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Boycott travel to Burma



Please boycott this company, and others like it.

Abercrombie and Kent is offering a choice of individual trips to
Burma, known by its illegal regime as "Myanmar".

For a little under 3000 pounds you can have an individual tour
known as "A Passion for Pagodas". A slightly cheaper alternative
is a luxury cruise up the Irrawaddy to Mandalay. While the
representatives of Abercrombie and Kent pander to your slightest
desire, Burma, of course, will look immaculate for your visit.
After all, it has been carefully prepared by its military rulers
for your inspection.

I learn from the pastel-tinted brochure of Abercrombie and Kent
that: "A long quarantine from outside influences has preserved the
country's cultural heritage and traditional lifestyles to a
remarkable degree. ...the gentle courtesy of the people, the
magnificent and still-venerated shrines that are both spiritual
and physical monuments to the timeless traditions and faith of a
2,500-years-old culture... the picture that unfolds is a vivid one
largely from a past age."

In other words, you have gone to admire the handiwork of present
day slaves, recruited by SLORC to work under conditions resembling
the atrocities of wartime. The labour of renovating tourist
attractions is such that children can be crushed to death. All
this was exposed in John Pilger's televised special report:
"Inside Burma, Land of Fear".

According to news bulletins, the release from house arrest of Daw
Aung San Suu Kyi, the democratic leader of the people after the
1990 elections, appears little more than a cosmetic exercise. She
is now forbidden to address supporters outside the gates of her
house, although thousands still attend these rallies in spite of
the danger of imminent retaliation by SLORC. Her well-known advice
is that 1996 is not a year to visit Burma. It will still be there
when democracy has been restored. Meanwhile the political
situation looks tense.

So why should your money go to the illegal SLORC regime, through
Abercrombie and Kent or any other travel company prepared to
support it, to buy more weapons and ammunition to use on the
people of Burma? If the people dare to protest against the tyranny
of a dictatorship that refused to surrender power after elections,
they are slaughtered in the streets and the living and the dead
are hurled together into mass graves and furnaces.

According to posts in other conferences on-line, the countless
atrocities perpetuated by SLORC in waging war on its own people,
include the rape of tribeswomen by SLORC troops as "comfort
women", so those women who are able to flee do so, and often find
this leads directly to being kidnapped and sold into brothels in
Thailand. SLORC troops are alleged to have captured Karen women
whom they forced to march in front of their army when advancing on
a critical stronghold of Karen tribesmen. Accordingly the women
were massacred by their own distraught menfolk.

Such is the "gentle courtesy" practised by SLORC, which you are
invited to overlook.

Daw Aung San Suu Kyi must be one of the bravest people on earth.
How one calm elegant woman can stand up for her beliefs in the
face of such oppression never ceases to amaze and inspire me. I
honour her courage and spirit, not the mere monetary interests of
prosperous companies that overlook the suffering of her people.

Please consider doing the same.

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A suggested letter to Abercrombie and Kent, or to any other travel
company ignoring the requests of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and the
violations of SLORC could be worded on the following lines:

Martin Thompson, Managing Director, Abercrombie and Kent Travel,
Sloane Square House, Holbein Place, London. SW1W 8NS

Fax 44-0171-730-9376.

Dear Mr Thompson,

I am aware that your company is offering holidays in Myanmar, more
correctly known as Burma.

Please can you explain why you are prepared to organise holidays
that provide financial support to the illegal SLORC regime, guilty
of multiple violations of human rights, including the use of
slavery to renovate tourist attractions?

I hope you will not use the defence that these known violations of
human rights consist of "unsubstantiated allegations". I am aware
that any event, no matter how well documented, can be claimed to
be an "unsubstantiated allegation" by those who prefer to ignore
it for reasons of financial gain. I expect you to check out such
situations more conscientiously.

I would remind you that the legitimate leader of the Burmese
people is Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, who has stated that 1996 is not
the year to visit Burma as it will still be there when democracy
has been restored. Like other potential clients, I expect
responsible travel companies to respect such requests and to make
all reasonable efforts to support ethics and human rights in their
choice of destinations.

As long as SLORC continues in power, I will not consider using
your company until Myanmar is removed from your list of
destinations and you are seen to display greater concern for human
rights.

Yours sincerely...

[I note that this company is described as a division of
Abercrombie and Kent Ltd. and that it is a member of ABTA and
IATA.]

Also implicated in the financing of SLORC through support of
"Visit Myanmar 1996" are British Airways and Kuoni, among others.
When interviewed by John Pilger for the documentary: "Inside
Burma, Land of Fear", James Sherwood, Chairman of Orient Express
Hotels and Road to Mandalay River Cruises, seemed to have
difficulty in accepting that gross violations of human rights,
well documented by organisations of the status of the United
Nations and Amnesty International, could occur when he was not
there to witness them in person. The Foreign Office, the
Department of Trade and the Burmere Embassy refused to be
interviewed for this film.

 H. Brown: carin@xxxxxxxxxx

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