Gathering hopes from the ruins - rebuild the tourism

After the chaotic situation, Burma needs to rebuild itself. Tourism will be the first choice to regain the economics. The unique culture, historical and beautiful buildings will automatically draw tourists attentions, and they will gladly spend much dollars for a little pleasure in Burma.
Unlike in Muangthai which is well known for its sex tourism, you will find Burma a very religious country. In fact, your vacation will be a little like pilgrimage, only more pleasure.

After the chaotic situation, Burma needs to rebuild itself. Tourism will be the first choice to regain the economics. The unique culture, historical and beautiful buildings will automatically draw tourists attentions, and they will gladly spend much dollars for a little pleasure in Burma.
Unlike in Muangthai which is well known for its sex tourism, you will find Burma a very religious country. In fact, your vacation will be a little like pilgrimage, only more pleasure.
The diversity in Burma is one of the interesting points in Burma. There are more than 100 national races in Burma with their own languages and dialects, The major races are Bamar, Chin, Kachin, Shan, Kayah, Kayin, Mon and Rakhine. The name Burma embraces all the national races. The population of Myanmar is 51 million with the Bamar, the majority race making up about 70%.
Burmese is the country's official language, though English is spoken in large towns and by elderly folk. There are also many languages and dialects among the 135 different national races.
The modern alphabet consists of 33 letters (consonants) and 12 basic vowels (sequential extensions result in 21 vowels) which are combined with various symbols (4 in basic, 11 in total consonant combination symbols) to indicate the tones.

Buddhism is the predominant religion of Burma and Theravada Buddhism is embraced by about 80% of the population. The local temple is central to every community, and is also a traditional place of education. Every male person is expected to temporarily don the monk's robes at least once in his lifetime usually as a young man. There is freedom of worship for other religions: Christianity, Islam, Hinduism and Animism.

Neat and respectful dress should be worn in all religious shrines. It is not considered polite to visit religious monuments in shorts, miniskirts or hot pants. Though shoes can be worn in temple compounds, they should be removed before entering the chapel of the principal Buddha image. Indeed, all Buddha images are regarded as sacred, regardless of size, age or position, and should all be shown due respect. Buddhist monks are not allowed to touch or be touched by a woman, or accept anything from a woman's hand.

Names are preceded by a number of different titles. Ko is the general title for an adult male. U (pronounced oo) precedes an older or well-respected man's name, while Aung is used for younger men. A woman's name is preceded by Daw. A handshake is considered an acceptable form of greeting. Shoes are usually removed before entering a traditional home, though this may no longer be expected in modern city residences. Displaying the soles of the feet is considered offensive, as is pointing feet at people or objects or touching people on the head. Public displays of affection between men and women are frowned upon. Small presents are acceptable and appreciated, although never expected.

Burma today, staring out the future - interesting sites in Burma

LOts of things happened in Burma these days. Burma had been trough the bad, even worst days, ever. The military had gone fiercer and fiercer everyday just to shut the people down. VOx populi vox dei, voice of the people is the god's voice. You can not stand against god's will. Either way,it will always find the way. despite of what happened, Burma is actually an exotic and rarely beautiful land. I will not say it is exagerating to say that Burma is the land of gods. You will easily find beautiful places here and there, not to mention interesting culture. Before the dooms day (if I may call recent day that way), Burma which is recently known as Myanmar has a very good income for tourism. It naturally draw people's attention for its beauty and exotic culture.





You will easily find hotels or resorts in Yangon, Bagan or Mandalay.


Myanmar is a conflicting destination for travellers; despite of the reasons not to go – and there are plenty – the country’s allure is quite powerful.
Take Bagan, for instance, where the sun sets over a sea of ancient temples and pagodas. Thousands dot the landscape, their peaked roofs and spires poking the sky like pins. Or Yangon, Myanmar’s capital and home to the country’s most important religious site – the extravagant Shwedagon Pagoda. A mass of gold dripping in gems, it makes Asia’s greenest city sparkle.
Those yearning to visit Myanmar should do a bit of research. By maximizing the travel dollars that reach the local population, you ensure a trip that is not only enjoyable, but also conscionable.

Bagan is the main tourist attraction in Myanmar. One of the richest archaeological sites in Asia, it is located on the eastern bank of the Ayeyarwaddy River. Also being the capital of first Myanmar Empire, Bagan covers an area of 42 sq. km containing over 2000 well-preserved pagodas and temples of the 11th - 13th century.

Mandalay, the last capital of the Myanmar Kings, is located in Central Myanmar, 668 km north of Yangon. Also known as Ratanabon-nepyidaw (meaning Gem City), it was built in 1857 by King Mindon. Today, it is the second largest city boasting its rich cultural heritage.
Yangon, the capital city is the main gateway to Myanmar. Evergreen and cool with lush tropical trees, shady parks and beautiful lakes, Yangon has earned the name of the Garden City of the East

The lake, 22 km long and 10 km across, has a population of some 150,000 many of whom live on floating islands of vegetation. Inle Lake, natural and unpolluted, is famous for its scenic beauty and the unique leg-rowing of the Inthas, the native lake dwellers.

Human Rights Violations in Burma

FORCED RELOCATION OF POPULATION

During January and February 1990, at least 500,000 Burmese from all of the country's major towns and cities were forced to leave their homes and land and were moved to settlements on the edges of the urban areas. In some cities, particularly in Rangoon, people's former homes were destroyed. In other cases the emptied houses were taken as homes for the military. Rarely were people compensated for the loss of their property. Most of the new "satellite towns" are in reclaimed rice paddies. They lack fresh water, shade, sanitation, transportation, health care, electricity, markets, and schools. People are obliged to live in shacks. Because they cannot get to their former jobs, many are entirely impoverished. Hundreds have died from the dislocation, particularly from malaria, hepatitis, dysentery, and malnutrition. The new "towns" resemble concentration camps. "It's an absolute horror story," said a senior diplomat in Rangoon. Many foreign countries have condemned this act. Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan of the US, a consistent champion of the Burmese, has compared it to Nazi treatment of Jews and the Pol Pot regime's treatment of Cambodians in the 1970s. The Burmese regime has defended its actions as "urban beautification." It claims that the people it moved had been living in ugly slums--lazy, shiftless folks. SLORC placed a banner above the gates of one "new city" outside Rangoon saying, "No Progress Without Discipline." In truth, however, the people displaced were often middle class and likely to vote for the prodemocracy opposition candidates in the multiparty elections which occurred a few months after the relocations. Apparently SLORC intended to reduce votes for the opposition by literally obliterating its strongholds. "It's a Burmese form of gerrymandering," a diplomat in Rangoon said. "They don't move the boundaries; they move the people." SLORC has been practicing yet another form of forced relocation. It has been forcing ethnic minority civilians in regions of insurgency to move into government-controlled areas. This keeps them from supporting guerrilla forces. Dozens of villages have been moved in this way into compounds which are guarded by the army and which also resemble concentration camps. Because farmers are thus kept from their fields, especially in mountain regions, the displaced have no way to pursue a livelihood and face starvation.

Human rights violation in Burma

SLAVERY

Two practices in today's Burma amount to slavery. In order to conduct operations against ethnic minorities in the border areas, the Burmese military needs large numbers of people to carry ammunition and other equipment on long marches through the jungle. It obtains porters by kidnapping citizens from the streets, buses, and work places of the cities. The army also obtains porters among ethnic minorities themselves. In one April 1990 military campaign involving 700 Burmese soldiers, there were an estimated 1,000 porters forced to carry arms and ammunition. Forced portering is one way to punish and demoralize villagers suspected of supporting ethnic insurgencies. The military will take children, pregnant women, the elderly, and the sick if it cannot find enough able men. Urban or rural, Burman or minority, once they have been conscripted, all porters are treated the same. They are tied together and forced to carry heavy loads of ammunition or food. Treatment is most often severe, including a near-starvation diet and beatings. Those who cannot keep up are abandoned or summarily executed. These human mules are seldom if ever compensated for their labor. Involuntary porters are often used as human minesweepers and as human shields in battle. Amnesty International's August 1991 report, Myanmar: Continuing Killings and Ill-Treatment of Minority Peoples, documents the current extent of these practices: "The largest number of testimonies gathered by Amnesty International during its research in June and July 1991 referred to deliberate killings and incidents of ill-treatment--sometimes resulting in death--of members of ethnic and religious minorities seized as porters or to clear mines." Forced labor contravenes Article 4 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and ILO Convention 29, which Burma has ratified. Another form of slavery in Burma today involves teenage women, most of them from ethnic minorities living on the Burmese side of the border between Burma and Thailand. They are kidnapped or deceived by brothel gangs which sell them into servitude to supply Thailand's burgeoning sex economy. Once caught, the young women (or children--some are as young as ten or eleven) are kept imprisoned and become a commodity. They run a very high risk of contracting AIDS. A Bangkok brothel was raided in March 1991. All nineteen prostitutes were Burmese; seventeen of them tested positive for the AIDS virus. Increasing numbers of people are being victimized in this way. Some of these shanghaied women end up being sold overseas in an international slave market to prostitution rings in countries like Japan, Singapore, Germany, and Australia. Security officials, both police and military, in both Burma and Thailand are either actively involved in the brothel gangs or profit by taking bribes from them.

Human Violation in Burma

TORTURE

Torture is a particularly heinous form of human rights violation. Amnesty International, which has extensively documented and reported on human rights abuses in Burma, has concluded that "torture follows arrest in Myanmar as night follows day," and that the problem of torture there is pervasive, long-term, and endemic. Burmese security forces routinely torture prisoners throughout the country, in both urban and rural areas. The following text comes from Amnesty International's 1990 report, Myanmar: "In the National Interest": Prisoners of Conscience, Torture, Summary Trials Under Martial Law. Torture and ill-treatment of prisoners has...served to intimidate others. The prevalence of torture is well-known in Myanmar: arrest and torture is seen as an ever-present threat by those contemplating any public criticism of the government. The reported methodology of torture has been relatively consistent in Myanmar over many years, from the isolated army camps in the areas of insurgency to the urban detention centers of the security forces. Torture methods and even the vocabulary of torture have remained the same, according to testimonies obtained by Amnesty International from a wide range of prisoners whose times and places of imprisonment have differed greatly. Some variations do occur--some prisoners, for example, have been made to walk on their knees over sharp gravel rather than broken glass.... Beatings, sometimes to the point of unconsciousness, were a common denominator of the treatment described by former detainees. They include slappings, punches in the face or the body, and kicks with combat boots or blows with the knees in the sides, chest or back. Detainees have also reportedly been struck on the face, the chest or the back with wooden sticks, truncheons or rifle butts.... Former detainees frequently described prolonged kneeling on sharp gravel and "motorcycle riding," entailing squatting for prolonged periods in a position suggesting driving a motorcycle. Electric shocks were reportedly applied to fingertips, toes, ear lobes, penis or testicles. Some detainees described prolonged standing in water, prolonged exposure to sun or to intense cold, burnings with cigarettes, rolling iron or bamboo rods or bottles along the shinbones until the skin scrapes off (the "iron road"), near-drowning through immersion in water and hanging by the hands or feet from a ceiling fixture or a rotating fan (the "helicopter"). Beatings with whips and clubs while suspended have also been reported. Salt, salted water, urine and curry powder have reportedly been applied to open wounds inflicted by whippings or by slitting parts of the body with a knife or the tip of a bayonet. Detainees undergoing interrogation have often been deprived of sleep, food and water, and some have been held for prolonged periods in solitary confinement in dark cells. They have also been intimidated with pistols, threatened with execution and humiliated while stripped naked for interrogation. In other instances, psychological pressures have been used to break the prisoner's will and force confessions. Several former prisoners have alleged they were interrogated continuously for several days by teams of interrogators working in relays. This technique has sometimes been combined with deprivation of sleep, food, water or washing facilities.

The Election of 1990

THE ELECTIONS OF 1990

The great social upheaval of 1988 left Burma's military dictatorship still holding onto control of the country, but its position was vulnerable. On 25 July 1988, prior to the general strike, Burma's desperate economic situation obliged the regime to abandon isolationism by seeking foreign aid and investment. But the military's savage repression of peaceful demonstrations had outraged the world and had left the regime an international pariah. Donor nations, particularly the United States and the European Community, had discontinued aid during the popular uprising; potential foreign investors found the political situation too unstable to merit wise investment; and few countries would recognize the legitimacy of the new military regime. This dilemma caused Burma's rulers to make a serious miscalculation. In December 1988 they again promised multiparty elections, but restricted the opposition. Their gamble was this: By strictly controlling the electoral process, they could come out of the election with either a parliament controlled by the military or one so divided and factionalized that it would be thoroughly ineffectual. Either outcome would leave the generals in power and would gain them the fig leaf of international legitimacy they urgently needed. Even the military regime's opponents concurred that this was a reasonable gamble. Most observers predicted that the "election" would be a manipulated sham. The International Human Rights Law Group, after observing the preelection campaign, concluded that SLORC "grossly breached minimum campaigning freedoms, including the exercise of freedom of assembly and expression." Restrictions were extraordinary. SLORC controlled all of Burma's media. Its martial law edicts stated that to criticize the government was a criminal offense. Public rallies could be held only with government permission, and all public speeches had to be precensored. Hundreds of thousands of potential prodemocracy voters in the cities were forcibly and permanently removed into rural areas and effectively disenfranchised . On 20 July 1989 Aung San Suu Kyi, U Tin U, U Nu, and more than forty leaders of the National League for Democracy (NLD), the opposition party founded by Aung San Suu Kyi and U Tin U, were placed incommunicado under house arrest and prevented from further campaigning for office. U Tin U was subsequently sentenced to three years in prison for "sedition." A countrywide roundup of as many as six thousand NLD supporters, students, and other opposition leaders followed. SLORC shortened prison terms of 7,000 ordinary criminals to make room in prisons and detention centers for these new detainees. The elections were held on 27 May 1990. Given the severity of these repressive measures, the outcome of this first multiparty election in 30 years stunned Burma and the world. No less than 93 parties contested the election. When the votes were counted, the National League for Democracy had won an extraordinary mandate from the people: 392 of the 485 seats contested, 82 percent of the seats. Ne Win's Burma Socialist Program Party (BSPP), now renamed the National Unity Party, had won ten seats. The regime's gamble had failed spectacularly in a humiliating defeat. Despite centuries of autocratic kings, decades of colonial rule, and 28 years of dictatorship, the will of the people had been clear: the generals must go. With a new government now duly elected, SLORC had lost any real claim to legitimacy. But, fearing Nuremburg-style trials and reprisals and unwilling to forfeit wealth, privilege, and power, SLORC responded to the elections much as they had to the demonstrations. Refusing to transfer power until a new constitution was written, the regime systematically destroyed the National League for Democracy by imprisoning, murdering, or intimidating its leaders and elected representatives. Aung San Suu Kyi and U Nu were kept under house arrest. U Tin U remained in prison. Some of the new legislators fled to the border areas to pin the students and ethnic minorities in the resistance. Once the National League for Democracy was in tatters, in 1991 SLORC announced that it would not transfer power to that party because it was "unfit to rule."

Demonstration of 1988

DEMONSTRATIONS OF 1988

After a quarter century of Ne Win's rule, Burma's severe economic crisis finally forced its citizens to face en masse the army's machine guns in 1988. In September 1987 his regime announced its third and most devastating demonetization. A government order canceled, without compensation, about 80 percent of the country's banknotes, wiping out the life savings of many ordinary citizens. That event contributed, with massive increases in rice prices, to near complete loss of confidence in the government and in the economy. Sporadic student protests occurred through late 1987. A student incident in March 1988 precipitated a crescendo of student demonstrations and confrontations with the army and police. The government closed all schools and universities, arrested thousands of students, and killed hundreds more, but it could not stop the gathering momentum of a society's outrage. Buddhist monks, the most respected group in Burmese society, started to join the students in increasing numbers. Demonstrations persisted month after month, gathering participation by more and more groups. In July 1988 Ne Win resigned as head of the Burma Socialist Programme Party, calling for economic reforms and a referendum on the issue of a one-party or multiparty system. His resignation was followed by a brief period of political chaos. A series of governments appointed by Ne Win's governing party--with, it is generally accepted, Ne Win in control from behind the scenes--attempted to stem the prodemocracy demonstrations and to restore order. Despite a declaration of martial law, massive arrests, and the ongoing murder of peaceful demonstrators, the protests persisted and grew. On 8 August 1988 a general strike began in Burma. During the next few days, military attacks on the protestors became bloodier. Demonstrations grew in response to the violence. Millions took to the streets throughout the country. People from all parts of society, including many police and military, pined the students and monks to demand democracy, human rights, the resignation of the ruling party's government, and an end to ruinous economic practices. During this brief, heady period, important opposition leaders appeared. An elderly U Nu, the prime minister deposed by Ne Win in 1962, emerged from obscurity to proclaim a parallel government with himself as prime minister, claiming that he had been the last and only leader legitimately elected by the people. U Tin U, a former chief of staff and minister of defense under Ne Win, sided with the prodemocracy campaign and helped to lead it. Most notably, Aung San Suu Kyi, the daughter of modern Burma's slain founder, Aung San, assumed the most visible leadership role among the opposition forces. On 26 August she spoke to a crowd of more than 500,000 people, immediately capturing the imagination of Burma and the world. In September, as demonstrations demanding the government's resignation became more militant, the ruling party convened a second emergency congress and proposed to hold general elections under a multiparty system. Mammoth daily demonstrations rejected the government's control and called for an interim government to oversee elections. Then on 18 September 1988 the military, which had never really surrendered power amid the desperate governmental shuffles that followed Ne Win's resignation, staged a fake coup. General Saw Maung announced that the military had assumed power in the form of a State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC), with himself as prime minister, foreign minister, and defense minister. The new regime, whose real power remained the eminence grise Ne Win, determined to put down the mass uprising at any cost. It succeeded, and the cost was great. The ensuing bloodbath was far worse in absolute numbers than the similar and more notorious crackdown executed by the Chinese the following year. DEMONSTRATIONS OF 1988 After a quarter century of Ne Win's rule, Burma's severe economic crisis finally forced its citizens to face en masse the army's machine guns in 1988. In September 1987 his regime announced its third and most devastating demonetization. A government order canceled, without compensation, about 80 percent of the country's banknotes, wiping out the life savings of many ordinary citizens. That event contributed, with massive increases in rice prices, to near complete loss of confidence in the government and in the economy. Sporadic student protests occurred through late 1987. A student incident in March 1988 precipitated a crescendo of student demonstrations and confrontations with the army and police. The government closed all schools and universities, arrested thousands of students, and killed hundreds more, but it could not stop the gathering momentum of a society's outrage. Buddhist monks, the most respected group in Burmese society, started to join the students in increasing numbers. Demonstrations persisted month after month, gathering participation by more and more groups. In July 1988 Ne Win resigned as head of the Burma Socialist Programme Party, calling for economic reforms and a referendum on the issue of a one-party or multiparty system. His resignation was followed by a brief period of political chaos. A series of governments appointed by Ne Win's governing party--with, it is generally accepted, Ne Win in control from behind the scenes--attempted to stem the prodemocracy demonstrations and to restore order. Despite a declaration of martial law, massive arrests, and the ongoing murder of peaceful demonstrators, the protests persisted and grew. On 8 August 1988 a general strike began in Burma. During the next few days, military attacks on the protestors became bloodier. Demonstrations grew in response to the violence. Millions took to the streets throughout the country. People from all parts of society, including many police and military, pined the students and monks to demand democracy, human rights, the resignation of the ruling party's government, and an end to ruinous economic practices. During this brief, heady period, important opposition leaders appeared. An elderly U Nu, the prime minister deposed by Ne Win in 1962, emerged from obscurity to proclaim a parallel government with himself as prime minister, claiming that he had been the last and only leader legitimately elected by the people. U Tin U, a former chief of staff and minister of defense under Ne Win, sided with the prodemocracy campaign and helped to lead it. Most notably, Aung San Suu Kyi, the daughter of modern Burma's slain founder, Aung San, assumed the most visible leadership role among the opposition forces. On 26 August she spoke to a crowd of more than 500,000 people, immediately capturing the imagination of Burma and the world. In September, as demonstrations demanding the government's resignation became more militant, the ruling party convened a second emergency congress and proposed to hold general elections under a multiparty system. Mammoth daily demonstrations rejected the government's control and called for an interim government to oversee elections. Then on 18 September 1988 the military, which had never really surrendered power amid the desperate governmental shuffles that followed Ne Win's resignation, staged a fake coup. General Saw Maung announced that the military had assumed power in the form of a State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC), with himself as prime minister, foreign minister, and defense minister. The new regime, whose real power remained the eminence grise Ne Win, determined to put down the mass uprising at any cost. It succeeded, and the cost was great. The ensuing bloodbath was far worse in absolute numbers than the similar and more notorious crackdown executed by the Chinese the following year. The international press estimated 3,000-10,000 killed, with thousands more imprisoned. In some cases soldiers went berserk, firing at random. Uniformed Red Cross workers were gunned down to keep them from reaching the injured. In some places Buddhist monks tried to stop the slaughter by surrounding the soldiers or forming a human barrier between soldiers and demonstrators. Some of the monks, too, were killed. Although demonstrations continued sporadically for months, the main force of the prodemocracy uprising was broken by brutal force and terror. The general strike ended. Ten to twelve thousand students fled to the border jungle regions where they took refuge with the ethnic minorities who, in some cases, had been fighting Rangoon for more than 40 years. In June 1989 the military junta changed Burma's name to Myanmar, the ethnic Burman name for Burma, and also changed the names of many cities; Rangoon, for example, became Yangon. This act echoed the Khmer Rouge's short-lived attempt to obliterate Cambodia's name. The UN, most governments, some foreign newspapers, and some nongovernment organizations have adopted the new names. Others refuse to do so, on the grounds that the name changes are yet another expression of oppression.

The international press estimated 3,000-10,000 killed, with thousands more imprisoned. In some cases soldiers went berserk, firing at random. Uniformed Red Cross workers were gunned down to keep them from reaching the injured. In some places Buddhist monks tried to stop the slaughter by surrounding the soldiers or forming a human barrier between soldiers and demonstrators. Some of the monks, too, were killed. Although demonstrations continued sporadically for months, the main force of the prodemocracy uprising was broken by brutal force and terror. The general strike ended. Ten to twelve thousand students fled to the border jungle regions where they took refuge with the ethnic minorities who, in some cases, had been fighting Rangoon for more than 40 years. In June 1989 the military junta changed Burma's name to Myanmar, the ethnic Burman name for Burma, and also changed the names of many cities; Rangoon, for example, became Yangon. This act echoed the Khmer Rouge's short-lived attempt to obliterate Cambodia's name. The UN, most governments, some foreign newspapers, and some nongovernment organizations have adopted the new names. Others refuse to do so, on the grounds that the name changes are yet another expression of oppression.