Brutality in Burma

In response to “Muslims Flee Brutal Purge in Myanmar,� Feb. 15:

I am sorry to see that The Times has joined lesser media and succumbed to calling Burma by the grammatically incorrect “Myanmar,� imposed upon it by its military rulers. In the Burmese language, the country has always been formally, and correctly, called “Myanmar Naing-Ngan.� It means “nation of the swift and strong people.� “Myanmar,� standing alone, is an adjective. Burma is the correct name sanctified by long years of tradition and codified into the Constitution of 1947 for international usage, like Norway, for international usage. The Norwegians call their country Norge.

In calling the country by the name thrust upon it by thugs, you are lending legitimacy to a regime whose only hold to power emanates from the barrel of the gun.

However, I was pleased that you dispatched your reporter from New Delhi to Teknaf on the Bangladesh/Burma border to cover the plight of those fleeing one of the world’s most brutal regimes to one of the world’s poorest, yet a “promised land.�

Physicians for Human Rights, Amnesty International, Lawyers Committee for Human Rights, U.S. Committee for Refugees, among others, have documented atrocities committed by the Burmese military government on its own people. Please also send your reporters to villages and refugee camps in India, China and Thailand which border with Burma to report on the plight of those fleeing hearth and home.

Since Aung San Suu Kyi was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for 1991, in absentia, the repression has worsened. Universities that were reopened only in May, 1991, are closed again. Persons who openly praise Aung San Suu Kyi are subject to arrest. She remains imprisoned in her home for the third year, incommunicado from husband and two sons who have been denied entry to Burma.

U KYAW WIN, Laguna Hills