The protest was called by the Burma Campaign Student Network, which has asked STA Travel to follow the example of other tourism companies, for example Explore, Rough Guides and Northwest Airlines, which have publicly stated that they will not do business in Burma.

In Cambridge a group of protestors gathered outside the STA office on Sidney St at noon. Several activists entered the shop and attempted to give out leaflets to the customers waiting inside. However, they were prevented from doing so by the store manager, and by a couple of helpful policemen who had turned up to lend a protective hand. The activists then attempted to engage the manager in discussion on STA’s role in supporting the Burma regime. He refused to be drawn and answered all questions with the same line “STA Travel does not promote tourism to Burma” This was an intriguing response considering the information available on the STA website. The two policemen escorted the activists out of the shop. The group remained outside the shop for another hour giving out leaflets to passersby, who seemed very receptive to what was being said. Perhaps the most entertaining part of the event was when the store manager came up to the front window and stood there holding up a large printed poster, obviously pre-prepared, with the words:

“STA TRAVEL DOES NOT PROMOTE TOURISM TO BURMA
(though we do have lots of other good offers)”

STA is a subsidiary of the privately owned Swiss travel giant Diethelm Keller Travel. The company boasts that it pioneered tourism to Burma. In Burma, Diethelm's core business besides the travel division includes consumer goods, pharmaceutical and engineering operations, as well as Diethelm Services, which handles shipping activities. Diethelm Travel in Myanmar has established offices in Yangon, Bagan, Mandalay and the Inle Lake region. With chilling irony, the website reassures visitors that “Myanmar is one of the safest countries in the world for any foreign visitor to travel in”. It is unfortunate that life is not so safe and wholesome for the people of Burma.
On the UK STA website, there is a country profile on Burma. Although the profile does include information on the brutal history of the military junta, they balance out the disadvantages and “advantages” of traveling to the country. They then facilitate travel with by providing extensive detail on travel, accommodation, interesting places to visit. The Malaysia STA website does not even pretend to comment on the dubious ethics of visiting Burma and offers 6 different package tours to Burma, making no mention of the political and humanitarian situation in the country.


The people of Burma have suffered under a brutal military rule since 1962, when a coup replaced the civilian government with a military-dominated regime led by the Burma Socialist Programme Party (BSPP). This regime has held power since then, during which time, freedom of expression and association were almost entirely denied. When the opposition National League of Democracy, led by Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, won the 1990 election, the first free vote since the coup, the junta declared that the election had not been for a parliament but for a lower constituent assembly and held onto power.

The repression against political opponents is mirrored by a more widespread repression of the ordinary people of Burma. Millions of people are forced to labour on roads, railways and other construction projects. The United Nation's International Labour Organisation reports, that "the military treat the civilian population as an unlimited pool of unpaid forced labourers and servants at their disposal. The practice of forced labour is to encourage private investment in infrastructure development, public sector works and tourism projects." Millions of men, women and children have been forced to labour, under the harshest conditions, on infrastructure projects across Burma. Many thousands more have been forced from their homes to make way for tourism developments or as part of so-called 'beautification' projects.

The tourism industry and visiting tourists are helping sustain one of the most brutal military regimes in the world. A regime that was weak and bankrupt in 1988 has used foreign investment and hard foreign currency through the 1990s to double the size of its military and strengthen its grip on power.

While the last couple of years has seen an increase in the number of privately owned services, the levels of corruption and cronyism that exist in Burma, makes it impossible to know whether services sold to private individuals have not in fact been sold to the regime’s own families and business contacts. Privatization does not itself prevent funds from reaching the authorities anyway. For example in August 2002 Burma’s Minister of Hotels and Tourism Maj-Gen Saw Lwin admitted that the government receives about 12 per cent of the income even of private tourism services. Despite claims to the contrary by STA Travel, there is simply no way you can operate in Burma, or travel to the country without providing income to the regime.

For more information:
www.burmacampaign.org.uk
or email:  bcuk_students@yahoo.co.uk

To contact STA and let them know how you feel about them profiting from Burma’s misery, email:  help@statravel.co.uk, or write to: Customer Relations Manger, STA Travel, 6 Wrights Lane, London, W8 6TA.