Wired News on April 27 & 28,

[FreeBurma@xxxxxxx]

Attn: Burma Newsreaders
RE: Wired News on April 27 & 28, 1995
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Penn State Students Want Pepsico Out of Burma
By Scott Andron, Centre Daily Times, State College, Pa.
 Knight-Ridder/Tribune Business News  

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa.--Apr. 27--A group of Penn State students is asking the
university administration to stand behind human rights organizations that
want Pepsico Inc. to stop doing business in Myanmar, the southeast Asian
country formerly known as Burma.  

Pepsico shareholders are scheduled to discuss the Myanmar issue at their
 annual meeting next week, and the students note that Penn State is a Pepsico
 shareholder as well as a customer.  

The students, calling themselves the Penn State Coalition for a Democratic
Burma, will demonstrate at noon today in front of Old Main. 

"What we really would like is for Penn State to take a stand encouraging
 Pepsico to divest in Burma, since the university is such a large consumer of
 Pepsi products," said Rolla Chaung, a graduate student in civil engineering
 and one of the protest's organizers.  

The university has a contract with Pepsico, giving the company monopolies on
campus soft-drink sales and advertising, and owns a small amount of stock in
the company.  

Pepsico shareholders will meet on Wednesday at the company's headquarters in
Purchase, N.Y. On the agenda is a resolution submitted by some of the
 shareholders calling for company management to consider human-rights
 violations when deciding in which countries to invest.  

Human rights abuses in Myanmar were one of the reasons the resolution was
 created, the authors of the resolution said.  

Myanmar is governed by a military dictatorship, which human rights groups and
press accounts have frequently accused of human-rights abuses. The military
government was voted out of office in free elections in 1990, but the regime
refused to relinquish its power. Human rights groups say the government
killed thousands of people who protested its refusal to step down.  

The government also jailed the winner of the elections, Aung San Suu Kyi,
 who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991.  

Several U.S. companies, including Eddie Bauer and Levi Strauss, have stopped
doing business in the country because of its human-rights record.  

But Pepsico spokeswoman Elaine Franklin said her company believes in being
firmly nonpolitical.  

Pepsico's board of directors is recommending that shareholders vote against
next week's resolution. 

"We do not agree with the actions of governments of every place we operate,"
the board said in a printed statement to shareholders. "However,  

due to the long-term nature of Pepsico's businesses and the inevitability of
 political and social change, we long ago concluded that it is neither
prudent  nor appropriate for us to establish our own country-by-country
foreign policy." 

Penn State's roughly $1 billion in investments include about $43,000 worth of
Pepsico stock, chief university spokesman Roger Williams said.  

Administrators have looked into the students' concerns about Myanmar "at some
length," talking with faculty experts and U.S. State Department officials,
Williams said. 

"The conclusion we reached at that point was that probably it would do more
harm than good to the people of Myanmar if Pepsico were to withdraw from
 operations in that country," he said. "That's not to say we're not in any
way  resistant to reassessing the situation and learning more."  

Williams also said it is his understanding that Pepsico is actually competing
with the Mynamarese government for soft-drink sales.  

Pepsico's Franklin said her company is the first private soft-drink maker to
open up shop in Myanmar.  

Pepsico shares joint ownership of a bottling plant with a Myanmarese
 businessman, she said. Before Pepsico arrived, the government held a
monopoly  on soft-drink sales, she said. 

"In fact we're in competition with the Burmese Government," she said. "We're
taking money out of the government's pocket."  

Penn State's contract with Pepsico will generate $14 million for the
 university over 10 years. Of that, $8 million is "new" revenue, and of that,
 

6 million will go toward the Bryce Jordan Center, a basketball arena under
 construction near Beaver Stadium. The remaining money will be divided among
 the university libraries and other programs.  

This week isn't the first time soft drinks, big business and international
politics have mixed to form controversy at Penn State. In 1987,  

following repeated student protests, Penn State's Board of Trustees banned
 administrators from investing university money in companies that do business
 in South Africa.  

The Coca-Cola Company was mentioned frequently during the controversy, but
the trustees' policy didn't affect Coke because the company didn't do
business directly in South Africa, instead licensing and distributing its
products through companies there.  

Ethical quandaries such as those in Myanmar and South Africa are becoming
 increasingly common, said Philip Cochran, a Penn State professor of business
 administration who teaches business ethics.  

Cochran said if he were a consultant in this kind of situation, he would
 probably advise his client to pull out of the offending country, for ethical
 and public relations reasons. But he said he can see both sides of the
issue.  

During the South African controversy, he even spoke to an executive with one
of the largest banks in the United States who believed that both the carrot
of American investment and the stick of human rights pressure were helpful. 

"He thought they were helping by staying in, but he thought the protests were
also helping," Cochran recalls. "It's an incredibly difficult issue for
 business."   

END!A9?SC-PEPSI-BURMA 


Transmitted: 95-04-27 04:01:08 EDT
***********
Intruders from Burma burn more Karen refugees camps

      (Adds background and detail of attack) 

    By Somchit Rungchamratrasmi 

    THA SONG YANG, Thailand, April 28 (Reuter) - Burmese soldiers and members
of an allied Karen guerrilla faction set fire to two Karen refugee camps in
Thailand on Friday killing at least one refugee, Thai police and refugee
officials said. 

    The raiders burnt more than 800 houses and sent thousands of residents of
the two camps fleeing in panic, police said. 

    Police said the intruders crossed a border river into Thailand earlier on
Friday and clashed with a unit of 20 Thai border patrol policmen at a
checkpoint near one of the camps. 

    One Thai policeman was wounded during the battle and another seized by
the raiders before the outnumbered police unit was forced to withdraw, police
said. 

    The raiders then blocked roads leading to the Mae Ta Waw camp, home to
some 5,000 people, while they burnt it. 

    Thai army reinforcements, backed by an army spotter plane, were moving
into the area to hunt for the raiders, some of whom were believed to be still
on the Thai side of the border, police said. 

    Burmese troops and members of a splinter Karen faction which joined
government forces late last year burnt 300 houses in a nearby refugee camp on
Tuesday. 

    Thailand this week condemned the incursions saying they were an
unacceptable violation of Thai sovereignty and called on Burma to prevent
their forces and members of the splinter faction, the Democratic Karen
Buddhist Army, from crossing into Thailand. 

    Burma has in the past denied that its troops took part in such raids
saying they were the responsibility of the DKBA. 

    Relief workers and officials from the Karen -- one of Burma's ethnic
minorities -- say Burmese troops and their allies have launched a reign of
terror against the 70,000 Karen refugees in Thailand. 

    They say the raids are aimed at forcing the refugees into
government-controlled areas of Burma which would deprive the Karen National
Union (KNU) guerrilla group of its civilian support base. 

    Relief workers on the border say the raiders have forced hundreds of
refugees, including women children, and old people, back into Burma. 

    One Thai border police armoured personnel carrier was hit and damaged by
a rocket-propelled grenade in the battle at the Mae Ta Waw camp in
northwestern Thailand. 

    Karen relief officials said Kler Kho camp, with a population of almost
4,000 people, was also burnt down on Friday. 

    One refugee women was burnt to death at the Mae Ta Waw camp and at least
four other people were injured including a border patrol policeman. 

    Burmese forces, assisted by the DKBA, seized many KNU-controlled areas in
southeastern Burma, opposite the areas where the camps are located in
Thailand, in an offensive against the autonomy-seeking guerrillas earlier
this year. 

    The DKBA was formed by several hundred Buddhist Karen guerrillas who
mutinied against the Christian-dominated leadership of the KNU and formed an
alliance with Burmese government forces last December. 

    The KNU has appealed to Thailand to ensure the safety of the refugees. 

 REUTER


Transmitted: 95-04-28 20:09:34 EDT
**********
UN asks for Karen camps to be moved
   (Updates with UNHCR appeal to move camps from border) 

    By Stephanie Nebehay 

    GENEVA, April 28 (Reuter) - The United Nations said on Friday 74,000
Karen refugees in Thailand were in danger from cross-border attacks and
called for the camps to be moved further away from the Burmese border. 

    The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) expressed concern about
reports that armed men had crossed from Burma into Thailand and abducted
``hundreds'' of Karen refugees after setting fire to two camps this week. Two
refugees were killed. 

    Separately, Thai police and refugee officials said Burmese soldiers and
members of an allied Karen guerrilla faction attacked two camps on Friday,
killing at least one refugee. 

    ``These latest incidents represent a sharp and worrying escalation in the
pattern of cross-border raids on refugee camps that currently shelter 74,000
Karen refugees in Thailand,'' UNHCR spokesman Ron Redmond told a briefing
before the latest raid. 

    ``Obviously these people are in danger...We have requested camp
relocation,'' he later told Reuters. 

    UNHCR's Bangkok office has asked Thai authorities to grant its staff
access to the string of more than 20 border camps sheltering the Karen
refugees. 

    The agency has yet to receive a government reply. 

    At present the Geneva-based UNHCR has no role in the camps except for an
occasional visit by a single protection officer who travels from Bangkok. 

    ``We are particularly disturbed by the reported abduction earlier this
week of hundreds of refugees, including women and children, and the torching
of homes in refugee camps,'' Redmond told reporters. 

    ``Two refugees were reported killed. Thousands were made homeless by the
incidents and fled terrified into the forests.'' 

    The attacks by armed men took place on Monday April 24 on Ban Mae Ra Ma
Luang camp and on Kamaw Lay Ko on the night of April 25-26, according to the
UNHCR spokesman. The UNHCR had no information on the attackers' identity. 

    The camps hold 4,500 and 4,000 Karen refugees respectively. 

    Relief workers say Burmese troops and members of the Karen guerrilla
splinter faction have launched a campaign of terror against the Karen
refugees in Thailand in an effort to force them back into
government-controlled parts of Burma and deprive the Karen guerrilla group of
its civilian support base. 

    The agency and Thai authorities have begun discussing a greater
``protection role'' for UNHCR staff in the Karen camps. 

    ``We have asked Thai authorities for access to these camps this week
following these incidents,'' Redmond said. ``But we have received no response
so far. We do expect that they will give us access.'' 

 REUTER


Transmitted: 95-04-28 09:36:10 EDT
***********
UN seeks access to Karen refugee camps in Thailand

      GENEVA, April 28 (Reuter) - The United Nations refugee agency expressed
concern on Friday about reports that armed men had crossed from Burma into
Thailand and abducted ``hundreds'' of Karen refugees from two camps there
this week. 

    The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said it had asked Thai
authorities to grant it access to a string of border camps which shelter
about 74,000 Karen refugees. 

    The agency said it had yet to receive a government reply. 

    ``We are particularly disturbed by the reported abduction earlier this
week of hundreds of refugees, including women and children, and the torching
of homes in refugee camps,'' Ron Redmond, UNHCR spokesman told a news
briefing. 

    ``Two refugees were reported killed. Thousands were made homeless by the
incidents and fled terrified into the forests.'' 

    The attacks by unidentified armed men took place on April 24 (Monday) on
Ban Mae Ra Ma Luang camp and on Kamaw Lay Ko on the night of April 25-26,
according to the UNHCR spokesman. 

    The camps hold 4,500 and 4,000 Karen refugees respectively. 

    A Thai army officer said on Wednesday 100 Burmese soldiers and members of
an allied Karen guerrilla splinter group crossed into Thailand a day before
and attacked Kamaw Lay Ko. 

    Relief workers say Burmese troops and members of the Karen guerrilla
splinter faction have launched a campaign of terror against the Karen
refugees in Thailand in an effort to force them back into
government-controlled parts of Burma and deprive the Karen guerrilla group of
its civilian support base. 

    The UNHCR had no information on the attackers' identity. 

    ``These latest incidents represent a sharp and worrying escalation in the
pattern of cross-border raids on refugee camps that currently shelter 74,000
Karen refugees in Thailand,'' Redmond told reporters in Geneva. 

    The agency and Thai authorities have begun discussing a ``protection
role'' for UNHCR delegates in the camps. The UNHCR has suggested the camps
should be relocated ``more securely, possibly further away from the border,''
according to the spokesman. 

    ``We have asked Thai authorities for access to these camps this week
following these incidents,'' Redmond said. 

    ``But we have received no response so far. We do expect that they will
give us access.'' 

 REUTER


Transmitted: 95-04-28 08:23:42 EDT
***********
Britain opposes trade sanction against Burma

      LONDON, April 28 (Reuter) - Britain said on Friday it did not believe
trade sanctions would help improve human rights in Burma. 

    In a brief debate in the House of Lords, foreign office spokesman Lord
Inglewood said new sanctions would hurt the people and not the country's
government. 

    ``We do not believe sanctions would be effective without international
support, which we do not judge to be forthcoming.'' 

    ``While we do not wish to offer succour to the regime, we don't believe
isolating it entirely is necessarily going to benefit the Burmese people,''
Inglewood said. Britain has already imposed a ban on non-humanitarian aid and
an arms embargo, and has severed defence links with the ruling State Law and
Order Restoration Council (SLORC). 

    But Britain, along with its European Union partners, maintains a policy
of ``critical dialogue'' with Rangoon which means holding occasional talks in
which officials repeat demands for better human rights and political reform. 

    Inglewood repeated Britain's condemnation of the SLORC's continued
detention without trial of Aung San Suu Kyi, the leader of the National
League for Democracy. 

    Nobel Peace Prize laureate Suu Kyi has been detained since July 1989, but
nevertheless led the League to an overwhelming victory in May 1990 elections
which SLORC failed to recognise. 

    ``Her continued detention without charge is indefensible and in flagrant
contradiction of all principles of justice,'' Inglewood told the upper house
of the British parliament. 

 REUTER


Transmitted: 95-04-28 15:15:44 EDT
*********

      BANKGOK, April 28 (Reuter) - Thailand's immigration authorities will
soon deport more than 500 Asians who entered the country illegally to find
work, officials said on Friday. 

    More than 300 Burmese are among the 556 illegal immigrants. There are
also people from China, Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, police and
immigration officials said. 

    The illegal immigrants were rounded up in a week-long crackdown in the
Thai capital, police said. 

    Booming Thailand is becoming an increasingly attractive destination for
people from poorer countries looking for work. 

 REUTER


Transmitted: 95-04-28 04:32:51 EDT
**********

-------------------------------------------------------------END.