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INFORMATION PLEASE - NO SENSATIONAL
- Subject: INFORMATION PLEASE - NO SENSATIONAL
- From: OKKAR66127@xxxxxxx
- Date: Thu, 06 Mar 1997 18:20:00
Subject: INFORMATION PLEASE - NO SENSATIONALISM
INFORMATION PLEASE - NO SENSATIONALISM
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By Dr. San Win , Osaka, Japan
I am a retired doctor who has served for more than (30)
years in Myanmar and I am currently visiting my son who is a
businessman doing business in Japan. On my way to Japan from
Bangkok while I was on the plane I read the March 4th Bangkok
Post newspaper where I came across an article written by Mr. Seth
Mydan of the New York Times news service. The title of the story
is "Fear of Burmese Troops Grow" and the lines below the news
heading read as such. "Karen fleeing SLORC and its allies tell tales
of rape and worse, and the males including children are being
pushed back into the Jungle of Burma and possibly the hands of
Rangoon forces."
I was very much disheartened to read this sort of unconfirmed
news from such prestigious news service. It came to my mind that
such kind of reporting creates very much negative impression on my
country by those who do not have adequate knowledge on
Myanmar and its people. At the same time it also creates frustration
and discredit the service when those who have proper knowledge
of the country and situation come across such news reporting.
Going through the story there is a paragraph mentioning that a
55 old farmer watched from a hiding place where his neighbor by
the mane of Cree May, 42 year was raped by a dozen soldiers until
she died. It also went on to say that Mrs. Cree May's husband and
father was tied up and made to watch. As a doctor who has served
in various parts of Myanmar for more than (3) decades, I am very
much aware of the developments taking place in the country and the
evolution process my country is going in. The present government of
Myanmar has successfully made peace agreements with (15) of the
(16) armed groups that have been fighting against all successive
governments since she regained her independence in 1948. The last
remaining group (the Karen National Union) seems to have
deliberately strayed away from the course other (15) groups have
managed to stay. But as a Myanmar national, I would like to see this
last remaining outlawed group came to its senses and return to the
peace negotiating table with all sincerity while the government is
keeping the gate to peace, tranquillity and national unity wide
opened.
The crime allegedly committed by government troops is
nothing more than the usual standard accusation in areas where
there have been armed conflicts. This kind of allegation was made in
all areas experiencing armed conflicts. The same sort of accusations
were heard in other areas when experiencing similar armed conflict
but disappeared once peace negotiation become successful.
For substantive factual information reporting, I believe the
New York Tines should ask the ethic armed groups that have
agreed upon the peace negotiations with the government, whether
their previous accusations on rape were real or they were just using
the line for anti-government propaganda during that time.
Similarly, we are hearing allegations of slave labor in many
construction projects too. Mostly the sources of such accusation
comes from anti-government groups and opposition parties. There
are a lot of instances where the armed groups accused the
government of using slave labor, child labor, rape, torture and etc...
but once peace agreements have been achieved they not only
dropped those standard accusations but surprisingly started to turn
around and complain to the government that the authorities
concerned are not implementing development projects for their
areas fast enough.
This is what I would like to point out, that if such hideous acts
are actually committed as New York Times has mentioned.
Resentment and anger will prevail among our national races and
none of the armed groups will join hands with the government to
strive for bringing peace, unity and tranquillity to develop the nation.
In conclusion, I would like to suggest the New York Times
news service to give her readers a sense of reality with simple
straight forward facts rather than putting in too much sensationalism
and distort the facts.
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