Article by U Thaung (r)

[kzy@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx]

Just testing and ignore this message.

Yours sincerely,
Kyaw Zay Ya

"If you give a man a fish, he will have a meal. 
 If you teach him to fish, he will have a living. 
 If you are thinking a year ahead, sow a seed. 
 If you are thinking ten years ahead, plant a tree. 
 If you are thinking one hundred years ahead, educate the people. 
 By sowing a seed once, you will harvest once. 
 By planting a tree, you will harvest tenfold. 
 By educating the people, you will harvest one hundredfold."  (ANONYMOUS
CHINESE POET, 420 B.C.)

("If it is not broken, don't fix it" leads to the worst situation.)

On Sat, 25 Apr 1998 burma@xxxxxxxxxxx wrote:

> New Yorkers were kidnapped by Burmese Government
> By U Thaung
> 
>         The Burmese military government has kidnapped a huge 
> number of New Yorkers and is demanding millions of dollars as 
> ransom from the US Government. It appears that  the US Government 
> might  surrender in the near future.
>         The blackmail diplomacy of ransom  for irradiating opium 
> fields was first introduced by Golden Triangle Drug  King  Khun Sa
> a few years ago by demanding millions of dollars from the American 
> Government for wiping out the opium fields. Perhaps Khun Sa the 
> lord of drug, now residing at May Kha road military  elite quarters 
> in Rangoon is advising the Burmese Generals for this cruel scheme.
>         Nowadays the Burmese  military government's top priority 
> is to fight drug, even though all the generals are sharing the wealth 
> of drug monies from the two drug warlords. They are aiming for the 
> forthcoming  UN Drug Conference , that will introduce a plan to aid 
> billion of dollars from World Bank to the drug producing nations to 
> substitute other crops in the opium fields.
>         Action started with inviting newsmen from New York 
> Times, Newsweek and other journalists and showing how  sincerely 
> they want to fight the drug.  They are planning to invite America 
> senators too.Col. Kyaw Thien, the chief of Myanmar's counternarcotics 
> program,explained "This drug problem is not only the problem of the 
> United States. It's our problem too.  We know that we cannot fight 
> this alone" when he met the newsmen.
>         "We think we can get rid of 60 percent of the heroin 
> going into the U.S. in 12 months' time if the U.S. cooperates with us," 
> said Lieut. Col. Hla Min, the deputy director of the Office of Strategic 
> Studies, a planning branch of  military intelligence.
>         The reason behind these offerings is that the Burmese 
> Government wants to  perpetuate itself in power. For that they want 
> to change their image and they need money.  Because of heavy military 
> spendings and high theivings of the generals, the nation's coffers are 
> totally empty  today. Thay cannot continue their repressive rule 
> without American dollars.
>         For the purpose of prolonging their power, the generals 
> would do anything, even  really irradiating the drug fields. What 
> would the US Government do?  The United States had cut off 
> counternarcotics aid to  Burma  following the coup in 1988.
> Restoring such aid could undercut other American economic sanctions 
> and lend legitimacy  to a dictatorship that stands accused of 
> widespread abuse of human rights. 
>         Even yesterday in Geneva the UN Human Rights Commission  
> unanimously adopted a resolution attacking widespread 
> human-rights abuses in Burma.
>      Forget human rights. The American Government will first 
> have to save it's sons and daughters from drugs. We can see that 
> the US would surrender the Burmese generals soon.
>         If the Burmese generals succeeded in this blackmail diplomacy 
> and collect ransom from the US ,the fate of 45 million Burmese would 
> be enslaved for ever. 
>         No one can do anything.  This is a mad world with cruel dictators.
>                                                                         
>         U Thaung
>