------------------------ BurmaNet ------------------------ "Appropriate Information Technologies, Practical Strategies" ---------------------------------------------------------- The BurmaNet News: June 4, 1996 Issue: # 433 Noted in Passing: Take your stand, America. What side are you on? When that cry goes out from people who are being oppressed, never should we say we are on the side of the dictators, we are on the side of the oppressors. - US Congressman Dana Rohrabacher (Republican, California) (See US CONGRESSMAN CALLS FOR TOUGHER STAND ON BURMA) HEADLINES: ========== THE NATION: DEFY SLORC, URGE REBELS THE NATION: RANGOON'S VOLATILE GENERALS HOLD KEY TO PROGRESS BKK POST: US CONGRESSMAN CALLS FOR TOUGHER STAND ON BURMA BKK POST: STUDENTS' RELEASE DEMANDED BKK POST: LAOS LAUDS SLORC FOR PEACE POLICY MYINT THAN : SLORC RANTINGS AN ANACHRONISM MYINT SHWE : HE WASN'T THERE FEER: BURMESE BUNGLING FEER: GOVERNMENT BY SLORC FEER: THE BUSINESS OF AMERICA REUTER : SANWA BANK TO OPEN OFFICE IN RANGOON DR. KYAW TINT : LETTER TO EDITOR, MAINICHI DAILY NEWS REUTER : BURMA SAYS OPPOSITION TOO CRITICAL FOR TALKS UNOCAL AND HUMAN RIGHTS MONITORS ------------------------------------------------------------ THE NATION: DEFY SLORC, URGE REBELS June 4, 1996 Reuter BURMA'S jungle-based opposition yesterday called for a campaign of defiance against the military government in Rangoon, saying the administration was pushing the country into danger with its refusal to negotiate. The National Council of the Union of Burma (NCUB) said in a statement the government's recent verbal attacks on Aung San Suu Kyi and her National League for Democracy (NLD) party showed the generals were unwilling to open a dialogue on resolving Burma's political problems. The Slorc has attacked Suu Kyi and her party in the state- controlled media since the May 26 to May 28 NLD meeting at her Rangoon home. She has been branded a tool of imperialists and a traitor, and the authorities have vowed to crush what they term "destructionists." The Slorc's actions " show it has no willingness to resolve the basic political problems of the country through negotiation and dialogue," said the NCUB. "It shows that Slorc is dementedly attempting to consolidate the military dictatorship and is pushing the country senselessly towards a very dangerous state," the opposition alliance said. The NCUB called on "patriots" in the Burmese army, civil service and the Slorc's mass organization to adopt a "struggle of defiance.... to totally refuse to do as the Slorc commands". (TN) ************* THE NATION: RANGOON'S VOLATILE GENERALS HOLD KEY TO PROGRESS June 4, 1996 RANGOON - No matter how hard Nobel peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi pushes for democracy, whatever changes come to Burma - peaceful, violent, or none - will depend on her nemesis, the Slorc. With an acronym worthy of a James Bond foe, the 21 generals comprising the State Law and Order Restoration Council run one of world's most feared and mysterious regimes. They exercise absolute control inside Burma and show utter disdain for outside criticism. Neither the carrot of potential foreign investment nor the stick of threatened sanctions show much sign of making them budge. What do they want? Where will their confrontation with Suu Kyi take Burma after the round up of 262 people to prevent an opposition congress drew international attention to the regime? "Perhaps you can tell us," Suu Kyi remarked to journalists. The junta doesn't say, through it started releasing some detainees last week. State-run newspapers reveal two main policy goals: to attract foreign investors to develop Burma's economy, and to permit nothing else foreign - like democracy - to slip in. The odd office tower or hotel pops up in. Rangoon courtesy of foreigners seeking profit in one of Asia's most backward economies, but the people are always fearful of the secret police. Suu Kyi kept the heat on last week by pledging to hold more opposition congresses. It was an implicit dare for the generals to crackdown again and reap fresh attention for the struggle she resumed after her release from six years of house arrest last July. The generals let her know the dialogue she wants will have to wait. State-run media called her a puppet of Western powers. They haven't yet arrested Suu Kyi - a move that would cross a line for many investors and governments. But diplomats privately express worries that the regime may feel backed into a corner and fret about how the generals will react if Suu Kyi mounts another congress. The junta could let it proceed and lose face at home - perhaps the generals' biggest fear. They could arrest more Suu Kyi supporters, but they eventually will run out and be stuck face- to-face with Suu Kyi. Or, they could launch a harsher crackdown. No one in Burma has forgotten 1988, when troops killed hundreds of democracy demonstrators in Rangoon. Street massacres would create an international backlash. The US Senate already is considering a near total trade embargo. Analysts say just a few industrial nations adopting sanctions would be a blow to the government, which they believe is deeply in debt from building up the military. Those who know the generals describe them as ruthless and corrupt, but also pragmatic, disciplined and charming. They almost never give interviews, but appear nightly on television signing new contracts or visiting religious shrines. Analysts speculate about who might be a "close visionary" - a Slorc version of South Africa's last apartheid president, FW de Klerk, who could bring himself to negotiate with Suu Kyi, the Burmese Nelson Mandela. No such general seems on the horizon, but Suu Kyi does not rule out one emerging. "People must remember that de Klerk was once a hardliner, too," she says. An effective visionary would have to be one of the four generals who wield true power: Gen Than Shwe, is the undisputed leader as prime minister and Slorc chairman. Reputedly practical, religious and tough, he began freeing more than 2,000 political prisoners after coming to power in 1992 and allowed Suu Kyi family visits. He called on her twice himself. But he took four years to free her. Lt Gen Khin Nyunt, the junta's first secretary and secret police chief, is regarded as the most intelligent of the four and has a reputation as a workaholic who does not smoke, drink or womanise. Chroniclers of the 1988 uprising allege Khin Nyunt emptied jails to create anarchy and justify the generals' seizure of power. Lt Gen Maung Aye, like Than Shwe, saw combat against communist and ethnic insurgents. As junta vice chairman, Maung Aye is first in line to succeed Than Shwe. The only top Slorc member who graduated from Burma's elite military training school, he is popular with the troops. Lt Gen Tin Oo, like Maung Aye, has at times threatened to "annihilate" Suu Kyi. The military chief of staff, he has more combat experience than Than Shwe and Maung Aye and has their respect. (TN) ************** BKK POST: US CONGRESSMAN CALLS FOR TOUGHER STAND ON BURMA June 4, 1996 The following are excerpts from US Congressman Dana Rohrabacher (Republican, California) speech on the House floor on May 23, 1996 concerning the political situation in Slorc's Burma. IN the last 48 hours, there has been a vicious attack on the cause of democracy in the country of Burma. Burma is a country you do not hear much about. In fact, Burma is a country with 48 million people in Southeast Asian - a country that now is suffering under the heel of one of the world's most vicious dictatorships. And over these last few years, many of us who have been active in the human rights movement have tried to work and do our best to see that perhaps Burma could evolve out of this dictatorship. The military dictatorship in Burma is called Slorc. It is a name that basically fits the regime because it sounds like it is right out of "Star Wars", where the freedom fighters are fighting against the evil empire. This evil empire in Burma is repressing the people. But there is, you might say, a champion of freedom, a hero to the world who lives in Burma and has tried to bring democracy to that country. It is Aunt San Suu Kyi. Aunt San Suu Kyi, of course, was a Nobel prize winner two years ago. She was arrested by the Slorc regime. Then last year she was set free and many of us hoped that there would be lessening of the repression in Burma. But what has happened in the last 48 hour is that the military dictatorship in Burma, Slorc, has rounded up almost 200 members of the democratic opposition in Burma and arrested them. Anyone who is meeting with Suu Kyi, anyone who is involved in the democratic movement, is being arrested. Dr. Sein Win, the prime minister of the democratic government in exile, testified in the Senate yesterday (May 23) that the situation in Burma is one of despair and despotism. Today his brother, who is not even a member of the democratic movement, was arrested on retaliation for what Prime Minister Sein Win testified about here on Washington. I have introduced a piece of legislation hopefully that will discourage Americans from doing business in Burma. It is H.R 2892, and we would hope that the American people and American businessman recognised that here is a country that, if anywhere, we should take a stand for freedom. If anywhere in the world we could take a stand and it will not hurt us and we just show that we believe in freedom, it could be Burma. And there is no excuse for us not to do so. There is no strategic interest there, there is no huge commercial interest, but what is there are 48 million people suffering under the heal of despotism, crying out to the United States for US to take a stand. Take your stand, America. What side are you on? When that cry goes out from people who are being oppressed, never should we say we are on the side of the dictators, we are on the side of the oppressors. This country, this dictatorship in Burma, has financed its war on its own people by selling off its teak forests, which have been decimated, by basically selling its natural resources, its gems, to foreigners who have come in and extracted it, and the Slorc has put the money into their own pockets and into their own coffers, and now it is even willing to sell its natural gas resources to American companies. And where do these monies go? They go into the purchase of weapon systems of military equipment and militarisation of this country that is used to repress their own people. Furthermore, this monstrous regime that represses its own people in Burma has taken its resources also by becoming involved in the drug trade. Many people in our country wanted us to actually cooperate with the government of Burma, with its dictatorship, thinking that we could together stand against drugs. Others of us believed, as I think has been reconfirmed, that the dictatorship in Burma is up to their necks in the drug trade. They have not refrained from becoming involved in growing opium and selling heroin because of some kind of morality. If they had any morality, they would not be murdering their own people, and that was brought home more recently when the drug lord Kung Saw (Khun Sa), who was famous in the US, or I should say infamous in the US, he was put out of business by the military dictatorship, and what has happened? Kung Saw, he may have gone into retirement; of course, he is not in jail. He is in retirement in Rangoon, but the drug trade and the drug production from his area, which is now under government control, continues at the level that it was. Aung San Suu Kyi, this hero of freedom, this women who in our time shows and example to the world of what we should be like as Americans, champions of freedom has asked us to put economic sanctions on this regime because it now has shown its true colours. It does not, Burmese regime, the Slorc regime, does not want reform. It instead is seeking further repression and will grasp on to power until the last desperate time, what they have, is gone, until they are forced from power by pressure from the outside or by perhaps revolution from their own people. Unfortunately the Slorc regime is being bolstered by a military that is being supplied by Communist China. Communist China has sold Burma the weapons it needs to maintain a dictatorship. In fact, is becoming a client state of China. The Red Chinese regime is doing all it can to keep its buddies, its gangster buddies, in power in Rangoon. Congress will soon take up the issue, interestingly enough, of most-favoured-nation status to China. This is an important piece of legislation. But let us make sure that, as we move forward when we are talking about Burma, that we can make a stand in Burma, and ... I ask my fellow colleagues to join me in basically outlawing any further Americans investment through supporting H.R 2892 and opposing any further American investment in Burma. (BP) *************** BKK POST: STUDENTS' RELEASE DEMANDED June 4, 1996 Bangkok Post THE Student Federation of Thailand (SFT) yesterday called for the release of 20 Burmese students arrested last week outside the Burmese Embassy in Bangkok. In an appeal submitted to Deputy Interior Minister Sornchai Montriwat, the SFT said police had violated "international human rights, causing the Thai government to violate the UN charter with the regard to refugees." The students were arrested on May 27 as they protested against Rangoon's bid to disrupt the congress of the National League for Democracy by detaining more than 200 party members and supporters. The Burmese students were held for one day at a station in Nong Khaem before being transferred to the Immigration Detention Centre in central Bangkok, where they have since remained. The SFT's appeal was the second the Interior Ministry had received in the last week. Six Thai and Burmese groups, consisting mostly of students, submitted a joint appeal to Prime Minister Banharn Silpa-archa on may 28. That appeal said 22 Burmese, including four female students and a six-year old child, had been detained despite their residency of a safe area in Ratchaburi for young Burmese who fled the military crackdown on a pro-democracy uprising in Burma in 1988. "They came to Bangkok to express their freedom of expression and give support to Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and her NLD party," the groups said in their letter to Banharn. (BP) **************** BKK POST: LAOS LAUDS SLORC FOR PEACE POLICY June 4, 1996 by Saritdet Marukatat LAO President Nouhak Phoumsavanh has praised Rangoon for pursuing a policy line which would bring about peace and prosperity in Burma, state-run Radio Vientiane reported yesterday. He made the remark on Thursday during a visit by Burmese Minister Attached to the Office of the Slorc, Lieutenant General Min Thein, Radio Vietiane said. The Lao head of state said efforts made by Slorc towards national reconciliation would boost peace and economic development in Burma. He said these efforts would pave the way for Burma to play a large role on both the regional and international stages, the report monitored in Bangkok said. The Burmese minister was expected in Laos as a guest of Defence Minister Chummaly Sayasone, who visited Rangoon last October. Lt Gen Min Thein told Nouhak his visit sought to strengthen the cooperative relationship between the two countries' armed forces. The report did not specify the duration of Lt Gen Min Thein's visit. Nouhak's support of Rangoon at a time when the ruling military regime is under intense international scrutiny underlines the close relationship between the two countries, which have exchanged visits at all levels over the past few years. The Lao president visited Burma in May, one year after Slorc leader Than Shwe travelled to Vientiane in his first overseas trip since the council seized power in 1988. Lao prime Minister Khamtay Siphandone in February 1992 became the first government leader to visit Burma after Slorc nullified the results of democratic elections in Burma. (BP) ****************************************** SLORC RANTINGS AN ANACHRONISM 4.6.96/Bangkok Post/ Post Bag SIR: No amount of venomous ranting against Aung San Suu Kyi and the peoples' representatives can help the SLORC avert the winds of change howling ever louder in Burma. The kind of jargon being used by the SLORC to denigrate their perceived enemies belong to another era and bears no meaning or relevance to contemporary reality. To wit: "Stooges of foreign powers", "Dancing to the tune of colonialists", "Daughter-in-law of the White Face". Come on! SLORC should wake up to two basic facts of life in these last days of the 20th century: *The age of colonialism is long dead, and *The age of militarism and dictatorship is in its final gasps. Closer to home, the Burmese Tatmadaw (armed forces) no longer has the respect of the citizenry. It has become a lawless element that intimidates, kills, slaughters, rapes and maims its own people it had sworn to serve and protect. These facts are too well known to the international community to deny. You want to play an important role in the future of the government and occupy 25 percent of the seats of government Go ahead and scream. You'll only look more and more ridiculous. Myint Than Chiang Mai ******************************************** HE WASN'T THERE Myint Shwe 4.6.96/Bangkok Post/Post Bag SIR: I feel very sick with U Aung's lengthy balderdash concerning the current political developments in Burma. (Bangkok Post, May 28). His writing only reveals two things First, it shows that he knows nothing of the real during the pre- and post-1990 election months. Secondly, despite his high sounding and irrelevant quotations from Churchill and Gandhi, his diversified themes in the articles imply only one thing: that he wants to blame the pro-democracy forces (led by the NLD) for pulling all the weights tirelessly as if it is better doing nothing than making mistakes and making SLORC more angry. I was a voter in the 1990 Burmese election. I voted for NLD despite the fact I was a member of the League for Democracy and Peace (LDP), a party patronised by Burma's venerated ex-prime minister U Nu, U Aung's father. I did it because nobody on our side of the barricades in Burma at that time wanted votes to be dispersed among a dozen major pro-democracy political parties. We even sent our comrades, the LDPs, to the NLD and had them run to become NLD MPs. The Burmese people did not allow themselves to be deceived again by SLORC and they behaved in the election as if it were a revolution, not a voting event. This was the essence of the 1999 election and SLORC was beaten despite its threats, manipulation and actual harassment. U Aung missed that (because he was in exile, and safe). The Burmese people did all this under the bayonets of SLORC and the general fear since the bloody September coup, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi was already in custody and those left outside could have been crushed like ants its unjust gestures, like U Aung is doing now, far away from Slorc. Myint Shwe Toronto ***************************************** FEER: BURMESE BUNGLING New crackdown in Rangoon June 6, 1996 Remember the saying about the execution of the Duc d'Enghiem, that it was worse than a crime, it was a blunder? That's how we feel about Burma's Slorc, which as we go to press has detained 262 members of the opposition National League for Democracy in an effort, ultimately futile, to prevent the latter from holding a convention. Led by Aung San Suu Kyi, the convention was designed to mark the sixth anniversary of election in which Suu Kyi's followers captured 82% of the vote but were prevented from forming a government. When it comes to trade we part company with Suu Kyi's called for foreign investors to forsake Burma until it has a functioning democracy; along with Burma's immediate neighbours in Southeast Asia, we believe that Burmese hopes for liberty have a far greater chance of taking root where there is economic engagement and not isolation. That said, however, if Slorc really wants the investment it says it does, it will find that the price of that involvement will be increasing world scrutiny. In response to suggestions that this latest crackdown will only invite sanctions from the West, Brig-Gen Win Tin, minister for finance and revenue, resorted to bravado, nothing that Burma has been isolated" since 1988 and we have grown with our resources." True enough. Obviously, however, there were problems with that isolation or else the Slorc would not have moved to open its economy and link up with Asean neighbours. Suu Kyi has long demonstrated that she is willing to pay the price for her principles. And in going ahead with her party congress, she will likely succeed in making Slorc pay the price for theirs. (FEER) *************** FEER: GOVERNMENT BY SLORC Junta's latest crackdown draw a strong backlash June 6, 1996 By Bertil Lintner in Bangkok When Burma's junta decided to crackdown on the country's revitalized democracy movement, it probably didn't anticipate the response. True to its old ways, the Slorc began arresting delegates to a Rangoon conference that the opposition National League for Democracy had scheduled for May 26-29. Scores of people were detained, and the official media published vitriolic attacks on the NLD's secretary-general, Aung San Suu Kyi, calling her a "sorceress" and a "Snake" hungry for power. But this time, the heavy-handed approach proved counterproductive. On May 25, soon after the arrests began, record crowds showed up for the weekly Saturday speech Suu Kyi delivers outside her home on University Avenue. Meanwhile, governments across the world condemned Slorc's actions, NLD sympathizers marched in Japan and in other countries, and the US moved ever closer to tightening economic sanctions. So the first round went to Suu Kyi and the NLD. But can they translate a moral victory into political concessions from Slorc? Given the junta's traditional intransigence, probably not. For starters, the regime has zero tolerance for people who challenge its very existence. The NLD meeting itself was timed as a reminder of the regime's dubious right to power: It coincided with the sixth anniversary of the general election in which the NLD captured 392 of parliament's 485 seats - only to be denied a chance at government. Of the 258 delegates Slorc arrested, 238 were MPs-elect. All had converged on Rangoon to demand that Slorc recognized the results of the 1990 vote. (By the time the meeting actually convened, its 300-odd participants included only 17 original delegates.) "It was a direct challenge to the very legitimacy of the present military-led government," says a Rangoon-based analyst. "And that's non-negotiable as far as Slorc is concerned." If so, Slorc and popular sentiment are on sharply divergent paths. Despite official warnings to stay away, more than 5,000 people showed up to hear Suu Kyi on May 25. That's twice the crowd she has attracted on most weeks since her release from house arrest in July last year. "I had not planned to come here today," a 65-year-old woman in the crowd told Reuters news agency. "But since I heard the government was trying to prevent their meeting I purposely made sure I came." said another: "Nobody likes this military government. They are very bad." Foreign governments seem to agree. In Washington, State Department spokesman Nicholas Burns lambasted the arrests as "yet another in along series of outrageous and oppressive measures against democrats." In Tokyo, Japanese Foreign Minister Yukihiko Ikeda called on his visiting Burmese counterpart, Ohn Gyaw, for the immediate release of all those detained. In Geneva, the Burmese representative to the UN, U Aye, was summoned by Joe Ayala-Lasso, high commissioner for human rights, who expressed his "profound concern" over the arrests. The European Union prepared a response, and Canberra went as far as awarding Suu Kyi the Order of Australia, its highest honour. Given the new Australian government's recent conciliatory attitude toward Slorc, that seems a significant move. Even Thailand, which rarely comments on internal developments in Burma, said through Foreign Ministry spokesman Surapong Jayanama that it was "concerned about the ongoing arrests, which we consider counterproductive to the democratization and reconciliation process." Says a Rangoon-based Western diplomat: "Never before have so many countries come out to criticise the Burmese government's action in such strong terms. This is unprecedented." But is Slorc listening? In Bangkok, a Burmese embassy spokesman insisted that "there have been no arrests, only questioning.... we're trying to stop any disturbances. The government will take every responsible measure to prevent the country from plunging into chaos." Burmese state radio and TV continued to praise the present regime and broadcast news about the necessity of "annihilating all destructive elements." There was no indication of willingness even to talk to the opposition. Slorc may monopolize power, but the crisis in Rangoon has nevertheless revealed how vulnerable is Burma's fragile economy to changes in the political climate. As the arrests began, the value of the Burmese kyat tumbled on the blackmarket, where the exchange-rate jumped to 135 to the US dollar from 120. The price of a pyi, a small basket of rice, surged to 70 kyats from 40. Even without unrest, the cost of living continues to rise in Burma's urban areas, which could be another reason more people are showing up for Suu Kyi's Saturday rallies. "People who work for foreign companies and are being paid in US dollars used to be able to live quite comfortably," says a recent visitors to Rangoon. "But even they now complain that it's becoming increasingly difficult to make ends meet." Despite domestic and international contempt for Slorc, its record shows little inclination for compromise. And Slorc has the means to defend itself: a 300,000 strong military machine that it has never hesitated to use against the opposition. Says a former Asian ambassador to Burma: "Nothing will change as long as the military remains united - and there is no indication that it won't." (FEER) ************** FEER: THE BUSINESS OF AMERICA June 6, 1996 By Michael Vatikiotis in Bangkok The top story in The New Light of Myanmar on May 24 wasn't the mass detention of National League for Democracy members. Instead, Burma's official English-language newspaper led with a meeting between Roger Truitt, president of American oil company Atlantic Richfield, and Maung Aye, vice-chairman of the Slorc. Arco had just agreed with Myanmar Oil & Gas Enterprise to explore an offshore natural-gas concession and share production. In the benign images of Truitt signing contracts and dining with Burma's generals was a not-so-subtle message: Whatever Burma's domestic travails, business would go on as usual. But will it? Even as Arco inked its deal, an angry Washington was moving closer to tightening sanctions against Slorc. The US already withholds aid from Burma and denies it export-financing and loan guarantees. But two bills moving through Congress would outlaw new US investment in Burma altogether. When Congress considered similar measures last year, "pro-engagement" forces prevailed; this time around- partly because this is an election year - congressional sentiment is clearly running towards a harder line. "The stakes are much higher," says Michele Bohana, director of the institute for Asian Democracy in Washington. "This year there's a lot of bipartisan support for sanctions." Sen. Mitch McConnell, co-sponsor of the senate sanctions bill, thinks it can pass Congress "before the congress adjourns," meaning by November. Even so, it's doubtful that unilateral US action would have much impact on Slorc so long as other countries remain free to invest in Burma. There's no shortage of people eager to do so. A Rangoon conference on investment opportunities organized by the Economist Intelligence Unit in March attracted 135 participants, mostly Western multinationals. Another such conference convened in Rangoon just as the junta began detaining NLD members. It attracted more than 180 people. The crackdown has done little to dim investors interest in Burma. Although some firms might delay their plans, says a participant in the May conference," the consensus was that we've seen this in Asia before and we're here for the long term, so we're not deterred." For Americans, however, the battle to do business in Burma is being fought not in Rangoon but in boardrooms and congressional lobbies back home. Human-rights campaigns aimed at forcing US companies to divest from Burma are beginning to have an effect. "Pepsi can take the red off its cans, but Pepsi can't wash the blood from its hands," ran a student slogan calling for the soft- drink giant to pull out of Burma. Stung by cancellation of a $1 million contract to supply soft drinks to Harvard University, and an image problem that hurt its youth-oriented advertising campaign, PepsiCo said in April it would sell its 40% stake in Pepsi products Myanmar. Through student protests and commercial boycotts, pro-democracy activists have inflicted minor but costly pinpricks on companies engaged in Burma, and some manufacturers sourcing products from the country have severed their links. "We've taken the war from the jungle into the boardroom," says a pro-democracy activists in Thailand. To date, four US cities - Berkeley and Santa Monica in California, Madison in Wisconsin and Ann Arbor in Michigan - have passed legislation barring official purchases of products or services supplied by US companies that do business in or with Burma. Pro-democracy activists are also fine-tuning their use of shareholder resolutions. Simon Billenness, who works for Boston- based investors Franklin Research & Development, says activists are pushing for broader code-of-conduct rules that would be harder for companies to ignore. So far, companies have fended off such resolutions with little difficulty. They are also hitting back, some with costly publicity campaigns and hired lobbyists. Unocal, which has a 28.3% share in Burma's $1 billion Yadana gas pipeline project, has hired lobbyists to combat selective-purchasing legislation in several American states. US activists claim the Yadana project, now under construction, relies on forced labour and will line the pockets of military leaders. Unocal calls the project "a positive development" that "introduces new ideas, business standards and democratic principles" to Burma. More broadly, US companies in Asia argue that the benefits of engagement far outweigh the ill-effects. "Isolationist approaches ad economic sanctions have seldom if ever persuaded those in power to change their ways," says Bangkok-based Robert Wilson, chairman of the Asia-Pacific Council of American Chambers of Commerce. He and others cite Taiwan and South Korea as countries where engagement by the Western business community helped liberalize not only markets but political systems too. Lost in all the argument over Burma is the fact that actual American investment there is still minuscule - and shrinking. The world Bank says realized US investment in Burma declined to $16.5 million a year earlier. Says a Western diplomat in Rangoon: "This is a continuing trend." (FEER) ******************************************* SANWA BANK TO OPEN OFFICE IN RANGOON By Rika Otsuka SYDNEY, June 3 (Reuter) - Leading Japanese banks see more potential for profitablity in Asia than in Europe or the United States and plan to continue to boost operations in the region, Japanese banking executives said on Monday. "Our bank is going to expand business more and more in Asia in the future," Minoru Eda, deputy president of Sanwa Bank Ltd, told Reuters in an interview at the International Monetary Conference in Sydney. "Business for Japanese banks in Asia is more profitable than business elsewhere outside Japan," he said. Other bankers said they planned to expand operations in Asia at a greater pace than in the U.S. or European markets. They said margins in Asia were much more favourable as deals were generally smaller, meaning the same amount of funds could generate more fees than larger deals elsewhere. The banks were also following Japanese manufacturers into the Asian region as they escaped a firm yen at home and took advantage of strong regional economies. "We have tried hard to expand our office network in Asia in the past one to two years," said Toru Hashimoto, president of Fuji Bank Ltd. "We are now opening an office in Bombay in India after opening a Hanoi office in order to meet demand from Japanese customers who want to increase business there," he said. Hashimoto said his bank also wanted to open a branch in Beijing and a representative office in Rangoon. Sanwa's Eda said Sanwa had unofficially been told by the Burmese government that the bank would be able to open a representative office in Rangoon. Unlike the 1980s when Japan enjoyed a booming economy and Japanese banks were busy expanding their workforce and facilities everywhere, some banks were now choosing to shift their workforce, especially Japanese employees, to Asia from more mature markets, bankers said. Yoshiki Soga, managing director of Long-Term Credit Bank of Japan Ltd, said the bank had been localising management in much of Europe and the United States and was sending Japanese bankers with international experience to Asian countries. An increasing presence in Asia and the gathering of information there was important for Japanese clients as well as Western customers since Westerners were increasingly interested in Asia, said Soga, chief executive of LTCB's U.S. operation. In addition, many Asian governments wanted to attract Japanese banks with their huge funds to help turn their cities into regional financial centres, bankers said. For example, several banking officials said the Chinese government had asked them if they would set up a second branch in Shanghai for local currency dealing on an experimental basis. For such a large benefit, Japanese banks would increase their presence and support the local economy, the bankers said. "All those factors that have seen Japanese banks push into Asia emerged all at once," said one bank executive who declined to be named. "So this expanding trend in Japanese banks' presence in Asia would continue for a while." REUTER ******************************************** LETTER TO EDITOR, MAINICHI DAILY NEWS Tuesday, June 4, 1996 Readers Forum: "Coverage of Burma" To the Editor: I thank you for reporting the activities of the Japanese business federation Keidanren in Burma ("Business group upgrades ties with Burma," May 29, 1996). As one who studied in Japan for more than a decade, I sincerely want to see Japan assume the role of advocate and leader of democracy and human rights in Asia, particularly in Burma. But upgrading Keidanren's ties at a "bad time" without "turning back" is sharply counter to expectations for Japan's role in my country. Advocates of resuming official development assistance (ODA) to Burma have made it sound reasonable by first offering assistance to a nursing school. However, the truth is otherwise. Actually, this project is heavily ironic, since it means giving money to the very same military regime that brutally gunned down nurses at Rangoon General Hospital in 1988. Although one might get the impression that ODA is used solely for humanitarian purposes, the facts are to the contrary. Of Japan's ODA prior to 1988, virtually nothing -- nearly zero percent -- went to health, medicine or social welfare projects. Apart from this single "showcase" nursing school project, ODA from Japan will be for infrastructure and serve to extend the military's oppressive rule. The Burmese people's lives will not be enhanced; their sufferings will actually be prolonged. Consider this "humanitarian" project itself, for a moment. Given current health care standards in Burma, Japan's aid will be wholly ineffective. Why? Because the impoverished majority can never afford treatment at existing hospitals. A patient must pay about 100 kyats per day in a hospital, not including medication or surgery. One day's hospitalization is more than one-tenth of a civil servant's entire monthly salary. Obviously, the shortage of nurses and doctors, which sharply worsened after 1989 when thousands left the country, is not the underlying problem. The real issue is whether or not the military regime will respect the will of the Burmese people, whether it will stop fighting against its own people. I do not think Japan should side with the military against the people of Burma. Obviously, the question is not simply a matter of money, as Japanese business likes to claim. This is a matter of morality, right and wrong, one about which civilized people should care. Since the problem goes deeper than ODA money or simple diplomacy, the Japanese political community should make an effort to understand the National League for Democracy's position. I am sure the opposition does not want to open a new front against the flow of Japanese business. U Kyi Maung, the NLD vice-chairman, always cites the beauty of Japanese culture and the marvel of Japan's great progress in his speeches. He and others like him do not want to turn their energies against Japanese money; they want Japan to understand Burma's reality. To me, the social and economic conditions in Burma today are actually very similar to conditions in early 1988. Injustice persists all over the country. The superficial "boom" economy has only made the injustices more acute. As an aside, I urge the leaders of Japanese business not to be taken in by the promises of a regime that keeps no promise. Please understand that you money will certainly keep Burmese people crying longer. Japan has frequently expressed to the military regime its disgust for human rights abuses, its despair at failure to honor the elections, and its disappointment over reform. At this critical time, I urge the Japanese government to respect the will of Burmese people, by not prematurely resuming ODA to Burma before any meaningful progress has taken place. DR. KYAW TINT Alhambra, California ***************************************** BURMA SAYS OPPOSITION TOO CRITICAL FOR TALKS SYDNEY, June 4 (Reuter) - A senior member of Burma's military government has told Radio Australia that talks with opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi are not possible until she softens her attitude towards the country's rulers. Tourism Minister General Kyaw Ba said the State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC) was prepared to hold talks with Suu Kyi if she stopped criticising it. ``If she agree on that matter I think that can be dialogue, but it will take time,'' Kyaw Ba said in an interview broadcast on Monday. ``To dialogue with her we must consider how she will go with her attitude and we can not know what is in her mind,'' he said. ``She is always confronting us and also she is criticising to us, and we know, we understand that it won't make any progress when we hold dialogue with her,'' Kyaw Ba said in English. ``So the only thing is we must concentrate on our work only. Not talking,'' he said. The general said SLORC would allow Suu Kyi to continue to hold rallies as long as she does not incite people against authorities. ``If she not insulting, arousing the people to go on the street, we will not say anything, it will depend on her attitude and activity,'' he said. Asked if authorities would re-detain Suu Kyi to prevent opposition to the military's plans, he said: ``We do not want to do such things. If our country is going to be disintegrated we must consider that matter.'' Asked to comment on plans by Suu Kyi's opposition to write a constitution, the general said: ``The constitution can not be written by one party. All the levels of the people must be involved in the constitution.'' 22:48 06-03-96 ***************************************** UNOCAL AND HUMAN RIGHTS MONITORS The following question was asked of Unocal CEO Roger Beach at June 3's contentious shareholder's meeting: Question for Unocal Corp.: 1) Numerous US companies, including $30 billion PepsiCo, have divested from Burma. The United Nations and US State Department cite credible evidence of the massive and systematic use of forced labor on infrastructure projects in Burma. This forced labor is accompanied by rape, torture, forced relocation and extrajudicial execution, according to a UN report from just this past February. The UN is very careful and cautious in researching and reporting such disturbing facts. Unocal is a partner with the Burmese military in the largest infrastructure project in Burma since the violent suppression of Burma's democracy movement, yet you have repeatedly denied that there is any forced labor related to your project, including the construction of roads and barracks for nine extra battallions of pipeline security forces. A report released this past week in Rangoon quotes refugees and clandestine observers as directly contradicting Unocal's denials. A one hour documentary called "Inside Burma, Land of Fear" aired in Britain last month, and will air in the US this year. This report also contradicts Unocal's denials. If we were talking about allegations of beach pollution in Mexico, would anyone accept your denials at face value? Obviously not. Instead, scientists would be sent into the area to confirm the facts, and make public their conclusions, subject to peer review of the methodology and conclusions of the study. That's how good science is done. You often cite Unocal or Total "studies" that conclude only "we saw no evidence of human rights violations" but do not say who did the study, where they looked, or how the study was done. Both Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch Asia have offered to provide experienced human rights monitors to examine the situation in the pipeline zone. You use an outside accountancy firm, and inspector of election (to tally shareholder votes) for credibility. Why not do the same regarding evidence of forced labor, etc. in the pipeline zone. There is a need for independent, scientific examination of the situation in the pipeline area, subject to peer review. Will you commit Unocal to assist and support such a study? Beach said Unocal would like to do this, but had two problems, he said. One, he felt the human rights groups would be unwilling to focus only on the Unocal project, but would want to broaden the inquiry. Two, he said the "Myanmar government was 'skittish' on this issue." Mr. Beach said follow-ups should be made through Pres. John Imle's office. Interfaith Center for Corporate Responsibility is seeking a meeting with Imle on this issue in the near future. LD ---------------------------------------------------------- BURMANET SUBJECT-MATTER RESOURCE LIST BurmaNet regularly receives enquiries on a number of different topics related to Burma. If you have questions on any of the following subjects, please direct email to the following volunteer coordinators, who will either answer your question or try to put you in contact with someone who can: Campus activism: zni@students.wisc.edu Boycott campaigns: [Pepsi] ai268@freenet.carleton.ca Buddhism: Buddhist Relief Mission: brelief@gol.com Chin history/culture: plilian@asc.corp.mot.com Fonts: tom@cs.colgate.edu History of Burma: zni@students.wisc.edu International Affairs: Julien Moe: moe@gramercy.ios.com Kachin history/culture: 74750.1267@compuserve.com Karen history/culture: Karen Historical Society: 102113.2571@Compuserve.com Mon history/culture: [volunteer needed] Naga history/culture: Wungram Shishak: z954001@oats.farm.niu.edu Burma-India border [volunteer needed] Pali literature: "Palmleaf": c/o burmanet@igc.apc.org Rohingya culture Kyaw Oo: myin@erols.com Shan history/culture: Sao Hpa Han: burma@ix.netcom.com Shareholder activism: simon_billenness@mail.cybercom.net Total/Pipeline Dawn Star: cd@utopia.EUnet.fr Tourism campaigns: bagp@gn.apc.org "Attn. 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