[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index ][Thread Index ]

From Paris: The Economist, Editoria

Subject: From Paris: The Economist, Editorial Burma & Story

>From EuroBurmanet, grace de Keith Hudson <ac972@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> for 
scanning.
Editorial and article, be sure to email Economist, To the Editors, for 
you comments and opinion (thats also why they publish what they do). 
i only have their URL handy, you can find email on their web
http://www.economist.com

please send us your comments too!



Metta, thank you, peace, happiness and long life. Virtually yours, 
Dawn Star  (Paris)  <cd@xxxxxxx>

Burmanet / TOTAL Coordinator (France) 
Euro-Burmanet  (Paris, France) 
Free Burma Coalition
http://wicip.org/fbc/ 

NCGUB
815 Fifteenth Street NW
 Suite 910
Washington, DC 20005
<ncgub@xxxxxxxxxxx>

Democratic Voice of Burma (DVB)
P.O Box 6720
ST.Olavs Plass
0130 Oslo, Norway
Tel: 47-22-200021, Tel/fax:47-22-362525

Norway NCGUB you must make e-mail address to 
level one (1)maung@xxxxxxxxxxx (the PM office e-mail)
level two (2)NCGUB Europe, U Nwe Aung 
	     e-mail <101564.2652@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> 

All members of the House can be reached through the Congressional 
Switchboard, at (202) 224-3121. 
While some members have E-mail, electronic communication is not as 
effective as a
telephone call or fax.

President William Clinton
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Ave. NW
Washington DC 20500
(202) 456-1414

Warren Christopher
Secretary of State
Department of State
2201 C. Street NW
Washington DC 20520
(202) 647-4000

National Security Advisor Anthony Lake
National Security Council
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Ave. NW
Washington DC 20500
(202) 456-9481

http://www-uvi.eunet.fr/
http://www-uvi.eunet.fr/asia/euro-burma/

Your  pass into the following sites, and much more. 

http://www-uvi.eunet.fr/asia/euro-burma/nld/
http://www-uvi.eunet.fr/asia/euro-burma/daask/
http://www-uvi.eunet.fr/asia/euro-burma/total
http://www-uvi.eunet.fr/asia/euro-burma/pepsi/

Help support our effort. Write now, to : 

Mrs. Emma BONINO
EC HUMANITARIAN OFFICE 

The European Commission
Directorate General 1B
External Relations
(Directorate 1B, D, Division 3)
Rue de la Lois/Westraat 200
B-1049 Brussels
Belgium

EC Humanitarian Office Website : http://europa.eu.int/en/comm/echo/echo
Fax:32-2-299-1047

Join the Free Burma Coalition. Call 608-256-6572 or email: 
zni@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
TOTAL WORLDWIDE BOYCOTT TOTAL WORLDWIDE BOYCOTT TOTAL WORLDWIDE BOYCOTT 
http://www-uvi.eunet.fr/asia/euro-burma/total/
$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

Help support  the TOTAL WORLDWIDE BOYCOTT by donating funds to 
EURO-BURMANET: Email cd@xxxxxxx

Send letters and cut-up UNOCAL / TEXACO / ARCO / TOTAL charge cards to:

Roger Beach, CEO 
Unocal Corporation 
2141 Rosecrans Blvd., Suite 4000 / El
Segundo, CA 90245 
Tel: 310-726-7600

Gary Jones, CEO 
Total North America 
Total Tower, 900 19th Street 
Denver,
CO 80202 
Tel: 303-291-2000

Send your letters now : 

TOTAL  SA
Thierry Desmarest, CEO, President of Exploration and Production,
HQ: 24 Cours Michelet 92800 Puteaux France
Tel: 33-1-41-35-40-00  Fax: 33-1-41-35-64-65

E-mail : 
Paris France,  : <hourcard@xxxxxxxxx>
New York City  <TOTALNYC@xxxxxxx> , <roberth@xxxxxxxxx>


All members of the US House of Representatives can be reached through 
the Congressional Switchboard, at (202) 224-3121

While some members have E-mail, electronic communication is not as 
effective as a
telephone call or fax. Sent a letter, mark Free Burma Now, on the 
envelop. Its effective.

President William Clinton
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Ave. NW
Washington DC 20500
(202) 456-1414

Warren Christopher
Secretary of State
Department of State
2201 C. Street NW
Washington DC 20520
(202) 647-4000

National Security Advisor Anthony Lake
National Security Council
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Ave. NW
Washington DC 20500
(202) 456-9481

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
TOTAL WORLDWIDE BOYCOTT TOTAL WORLDWIDE BOYCOTT TOTAL WORLDWIDE BOYCOTT 
http://www-uvi.eunet.fr/asia/euro-burma/total/
$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$


> ---------------------------------
> (From the Leaders, 5 October, page 17)
> 
> MORE REPRESSION IN MYANMAR
> 
> Constructive engagement has failed. Tougher policies are needed if Myanmar's
> junta is to be dislodged
> 
> If there is a single issue that has consistently divided western countries
> from those of South-East Asia, it is Myanmar.  That may seem odd.  Although
> it has 45m people, Myan mar is of little economic or strategic significance.
> It provokes disagreement, however, because it involves some basic issues of
> principle.  For many in the West, it provides a clear example of the
> unacceptable suppression of democracy by a corrupt, military regime: an
> obvious case for coordinated international pressure.  Most of Myanmar's
> neighbours take a different view.  They see the West as posturing over
> Myanmar, trying to impose its own, inappropriate values on an Asian country.
> ASEAN, the seven-member Association of South-East Asian Nations, has
> consistently argued instead for a policy of constructive engagement.  Such a
> policy, it says, will bring about change in a gradual, manageable way
> without the risks of disorder that a swift transition to democracy might
> bring. But with Myanmar's generals arresting critics and restricting
> opponents (see page 83) the arguments for constructive engagement have
> collapsed. It is time for a rethink.
> 
>         If constructive engagement is ditched, it will mark a significant shift in
> policy for both Asia and the West. In the past few years, it has been the
> softer Asian approach that has gained ground.  For all its huffing and
> puffing about Myanmar, the West has done little to discomfort its leaders.
> When, last year, Myanmar's generals ended the house arrest of Aung San Suu
> Kyi, the leader of the democratic opposition, the proponents of constructive
> engagement took heart.  The next prize they dangled before Myanmar's
> generals was membership of ASEAN, an honour that would signal their
> acceptance in polite society.  At a recent ASEAN meeting it was made clear
> that Myanmar could expect to join within a year.
> 
>         In theory -- the theory of constructive engagement, that is -- this should
> have encouraged Myanmar's generals to press ahead in the search for
> political reconciliation at home. It didn't.  Encouraged by the belief that
> international recognition was around the corner, Myanmar's generals
> abandoned any pretence of tolerating opposition.  Over the past week they
> have arrested more than 500 members of the National League for Democracy,
> Miss Suu Kyi's party. Only her international celebrity has so far saved Miss
> Suu Kyi from a similar fate.  Instead, she is once again a virtual prisoner
> in her own home, leading a party that has been largely eviscerated.
> 
>         The latest round of arrests is only the most recent example of the
> repression that has been taking place for months.  But this time even ASEAN
> seems uneasy.  There are now mumblings that Myanmaes bid for membership of
> ASEAN may be put on hold. If the South-East Asians are sincere in their
> protestations that they want to promote change in Myanmar, they must make it
> clear that Myanmar's membership of ASEAN will remain impossible until Miss
> Suu Kyi and her followers are allowed back into political life.
> 
> Not tigers, polecats
> 
> As for the West, there is now talk of economic sanctions against Myanmar.
> Boycotts organised by pressure groups have persuaded several big western
> companies to pull out of the country.  President Clinton has just signed
> legislation which gives him the power to ban new American investment in
> Myanmar.  He may use the power, if only because Miss Suu Kyi's party --
> which unambiguously won a democratic election in 1990 -- has called for it.
> 
> Economic sanctions -- porous at best, divisive at worst -- rarely work. But
> life can be made harderfor the generals. ASEAN is now hesitating about
> admitting Myanmar largely because it realises that it could damage the
> organisation's image as well as its relations with the West.  Democrats
> everywhere should make it plain that, until there is real change in Myanmar
> -- -meaning genuine freedom for Miss Suu Kyi and her party, and a timetable
> for a return to democratic civilian rule -- the country's rulers will be
> treated as polecats.
> 
> -------------------------------------------------------------
> (from ASIA section, page 83)
> 
> DOUBLETHINK IN MYANMAR
> 
> Yangdon
> 
> There is an old joke in Myanmar:George Orwell's "Burmese Days", based on his
> time as a colonial policeman, is a good book, but not as good as his second
> novel about the country, "1984".  The name the junta gives itself, "the
> State Law and order Restoration Council" -- SLORC -- has an Orwellian ring.
> And Orwell's word "doublethink" might have been invented to describe the
> generals' mental processes.
> 
>         Thus, when the junta's spokesmen met the press on October 1st, they were
> able to contradict themselves without, apparently, noticing.  On the one
> hand, they argued, the SLORC has brought Myanmar peace, stability and the
> hope of prosperity, earning the loyalty of its people.  On the other hand,
> stability is so fragile that a meeting of a few hundred of its opponents
> might plunge the country into bloodshed.  Similarly, the SLORC is working
> hard to establish multi-party democracy; but there is no need for any
> "opposition group".  Or again, the opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi is
> "free to go where she wants"; but no, reporters may not cross the blockade
> now mounted by soldiers at the end of her street. (In practice, she has had
> to sneak out to meet them.)
> 
>         The soldiers took up positions on the night of September 26th to stop
> members of Miss Suu Kyi's party, the National League for Democracy (NLD),
> attending a meeting at her house.  The junta has acknowledged that it locked
> up 159 peoplc who wanted to attend and that another 414 activists were taken
> from their beds and into custody on the night of September 27th. Iit said
> that 163 detainees had been freed by October 2nd. Miss Suu Kyi has spoken of
> over 800 supporters being arrested, and many people not directly connected
> to her party appear to have been picked up recently in sweeps in the
> capital.  The NLD's headquarters were closed down, supposedly at the behest
> of the party's landlord.  Telephone lines to Miss Suu Kyi and her most
> senior lieutenants were out of order.  Taxi drivers were loth to go near
> their houses, scared that their registration numbers would be noted, and
> they would receive a knock on the door in the small hours.
> 
>         The blockade of Miss Suu Kyi's house was supposed to last until September
> 30th, by when the planned meeting would have been over.  But the soldiers
> stayed put.  It seems the junta has decided to stop Miss Suu Kyi's weekly
> speeches over her garden gate to the crowds who gather outside.  That would
> close the only access she has had to ordinary people since her "release"
> from six years of house arrest injuly 1995.
> 
>         Clearly Miss Suu Kyi can still frighten the SLORC into what looks like a
> paranoid over-reaction.  But, according to its own pronouncements, the SLORC
> has plenty to be paranoid about. It has fretted about divisions in the armed
> forces and accused the NLD of sowing dissension among the large and
> influential Buddhist monkhood.  It seems worried about the durability of the
> ceasefire agreements it has signed with 16 rebel ethnic groups in the border
> areas. And it knows that, in elections it arranged in 1990 and then ignored,
> the people of Myanmar unambiguously chose the NLD.
> 
>         It also sees itself as a victim of a conspiracy by foreigners, especially  from the United States.  Official newspapers have produced 
detailed lists of  all of Miss Suu Kyi's numerous encounters with 
foreign diplomats.  The
> Americans, says the SLORC, helped Miss Suu Kyi cook up the idea of an NLD
> meeting, to bring intemational pressure on the junta.  An American diplomat
> in Yangon, Marilyn Meyem has been accused of "intimidation" for warning
> Myanmar's foreign ministry of the possible consequences of disrupting the
> meeting.  As she sees it, she was merely attempting to head off a worsening
> of already strained relations between Myanmar and America.
>  Legislation signed by President Clinton on October 1st threatens a ban 
on
> investment in Myanmar if Miss Suu Kyi is "rearrested for political acts", or
> if there is "large-scale repression" of the opposition.  The junta may have
> met those conditions even before the law was passed.  The detentions, which
> follow a similar sweep before an NLD congress in May, may also provoke
> European sanctions, as well as making it hard for Japan to resume aid,
> andfor the regional club ASEAN to admit Myanmar as a member.
> 
>         The junta in public shrugs off such risks. It will do whatever is
> necessary, it says, to ensure there is no repeat of the turmoil and
> slaughter that surrounded its seizure of power in 1988 .The necessary, it
> appears, includes the quashing o fall domestic opposition, even of the
> peaceful sort represented by Miss Suu Kyi.  She has long appealed for a
> dialogue with the generals, and repeated that plea at her furtive press
> conference on October 2nd, but it now seems forlorn. Miss Suu Kyi, however,
> refused to accept the latest bout of repression as a setback. Rather, it had
> shown the world that the SLORC is "getting worse not better".  True enough.
> And so is the NLD's ability to function within Myanmar.
> 
> -------------
> 
> ________________________________________________________________________> 
> Keith Hudson, 6 Upper Camden Place, Bath BA1 5HX, England
> Tel:01225 312622/444881; Fax:01225 447727; E-mail:ac972@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> ________________________________________________________________________