* By PATRICIA HERBERT & EEF VERMEIJ
With soldiers at his door, National League
for Democracy (NLD) Deputy-Chairman U Tin Oo had no choice but to destroy
documents. But many more documents are lost to posterity simply because
people caught up in a maelstrom of events, with no security and in danger
of persecution from totalitarian forces, can give little thought to
creating and preserving an archive of their own particular movement
or organization. In Burma, conflict has raged for decades between the
central military government and ethnic minority groups, each having
its own political agenda as well as its own language and cultural heritage
to preserve. In 1988, following the military's suppression of mass pro-democracy
demonstrations seeking an end to one-party rule, thousands of students
and activists fled to Burma's borders. After the Burmese military government,
the State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC) failed to honour
the landslide victory of the NLD party in the May 1990 general elections,
many more political activists and members of parliament elect were forced
into exile, and thousands of ethnic minority villagers have also sought
refuge in neighbouring countries.
The events of the past twelve years in Burma have helped
focus attention on a country that has long been inaccessible and little
studied. Worldwide there are extremely few academic centres and libraries
with Burma specialists and collections. Although some libraries, such
as the British Library in London, have unparalleled manuscript and archival
collections on Burma, these relate predominently to the British colonial
period. A researcher today would be hard put to find in Western library
collections an up-to-date run of even one national newspaper from Burma,
let alone a comprehensive coverage of current Burmese publications.
Given this fact, it is not surprising that the publications and unpublished
documents of dissident, ethnic minority, and opposition groups and individuals
are not systematically collected and are by their nature rare and ephemeral.
Rigid censorship within Burma together with the production of official
histories promoting the SLORC/ State Peace and Development Council (SPDC)
version of events and the role of the Burma Army has virtually suppressed
all independent and alternative views and source materials. For example,
the pro-democracy publications that appeared briefly in late August
and early September 1988 are now all banned in Burma and, in early 1998,
a student who had compiled and circulated a history of the student movement
and of education in Burma was sentenced to seventeen years imprisonment.
The Burma Archives Project (BAP) exists to support and actively encourage
the compilation, collection, and safe preservation of documentation
in written and audio-visual form particularly, but not
exclusively, of material on Burma deriving from the 1980s onwards.
A coordinated effort is needed to seek out material such as posters,
photographs, pamphlets, diaries, correspondence, memoirs, political
and ethnic groups' records.
The
Liberation Journal of Burma, 1995.
COLLECTION IISH
The creation of archives that preserve what has been called the 'collective
memory of development' material documenting social movements
and social transformation, minority peoples and other subjects relevant
to civil society is essential to Burma's future development.
The International Institute of Social History (IISH) in Amsterdam
offers a safe archival repository for the preservation of such material.
Members of the Burma Archives Project (academics, librarians, and
independent scholars and researchers) are using their contacts and
expertise to help locate material and to ensure, on behalf of the
individual or group from which it emanates, that it is safeguarded.
It is planned that, as material accumulates, archival and conservation
training and assistance can be given to those from whom the material
originates, and that research, documentation, and publication projects
will develop.
Since the start of the project in 1998, we have been able
to collect a broad selection of (underground) newspapers and magazines
originating from different political and ethnic backgrounds. We managed
to bring the archives/records of the Democratic Party for a New Society
(DPNS) and All Burma Students' Democratic Front (ABSDF) to safety in
Amsterdam, together with other documentation collections, and papers
and manuscripts of private persons. In the near future, we hope to be
able to bring more collections into safety. *
The Burma
Archives Newsletter issue no. 3 is forthcoming
is designed to keep BAP members and other interested people in touch
with the latest developments and to become a forum for the exchange
of ideas and reports on progress. If you want to be put on the mailing
list, please send us a short note (see e-mail address below).
