UNE

[NBH03114@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]

ERRORS-TO:INET:strider@xxxxxxxxxxx
FROM:NBH03114@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Burmese Relief Center--Japan
DATE:April 3, 1995
TIME: 8:04PMJST
SUBJ:Unocal legally liable for human rights abuses?


CENTER FOR CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS 
666 BROADWAY, 7th floor 
NEW YORK, N.Y. 10012
Tel: 212-614-6464
Fax: 212-614-6499 

Dear friends:

Enclosed please find a copy of a letter sent to the Board of
Directors of Unocal Corporation.

The letter, a follow-up to one written last year, criticizes
Unocal's inadequate efforts to deny responsibility for human
rights violations associated with Unocal's contract to build a
pipeline across Burma.  The letter warns that Unocal could be
held legally liable for injuries inflicted by the Burmese army in
support of the pipeline project, and urges that Unocal cease its
business relationship with the Burmese military regime.

Please circulate this to other people concerned about the
human rights impact of U.S. corporate investments in Burma
and elsewhere.

Sincerely,
Beth Stephens, Esq.

March 21, 1995

Mr. Roger Beach, CEO
Unocal Corporation
P.O. Box 7600
1201 West 5th St.
Los Angeles, CA 90051

Dear Mr. Beach:

I write to you on behalf of the Center for Constitutional Rights
to raise serious concerns about Unocal's legal liability for
human rights abuses connected to your activities in Burma.

I sent a similar letter almost a year ago, in April 1994. 
Although I have received no direct response, I have obtained a
copy of a Unocal publication which purports to speak to some
of my concerns, Unocal in Mvanmar: Report to Stockholders. 
You acknowledge therein participation in a joint venture with
the Myanmar Oil and Gas Enterprise (MOGE) in a project
involving offshore production and construction of a pipeline
across Burma to Thailand.

MOGE, as you know, is the state oil company, controlled by
the military dictatorship, the State Law Order Restoration
Council (SLORC).  SLORC is not only responsible for
preventing a democratically elected government from taking
power in Burma; it also has built a record of brutality and
egregious human rights abuses that is among the worst in the
world today.

You assert that foreign investment can play a positive role in
the development of an underdeveloped country.   In Burma,
however, all reputable sources have concluded that foreign oil
exploration has served to entrench the power of the unlawful
military dictatorship, saving the generals from bankruptcy and
enabling them to protect their rule.  Even The Wall Street
Journal recently concluded that your investment in Burma
today is a terrible mistake:

  "We have argued for commerce and investment where it 
strengthens civil societies vis-a-vis dictators.  But these deals,
by putting money directly into SLORC's pocket, only make a
richer prize out of political power, The prospect of vast
petrodollars gives the generals yet another reason to cling to
office no matter how many bodies of their fellow citizens pile
up."  (WSJ, "Petrodollars for Slorc," Feb. 10, 1995)

Against this backdrop, your claims to have no responsibility
for SLORC or its abuses are unsustainable.  Unocal's
involvement in the Burma Yadana is both propping up a brutal
regime and directly contributing to the suffering of the
Burmese people.

Our review of the human rights impact of your contractual
relationship with SLORC indicates the following:

--SLORC is responsible for "securing" or "pacifying" the area
surrounding the pipeline.  In keeping with their well--
documented pattern of activities, SLORC has engaged in a
massive campaign of human rights violations in order to wipe
out any potential opposition to their domination of the pipeline
region.

--SLORC is responsible for obtaining workers to build the
pipeline and perform preparatory work, including work on a
railway which is being built in part through slave labor.

--Reliable reports indicate that an estimated 120,000 to
150,000 people living in the area of the likely pipeline route
have been forced into unpaid labor or relocated.  SLORC has
destroyed villages and killed and tortured thousands of people. 
Torture of women has included widespread rape and other
gender violence.  Villagers have been denied medical care and
adequate food and beaten to death when they are no longer
productive.

All of the information we have received leads us to conclude
that these human rights abuses are a direct and foreseeable
consequence of your contractual arrangement with SLORC.
Under the applicable tort law, those who are injured as the
result of the performance of a contract can recover without
being in privity to the contract, if the contract is the proximate
cause of the injuries and the injuries are reasonably
foreseeable,

Unocal has received detailed reports from many sources about
the egregious human rights violations inflicted on the Burmese
people as a result of your business contract.  These reports
have put you on notice of the consequences of your actions, at
the risk of being held liable for any subsequent harms.  A
reasonable company with the knowledge that one business
partner is committing heinous abuses in performing their
contract would take steps to end the relationship.

Self-serving denials from those responsible for the abuses
would not, of course, be sufficient to relieve you of your legal
responsibility.  Nor would superficial investigations of
conditions in Burma.  Information about the true state of
affairs, gathered by researchers with many years of experience
in Burma, is readily available to you and highly credible.

Returning to your recent report concerning Unocal activities in
Burma, your purported investigation of allegations of human
rights abuses connected to your activities falls far short of that
necessary to relieve you of responsibility for the very real
consequences of your actions.

First, seasoned experts on Burma conclude, despite your
denials, that the railway project is intimately connected to the
pipeline.  You make no attempt to refute allegations of
widespread abuses in the construction of the railway.

Second, although your team claims to have seen no evidence of
pipeline-related relocations, many villagers have reported that
they have been forcibly relocated away from the likely pipeline
route.  Their testimony is available to you, should you seek to
obtain it, and is far more compelling than one or two flights
over villages.

Finally, any investigation done under the auspices of the
military government, with government escorts or translators,
is, of course, worthless.  No human rights investigation can
obtain truthful testimony if people are asked to speak in front
of the very forces who are responsible for unspeakable abuses. 
Even to engage in such an irresponsible farce is unfair to the
people interviewed and demeaning to all those involved.

One final point: you have been asked before to refrain from
taking any action which could reveal to SLORC the identities
of the Burmese-Americans who oppose your business activities
in Burma. You have also been asked to communicate to
SLORC that Unocal opposes reprisals against those who
exercise their internationally protected right to protest against
the military dictatorship.  If the identities of these pro-democracy activists
 are made known to the Burmese military
regime, the lives of their relatives and associates in Burma will
be placed in grave danger.  We ask you again to take
reasonable steps to protect those who are risking their lives to
communicate with you about the true state of affairs in their
country.

The Center for Constitutional Rights urges you to cease your
business relationship with the Burmese military regime and
your role in the oppression of the civilian population of
Burma.

Sincerely,

Beth Stephens, Esq. 
-------------------------------------------------------------