Burma boycott 'hurting the people'
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By Jeremy Skidmore Daily Telegraph 16 December 2003
Baroness Flather, the Asian Conservative peer, has launched a scathing attack on the Government's policy on Burma,
claiming economic and tourism sanctions are damaging the Burmese people rather than the regime.
The attack follows a concerted drive by the Government to force British travel companies to pull out of Burma after the military regime put the opposition leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, under house arrest.
After visiting the country, Baroness Flather urged greater communication to try to encourage moves towards democracy. She is attempting to gain support for her views among colleagues in the House of Lords.
In a letter to Telegraph Travel this week, Baroness Flather said: "It is my firm belief that by stopping contact with the Burmese government and by stopping tourism, as our Foreign Office advises, we are not helping. Such a boycott only makes the Burmese government more entrenched in its position."
"It is wrong to suggest the money from tourism goes to the government. All the major hotels are owned by companies from surrounding countries and the money from tourist shopping goes to the sellers and the craftsmen."
This year seven British-based travel companies have pulled out of Burma, but 24 still offer tours of the country.
A FO spokeswoman said that its stance had not changed, while a spokesman for the Burma Campaign, which fights for human rights and democracy in Burma, said it was "naive" to suggest that the regime does not benefit from tourism in any way.
"It earns money from taxes, from incoming airlines, from all sorts of areas. Crucially, a boycott is what the people of Burma, including Aung San Suu Kyi, have called for," he said.
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