IUF/SWISS APPEAL ON BURMA TOURISM

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PRESS RELEASE                                Geneva and Basel,
5 November 1996
(3 pages)
 
 
                 "DON'T VISIT MYANMAR YEAR 96"
         DON'T ACCEPT THE GENERALS' HOLIDAY INVITATION
 
 
The Swiss-Burma Association, Arbeitskreis Tourismus und
Entwicklung, and the International Union of Food,
Agricultural, Hotel, Restaurant, Catering, Tobacco and Allied
Workers' Associations (IUF)
 
issue a joint appeal to the Swiss people and the political and
economic leaders of Switzerland to bring immediate support to
the  embattled Burmese democracy movement by refraining from
traveling to Burma, and by refusing to cooperate in any way
with the military regime.
 
At a time when travel agents' catalogues are promoting Burma
as the "mysterious land of golden pagodas",  and the military
junta is preparing to launch its year of tourism, it is vital
to inform the public about the conditions under which this
tourism year is being brought about:
 
The preparation of the tourist infrastructure has involved
massive human rights abuses. This "holiday paradise" is being
built by forced labour. Throughout the country the people,
particularly ethnic minorities and members of the democratic
opposition, are subject to constant repression by the military
junta.
 
                 This statement is supported by:
 
Arbeitsgemeinschaft gegen Kinderprostitution, Human rights
working group of the Federation of Swiss Protestant Churches
(SEK), Bread for All, FIZ --Information Centre for Third World
Women, Society for Threatened Peoples (Switzerland),
International Federation of Commercial, Clerical, Professional
and Technical Employees (FIET), International Transport
Workers' Federation (ITF)
 
 
Further information from
 
Christine Plss, Arbeitskreis Tourismus und Entwicklung,
Basel,
Tel (061) 261 4742; Fax 261 4721 
Claude Schauli, Association Suisse-Birmanie; Tel 079/203.
84.65
Dan Gallin, Peter Rossman, Secretariat of IUF; Tel
022/793.22.33; Fax 793 2238
 
 
                      "DON'T VISIT MYANMAR YEAR 96"
              DON'T ACCEPT THE GENERALS' HOLIDAY INVITATION
 
The Swiss-Burma Association, Arbeitskreis Tourismus und
Entwicklung, and the International Union of Food,
Agricultural, Hotel, Restaurant, Catering, Tobacco and
Allied Workers' Associations (IUF) issue a joint appeal in
support of the Burmese Democracy Movement:
 
18 November 1996 marks the official launch of the Burmese
military regime's Tourist Year. The generals hope that their
"Visit Myanmar Year 1996" campaign (Myanmar is the new name
they have given to Burma) will attract 250,000 travelers whose
tourist dollars will fill the state coffers emptied by the war
the junta has been waging against its own people, and at the
same time, refurbish its international image.
 
In order to provide the necessary tourist infrastructure, the
military government has committed massive violations of human
rights. Hundreds of thousands of people have been forcibly
relocated to provide space for new hotel complexes, business
centres and other projects in time for the tourist year; an
unknown number of people, including women, children and the
elderly, have been conscripted as forced labourers on roads,
railways, airports and tourist sites. 
 
The opening of the country to foreign tourists and investors
has not been accompanied by a political opening to the people
of Burma: ethnic nationalities are still repressed by the
military junta; entire villages have been forcibly relocated
in acts of ethnic cleansing; people from various ethnic
groups, (for example the "giraffe-necked" Padaung women) are
exhibited as tourist attractions in "human zoos";  and SLORC
(State Law and Order Restoration Council, which seized power
in 1988), continues its violent repression of the Burmese
Democracy Movement. At the end of September 1996, for example,
there were more mass arrests, when up to 800 members of the
National League for Democracy were imprisoned;  Nobel Peace
Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, released in 1995 after 6 years of
house arrest, was threatened and once again prevented from
exercising her right to free expression.
 
The profits from the opening of the country to tourism will go
exclusively to the military regime and foreign investors, with
no benefit whatsoever for the suffering people of Burma;
neither will the Tourist Year help the process of
democratisation or the implementation of human rights, as
Democratic leader Aung San Suu Kyi does not tire of saying in
her recent statements. 
 
At the beginning of the Tourist Year, therefore, we would like
to repeat in Switzerland the appeal which Aung San Suu Kyi has
made on several occasions to the International Community
and all potential tourists: "Wait. Don't visit Burma yet.  It
would be a mistake to support the policies of the military
regime at this time". 
 
 
This appeal and statement are supported by:
 
Arbeitsgemeinschaft gegen Kinderprostitution, Human rights
working group of the Federation of Swiss Protestant Churches
(SEK), Bread for All, FIZ --Information Centre for Third World
Women, Society for Threatened Peoples (Switzerland),
International Federation of Commercial, Clerical, Professional
and Technical Employees (FIET), International Transport
Workers' Federation (ITF)
 
 
"DON'T VISIT MYANMAR YEAR 96" 
A CATEGORICAL "NO" TO THE BURMESE GENERALS' INVITATION
 
The Swiss-Burma Association, Arbeitskreis Tourismus und
Entwicklung, and the International Union of Food,
Agricultural, Hotel, Restaurant, Catering, Tobacco and
Allied Workers' Associations (IUF) address the Swiss people,
trade unions, businesses and Government:
 
* SWISS TRAVELERS are strongly urged not to go to Burma at
this time.  Such a decision will not only support the
endangered Burmese Democracy Movement, but constitute a
sanction against those travel agents who close their eyes to
extremely serious human rights violations in the country and
thus put the quality of their clients' holidays at risk.
 
* SWISS TRAVEL AGENTS are urged to respect the recommendation
of their own organisation: in October 1995 the Environment and
Social Affairs Group of the Federation of Swiss Travel Agents
recommended their members not to promote Burma at this time.
By accepting the invitation of the Burmese Generals and by
cooperating with them, travel agents bring discredit on
themselves and betray the trust of their clients, who rely on
their advice.
 
Beyond the tourist industry, the SWISS BUSINESS COMMUNITY is
urged not to invest in Burma at this time. Multinational
companies like brewers Heineken (Netherlands) and Carlsberg
(Denmark) have withdrawn from the country in recent months.
They took this action not least as a result of pressure from
trade unions, workers and threats of sanctions. 
 
The SWISS GOVERNMENT AND ADMINISTRATION are urged to bring
effective support to the endangered Burmese democratic forces,
in particular opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, in order to
actively encourage the process of democratisation in the
country. The Burmese Democracy Movement is asking for
international sanctions against the military junta. The United
States and European Union have imposed sanctions in recent
weeks, and ASEAN is currently reconsidering whether Burma is
ready to enter the Association. One might therefore expect
that the SWISS PARLIAMENT Will revise the law on the export of
war materials so that the export of  Pilatus planes (and spare
parts) to Burma will be forbidden. Only last Spring, attacks
made by adapted Pilatus P7s in the junta's offensive against
Karenni civilians in Kayah State led to the flight of
thousands of people.
 
 
In Spring  1996 Nobel Peace Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi told
Swiss journalist Christian Wyss what she would like from our
country: 
 
"We would like the Swiss people, and the people all over the
world to support our movement for democracy, because this is
basically a movement for justice and peace. And to get justice
and peace, we need a political system that allows everybody to
voice their hopes, their fears, their aspirations, their
dissatisfactions openly and freely within a legal framework.
That is basically what democracy is all about -- a system that
allows everybody to state their opinions, and that allows
everybody to feel that they have a say in how their country
should be governed. It is very little to ask for, and since
the Swiss people have enjoyed democracy for so long, we think
that they have a moral duty to help us to gain democracy".
 
 
Basel and Geneva, 5 November 1996