June 24, 2003

 The Editor

The Washington Post

1150 15th Street, NW

Washington, DC 20071

Dear Sir,

Fred Hiatt in his article "How Best to Rid the World of Monsters" (June 23, 2003) makes an impassioned plea for sanctions against Myanmar.  We respect his right to say what he wishes and understand his desire for a better life for the people of Myanmar, which is also the wish of the Government of Myanmar.  However, it would have been better if he had made his case based on concrete facts rather than urban legends and rumours.

He starts out by saying that Daw Aung San Suu Kyi is being held at Insein Prison.  This is totally unsubstantiated and false.  As for the reputation that he attributes to the prison, it must be pointed out that the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) makes periodic unsupervised visits to this prison and others in the country and has not reported the prisoner treatment that Mr. Hiatt has described with such relish.

We might have opium poppy cultivation in some regions in our country (a legacy of colonial rule) but in no way is heroin a primary export.  Both the United States and the United Nations have recognised the drastic reduction in opium poppy cultivation that has been made so far and which Myanmar has accomplished with its own limited resources and little help from the outside.

How can we be an exporter of HIV/AIDS?  On the contrary, economic reasons and unscrupulous recruiting have led young women to neighbouring countries unwittingly, only to be sent back to their homes when they contact HIV/AIDS and unfortunately this has contributed its spread throughout the country.  I don't see how we can "export" such a disease.

US clothing and shoe importers stopped the import of goods from Myanmar mainly due to an aggressive campaign by groups who threaten a boycott of the companies if they continue to import goods from Myanmar.  It is this Government that opened up the economy to market forces and allowed private enterprise.  It has been established that of the nearly 400 garment factories that were operating in Myanmar, only 2 are owned by the Government.  People welcome the work in these factories because the pay is relatively good and they can support their families through honest labour.  Already, with the threat of sanctions, many factories have had to close down resulting in a loss of jobs for these workers.  And are all the people promoting sanctions, the members of Congress, groups such as those calling themselves the "Free Burma Coalition", are they going to do anything to alleviate the poverty of all those who have been forced to become unemployed?  Or are they just going to sit in their comfortable homes and feel a warm glow of satisfaction while the poor workers might either starve or be forced to look for more degrading forms of work?

We categorically deny all the accusations of Mr. Hiatt, such as child labour, slave labour, ethnic cleansing, rape as a form of repression and so on.  Myanmar happens to be an insignificant country in terms of American interests, where relatively few people visit with an open mind and where most people would only be too happy to believe the worst of.  It is the soft target for people who feel they can righteously condemn with a disregard for the truth.  It is also a country of which anyone with anything positive to say is jumped upon in the media and which, in this country of free speech, the media is only too happy to report the negative aspects but too few of the positive ones.

Sincerely,

 Sd/-

Information Officer

Embassy of Myanmar