Rebuilding a Democratic Burma

From March 23-26, 1998, two dozen people from Burma and several other nations gathered at Bellagio, Italy, to discuss priorities for addressing the most pressing problems facing Burma today and for its future.

The meeting's title, Rebuilding a Democratic Burma: Strategies for Sustainable Development, states its theme succinctly. The organizers purposefully chose not to review the distressing state of affairs in Burma today, which is reported by mass media, the United Nations, human rights monitors and other groups, but to promote candid discussion on long-term requisites to building a peaceful and prosperous state.

This report is a summary of the conference's discussions. It is presented as a record of the information offered and perspectives shared, and, more important, to disseminate the suggested ways forward regarding the important problems that the conference addressed.

The conference was hosted by the Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Study and Conference Center, organized by the Open Society Institute Burma Project and Drug Strategies, and co-chaired with me by Drug Strategies President Mathea Falco.