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Letter to the US President



Dear Friends of Burma,

We apologize for sending the different letter on the other day. Here is the
actual letter which was sent to.
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Democratic Burmese Students Organization (USA)
P.O.Box 91, Rockville, MD 20851
Tel.(301)217-0356, Fax. (301)770-7416


President Bill Clinton
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Ave, NW
Washington, DC 20500




































































































                                                                     February
2, 1995

Mr. President:

With this letter, we, Burmese students in the US, would like to express our
grave concern about the recent developments in our native country.  As you
are no doubt aware, the Burmese military junta has again broken its much
publicized promise to seek internal peace through peaceful means.  Last week,
it launched heavy offensives against Manerplaw, headquarters of the Karen
ethnic people and also a base for student activists and other democratic
forces.  This has resulted in many deaths and an exodus of more than 15,000
people who have fled into Thailand.

Last year, the military junta repeatedly assured the international community
that it would peacefully resolve its differences with ethnic minorities.
 Even in the UN General Assembly, Ohn Gyaw, the foreign minister, publicly
reiterated the military junta's plan to bring about cease-fires through
negotiations with ethnic groups.  True to its nature, the military regime has
once again broken its promise blatantly.

Since the time of its independence in 1948, Burma has been ravaged by a
multiethnic resistance against the Rangoon government.  Successive military
regimes have unsuccessfully attempted to solve this problem by military
means.  Realizing that national reconciliation cannot be achieved through
force and only through negotiation, the present military junta, namely the
State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC), began to express its desire
to have a dialog with the ethnic peoples.

Many ethnic groups in the conflict including the Karen have worked to seek a
just solution through dialog with the SLORC.  But the SLORC, while repeatedly
promising to use peaceful means to resolve  the national conflict, launched
attacks on the Karen people last week. It is clearly a despicable breach of
promise.

So far about 15,000 people have fled to Thailand to seek refuge there.  They
are victims of over 40 years of civil war in Burma and are in urgent need of
shelter, food and medicine.  Besides, their life is precarious in the hands
of the Thai authorities who have business links with the SLORC.  Since
mistreatment of refugees along the Thai-Burmese border is widespread, the
presence of international human rights groups and relief agencies has become
a necessity.

We would, therefore, like to request you to urge the Thai government to
provide asylum to those people who have fled the battles and to assist
international relief workers in their work.  We would also like you to call
on the SLORC to halt attacks on the ethnic people and to resolve the national
conflict through peaceful means.

Sincerely,




(Signed)                                             (Signed)
Yin Aye                                              Shwe Sin Htun
Representative (East Coast)                 Representative (East Coast)
DBSO (USA)			  DBSO (USA)


CC:  US  Secretary of States
       US  Assistant Secretary of State for East Asia & Pacific