Burma opposition leader Suu Kyi: 'Tourism might help'

Aung San Suu Kyi, the Burmese opposition leader currently under house arrest, has dropped her opposition to tourism to Burma.


By Charlie Norton
Published: 11:38AM BST 14 Aug 2009

Supporters of Aung San Suu Kyi outside the Burmese embassy in Manila: she is said to believe that visitors might help draw attention to oppression Photo: AFP/GETTY

Aung San Suu Kyi, the Burmese opposition leader, who was sentenced this week to a further 18 months' house arrest, has dropped her opposition to tourism to Burma.

She now believes it can be encouraged, provided it is run through private operations and not through the government, and that visitors might help draw attention to the oppression of the people by the military junta. She has made her views known through a close acquaintance and former member of her party, the National League for Democracy (NLD).

When last quoted on the subject, in a BBC interview in 2002, she said: "We have not yet come to the point where we encourage people to come to Burma as tourists." She has since been silent on the issue.

The news of her change of stance has been welcomed by the travel trade but left campaigners against the military regime unmoved.

Amrit Singh, director of TransIndus Travel, who grew up in Burma, said: "I am thrilled and heartened. Three years ago I heard through a senior member of the NLD, that the Lady [as Aung San Suu Kyi is known to the Burmese] was reconsidering her view, and I am delighted that she has. The call to boycott Burma has had no impact on the military's stance. It has only managed to isolate the ordinary people by encouraging the world to look away."

Mark Farmaner, director of the Burma Campaign UK, said his organisation would continue to call for a boycott unless there was an official announcement from the NLD of a change in policy.

"Our contacts at the NLD have not called for an end to the sanctions and, to be honest, right now it is very low on our list of priorities. Tourists who go there don't have any idea what is going on behind the scenes – the human-rights abuses, the rape of children. Some don't even realise there is a military dictatorship."

The NLD won an overwhelming victory in the last election in 1990, a result that was never accepted by the military junta. Mrs Suu Kyi, 64, who was already in custody, has spent 14 of the past 20 years under house arrest. Earlier this week she was convicted of breaching state security by allowing an eccentric American into her home after he swam there in May. The sentence will prevent her from standing in the next elections in 2010.

British travel companies maintain that, although some money will inevitably filter down to the junta, it is possible to avoid staying at state-run projects and ensure that the local Bamar and Shan peoples benefit from visits. About 20,000 tourists visit Burma each year - and there were more before the Buddhist monks' revolt in 2007 and a devastating cyclone in 2008. Ms Singh said: "Our tours do not use any military-owned facilities, hotels, railways or agencies. We use small owner-managed hotels and private guides, and we ensure that the vast majority of the money our clients spend goes directly into the hands of the local people. If we are to help lift the oppression of Burma's military government, it needs to be done from a position of engagement and not abstention."

One travel company operating within Burma claimed that tourism and hospitality is now the largest private-sector employer, indirectly benefiting thousands of small suppliers and contractors.

A spokesman said: "As we witnessed after the cyclone in 2008, the junta would rather tourists stay away than contribute to the opening of the economy and the country. The hundreds of small tourism enterprises played a key role in rushing vital aid and supplies to the delta, in spite of the government's efforts. They were able to do this more effectively because of their overseas networks and client bases."

Paul Strachan, who has run the Irrawaddy Flotilla Company since 1995, turned one of his boats into a hospital after the cyclone and raised more than $500,000 for local communities through tourism.

Nick Van Gruisen, director of the Ultimate Travel Company, which has been taking tourists to Burma over the past 10 years, said: "We are delighted. We've stuck with Burma through thick and thin and many of our clients have made return visits. Thanks to their generosity we have been able to assist with health care and schooling. We choose our Burmese partners with great care; none of them is a government-backed organisation."

Rachel Noble, campaigns officer for the pressure group Tourism Concern, which also opposes trips to Burma, said it would not be changing its policy. "We are not surprised [by Mrs Suu Kyi's change of stance], as we have not had word from her for a long time," she said. "But you can't open up Burma to responsible tourists without opening it up to mass tourism by the Chinese, who will happily use hotels used by the regime. You can't expect everyone to have their consciences pricked by Burma."

The Foreign Office advised British tourists to boycott Burma in 2003 just after Mrs Suu Kyi had been rearrested, but softened its stance a year later. "We urge people going there to consider carefully what effect they are having on the regime," a spokesman said, adding that visitors should remain cautious and not photograph or film any military personnel or installations.

Source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/destinations/asia/burma/6026879/Burma-opposition-leader-Suu-Kyi-Tourism-might-help.html