In the 1990s, the SLORC increasingly looked to the wallet of western tourists as a vital source of revenue. In the first half of the decade the number of tourists who visited Burma increased ten-fold and the junta's massive tourism drive began to pay dividends.

SLORC designated 1996 'Visit Myanmar Year' and hope for hundreds of thousands of tourists to visit that year. To encourage tourism, visa restrictions were relaxed and, after years of neglect, major infrastructure projects were undertaken to cater for the influx of people and to beautify the country. Projects include roads, railways, airports, hotels and, of course, the tourist sites themselves. The regime used and continues to use forced labour to achieve these enormous developments.

In addition, 'slums' and similar eyesores have been cleared to make way for hotels, parks, boulevards and golf courses and to keep their inhabitants out of sight. In February 1995, the International Federation of Trade Unions reported that a million people were forced from their homes in Rangoon in preparation for foreign investment and tourism. One example of many is the Rangoon Golf course which was built for Japanese businessmen and western tourists. The generals moved a community that had on the site for 40 years. Those who resisted were either arrested or forcibly removed in trucks to a settlement 15 miles away.

Dr. Naw Angelenem, who was Burma's Director of Tourism, claimed that the labour used to build the massive developments was voluntary. Improbably, considering the chains which weigh the legs of many of the labourers, he stated that the volunteers are happily earning merit points to speed their passage to the afterlife.

The SLORC wanted and still wants the foreign currency that tourists bring. Though it claims that tourism is a major engine of development, there is no evidence that such development has benefited the people over the past ten years. On the contrary, the currency either flows to the regime or foreign companies. It is estimated that 70 per cent of profits from tourism leaves Burma. Some of the remaining thirty per cent has to invested in goods that tourists require which are not available in Burma - from hairdryers to linen to golf buggies. What is left goes no further into Burma than the generals' coffers.

A human theme park

On all the evidence, tourism is merely bringing the people mass prostitution, HIV infection and the despoliation of their culture as the more isolated minority groups are 'relocated'. Not that the tourist will see this. From the Foster's billboard in Rangoon that hid an army watchtower during John Pilger's filming to the complete restriction of access to much of the south of Burma during the development of the total pipeline, the generals are intent on creating an unreal world. For the most part, tourists visit the tightly controlled loop of Rangoon, Mandalay and Pagan.

The disgraceful creation of pseudo-ethnic villages and human zoos along the route of hill-tribe trekking tours, which include 'long-necked' Padaung women being captured and then held in border villages so that they can be photographed, is just one of the ugly consequences of the SLORC's pandering to the expectations of Western tourists.

The SLORC has also been careful who it encourages to visit Burma. From the start, the regime encouraged up-market package tourists, not independent back-packers, and watched for any foreign pro-democracy activists. Tour guides act as SLORC spies and anyone seen talking to tourists is likely to be questioned. Hundreds of thousands travel to Burma each year. Some are undoubtedly unaware of the real Burma they are not shown. However, many are aware and they turn a blind eye as their countries have shown them how.

The rapid expansion of Burmese tourism since 1996's 'Visit Myanmar Year' has had terrible implications for the people of Burma. That the success of their policies has relied on the willingness of foreigners to indulge in the luxuries the SLORC has laid on makes the abuse that the Burman people have endured even more abhorrent.