Congressional Junket to Burma Leave

[dohrs@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]

Subject: Congressional Junket to Burma Leaves Unanswered Questions


FREE BURMA COALITION
email:  zni@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx       Website:  http://FreeBurma.org

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Congressional Junket to Burma Leaves Unanswered Questions 

February 12, 1997 -- Washington, D.C. -- Two months after a trip to the
Southeast Asian military dictatorship of Burma by four high-ranking
Republican House members, their constituents find few answers to questions
they have on the matter. 

Representatives Tom DeLay (R-TX), Dennis Hastert (R-IL), Tom Paxson (R-NY) 
and Deborah Pryce (R-OH) spent four days in Burma in December as guests of
hard-line General Maung Aye of the ruling State Law and Order Restoration
Council (SLORC), according to SLORC news sources.  Their visit was
prominently featured with photographs in military-controlled newspapers in
Burma. 

During the four days, the Representatives did not meet with a single
leader or member of the besieged National League for Democracy party
(NLD), headed by Nobel Peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi.  The NLD
overwhelmingly won 1990 elections which were quashed by the SLORC. 

While SLORC tanks and armed troops filled the streets of Rangoon and other
Burmese cities in response to student demonstrations, the four
Representatives spent International Human Rights Day (December 10) in the
company of SLORC leaders, touring Mandalay Palace where thousands of local
citizens were forced to labor against their will in 1995 in a
beautification project.  Later, they viewed purported SLORC drug
eradication schemes, and visited the site of a controversial gas pipeline
being built by a partnership between the SLORC and oil companies Unocal
and Total. 

"This was a highly inopportune time to pay a visit to SLORC hard-liners," 
says Larry Dohrs of the US-based Free Burma Coalition (FBC). 
"Representatives, especially in leadership positions have a responsibility
to the public trust.  They need to have more accountability." 

Thus far, the source of the funding for the trip has been identified as
the "Asia-Pacific Exchange Foundation," a low-profile nonprofit based in
Washington, D.C., which has led Chinese Government sponsored delegations
to China in the past.  In response to queries from constituents, staffers
have either been unable or unwilling to determine the Foundation's funding
sources.  Foundation president Richard Quick has not responded to requests
for financial information. 


"When you have the US Government saying BurmaÕs drug lords 'launder their
money with impunity in banks controlled by the military,' you have a
legitimate concern over whether such monies paid for the visit," says Dr.
Sein Win of the National Coalition Government of the Union of Burma
(NCGUB), the democratic government in exile.  Burma produces the majority
of the world's opium and heroin. 

Staff members have not been able to provide details on how the
Representatives were briefed on Burma, and by whom.  They have not
provided information on who the Representatives met during their stay, nor
whose decision it was to go as guests of Gen. Maung Aye, nor whose
decision it was not to press for meetings with NLD members.  Nor were the
Representitives made available to journalists in Rangoon.

Another congressional delegation to Burma, this time arranged by a group
called "The Burma/Myanmar Forum,"  is due to leave during the upcoming
Congressional recess. 

An enacted sanctions law restricting new US investment in Burma awaits
implementation by the White House, having passed the Senate by a vote of
93-6.  Unocal, as the only US corporation with significant investment in
Burma, has lobbied hard against the measure. 

Contact:
Richard Quick, Asia-Pacific Exchange Foundation, 202-393-3140
National Coalition Government of the Union of Burma, 202-393-7342
Larry Dohrs, Free Burma Coalition, 206-784-5742	                                
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