LETTERS: Burmese wishes

I AM usually in accord with Patricia Barnett of Tourism Concern, but I feel she is misinformed about Burma (Letters, 21 November). I have spent a period of five months over the past year in Burma researching a project on all aspects of the Irrawaddy River, including tourism. Not once did we meet anyone who thought that visitors should not come to Burma.We asked many different people this question - the relationship between tourism and the lifestyles of the population along the length of the river was part of our project. Rather there was an anxiety that visitors should come, not only to ensure that outsiders are aware of the situation in Burma but so that people who are dependent on tourism are not deprived of a desperately needed livelihood. By this I mean the privately owned small hotels, taxi drivers, guides, etc, whom I am sure Aung San Suu Kyi did not have in mind when she made her much publicised request some years ago - I would be interested to know what her current thinking on this situation is.

NORMA JOSEPH

Droxford, Hampshire