Ashin Kovida answers questions about whether we should travel to Burma, international sanctions and the generals at the Burma VJ screening in Berlin, June 2010.

Question: „We know, that tourism is another source of income for the Burmese military junta. Should we under these conditions better not visit Burma in order not to support the junta with our money?“

Ashin Kovida: „I think you should visit Burma – as long as you don’t pay the big travel agencies, which are connected with the Burmese government. Go to Burma, take our “Peace in Burma now” stickers and in the last week of your vacation stick some of the stickers there. So, you only need to book a one-way flight, because the undercover agents will pick you up soon and send you back home on their own costs (audience laughs). They don’t like our peace. It’s true. One of our American friends stuck our stickers in Burma and was deported back to Bangkok.“

Question: „Do you think that Burmese generals even care about sanctions of the international communities?“

Ashin Kovida: „Of course they care, they care a lot! It is true, in 2002 the generals proudly announced that they don’t care if they were banned by sanctions or not. But since the economic situation in Burma became worse in 2005 the government started to complain about the sanctions again and again. They blame the sanctions now for their own mismanagement. Actually these people are very sensitive to any kind of criticism and especially about sanctions. So, sanctions are one important way of protesting against the violation of human rights in Burma. What you could personally do is ask your own government officials to impose tougher sanctions which should be consequently complied with.“

Question: „A lot of jokes circulate about the Burmese generals, which all boil down to how stupid they are. But considered how slyly they are continually cheating the international diplomacy and how defectively they oppress their own people they can’t be stupid all over, right?“

Ashin Kovida: „I wouldn’t call them stupid but they are also not wise. They act following a certain mentality, which is part of their military training. They have been educated in a system of total oppression, order and obedience. What they do is just following these methods which, of course, they have strongly internalized and therefore could perform skillfully. But out of these they are considered to be narrow minded and that’s why all these jokes exist.

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• Burma Debate in Amsterdam
• Peace March for Burma in Berlin
• Burma VJ Screening in Berlin
• A Burmese monk on the run “If my country needs me, I’ll go back”
• Ashin Kovida special guest at Project Week Swiss school
• We need more tourists like Garrett
• Een Birmese monnik op de vlucht “Als mijn land me nodig heeft ga ik terug”