
Myanmar's effort to reduce cultivation of opium poppy, reaching of
cease-fire agreements and building of infrastructures; that he disagreed
with the argument of Senator Mitch MacConnel , adding that sanctions will
not change the junta, that the US is isolating the junta instead of
helping it to enhance its international relations and contacts, that as
the successive US administrations are trying to promote relations with
North Korea, they should also do so with Myanmar and that sanctions only
hurt US interests.

Dr Taylor said that the military junta has changed a lot and is much
different from its situation in 1988, that its political outlook has
widened and its efficiency has increased, that it can now handle the
situation and solve the problems, that it had made marked changes in
administering the country despite difficulties, that it has the ability to
solve the internal and international problems and to reach cease-fire
agreements.

Peterson said that the military junta has become stronger than it was in
the past, that it cannot be brought down with sanctions and that political
parties are so weak to set up democracy. In conclusion, Dr Bashle said
that all the speakers agreed that Myanmar would reconvene the National
Convention and hold elections. Even when the global experts are opposing
the sanctions, with sincere outlook, some internal elements are still
trying to betray the national cause. They are like maggots in your own
flesh.

Thus, its high time they realized the nation's objective conditions and
the Government's national consolidation endeavours, and join hands with
the people to build a democratic nation collectively, that is a historic
duty, in accord with the Seven-point Road Map or future policy of the
State. The nation will continue to strive for the flourishing of policy of
uprightness along with the global experts who oppose the sanctions.

_____________________________________

September 27, The Nation
Burma, where it's always 1984

Although George Orwell died in 1950 ' 11 years before General Ne Win
seized power in Burma and led it down the disastrous 'Burmese Road to
Socialism' ' the British novelist's 'Animal Farm' and 'Nineteen
Eighty-Four' are regarded by Burmese intellectuals as prophetic of their
nation's fate.

The pigs and dogs in 'Animal Farm' and Big Brother of 'Nineteen
Eighty-Four' are obviously Burma's ruthless military dictators. Thus
long-suffering Burmese consider the two novels part of a trilogy, the
first being Orwell's early novel 'Burmese Days' based on his five-year
experience as a imperial policeman in Burma during the 1920s.

In 'Secret Histories', Emma Larkin sets out to retrace the footsteps of
Eric Arthur Blair, the future George Orwell, in Burma.

'The towns and cities where Orwell was posted span the geographical heart
of the country and, in a sense, it is still possible to experience Burma
as Orwell knew it - almost a half-century of military dictatorship has
given it the air of a country frozen in time,' Larkin writes in her
prologue. 'But a journey through Orwell's Burma would lead through an even
eerier and much more terrifying landscape: that a real life Nineteen
Eighty-Four where Orwell's nightmare visions are being played out with a
gruelling certainty.'

She journeys through Mandalay, the Irrawaddy Delta, Rangoon, Moulmein and
the hill station of Katha, which formed the backdrop to 'Burmese Days'.

This quest to recover a lost past is reminiscent of another recent travel
book about Burma: Andrew Marshall's 'Trouser People' which traces the
perambulations of a highly gifted and wildly eccentric Scotsman, Sir
George Scott, who subdued the Shan States and the Wild Wa during the
heyday of British imperialism while introducing the locals to the joys of
football.

Marshall's modern day travels through the pariah state are characterised
by high spirits and savage humour. Larkin's approach is more gentle.

Unlike Larkin and other writers, she mastered the Burmese language at
London's School of Oriental and African Studies. Her visits to Burma
spanned nearly a decade, during which she spun a ever-denser web of
contacts.

If she lacks the wild verbal pyrotechnics of Andrew Marshall, she more
than makes up for it with her sensitivity to her interview subjects and
high poetic arts of description.

'Myaungmya is a town in the middle of nowhere,' she writes of Orwell's
first police posting. 'It is located deep inside the Delta region, where
Burma's largest river, the Irrawaddy, spills into hundreds of streams that
meander through silt and mangrove forests down to the Bay of Bengal. The
Delta is a flat mass of mud and water with rich, fertile soil and the
clammy hothouse heat of a tropical swamp. It is a hauntingly timeless
landscape. The rivers are milky brown ' the colour of weak cocoa ' and
water hyacinth grows so thick it sometimes covers the entire surface with
softly undulating blankets of vivid green . . .

'Small paddy fields form a higgledy-piggledy patchwork dotted with an
occasional water buffalo or caramel-coloured cow. Small huts of bamboo and
thatch sit amid the forest of mangrove and coconut trees, and every so
often the golden tip of a pagoda can be seen above the greenery.'

The book's subtitle ' 'Finding George Orwell in a Burmese Teashop' ' is
apt, as Larkin spends a lot of time in ubiquitous teashops talking with
educated Burmese. In Mandalay she is even part of an impromptu Orwell Book
Club.

'It was a small group ' of necessity, so as not to attract the attention
of the authorities,' she writes. 'Unauthorised gatherings of people are
technically illegal, and a gathering that included a foreigner would
attract more attention than most. Our first meeting took place in a busy
tea shop with bright blue awnings. We chose a corner table beside a noisy
television ' the screech and wail of soap operas would drown the sound of
our voices for any unwanted listeners.'

Travelling as a single, Burmese-speaking woman, Larkin meets a wide range
of people: students, professors, journalists, booksellers, pastors,
engineers, vendors, waiters, retired Anglo-Burmese school teachers, many
policemen who are keeping track of her, and even a sinister Burmese army
colonel.

In a second-hand bookshop, she meets Kyaw Thein, an elderly poet.

'He was one of those courtly old Burmese gentlemen I met from time to time
in Burma who spoke a quaint old-world English and had an air of sadness
that lingered around them like cigarette smoke. Kyaw Thein recited a few
of his poems to me there in the dingy upper reaches of the market, within
the stench of an overflowing rubbish bin. They were beautiful and simple
verses about love and loss and loneliness. 'I can only write love poems,'
he said with some embarrassment. 'The censors warned me away from writing
about anything else. They told me, 'Bawa akyaung m'yah neh' ('Don't write
about life.').'

Orwell once wrote about totalitarianism: 'If you want a vision of the
future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face ' forever.'

There is a dreary sameness in the stories that her subjects tell, a
constant refrain of futility and despair. But ordinary life goes on:

'Dugout canoes glided along the river. Bamboo groves were occasionally
revealed, producing patches of luminous green light. A gaggle of people
scampered across one opening, bright pink and purple shoulder bags hung
like sashes across their torsos. Naked boys wearing cloche hats made of
palm leaves slid with whoops and shouts down a muddy embankment into the
river. A lone woman wrapped in a lilac tamein knelt on a stone in the
canal with her back toward us, slowly combing her waist-length hair.'

Massacres of minorities, forced labour, rampant drug trafficking,
political prisons, economic destitution, rigid censorship, the complete
ruin of education and medical care ' it's all true.

But Larkin is struck by the normality of life in Burma, people going about
their business, laughing, talking, smoking cheroots, going to the movies.
'What did you expect' a Burmese friend asks her. 'That we would all be
sitting around on the pavements crying'