Burma

Your editorial “Burma Is on the Wrong Road” (Feb. 28) is a timely and provocative statement that I hope will attract attention to a tragic corner of the world.

I recently returned from my second trip to the Thai-Burmese border camps, where ethnic insurgents and the remaining Burmese students struggle to stay alive. They are keeping alive Burma’s hope for democracy. The small amount of humanitarian aid Congress has appropriated the past two years has helped these heroes to fight the scourge of malaria, which affects an estimated 85% of those in the jungle camps.

Because Burma is of little strategic value, its plight has fallen between the cracks of world concern. An American commitment to freedom in this distant land would be a confirmation that our pronouncements about democracy during the Cold War years were more than rhetoric.

The U.N. Human Rights Commission Report you mention has resulted in a unanimous vote of condemnation. I hope this now secret report will be made public in the near future. This should provide the ammunition needed to press for sanctions.

REP. DANA ROHRABACHER, R-Long Beach