British campaign adds fuel to
When
The campaign and the high profile support it has won within
Question: Yvette, how effective do you think this initiative by Burma Campaign-UK will be?
Answer: I think it will have a tremendous effect. It’s not just that it’s Prime Minister Tony Blair (who is supporting the campaign), but we have cross-party support here from the Conservative leader Michael Howard and Liberal Democrat leader Charles Kennedy. The media has picked up on it, it has gone out internationally and appeared in newspapers across the world. It sends a huge message to the regime in particular: the British public are not going to be holidaying in
Q: But won’t the boycott hurt the people who stand to suffer most, those who depend on tourism for their livelihood?
A: I’ve never been black and white about this. The Burma Campaign has never said it’s a clear-cut black and white, comfortable issue. Of course some ordinary Burmese live from tourism. We don’t deny that. We’re not suggesting for a moment that those people aren’t as important as everybody else. But this is a political struggle, and you have to look at the big picture. You also have to look at the fact that it’s a tiny percentage of ordinary Burmese who make their living from tourism. Around 80 percent of Burmese people make their living from agriculture and they never even see a tourist. It’s not a comfortable issue, however. I hate the fact that some ordinary people will be affected by the tourism boycott. It’s not something I feel happy about. But I think the responsibility for that has to rest with the regime.
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