In this section backpackers can send Voices For Burma their individual accounts of acts of barbarity committed by the regime and their supporters. It is essential that these stories are aired. We will not disclose the names of these backpackers, as this would mean that the Burmese authorities would prohibit the authors from returning to Burma in the future - the Burmese embassy in London even videos the people involved in peaceful protests in front of the embassy. Voices For Burma does not endorse nor verify the information below. Please email your accounts to voicesforburma@hotmail.com.

Police Corruption

This is an extract kindly sent to us by a German traveller to Burma.

"Please forewarn travellers about the corruption situation amongst the police. I learned this from my recent 4th trip to Burma.

"A local friend met me in Mandalay from another town in the Inle area (obviously I don't want to divulge too many details which might identify him) and it was his first time in Mandalay. He had already alerted me to his brother having been hassled by the military (his brother was 'detained' and missing for several days) upon his brother's arrival in Mandalay, so his parents had warned him to be very careful when moving around the town. So one night we went to the Marionettes Puppet Show near the ritzy Sedona Hotel and since I had come down with a bad cough I decided to return to my hotel early. He returned to his hotel the way we went out to the show by bike (along 26th St., a major east-west road) and on his return trip he was stopped by the police whereupon he was required to produce his identity papers. He ended up getting 'hit up' twice on the way back to the hotel by the police for the equivalent of U$7, which is more than what he makes a month. U$7 is a lot of money for a Burmese person and he was really angry but had no alternative but to pay the 'fines'/extortion.

"I think we as travellers should be aware of these conditions and provide assistance to locals. If I had been aware of the situation I would obviously have waited and rode back with him to his hotel before turning in for the night."

Forced Labour

This is an account of what one British man saw when travelling within the tourist quadrangle.

"Before I set off to Burma I studied the political situation. I learned that the use of forced labour was prevalent throughout Burma, but I naively assumed that this would be the case only where foreigners could not report it. How wrong I was.

"In three weeks of travel in the 'Golden Land' I lost count of the numbers of times that I saw forced labour. Usually it was whole villages (the regime doesn't seem to discriminate among the sexes) cracking rocks with stone-age like tools, so that they can improve the roads. There is normally one large official-looking man in charge of the operation barking orders at his 'workers'. The faces of the 'workers' speak volumes. Any traveller to Burma will testify to the happiness of the Burmese people but not when they are forced to work for no or little pay. The regime states that it is the people doing their duty for their country and that it is not forced rather it is voluntary.

"It was hard to look these people in the eye. They were building the road which my private taxi was using. Was I compounding their misery? I decided that the vast majority (all the traffic bar the taxi I was in) was Burmese not foreign and that the road was not being built for us backpackers, unlike Mandalay Palace.

"I had to get this story off my chest."