Tourism funds the tyrants of Burma

From Mr John Boorman

Sir: The marriage of convenience between a newspaper's editorial and advertising content is a necessity we accept, but as the industry's own codes of conduct recognise, there are limits. It was disappointing therefore to see that you accepted a full-page advertisement in the Independent Magazine (1 July) for tourism in Burma.

Your readers who may be tempted should be aware that slave labour has been widely employed to improve roads and facilities, to bring them up to levels expected by Western travellers. They should also know that SLORC, the Burmese military dictatorship, needs their money to buy even more arms in order to continue to wage war on their ethnic minorities, and that the elected leader of Burma, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, is entering her seventh year of imprisonment without trial in Rangoon.

Yours sincerely,

John Boorman

Annamoe, Co Wicklow

2 July